funkyfetus
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2008
- Posts
- 10
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- 0
Warning: I am not an audiophile. I'm a college student on a budget who stumbled onto these forums looking for advice on the best $100 IEMs to use with my iPod.
For the last 4 years, I've been using the ER6i. For the first two years, I took really good care of them. After that, I starting being more reckless with them and I even starting sleeping with them on. Eventually, I wore them down to the point where the right channel was no longer functioning. I had a buddy of mine repair them for me (recabling them with the stock iPod earphone cable) and they were as new. After another year of abuse, they finally died......yes, it was a sad day.
I contemplated purchasing another pair of ER6i, but I decided to look around for something with more bass. After reading HeadphoneAddict's glowing review, I decided to pull the trigger and buy the Nuforce NE-7M. (Sidenote: I also bought the Nuforce Icon Mobile portable amp.....and, WOW! It is super small.....waaaay smaller and slimmer than I expected).
Sound (unamped)
In my super-audiophile-newbie opinion, the NE-7M are way better than the ER6i. Within 5 seconds of pressing play on my iPod, my eyes were bulging out of their sockets and I had a big smile on my face. Oh, how I've missed bass! The ER6i had really good clarity, but as everyone knows, it also has really weak bass. The NE-7M has the clarity of the ER6i, but with tight, punchy bass. They are exactly what I was looking for. To me, the sound of the NE-7M has much more personality and I think it has to do with the fact that it is so balanced.
Comfort
Personally, I like to have a really tight fit. With the ER6i, I used the stock triple flanges and when those wore out, I used Shure's triple flanges. The stock tips on the NE-7M are not as tight fitting as the triple flanges (obviously). I have to push them pretty deep in my ear to get a fit that's comfortable for me, but once they're in, they're pretty comfortable. I'm just used to more of a tight fit so I'm definitely going to look into buying some flanges for the NE-7M.
Final Words
So there you go. Hopefully my inexperienced review will benefit someone. I came on these forums a week ago looking for a great pair of IEMs and I found them! I'm grateful for this forum and especially to HeadphoneAddict.
One more thing.......I wised up and will no longer be wearing my expensive IEMs while sleeping. Based on reviews on the forum and because of the cheap price (2 for $30), I bought a pair of JBuds J2 to wear while I'm sleeping. Compared to the NE-7M, the J2s sound really muddy....the bass isn't as tight and punchy....and music sounds like it's at a distance instead of right there next to you. I'm still going to keep the J2s though, because they were cheap and they're an upgrade over the stock iPod earphones. But, there's no way I would be happy with the J2s as my primary IEMs.
I just realized my package from Nuforce is missing a lot of accessories. I'm missing the medium, large, and foam ear-tips and I'm also missing the cable clip. I'm going to send them an e-mail. Mistakes happen....no big deal. UPDATE: Jason from Nuforce promptly replied to my e-mail. He said that the manual is incorrect and the clip and foam tips are not part of the package. He also apologized for the missing ear-tips and is going to send them out to me.
For the last 4 years, I've been using the ER6i. For the first two years, I took really good care of them. After that, I starting being more reckless with them and I even starting sleeping with them on. Eventually, I wore them down to the point where the right channel was no longer functioning. I had a buddy of mine repair them for me (recabling them with the stock iPod earphone cable) and they were as new. After another year of abuse, they finally died......yes, it was a sad day.
I contemplated purchasing another pair of ER6i, but I decided to look around for something with more bass. After reading HeadphoneAddict's glowing review, I decided to pull the trigger and buy the Nuforce NE-7M. (Sidenote: I also bought the Nuforce Icon Mobile portable amp.....and, WOW! It is super small.....waaaay smaller and slimmer than I expected).
Sound (unamped)
In my super-audiophile-newbie opinion, the NE-7M are way better than the ER6i. Within 5 seconds of pressing play on my iPod, my eyes were bulging out of their sockets and I had a big smile on my face. Oh, how I've missed bass! The ER6i had really good clarity, but as everyone knows, it also has really weak bass. The NE-7M has the clarity of the ER6i, but with tight, punchy bass. They are exactly what I was looking for. To me, the sound of the NE-7M has much more personality and I think it has to do with the fact that it is so balanced.
Comfort
Personally, I like to have a really tight fit. With the ER6i, I used the stock triple flanges and when those wore out, I used Shure's triple flanges. The stock tips on the NE-7M are not as tight fitting as the triple flanges (obviously). I have to push them pretty deep in my ear to get a fit that's comfortable for me, but once they're in, they're pretty comfortable. I'm just used to more of a tight fit so I'm definitely going to look into buying some flanges for the NE-7M.
Final Words
So there you go. Hopefully my inexperienced review will benefit someone. I came on these forums a week ago looking for a great pair of IEMs and I found them! I'm grateful for this forum and especially to HeadphoneAddict.
One more thing.......I wised up and will no longer be wearing my expensive IEMs while sleeping. Based on reviews on the forum and because of the cheap price (2 for $30), I bought a pair of JBuds J2 to wear while I'm sleeping. Compared to the NE-7M, the J2s sound really muddy....the bass isn't as tight and punchy....and music sounds like it's at a distance instead of right there next to you. I'm still going to keep the J2s though, because they were cheap and they're an upgrade over the stock iPod earphones. But, there's no way I would be happy with the J2s as my primary IEMs.
I just realized my package from Nuforce is missing a lot of accessories. I'm missing the medium, large, and foam ear-tips and I'm also missing the cable clip. I'm going to send them an e-mail. Mistakes happen....no big deal. UPDATE: Jason from Nuforce promptly replied to my e-mail. He said that the manual is incorrect and the clip and foam tips are not part of the package. He also apologized for the missing ear-tips and is going to send them out to me.
