[IEMusic]

I never take the listed prices on OEM cables seriously. There is absolutely no reason to buy one of those cables separately, as there’s always a huge markup. People have commented that they wish UM would sell the MEST w/o the cable for $1000, but that would never be the case. At best, the price would be around $1250.

 

[Nabillion_786]

I never take the listed prices on OEM cables seriously. There is absolutely no reason to buy one of those cables separately, as there’s always a huge markup. People have commented that they wish UM would sell the MEST w/o the cable for $1000, but that would never be the case. At best, the price would be around $1250.

I missed your impressions and went back to find them. Glad your loving them. I have an os849 cable on the way which should really help but if you notice anymore cables that pair with these nice please let me know. Even though the yy cable added thickness and naturalness it took away some of the technicalities and excitement for me.

 

[slex]

Pull the plug today for NM2+, will compare to BA8. Have a KB Rhyme 8 coming and a custom Cryo Neotech 7N Upocc just for this.

 

[tgx78]

Beethoven Piano Concerto #5. 1.Allegro

Source: E1DA Susumu3000 9038S

Mid to low volume listening.

NF Audio NM2+: it exhibits pretty much ideal tonality, cohesiveness, openness for this grandiose first movement. Timbre is great, but ever so slightly tilted towards a brighter hue from the absolute neutrality. Personally, being 40+ years old, I appreciate a slight brightness and sharper attack/decay and faster sustained notes to keep my interest high. If you are younger and have more sensitive hearings, you may find the NM2+ too aggressive and analytical, but for me, it hits the sweet spot. Piano is nicely separated from the orchestra and shows a good amount of air around it.

UM MEST: personally not digging it with this particular recording. Mids are too dense and minimal contrast between the fundamentals (500Hz to 1200Hz ) coupled with a low pinna gain creates bit of undesirable congestion between the woodwinds and a piano solo. First violin section is also bit muted to be natural. Overall timbre is bit plasticky and unnatural.
Micro detail retrieval and room acoustics are nicely portrayed. Overall decent technicalities, but sounds disjointed.

LZ A7 (Gold filter - pop switch): slightly less dynamic than the NM2+. Bit of haziness near the upper mids. Timbre is not as convincing as the NM2+. Limitation for BA drivers possibly. Somewhere between the analytical and musical sound (you could argue that it has somewhat boring and characterless playback). In my opinion, multi crossover + multi drivers are mostly inferior to the high resolving and well implemented single dynamic driver and it shows here. A7 is versatile and really good with most other musical genres, but when it comes to the classical music, it seems that NM2+ is a clearly better choice for me.

 

[IEMusic]

I am really loving this combo right now. EQ is not really “needed”, but I’m boosting the sub bass (centered around 32Hz) a little and am cutting the midbass (centered around 100Hz) a little. I find that frequency a little problematic for certain instruments, such as certain “thick” piano recordings and double bass. It sounded too resonant there in stock form. I honestly have not heard a more natural and realistic portrayal of acoustic instruments with any headgear before. Ambience is captured amazingly well. The treble is becoming more well defined and extended the more I break them in. This will likely be my go-to combo for anything acoustic. Surprisingly, I find pop, rock, EDM quite enjoyable with this combo also. I find metal too intense in the upper midrange. I like rock and metal more on the MEST. I think the MEST and the NM2+ make an incredible combo, though the UIEM MEST does fit me very comfortably, which is important.

Nothing beats the timbral accuracy of a well implemented single DD.

 

[IEMusic]

BTW, these are 2 of the main tracks that I use to evaluate bass, to see if there are certain frequencies that are too much for me with acoustic music.

 

[IEMusic]

I missed your impressions and went back to find them. Glad your loving them. I have an os849 cable on the way which should really help but if you notice anymore cables that pair with these nice please let me know. Even though the yy cable added thickness and naturalness it took away some of the technicalities and excitement for me.

So, I tried the NM2+ with the silver TRN T3 cable, in comparison with the MEST cable. I must note that I personally haven‘t found the NM2+ thin sounding with any combination, but that’s just me. With the silver cable, the treble seemed a little more crisp and clear, but possibly at the cost of being a little harsh for some people. The upper midrange was also a little more prominent, but still fell below my threshold or annoyance. The bass transients seems a little more crisp and percussive. The overall note weight was a little thinner, yet not actually thin sounding to me. While the silver cable was probably marginally better sounding technically, overall, I like the MEST cable best, and I think you will probably like the os849 on it. You may want to try an inexpensive silver cable, such as the TRN T3 or the KBEAR Limpid cable on it, just to try it out. It’a nice to have some all-silver cables in one’s collection anyways, especially for current prices.

This may be my end-game single DD IEM for a while. (Disclaimer: the sound signature is likely not going to be for everyone’s tastes. It is a technical monitor, that can sound intense at times, and reveals all flaws in recordings.)

 

[Dsnuts]

I had a feeling you were gonna be a fan of these. Glad your digging on them. Don't know what these NF audio fellas are gonna do next but that is one company to keep a watch out for.

 

[KutuzovGambit]

Surprisingly, I find pop, rock, EDM quite enjoyable with this combo also.

The NM2+ really shows that being “neutral and monitoring” has nothing to do with having anemic bass.

 

[Dsnuts]

Well actually monitor earphones and headphones actually have to be able to reproduce bass in all parts of the frequencies. It has to have accuracy in mind for all parts of the sound not just for vocals and instruments. My Beyerdynamic DT1990 pros actually has great bass and those are for monitoring. All Sony cans used for monitoring all have deep hitting bass. DJ cans especially has some excellent bass. So NM2+ is following suit. I read NF audio started out making stage monitor custom earphones.

 

[Stuff Jones]

I searched to no avail: any comparison with the modded JVC FD01s?

 

[IEMusic]

I searched to no avail: any comparison with the modded JVC FD01s?

I‘ll try to post a more detailed comparison later, but in general, I find little if anything better about the JVC FDX1/FD01 compared to the NM2+. The FD01 may be a bit more accurate/neutral in it’s frequency response, w/o the anti-sibilance dip, but I don’t find that part of the frequency spectrum really missing with the NM2+. I think the NM2+ is better in almost all categories. If you ask me about specific aspects that you’re wondering about, I can compare those for you.

 

[Nabillion_786]

I‘ll try to post a more detailed comparison later, but in general, I find little if anything better about the JVC FDX1/FD01 compared to the NM2+. The FD01 may be a bit more accurate/neutral in it’s frequency response, w/o the anti-sibilance dip, but I don’t find that part of the frequency spectrum really missing with the NM2+. I think the NM2+ is better in almost all categories. If you ask me about specific aspects that you’re wondering about, I can compare those for you.

What do you think about the male vocals of nm2+?

 

[IEMusic]

What do you think about the male vocals of nm2+?

I actually really like the sound of male vocals and cellos on the NM2+. It may just be my perception, but I haven‘t found it thin sounding. Then again, I generally don’t like really thick lower midrange/upper bass.

 

[KutuzovGambit]

I actually really like the sound of male vocals and cellos on the NM2+. It may just be my perception, but I haven‘t found it thin sounding. Then again, I generally don’t like really thick lower midrange/upper bass.

I second this FWIW.