[PrestonSturgesEnthusiast]

Hi, everyone. I own a thiaudio monarch mk1, enjoy its tuning, and I’m currently looking for an upgrade. the Kublai Khan is one of the options on the top of my list. what do you guys think?

 

[SynaestheticA]

Yes

 

[FullCircle]

 

[lmfboy01]

I got a Massdrop Noble Kaiser 10 Universal, up for sale!

 

[SynaestheticA]

I like how you guys do marketing. You show where your product fits inside of the world/universe/story it is telling rather than show pictures of a few streamlined soundwaves coming out of the nozzle. Maybe you do that to, but you're ahead of the game and know how to tell a story with your pieces. Well done.

 

[FullCircle]

@SynaestheticA

My son, for most part, does the video work. He will be thrilled to hear about your compliments.

 

[scubaphish]

User request…please please add ambient controls to the Mystique buds!

 

[Junmoe62]

Hi guys,



I hope you’re all doing great!

It’s been about a year and a half since my last post on this forum, mainly due to the fact that I was crazy busy at work, and living in Shanghai this last year hasn’t been the most pleasant experience to say the least… Now things look like they’re getting a little bit more “normal”, which awoken my endless thirst for new audio gear!!

After, roaming the city’s audio shops and trying as many TOTL IEMs as possible I finally settled on a pair of Noble Kublai Khan! They truly are outstanding as far as SQ goes!

I bought them about a week and a half ago and this is my first time hearing and purchasing a Noble product.

Everything was perfect until today! I was planning on making a review praising the KK and making some comparison with my Oriolus Traillii and others. While trying to take some nice pictures of the KK, they dropped on the table from a hight between 50cm to 1m and both earpieces completely shattered…
Here is the result :

I’m quite devastated to be honest! They just broke like glass! I’ve never had this experience with any IEM before! My Trailliis already fell from body hight on the floor without a scratch! Yeah… alright… you gotta be stupid to drop your expensive earphones, but things happen!! I use them everyday for commuting and work, so without being specially clumsy, it’s gotta happen someday! That’s what IEMs are for, isn’t?!

It seems warranty won’t work, and the shop were I bought them just told me : “this IEM has too many drivers inside, so the shell is very thin and it brakes easily…” they also told me they had the same issues with the EE Odin demo sample which broke 3 times… How can you argue with that…

Anyways… I just wanted to let you guys know that these are “EXTREMELY” fragile and you really have to nurture them even more so than most other IEMs! To the point I wouldn’t have imagined!

I really don’t mean to throw the stone at Noble! They did a fantastic job! The KK really sound amazing (to the point of writing a glorious review) but honestly, as a designer myself, I would have thought that a minimum of shock resistance would have been part of an IEM’s design specifications.

Meanwhile it seems like I just threw $2500 out of the window… Steep price to pay for what I would consider almost as a “normal” use case (like removing your earphones and them falling on the table while still being attached to the cable…)

I didn’t mean to come back to this forum as a bitter kind of guy, but I hope you’ll understand that I can’t be too happy about the situation. I believe I’m not a troll and most of my posts on this forum in the past have been somewhat constructive, so I wanted, with this post, to take the time warning others not to make the same stupid mistake I just did.

@FullCircle I hope you won’t take any offense with my message! You’re doing outstanding work! No question about that!! Your IEMs are some of the finest I’ve listened to! But sticking with metal built for your high driver counts IEMs might not be a bad idea, even if it’s a bit more expensive! I personally wouldn’t mind paying a little extra for a beautifully designed metal KK as you guys are so use to craft!!

Bitterness off and I wish you all the best for the year of the rabbit!!

Cheers!

Julien

 

[FullCircle]

@Junmoe62

I've been in the industry now for over a decade. Through that time I have made it a policy not to handle customer service issues on public court, as everyone's issues are different and rarely does one solution fit every situation.
My advice, if you have tried working with your authorized dealer and find their solution to be unsatisfactory, try reaching directly to Noble and see if a resolution can be found.

Jim@nobleaudio.com

 

[drftr]

Hi guys,



I hope you’re all doing great!

It’s been about a year and a half since my last post on this forum, mainly due to the fact that I was crazy busy at work, and living in Shanghai this last year hasn’t been the most pleasant experience to say the least… Now things look like they’re getting a little bit more “normal”, which awoken my endless thirst for new audio gear!!

After, roaming the city’s audio shops and trying as many TOTL IEMs as possible I finally settled on a pair of Noble Kublai Khan! They truly are outstanding as far as SQ goes!

I bought them about a week and a half ago and this is my first time hearing and purchasing a Noble product.

Everything was perfect until today! I was planning on making a review praising the KK and making some comparison with my Oriolus Traillii and others. While trying to take some nice pictures of the KK, they dropped on the table from a hight between 50cm to 1m and both earpieces completely shattered…
Here is the result :

I’m quite devastated to be honest! They just broke like glass! I’ve never had this experience with any IEM before! My Trailliis already fell from body hight on the floor without a scratch! Yeah… alright… you gotta be stupid to drop your expensive earphones, but things happen!! I use them everyday for commuting and work, so without being specially clumsy, it’s gotta happen someday! That’s what IEMs are for, isn’t?!

It seems warranty won’t work, and the shop were I bought them just told me : “this IEM has too many drivers inside, so the shell is very thin and it brakes easily…” they also told me they had the same issues with the EE Odin demo sample which broke 3 times… How can you argue with that…

Anyways… I just wanted to let you guys know that these are “EXTREMELY” fragile and you really have to nurture them even more so than most other IEMs! To the point I wouldn’t have imagined!

I really don’t mean to throw the stone at Noble! They did a fantastic job! The KK really sound amazing (to the point of writing a glorious review) but honestly, as a designer myself, I would have thought that a minimum of shock resistance would have been part of an IEM’s design specifications.

Meanwhile it seems like I just threw $2500 out of the window… Steep price to pay for what I would consider almost as a “normal” use case (like removing your earphones and them falling on the table while still being attached to the cable…)

I didn’t mean to come back to this forum as a bitter kind of guy, but I hope you’ll understand that I can’t be too happy about the situation. I believe I’m not a troll and most of my posts on this forum in the past have been somewhat constructive, so I wanted, with this post, to take the time warning others not to make the same stupid mistake I just did.

@FullCircle I hope you won’t take any offense with my message! You’re doing outstanding work! No question about that!! Your IEMs are some of the finest I’ve listened to! But sticking with metal built for your high driver counts IEMs might not be a bad idea, even if it’s a bit more expensive! I personally wouldn’t mind paying a little extra for a beautifully designed metal KK as you guys are so use to craft!!

Bitterness off and I wish you all the best for the year of the rabbit!!

Cheers!

Julien

Oh my goodness... I feel bad reading this I would certainly have thought portable gear would at least be a bit more sturdy! Fantastic looks are great, but ONLY in combination with functionality.

I bought the Sultan myself a bit ago and I'm really getting worried.

I truly hope @FullCircle will reach out to you to work out any kind of deal, whether it's a prototype, a demo model, an extended discount, whatever. KK is extremely nice and having Traillii as well only partly makes up for the terrible loss.

EDIT: See that he already responded while I was typing! I'd take his advice as I have great experiences going over things with Jim through email. These guys are as reasonable as they are excellent!

drftr

 

[FullCircle]

It would take some concentrated effort to harm a sultan housing.

 

[drftr]

It would take some concentrated effort to harm a sultan housing.

I'll do a mine field test shortly and either let you hear how it went, or you see the result in the news!

drftr

 

[FullCircle]

Amboyna Burl
The lathe has been turning

 

[Junmoe62]

@Junmoe62

I've been in the industry now for over a decade. Through that time I have made it a policy not to handle customer service issues on public court, as everyone's issues are different and rarely does one solution fit every situation.
My advice, if you have tried working with your authorized dealer and find their solution to be unsatisfactory, try reaching directly to Noble and see if a resolution can be found.

Jim@nobleaudio.com

Thanks a lot for your prompt answer!

Of course! I understand! I didn’t mean to do the customer service through the forum and I’ll definitely reach out to you through email!
But since this forum is all about sharing information, impressions, feedbacks and so on in order to help each others (customers as well as manufacturers) making right choices, I thought it was fair to mention this issue publicly. I sure know as a customer that is an information I’d like to be aware of. And as a designer I think it’s also a valuable feedback for the team in order to improve the product in the future.
Now, again, I’m not putting the blame specifically on Noble! As previously stated it seems to be an issue with some models from other brands as well. And I’m definitely to blame for being dumb enough to drop kilobucks IEMs!!! On the other hand, I can’t imagine an IEM, at any price point, shattering so easily as being normal. It really didn’t fall hard at all!

As you can see on the picture shared in my previous post, the shell is only a fraction of a millimeter thick in some areas. Maybe a thicker shell would be enough to fix this issue?! Or loading the resin with some sort of fibers could suffice? I trust that you guys will be way more apt than I am at figuring that out!

I truly I’m sorry for the rant! I hate having to do that! Especially considering how awesome the KK are! I’d rather stay with the praise only, trust me!

I’d still highly recommend this set! They are wonderful sounding pieces of technology especially for the price! But if you own or plan on buying these, just know that you’ll have to be extra careful while handling them!
In others words don’t be a dumbass like I am!!

Oh my goodness... I feel bad reading this I would certainly have thought portable gear would at least be a bit more sturdy! Fantastic looks are great, but ONLY in combination with functionality.

I bought the Sultan myself a bit ago and I'm really getting worried.

I truly hope @FullCircle will reach out to you to work out any kind of deal, whether it's a prototype, a demo model, an extended discount, whatever. KK is extremely nice and having Traillii as well only partly makes up for the terrible loss.

EDIT: See that he already responded while I was typing! I'd take his advice as I have great experiences going over things with Jim through email. These guys are as reasonable as they are excellent!

drftr

Thanks for your kind words pal! Yeah… it’s quite painful when this kind of things happen…

I don’t think you’ll get this kind of issue with Sultan! It looks like it’s built like a tank! I guess the worst case could be a driver getting lose inside, depending on how it’s made inside, but I highly doubt this could ever happen from a drop that low…

Wish you all the best!

Cheers,

Julien

 

[FullCircle]