Burn-in: These IEMs were given upwards of 50 hours of burn in time prior to review and, while they sounded good right out of the box (or bag in my case), they did need about a dozen hours or so to settle in to their final sound character.
This is (unsurprisingly) the area where the NE-700X really shines. These boast a full, warm and robust sound that’s immediately attention-grabbing and energetic. These are a “fun” sounding pair of IEMs, no doubt about it, but they don’t fall short when it comes to revealing finer details.
The low end is very prominent and surprises with its power and authority without sounding uncontrolled or bleeding into the midrange. There’s plenty of impact and volume to go around but it doesn’t gloss over finer bass detail. There’s a nice rumble in the bass that conveys it an equally nice texture. It’s a low end that doesn’t compromise but doesn’t overwhelm either, stepping up when called for and backing off when it needs to. It hits a nice sweet spot for me in terms of the amount of bass I want to hear from an earphone.
The midrange is slightly forward in its presentation and nice and smooth. Vocals are front and center, with instruments sitting a bit farther back in the sonic stage. The smoothness cuts down ever so slightly on overall clarity and resolution but not enough to where I’d call it a legitimate flaw. The upper midrange/lower treble almost reaches the point of being sibilant or harsh but never actually gets there which makes these a rather non-fatiguing listen. Treble is laid back almost to the point where I’d call it recessed but not quite. Finer detail is there but there isn’t much in the way of sparkle.
The soundstage is actually rather deep, competing with the best earphones I’ve heard in that category. Lateral width is slightly above average which leads to good positioning. The thickness of note that I mentioned earlier does hamper the transparency and occludes the sense of “air” in the soundstage which does impact the perception of individual instrument separation but not too much. All in all, these are a very musical and enjoyable pair of IEMs to listen to for long periods that, despite their low end emphasis, are still well balanced in their sonic presentation.