Nuforce Primo 8 - an Audiophile Phase Coherent Quad Balanced Armature Driver IEM - Impressions
Apr 16, 2014 at 7:49 AM Post #122 of 454
Congrats to NuForce for the job they've done on the ergonomics and the styling.  It's clear they've put a lot of thought into this product.  Wish this was maybe a year earlier to market, but it's a competitive landscape nowadays. 
 
Apr 16, 2014 at 11:18 PM Post #127 of 454
I've been listening to the Primo 8 a lot lately with my CEntrance HiFi-M8 with the impedance switch set at 10 ohm and the bass switch set to +3 dB, and it's been really enjoyable that way. I'm hoping someone else can try that combo later and tell me what they think.  I offered to loan these to joker a while back, but I think he's waiting for a production version to review.
 
I'm using the older Westone grey silicone tips, as I didn't get a full tip kit with the pre-production set.  The complies are not bad at all, but the bass kicks up a little with the silicone tips, and it's always difficult for me to insert an IEM with foam tips vs silicone.
 
Apr 17, 2014 at 2:46 PM Post #129 of 454
Chris Marten just published his First Listen on the HiFi Plus web site.

 
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/first-listen-nuforce-primo-8-phase-coherent-quad-driver-earphone/
 
Quote Chris Marten:
 
Let me just jump right in and declare, unequivocally, that the Primo 8 is different to, and light years better than, any other earphone NuForce has ever built. I’ll also go even further to suggest that the Primo 8 will very likely prove to be a strong contender against all comers on the worldwide stage. In fact, my preliminary listening experiences lead me to think the Primo 8s may do certain things better than almost any other universal-fit earphones on the market regardless of price.
 
...snip...
 
So what does the Primo 8 offer the listener? Well, it provides pretty much scrupulously neutral tonal balance (more on this in a moment), excellent resolving power and transient speed, plus a truly remarkable, overarching quality of lucidity and focus. I can’t say for certain, but I strongly suspect these pleasing elements of lucidity and focus are both directly attributable to NuForce’s linear-phase design.

...snip...

the look of the optimally focused Hasselblad image is the visual equivalent of the sound of phase coherency as captured, in this instance, by NuForce’s Primo 8. As a result, I found the Primo 8 effortlessly pulled deep into the interior of good recordings, where all the richest of subtle details and musical ‘secrets’ reside. This, to my way of thinking, is why the Primo 8 is likely to win friends and lots of them within the audiophile community.

Candidly, the only sticking point may be the Primo 8’s tonal balance, which—as I mentioned above—seems neutral, almost to a fault. Usually, this is the point where the audio journalist takes a step back to inform you that the product in question sounds “bright and a bit lean,” but that’s actually not what I want you to understand about the Primo 8. What you do need to know, though, is that it absolutely, positively will not add so much as a faint whiff of extra bass energy, if that energy is not in fact present in the recording.” Is the Primo 8, then, ‘bass-shy’? Absolutely not. The earphone can deliver tons of bass, including very low frequency bass, provided that that information is present in the track being played.

I mention this point, then, simply because I find that the majority of earphones (even ones billed as ‘monitoring’ earphones) tend to add at least some measure of bass enrichment—in some instances quite lot of bass enrichment. If, down deep (no pun intended), you need, want, or simply prefer a touch of bass lift, then the Primo 8 might not be the earphone for you. But if you love a pure, ‘all-the-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth’ approach to music reproduction, by all means give the Primo 8 a listen. I think you’ll find it is pretty special.

 
I am pleased that this sounds exactly like my review here...
 
...what I am ashamed about is that he was able to condense the basics of the Primo 8's essence into a much shorter and easier to read review, which was even easier to edit down into the 5 paragraphs above.
 
Apr 18, 2014 at 7:57 AM Post #130 of 454
 ...what I am ashamed about is that he was able to condense the basics of the Primo 8's essence into a much shorter and easier to read review, which was even easier to edit down into the 5 paragraphs above.

 
Some people, especially veteran head-fiers, like longer reviews. I think it really depends on the venue and intended audience. While head-fi threads are publically viewable, the content is still intended for head-fiers to read, and I'd say that the people who want a $500 IEM are the ones that desire more in-depth content.
 

 
I'm perplexed by peoples' desires for more bass out of the Primo 8, however. The bass kicks in (and hard) when it needs to, and disappears when it isn't called for. To me, that's the hallmark of finding a good balance in bass response. To me, the Primo 8 is actually very slightly bassier than what I prefer, but that's me, and I often get accused by people of not liking bass (which isn't true --- when the quality of bass is very high, a greater quantity is unnecessary). I can understand why a greater amount of bass is better for marketing purposes, but that really shouldn't be the case. Thus, I disagree with Martens' belief that the Primo 8 is neutral "to a fault". If he's listened extensively to earphones that are truly near the cusp of "neutral to a fault", such as Etymotics and the UERM, then he'd know that the Primo 8 is not so. To me, the Primo 8 is tastefully and subtly colored in a manner that doesn't offend listeners with a neutral-leaning palate (like me), but able to give other listeners a bit of warmth and spice.
 
My main issue with the Primo 8 has surprisingly been the accessories. Nuforce definitely has put effort into the packaging and put thought into what constitutes a premium package, but its competitors are frankly ahead of the curve when it comes to accessories. Granted, companies like Shure and Westone have been at this game for a long time, and Nuforce is just getting started, but I do look forward to their improving on this front in the future.
 
Again, I've only had a short time to use the Primo 8, but it really is a very good first effort, and one of the most impressive offerings from Nuforce that I've come across.
 
Apr 18, 2014 at 8:31 AM Post #131 of 454
We didn't want to cause confusion at the time when Larry, you and some others were publishing the feedback for the pilot production units.
The production version is better as we use harder and denser polycarbonate material for the case. Perhaps with mass production driver matching and change of case material, the sound improved quite a bit. All the reviewers got the production version. We are sending one to Larry.

Jason
 
Apr 21, 2014 at 1:48 AM Post #133 of 454
Sadly the cable without mic isn't yet available. Any ETA for it?

The design of both with or without mic is such that both cables in terms of audio performance has no difference, because of our design, the microphone is at the Y split, and the microphone has its own signal and independent ground wires, as not to affect the earphone signals.
 
Apr 21, 2014 at 9:23 AM Post #135 of 454
Any word on a Euro/UK release for these?
 

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