This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the NICEHCK (also spelled NICE HCK) "hybrid driver" IEM. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $199.
Not much to say about the looks other than it being a professional one you can wear without worry. A case with different tips are provided. As usual, I wore the larges one for my listening tests (seen above). But for measurement and testing, I used the default smaller silicone tip and default "tube." Company provided alternative "tubes" (filters) but I didn't see a need to swap them out to test. Since it is impossible to seat an IEM the same twice, it would have been futile to do so anyway unless differences are large and in lower frequencies.
NICE HCK IEM Measurement
As usual, we start with our frequency response measurements:
I had better matching between the channels initially but a bit less bass in one. In trying to fix that issue, I lost the synchronicity at higher frequencies. So ignoring the channel differential, we see near excellent match to our target up to 2 kHz. Above that, there is varying but small shortfall. We have to determine preference in listening tests (next section). As a result of this there is not a whole lot to see in our deviation curve from target:
What made me fall of my chair was incredibly low distortion:
We are the limit of what we can measure in acoustic protocol at both 94 and 114 dBSPL. There is only a slight rise with 114 dBSP. Bass response is especially impressive.
In absolute level, we also see a clean result:
Group delay is uneventful as it usually is with IEMs:
The two wiggles which also show up in the frequency response graphs is the "rocking mode" of the transducer which shows up in measurements, but not in actual human ears (what I have read but not verified myself).
Impedance starts rather low and then goes way lower:
This could be a concern, requiring a source with good current capability. But sensitively is quite good meaning just about anything should be able to drive it:
My son who helped me with this review and has very sensitive ears, was listening at -50 dB on the Topping DX5II DAC/Amp!!!
NICEHCK IEM Listening Tests and Equalization
Stock performance was impressive. Bass was deep and authoritative (for an IEM). Detail and overall tonality was right on the money, making my reference tracks sound even better than I remembered! Still, there is the question of the small variation in treble so I created a few filters:
Band 2 made the spatial impression go from good to excellent (again for an IEM). The one at 13.2 kHz was inaudible to me. I performed AB tests of the whole set. While the filtered provided more of a fun factor, on anything with good bit of treble sounded too sharp. This is after me dialing them down good bit as you see above.
I had my son perform a blind test on his own and he too preferred the stock tuning. So I would say filtering is not needed.
Conclusions
I must say, I went into this review with very low expectations. I had not heard of the company or its product so didn't think they had done much tuning. I thought they were just selling the basis of marketing buzzwords (hybrid, "8 drivers"). What I measured and heard was exactly the opposite. The NX8 is a very fine tuned IEM with delightful yet accurate tuning. Yes, the price is higher than our budget alternatives but there is a difference here, especially in distortion and somewhat on tonality which you may prefer.
I am happy to recommend the NICE HCK NX8 IEM.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Not much to say about the looks other than it being a professional one you can wear without worry. A case with different tips are provided. As usual, I wore the larges one for my listening tests (seen above). But for measurement and testing, I used the default smaller silicone tip and default "tube." Company provided alternative "tubes" (filters) but I didn't see a need to swap them out to test. Since it is impossible to seat an IEM the same twice, it would have been futile to do so anyway unless differences are large and in lower frequencies.
NICE HCK IEM Measurement
As usual, we start with our frequency response measurements:
I had better matching between the channels initially but a bit less bass in one. In trying to fix that issue, I lost the synchronicity at higher frequencies. So ignoring the channel differential, we see near excellent match to our target up to 2 kHz. Above that, there is varying but small shortfall. We have to determine preference in listening tests (next section). As a result of this there is not a whole lot to see in our deviation curve from target:
What made me fall of my chair was incredibly low distortion:
We are the limit of what we can measure in acoustic protocol at both 94 and 114 dBSPL. There is only a slight rise with 114 dBSP. Bass response is especially impressive.
In absolute level, we also see a clean result:
Group delay is uneventful as it usually is with IEMs:
The two wiggles which also show up in the frequency response graphs is the "rocking mode" of the transducer which shows up in measurements, but not in actual human ears (what I have read but not verified myself).
Impedance starts rather low and then goes way lower:
This could be a concern, requiring a source with good current capability. But sensitively is quite good meaning just about anything should be able to drive it:
My son who helped me with this review and has very sensitive ears, was listening at -50 dB on the Topping DX5II DAC/Amp!!!
NICEHCK IEM Listening Tests and Equalization
Stock performance was impressive. Bass was deep and authoritative (for an IEM). Detail and overall tonality was right on the money, making my reference tracks sound even better than I remembered! Still, there is the question of the small variation in treble so I created a few filters:
Band 2 made the spatial impression go from good to excellent (again for an IEM). The one at 13.2 kHz was inaudible to me. I performed AB tests of the whole set. While the filtered provided more of a fun factor, on anything with good bit of treble sounded too sharp. This is after me dialing them down good bit as you see above.
I had my son perform a blind test on his own and he too preferred the stock tuning. So I would say filtering is not needed.
Conclusions
I must say, I went into this review with very low expectations. I had not heard of the company or its product so didn't think they had done much tuning. I thought they were just selling the basis of marketing buzzwords (hybrid, "8 drivers"). What I measured and heard was exactly the opposite. The NX8 is a very fine tuned IEM with delightful yet accurate tuning. Yes, the price is higher than our budget alternatives but there is a difference here, especially in distortion and somewhat on tonality which you may prefer.
I am happy to recommend the NICE HCK NX8 IEM.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
