NuForce NE-700X & NE-700M In-Ear Headphones (Playback 41)

Affordable All-Stars

February 9th, 2011 -- by Chris Martens
Source: Playback

NUFORCE INC
(408) 890-6840
www.nuforce.com

Comments

ibuilt -- Fri, 02/11/2011 - 21:05

Thank you for your thorough and informative review. As the ne-700's are a new offering, there isn't much info. available out there yet. I was glad to find your review. I just ordered myself a pair.

boratri@hotmail.com -- Mon, 02/28/2011 - 03:48

I have been looking for a cheap alternative to my UEs for travelling which I do a fair amount of. When I read this review I thought I would give them a try. On first listen I was less than impressed. I thought another overhyped product but what the heck it’s only $79 (I live in Oz where everything’s overpriced). I decided to burn it in for around 20 hours and then plugged it in to my ipod and put it on shuffle. After a few minutes my wife asked me why I was grinning. I hadn’t realised it but I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This really is a nice piece of gear. It has mastered the magical formula of warmth without sacrificing detail. It has good bass and drums sound like skins. The temptation is to turn them up loud until, that is, the next track is something from the Who (bad idea). I was hearing things in my collection I had never heard before and I just wanted to listen to everything again. Now I go for (previously unheard of) long walks just so I can listen to my ipod.
The 700EXs won’t make bad recordings sound good like my Quad ESLs and only at ear bleeding levels will they start to show a little bit of stress but you’re asking for trouble anyway if you play them that loud, despite the temptation.
I can’t say that there is nothing else like them out there because I’ve only tried these and the two other models I have at home but I can highly recommend them.
My only gripe was that the cables get tangled a little too easily and that they aren’t the most comfortable over long periods. Apart from that, who can complain for such a small outlay ?
Now if only someone can recommend a small speaker which will bring the smile back at beer money so I can appease the wife and get rid of the Quads I would be most obliged.

cisharani@yahoo.com -- Fri, 03/04/2011 - 05:07

I read so many reviews of praise on websites and Amazon about the NuForce 7M - not these - that I decided to get them, earlier I was using Sennheiser 280x. Needed an extra pair for a second device. At first I thought they needed break-in. But now after a month, I am so disappointed by their sound, that I am getting skeptical about the review process itself. These are one the few things I had to buy without an audition. They should call them the Avalanche earphones because you get loud thudding sounds and then a thick mist obscures the landscape. Utterly robbed the music of emotional content and my favorite singers sounded odd and unmusical. I then did A_B testing with the standard earphones I got with my Blackberry, and well, the Nu-Force were subtly better at detail. But certainly they are meant for phone calls and i would never use them for music.

Chetan From Mumbai, India

boldchest -- Fri, 09/30/2011 - 20:33

You should try the Comply tips (I find the ones supplied with 'em useless), and shove the NF earphones (with the Comply tips) as far as humanly possible into those orifices, you'd be surprised how deep, tight and smooth they sound. In my opinion, nothing compares at at least 3 times the price. I'll go as far as to say, they sound like big cans! Now that's food for thought?

shmuly@egoldmans.com -- Thu, 03/17/2011 - 12:37

How do these compare with Klipsch Image S4? I see that those were rated best by Cnet

AVguide Staff -- Thu, 03/17/2011 - 13:40

You can check out our review of the Klipsch Image S4i here: http://www.avguide.com/review/klipsch-image-s4i-headsetin-ear-headphone-...