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Product Description
With the Massdrop x Noble Kaiser 10 custom in-ear monitors, we’re bringing back Noble’s previous flagship—lauded by Forbes, The Verge, and InnerFidelity, and long rated Head-Fi users’ favorite IEM—for a more accessible price. Also known as the K10, this model uses the same tuning as the Noble Kaiser 10, with 10 Knowles balanced-armature drivers per ear Read More
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Sad to say...not a fan at all. Never had a headphone, IEM whatever that when I listened to it was so misaligned with the universaly glowing reviews.
First of all...the red carbon is black. No question. There could be a light bright enough to see from space shining on them and they would still be black.
Fit is good. Could be better on the left side. Used the same audiologist I have been using for years so confident it’s not a mold issue.
The most important thing...the sound. These things seriously sound horrendous. Have no clue what the hype is about. The sound is just a giant wall of flabby bass with everything else trying desperately to be heard. Much like a friend that has no clue about sound and subwoofers, gets a lame sub and cranks up the sub volume. Go over to his place to hear it and all you hear is a sub that is WAY too loud and doesn’t blend in with the music.
There have been claims you could hear whether or not the singer had a windscreen in front of the mic when listening to these. I feel like i am hearing a band at a club with a terrible sound system where I can’t wait to get out of there. What a shame.
If this is a case of everyone just jumping on a bandwagon to make claims about a custom IEM that actually sounds horrible then I am shocked.
The reason I bought these is I picked up a pair of the K10u’s here on Massdrop and loved them immediately. I knew very quickly I would end up having to order the custom version. Waited for the drop to go live again and then waited SIX MONTHS to get these. I have obviously wasted both my time and money. My pair sounds nothing like the universal version. Completely different.
I seriously wonder if there is something wrong with my pair.
I own the Encore customs and was looking for a bit less of a refined or more fun kind of sound versus the excellent technically resolving sound of the Encore. Not even close.
I got a pair of UE900’s for free when I ordered a pair of UE customs. Have only listened to them a few times as the sound isn’t for me. At least when I do listen to them I think ‘we’ll at least they were free’. I would rather listen to the UE900’s than these.
I would say I will burn them in and see what happens then. Since the maker of them says there’s no benefit to burn in, that seems a bit silly. In addition, I have had custom IEMs where I thought the same thing about burn in perhaps helping the sound (UE 18 orig version, JH Audio JH13). Truth of the matter was I could burn them in for weeks and the sound was still one that just didn’t click with me.
It’s not the recordings I am listening to, nor the equipment. I have listened to these tracks and amps/sources countless times.
I suppose for anyone that owns these and enjoys them (or doesn’t have a pair that sounds like the tuning or drivers are WAY off) then i would tell you there are custom IEMs out there that blow these away.
What a shame.
DigiheadI'm really sorry for your loss. Balanced Armatures shouldn't need burn in time so I have the feeling they won't get any better unless you experiment a lot with the tips. If you can't get a refund see if you can mod them. Maybe air ports on the back or something. I don't really know. That's a lot of money to spend on junk. If you figure something out reply to this post. Thanks
I have had a horrific experience with this drop. My credit card was charged on 21 March, ear impressions sent on 14 May. On 18 Sep, 2 days before promised shipping, I got an email telling me that my ear impressions were not received. It is unbelievable that Noble did not even have a simple tracking system in excel to tick off every step in the order execution process. After much discussion with Dave at MD, I sent another set of impressions. I received a message from UPS saying that there was a delivery from Chengdu. I scambled to check if there was a fraudulent charge on my credit card, since I had not ordered anything from China. It took 10 months fpr the K10s to reach me. Jim at Noble Audio responded in a high handed manner to my furious email. Not a word of apology. And the Red carbon ones look black. No amount of bright light can make them look as red as they did in the drop. What a horrible company to deal with. Great products marred by atrocious commitment to customer satisfaction. Abysmal communication, first about their move to a new office, that led to so many impressions being lost. Second about why products are shipped from China. Jim explained haughtily about the illustrious history of noble Audio and the connection with Chengdu AFTER I emailed him. He also asked me to communicate with MD about issues, since I had paid money to them. So Noble didn't get any money for this drop? Arrogant .... !!! Jim, I will never buy another Noble product. There are many other good audio companies out there, with great products and impeccable customer service. You will lose customers to them.
Jim, thank you for posting our entire conversation here. You amply demonstrate how much anger and ill feeling you have caused, rather than satisfaction and happiness. If you're still not getting it, then I wish you, Hefe and Noble all the best.
Is there a timeline for folks that had to re-send their impressions? I was originally in the mid-April order, but the second set of impressions arrived at Noble in mid-October.
Good job on the updates, Massdrop. You'd think a $1300 bespoke item would warrant a touch better customer care, but alas. Anyway, I got my notification of shipping two days after the IEMs had arrived, seven days after they shipped. It's fortunate I was not depending on Massdrop for shipping info, as I might not have known to be around. Please do better next time, and while you're at it, how about an occasional update yourselves? @jimatNoble was good enough to post from time to time, but that should have not been up to him. I'd prefer they spend the time on making awesome monitors!
We forward the tracking numbers to MassDrop and then MassDrop handles the notifications. We are not provided email addresses, so we must rely on MassDrop for the notifications.
jimatNobleNo worries, thanks for the reply, but I figured it out. MD is great, but maybe a bit overworked and slow to communicate. Can't wait to give them a listen.
manezinhoProduction is on schedule. The only hiccup is that all Noble staff will be in Japan for one week attending a show starting on October 23rd. We are trying to make sure that the U.S. addressed CIEMs get to the U.S. before the 22nd so they can be shipped prior to our departure for Japan. If the CIEMs don't make it to the U.S. in time, then they will be shipped out on Nov. 1. All non-US addressed customers will not be affected.
I received my kaiser 10’s last week - they fit and sound great. However they are supposed to be red carbon glass, but appear black. Under very bright light, you can make out a few pieces of carbon fibre, but it does not look at all like the photo . I guess someone mixed the colour wrong for the acrylic pour- making it way too dark. Also the top isn’t buffed as shiny as the rest of the shell. I am sure I am not the only one complaining about this.... can anything be done? Thanks
RustydabearI suspect that the color difference is likely due to the fact that MassDrop uses bright lights and and a flash to bring out the red in the photos.
I was part of the late March drop and also just received an email stating that they do not have my impressions. It is absolutely unacceptable to tell me my shipment wasn't received 5 months after it was shipped. The finished CIEMs were supposed to ship last week!
It was clearly stated on the Massdrop drop page that "Noble must receive tracking info on the impressions within 6 weeks of the drop completing, or your order will be canceled and refunded—no exceptions or extensions." Why, if my impressions were not received, did no one from Massdrop or Noble contact me 5 months ago?
Like others who have had this issue, I shipped my package to the Santa Barbara office before they moved to Texas. My package had an estimated delivery date of May 10th, which was a day before Massdrop sent the email notifying us of the Noble location change.
I am extraordinarily angry about how unprofessional both Massdrop and Noble have been. This situation could have easily been averted if Noble provided confirmation of receiving impressions. Instead we were told if you hear nothing then you're all set. They've had my $1250 for 6 months and have not been working to deliver me the product I paid for.
I've reached out to both Massdrop and Noble to discuss how to proceed, however, I'm not sure I want to support a company who thinks this is an appropriate way of conducting business.