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Author Topic: Noble 4  (Read 5260 times)

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ultrabike

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Noble 4
« on: May 20, 2014, 04:52:15 AM »

Sound

I liked the mids on these ones, but missed the bass. In fact, I got the JVCs and Philips 'cuz I needed more IEM references given what I was hearing. It was perhaps that I was not getting good seal, but the tips of the JVC fitted these, and while things seemed to improve, the bass still was somewhat less than what I liked.

That said, I felt these had very good detail. The bass deal might be a relative thing. Dunno. Maybe these had an issue.

I also tried the Noble 10's, and I liked those a lot.

Note these have some wacky impedance and proly best paired with low impedance amps... used my under-reference Sansa Cheap and a FiiO 6 for measurements.

Comfort

No issues.

Presentation

Cool. I think Noble has unique look options which I thought look great.

Price

If one likes what one hears, worth it.

Overall

I know some folks like these a lot, but I prefer moar bass.

Measurements

Again, like previous IEM plots, these are not compensated (will work something out later and update). Best to look at these relative to other similar IEM measurements.

Frequency Response



Distortion Right



Distortion Left



Impedance (20 Hz to 20 kHz)



Comparo w SHE3590 and Ostry

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OJneg

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2014, 05:37:30 AM »

I remember you mentioned at the mini-meet that you thought these were rolled-off on the top. Looks like you were right.

I'm surprised to see them appear so smooth and well-balanced, although maybe I'm misinterpreting these measurements. Next to the ER4S, I felt they weren't as smooth. I thought the measurements might reveal some treble peaks TBH. I didn't have any problems with bass quantity FWIW.

If you'd like to demo/measure my ER4 after Anax, let me know. I think having plots for the Etys would be a very useful reference.

 popcorn
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ultrabike

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2014, 05:52:00 AM »

I don't trust anything past 9 kHz on these, but maybe after compensation something might show up (planning to come up with compensation and update the plots sometime).

I think optimal bass quantity is sort of relative... For sure I can say that in terms of bass quantity JVC > SHE3590 > Ostrys > Noble 4... but don't have an absolute reference point yet. So far w IEMs I sort of like the SHE3590s bass quantity. Same with treble. IMO IEMs measurements seem harder to qualify in absolute terms... at least for me at this time.

I'm all for measuring the ER4s... LOL! good cute-tips, though I also felt those were bass lite for me. Dunno. Bring 'em :)p1
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Anaxilus

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2014, 06:23:59 AM »

I don't think they were as smooth either, the 6-7khz peak seems to support that a bit.
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SoupRKnowva

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2014, 06:57:34 AM »

I heard them at the Fujiya Avic festival and didn't spend much time with them since they basically had no bass, not my type of sound.
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tomscy2000

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2014, 08:05:28 AM »

Holy crap, that's a ton of roll-off... I'm trying to think of how that's possible, given what's used in the Noble 4.

I was also hoping to see more of the 2.5-3k mountain, but the mountain might be obscured by a big lower midrange lift that I know Noble likes to do.

The funky impedance is expected from BAs; single driver BAs usually exhibit an exponential curve impedance that starts really low and ends really high. Usually, the first resonance peak is induced artificially, so you'll see a weird sawtooth pattern to the impedance where the resonance peak is induced. When the drivers are joined together in a low/high configuration like the TWFK is for the midrange and tweeter portion here, the midrange is actually run in reverse polarity, which is why you see the impedance drop from the crossover point with the DTEC woofers, and then rise again for the tweeter portion. Running the midrange in reverse phase also helps avoid the upper midrange chasm that showed up earlier in the 4.Ai model.

My guess is that you'd like the Noble 4 better if they chose to use the vented DTEC (called the HODVTEC), which is unfortunately new and expensive. Currently, I only know of the UE900/900s using that dual woofer from Knowles. Drivers from Sonion are cheaper, but Noble seems to like to stick with Knowles. In some senses, Knowles is the technologically superior company. Their drivers exhibit lower distortion profiles, and their treble extends better, but their drivers are expensive (nearly 2x more than Sonion).

Even so, I would not have expected the Noble 4 to roll off this much. Maybe starting from 40 Hz, but not from 200 Hz. They'd have to add a cap to the woofer to do that (either that, or the driver is broken, but how can both sides be broken?) Did you check whether the coupling was secure and sealed?
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ultrabike

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2014, 08:10:59 AM »

Yup. Made a lot of measurements to make sure. I used the tips from the JVC to do the measurements (got better seal with those for some reason).

As far as the treble, I have a feeling that after compensation the treble will come up relative to the 1 to 5 kHz range.
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tomscy2000

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2014, 08:35:52 AM »

On second examination, it's probably your tubing that exaggerates the roll-off, then. I suspect that under an expensive ear simulator, the Philips and JVC would have upward rising bass (usually the case for consumer-grade earphones), while the Noble has some minor roll-off, as well as a small mid-bass hump (even though people are saying it has no bass, surely it has some, because relative to the midrange, the entire shelf is elevated).

The ER4 would probably resemble the Philips curve, except from 800 on down, it'll keep sliding down to 20 Hz.

Yeah, certainly with compensation, it'll look a lot more relatable, though I've been trying to translate these measurements to raw ear simulator measurements.
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ultrabike

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2014, 09:01:51 AM »

It's possible.

I'm not sure, but some believe the SHE3580 and the SHE3590 are essentially the same. Tyll's measurements show the SHE3580 does have a rising bass response:

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/PhilipsSME3580.pdf

However, his ER4PT measurements seem a bit more flat:

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/EtymoticER4PT.pdf

That said, these guys show something closer to what I measured for the Philips (perhaps even closer after compensation which might bring the upper mids lower):

http://personalaudio.ru/raa/otchety/naushniki/philips-3590-gn/
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shotgunshane

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Re: Noble 4
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2014, 11:08:26 AM »

Yes the Noble 4 uni has a small mid bass lift compared to the ER-4S, then it starts to roll off in deep bass similarly to the ety. I also heard a large 6.5k peak in the Noble. It was large enough to affect timbre and be an annoyance. The ER-4S was much smoother overall.
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