Link: https://radioparadise.com/player

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Jürgen has already written a thorough review of the NiceHCK Bro, which you find HERE.

By Loomis T. Johnson

Senfer UEs/NiceHCK Bro—very refined quintessential ChiFi knockoff gets surprisingly close to the exponentially more expensive mainstream IEMs they imitate. Nicely built, easy to drive and ergonomic, with good isolation; I prefer their sleek fit and stock cable to that on the (real) UE900s. Like the UE900s, the UEs is balanced, with more prominent mids than the usual V-shaped fare. Some subbass is palpable, if not especially punchy or deep (these are not optimal for EDM or metal); midbass lacks some body but is well-controlled and sculpted. Mids, as stated, are forward and clean, while treble is sparkly, slightly bright and reasonably detailed (prone to very slight sibilance or splashiness at the extremes); note texture is comparatively lean overall. Soundstage has good width and height; imaging is particularly good; the position of each performer is very accurate and unlike many of these DIY hybrids, driver coherence is seamless. Compared to the UE900s, the UEs has a more adrenalized quality and is brighter and less resolving, particularly at the high-end, though the difference is not nearly as large as the price would suggest. Scary good value.

By Jürgen Kraus

After a couple of years with 3 to 6 BA driver-earphones, I have come back to treasure single DDs because of their natural timbre. These Senfers also have a very natural timbre but, to my surprise, feature 1 DD + 1 BA. When I put these into my ears after a long time, they first sounded somewhat flat and analog. But once my ears got used to their timbre, these simpletons just killed it. Have yet to find any in my large iem selection that reproduce voices and instruments as naturally as this earphone (or the NiceHCK Bro). A cello really sounded like a cello and the Queen of the Night out of Mozart’s Zauberflöte was standing right in my room – scary. Sure, the multi-drivers are technically more competent, e.g. they resolve better, but they cannot reproduce these instruments as authentically as this cheapo. Strangely enough, that enormous bass as shown in the frequency response does not appear huge at all to my ears, because it is focused and controlled, and extends like this into the sub-bass.

Compared to the newer $20 Knowledge Zenith models, the Senfer/Bro does not have these fatiguing 2-4 kHz peaks. Vocals sound therefore less accentuated and thinner but also less intrusive and more natural — the much more detailed and refined sounding ZSN becomes quickly fatiguing to me.

Loomis – with a grain of salt – tends to compare these to the $399 4 BA UE900s [errr…compare the names] in terms of detail resolution — whereas the UE900s wins on the bass focus. I want to add that the Senfer UEs has a much more natural timbre.

Paradoxically, the Senfer UEs/NiceHCK Bro come in a shape that appears to have become one of the standards in the ever expanding $100 to $200 Chifi category. The fact that this model has found mainly friends in poor, cheap, old, and grumpy people shows how hype does not affect…poor, cheap, old, and grumpy people.

To me, the Senfer UEs/NiceHCK have stood the test of time and will always remain a favourite.

Keep on listening!

EPILOGUE

Recommending these little Senfer rascals to a fellow Head-Fier got me banned from some functionality there forever (I was reported to admins by some creep of known identity). I purchased these about two years ago for $17 — but saw them lately for around $13 (in the NiceHCK Bro version).

Head-Fi continue to claim that Senfer is associated with Wooeasy/Yinyoo/Easy Earphones without presenting evidence — and they lash out against people mentioning Senfer. Wooeasy/Yinyoo/Easy Earphones are banned from Head-Fi for allegedly having rigged product reviews. Fact is that Senfer is Senfer is Senfer, an entirely independent company and unrelated to the aforementioned. Head-Fi have the house right, but they don’t have the right to manufacture and spread falsehoods, which constitutes libel. I appeal to Head-Fi’s basic decency and fairness to test their claims. As to rigging reviews: there are no sharp boundaries between real, sugarcoating, and fake. Some Head-Fi-tolerated “reviewers” are suspiciously closely associated with certain companies (some of which sponsor Head-Fi) while never or hardly ever finding any flaws on those companies’ products…in contrast to some independent external (only) reviewers. 

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