NiceHCK DB3 Review — Everyone’s A Winner, Baby

Pros — Appealing sound image and speed; decent balance; decent midrange; nothing annoying.

Cons — Bass slightly boomy; repetitive design.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The NiceHCK DB3 is a well-priced 2+1 budget earphone with a “fun” tuning that justifies this attribute: V-shaped with good dynamics and no fatiguing upper end.

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes, this happens: you take a pair of iems out of the box, plug them in, and you instantly like them. There is something about the image that hits you even before you start your analytical listening procedure. The NiceHCK DB3 is such a rare case. Was I ever surprised by this KZ in disguise, I had not expected much. The first impression was a bass tuning that covered up a bit of the lower midrange, but this didn’t really matter in the big picture. Gone was the piercing upper midrange so typical for cheap Chi-Fi. The result was an appealing “fun” tuned image with quite a good depth and a natural punch. I was packing my suitcase for a 17 hr trip to Rio de Janeiro at the time and spontaneously decided to take it as one of my inflight iems (the other one was the BQEYZ Spring 1).

SPECIFICATIONS

PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY

Let’s go a step back. This is a $20 earphone and cable and tip selection are in line with this pricing. Luckily, the NiceHCK DB3 work right out of the box. The cable is stiff but ok and the largest tips did the job for me. I also tried the SpinFit CP145 and the JVC Spiral dots (both would be somewhat cost prohibitive with a budget earphone at $5-6 per pair) and the Tennmak Whirlwind. While there were nuanced differences, I went with the stock tips in the end. As source, I used the iPhone SE, and it drove the NiceHCK DB3 well. Not much juice needed. The combination of $100+ amp and a $20 earphone would be somewhat pointless.

The fit was like the other KZs…pardon…earphones of this shape, it was fine. Isolution was good for me, as always, mileage may vary with tips used and with ear canal; shape. I do admit I like the silver faceplates, however the overall shape is repetitive and therefore unimaginative.

TONALITY AND TECHNICALITIES

My tonal preference and testing practice

V-shaped, what did you expect? The bass is prominent with decent speed, but it can be boomy. Extension is very good but the signal gets fuzzier towards the bottom end. Well, the mids are a bit recessed and could have more weight as always in this price category, but the overall balance of this earphone is pretty good. The density of vocals, male and female, are surprisingly good and more than acceptable. This is mainly achieved by a modestly dosed upper midrange that does NOT überenergize the vocals/midrange. The bass is bleeding into the mids at the cost of clarity clarity but this strengthens the deeper vocals. Music without much bass is much cleaner than bassy tracks. Treble is sparsely dosed and slightly rolled off: the tuner had recognized the danger of BAs drilling eardrums – finally. Overall, the NiceHCK DB3 has a decent tonal balance.

To the technicalities. Timbre is surprisingly accurate. Stage is not the widest, but especially in comparison to single dynamic drivers in this class, it has good height and depth. In terms of refinement, the DB3 can also not compete with the $50-100 class, but it can in terms of fun and enjoyment. At complex instrumentations, definition is getting somewhat wonky. All this does not take away from the enjoyment of the NiceHCK DB3.

You find an INDEX of all our earphone reviews HERE.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The NiceHCK DB3 is a crowdpleaser: it does nothing terribly wrong, much at least ok, and some really good. I quite enjoyed it on my trip to Rio de Janeiro and never had the perception that this was a cheap earphone. I therefore assign good value for money to it.

Keep on listening!

DISCLAIMER

I was solicited by NiceHCK and thank Jim for the review unit. You get the NiceHCK DB3 HERE.