NiceHCK EB2S Review – Grown Ups
Pros — Mature sound, good imaging and staging, organic timbre, good technicalities; sturdy metal build.
Cons — The usual earbud disease: lack of slam and depth; fixed cable.
In this Article
Executive Summary
The NiceHCK EB2S is a metal-built warm-neutral sounding earbud with an organic timbre and great vocals reproduction that still lacks the bass slam and extension of iems or more expensive earbuds.
Introduction
NiceHCK have been known to the community for their quality earphone cables and their budget earbuds. Unfortunately, earbuds and I don’t harmonize very well as my ears somewhat resonate sound, which frequently results in non-existing upper midrange peaks (in my perception) and fatigue. This is luckily not the case with the EB2S.
I have reviewed the original NiceHCK EB2 in my early days (2018), and they beat my Sennheiser MX 560…after all, Sennheiser invented earbuds. And although I don’t like earbuds, the original EB2 were good enough to keep as reference.
Spoiler alert: the EB2S are a substantial upgrade over the EB2, they are enjoyable to listen to, and they provide good value. And I am really glad that they are good considering I had ripped apart the last three reviews units sent to me by NiceHCK. There is always hope.
Specifications
| Drivers: 15.8 mm dynamic |
| Impedance: 32 Ω |
| Sensitivity: 112 dB/mW |
| Frequency Range: 20 – 25,000 Hz |
| Cable/Connector: high-purity oxygen-free copper, fixed |
| Tested at: $27.99 |
| Purchase Linkproduct page: NiceHCK Audio Store |
Physical Things and Usability
In the box are the buds, a velvety storage back, several foams, and the paperwork. I have to say that I am not too keen on anime girls on the box aiming to increase sales. Earphones are earphones, and anime is anime.
The earpieces are made of metal and have a great haptic. The fixed high-purity oxygen-free fixed cable is somewhat standard and has average jewelry appeal for this class.
The earpieces have standard fit and comfort, and the usual lack of isolation.
Tonality and Technicalities
Equipment used: Sony NW-A55 ; stock foams.
The EBS2’s is a very pleasant sonic surprise. Typically, cheap earbuds sound thin and tinny, the EBS2 does not. It has some nice tone colour with a natural timbre. Sure, it does not have the depth and slam of expensive buds but it is by itself competent enough to be enjoyed by me.
Star is vocals rendering: voices are intimate, well resolving, they have decent weight (for an earbud), and are rather natural. Notes are well rounded – transients are as they should be. Midrange is overall very clean and clear.
Bass extension is the problem child, as in most earbuds. The EB2S digs somewhat down, much better than any other sub-$30 I have tested, but not as deep as any given iem. Nevertheless is there some sub-bass. Bass itself has good quality slam which lacks in quantity. In summary, the low end is rather light (hence the intimate vocals) but well layered and well composed.
Treble is well extended and surprisingly well resolving. Nothing strident up there. Interestingly, high notes are pretty forward.
This lightness of the low end results in a relatively shallow stage that has a good width nevertheless. Spatial cues is very good and so are instrument separation and layering.
All ok but I still miss the hard punch of an iem. For me, such signature is more for mellow moods.
The EB2S is superior over the original NiceHCK EB2 in essentially all aspects: soundstage, imaging, resolution, clarity…at a similar tonal temperature. It is more refined and mature at a similar price.
It also beats my previous budget earbud reference, a DIY by the late Head-Fier HungryPanda, in terms of staging and it smokes the VE Monk Go and similar $5-10 cruelties in a pipe.
The EB2S’ microphone works well for phone calls. You find a sound sample behind this spoiler.
Concluding Remarks
The NicHCK EB2S is a polite but mature sounding earbud for relaxed listening. It is a substantial upgrade over the original EB2. Considering the good quality of its inline microphone and the rather weak isolation, it is great for use in situations where you cannot completely disconnect from your ambient background whilst having to answer phone calls.
Until next time…keep on listening!
Disclaimer
The EB2S was provided by NiceHCK and I thank them for that.
Get it from NiceHCK Audio Store
Our generic standard disclaimer.
You find an INDEX of our most relevant technical articles HERE.
Your comments on the reviews are very helpful and i find that your priorities are more or less same with me, the timbre is the most important thing in an audio gear 🙂 I’m very happy to know you and your reviews. Thanks for your great work, cheers.
Hello Jürgen Kraus nice review as always, I’ve read through almost all of your reviews on here and mostly agree with all of them. I bought the NiceHCK EB2S (black no mic version) almost three months ago and been using it for sometime, but not that much since my pair has a QC problem with it. I like the sturdy build materials and looks on the EB2S also the comfort and stable fit are excellent, the sound quality is good for 20-30€ with nice strong bass (for non In-ear earbuds) and good quality mids, though the treble is lacking in detail retrieval and the soundstage / imaging is not the best I’ve heard even compared to most other non In-ear earbuds.
The issue I have with my pair is that the left earbud is quieter than the right one even after swapping stereo channels the issue persists so it’s a physical problem with the left earbuds driver or cable somewhere. I can get around the issue though by using a program on windows PC that allows me to lower each channel volume dB seperatly (left, center, right, rear left, rear right, subwoofer etc.) so I can just match their volume approximately so they both sound as loud.
Still I’ve been lazy to not try and open up the earbuds / cable and fix it, also I didn’t bother trying to get a refund or send the EB2S back since I got it for around 18€ (lucky bag price) and sending anything back to china from my country is a huge pain and not worth the effort for that low amount of money.
Anyways the EB2S is a good product for its price and I know that one bad QC issue is not affecting the quality of the product generally, also NiceHCK makes many good earbuds and IEMs so I still like their products and brand even after getting a defective EB2S it’s not that big of a problem for me. Thanks again for your reviews and looking forward to reading more in the future!
Sorry to hear. You should nevertheless try and get a refund.