NiceHCK Tears. Tear-ific or Tear-astrophy?

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Received NiceHCK Fall and Tears as well as 10th Anniversary Year of the Horse earbuds sent by Moca. I will only be reviewing Tears in this blog. 

Disclaimer: Everything written here is my own honest, purely subjective opinion fueled by nothing but genuine enthusiasm for the hobby. No bias just one egg's unfiltered take. I'm not an expert, just a girl who's still in her shell trying to crack this hobby open. Take it with a grain of salt. 

NiceHCK was established in 2015, focusing on cost efficiency while being performative. Aside from iem, they are also known for their iem cable manufacturing. NiceHCK focuses on research and development strategy with having to develop their own product and designs for further improvements.

The Package:

NiceHCK Tears

• Tears IEM (black and red)
• Earphone Cable Type C
• Earphone Bag
• NiceHCK 07 Eartips
• Instruction Manual
• Certificate of Conformity
• 

The Others:

Nicehck Fall

• Gold plated OFC 0.78mm 2pin 4.4mm Plug

A very short insert for the NiceHCK Fall. I changed the Tears' stock cable to Fall after finding this more fitting, giving better sound quality for the audio review. 

This is the first cable upgrade I have. I mostly use the stock cable. Coming from Type C stock cable to 4.4mm improved how the sound is processed. With that being said without doing any EQ. This cable is 18.6AWG per cable. Total size of this 4-core, dual-layer coaxial design, 2 pin 0.78mm has about 3mm in total body diameter. 

The cable is a bit stiff. It tends to wind to its original position due to cable memory. I tried using Tears and Fall together for a walk. A little movement like walking can make the Tears fall particularly on the left side. I do not mind the weight when Im steady. 

​The Goods:

NiceHCK Tears is very easy to drive single 10mm dynamic driver. It comes in 2 colors, white – gold and black – red combination. I chose the black – red combination because it reminds me of Darth Vader, Im pretty much a fan. The design is very plain and straight forward made from ABS plastic, weighing about 4 grams per piece. You will also see 3 open vents on this iem which indicates that this iem is a semi open vent. NiceHCK designed the internal part to allow airflow, “Acoustic Labyrinth” as they called it. They include a pretty light cable and a bit thin on the ear hook. Kind of flimsy but mostly proportionate with the NiceHCK Tears. Lastly, the NiceHCK 07 eartips are a nice addition in the accessories. They include all the sizes which with different colors according to its size. Lastly, in the box also includes a magnetic pouch, very useful to carry around.

The accessory inclusion is mid-Tear

The Comfort:

Comfort level, where in I can use this for the whole duration that I’m awake. They are ultra-light. I think this is the lightest I’ve used and tried so far. At some point I was longing for a bit of weight, like the metal shells.

Overall comfort is Tear-ific

The Sound:
NiceHCK Tears is a musical iem. With most of budget tier iem I’ve tried, not the most detailed but one of the enjoyable that I’ve tried. I do find it a bit bright especially with the type C stock cable without doing EQ. I skipped this and change the cable to NiceHCK Fall. (This is for another review).

Photo is from NiceHCK

Sound Signatures:

The Bass
When listening to some rap and some pop, you will be able to slightly feel the punch. What I notice is the sub bass has a fast decay, missing the intensity and lingering of rumble, leaving the punch in tears. It’s a bit tight on Eminem’s Godzilla. This phenomenon might be due to the iem being semi open from the 3 visible vents. I do still enjoy the rap music from Kendrick Lamar. Ethnical drums where it sounds Tear-ific. That sharp immediate transient when the drum is struck gives the ethnic percussion a physical presence.

The Vocals

Vocals might be the bane of this iem. I notice the vocals are recessed on NiceHCK Tears while browsing through my playlist. Female vocals is barely heard on Green Tea & Honey by Dane Amar, Jereena Montemayor. The overpowering of the instruments are also noticeable on Soft Spot by Keshi. It’s a bit of a tear-astrophy, making this iem fit for a more instrumental genre.

..and The Treble
For a $30 iem, it delivers smooth overall sounding treble. What I like about this is the absence of harshness, further enjoying the music. It can handle sibilance well for longer listening. The tambourine at the opening of the track felt quite dull, lacking grit that should be the one doing the hype to introduce the song. It did lack the sparkly features on some song and is leaning towards safely tuned. Tear-ific treble.

The Separation and Imaging:

I love Yoshi Horikawa and I believe the music he created can test the imaging and separation of NiceHCK Tears so I mostly use this to indulge myself with the whole instrumental experience.

Fluid, Bubble and Wandering by Yoshi Horikawa worked really well and you can really hear the instrumental elements and placements clearly. Now it came to Bump, it feels a bit cluttered, like having every instrument trying to catch your attention. I felt that the NiceHCK Tears starts to bottleneck trying to squeeze their way out of the nozzle which made some instruments bleed into each other.

Imaging is mostly from left to right. It covers a wide area like you need to stretch your arms on the sides in order to grab both ends, which reminds me of Toby Maguire’s popular train scene. Maybe an over exaggerated but it is more than what I expect from at $30 iem. However, I feel like it has shallow depths and thin peaks. To summarize the imaging, it is very wide but lacks the weight and grip

The Verdict:

Nicehck Tears is very easy to drive. I haven’t tried a lot of open vent iem but for its price, I’d say not bad for a $30 iem. The stock cable could be better and improved. I can say that I do enjoy the experience with this iem. Nothing serious. Just fun listening. This iem is not the most detailed, critical listening tool, but give a good musical sounding experience especially instrumental and lower male vocals. Some music may come in intimate, especially with music with heavy bass and bassheads may want more, which Nicehck Tears do not provide. I experience bass disappearing fast instead of a follow through.

I find this to be smooth bright and v shape leaning. At first, I had a difficulty with how it brightens the tracks so much. After 8 hours or burn in, the sound that I was looking for showed. Note that this is the first time I did burn in an iem and I usually listen to it out of the box.

Nicehck Tears works really well with ethnic musical instruments, hand drums, mouth harps, something that sounds quirky but natural. With EDM/Dubstep music, I find Nicehck Tears makes me cry a river. Not the best set for these.

I was able to track down a music that is clearly seemed to be recorded backwards. The song is Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. It’s supposed to be a fun song but intro from the tambourine is missing and the 2^nd voice where you can hear the “yes” being said twice is heavier and more forward than the main vocals. Underwhelming melody.

The Tracks:

• Beautiful Things – Benson
• Circles – Postmalone
• If I Was With You – Presley Regier – bass bleeding a bit to vocals
• This Side of Paradise – Coyote Theory
• Gedankenfrelheit – Edgar knecht
• Oj Devojce Pirocance – Nenad Vasilic
• Fluid – Yosi Horikawa
• Bubble – Yosi Horikawa
• Wandering – Yosi Horikawa
• Bump – Yosi Horikawa
• Not A Memory – Maxine Louise
• Godzilla – Eminem
• Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter
• Green Tea & Honey - Dane Amar, Jereena Montemayor
• Soft Spot - Keshi

The Gears:

• Fiio M21

The Price:
Range $30