TimeEar NH60 Earbuds Review – Road Of Callisto
TimeEar NH60 is a $169 USD pair of earbuds, the style that do not go inside of your ears, with a titanium alloy casing and a dynamic driver at the core. Today we will review the NH 60 and explore how they fit my ears.
Introduction
TimeEar is just entering the audio world, but with a good performance from BTE-9, I am expecting to see something interesting in their NH60, although I can say from the start that earbuds do not work well for my ears usually.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://link.amazon/B035a6yla
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3xRp4sr
Build Quality – Design
TimeEar NH60 is a product with a short product page and to find the details you have to click on the product photos on their product page. You will learn that the shell is made of Titanium Alloy, that the diaphragm is a magnetron sputtered niobium alloy ceramic diaphragm driver and that they have a high 60 OHM impedance, and use a 4-Strand 5N OCC Silver-Plated cable.
The driver at the core has a large 14.2mm short-strike speaker design, so it will move fast but not move much, and the voice coil is made of copper and it is 27um in size. Although the cables are not detachable, they do have a detachable jack plug, and NH60 comes with both a balanced and a SE jack.
Subjective Usage
Even compared to other earbuds, NH 60 are some of the larger buds in the entire world, having a 15.5mm outer diameter, the one that goes into your ear, and a 26.2 earbuds weight, feeling hefty. This makes the buds best for large ears where you anatomically have enough support for them.
For me they are too large and I am able to review the NH60 by holding them with my hands, as they will immediately fall out of my ears. This happens to me regardless of what sponge covers I use and I generally do not get along with earbuds. This means that I am unable to judge the passive noise isolation, if there would be any, but I can say that they leak quite a bit in my case, as you can clearly hear my music even if I am not blasting it very loud.
Sound Quality
Pairings – I have tested the NH60 with the latest sources I’ve been reviewing, including FiiO K17, iBasso DX320 MAX Ti, Hiby W4, HIDIZS AP80 PRO MAX, FiiO M33. Acer Nitro 18 AI Laptop (with 3.5mm adapters), Luxsin X9.
TimeEar made their first earbuds hard to drive, thanks to the somewhat high impedance, and they are not sensitive to noise source, being consistent across all sources. They always sound the same, but since they have a bright tuning, I recommend a bassy, smooth or colored source to give them the most balanced final presentation.
Overall Signature – TimeEar NH60 is a fairly bright and open sounding pair of earbuds that took me by surprise. While I generally expect earbuds to sound fairly warm and bassy, those sound really sharp, crisp and bright, with a wide soundstage yet a forward vocal range. They are by all means aggressive and not a smooth listening experience but are also interesting and lively. I would generally get them for a refresher, different tonality and different tuning than what most earbuds offer.
Dynamics And Textures – Due to the short-throw driver the dynamic range is a bit on the compressed side, they do not resolve a high dynamic range and instead will sound fast, sharp and crisp, the driver moving too fast to really render space between instruments or differences in amplitude between different parts of the song. Textures are very sharp and crisp, edging on sounding a bit coarse and grainy. This is quite unusual for an earbud, as most of them tend to be bloomy, with a strong bleed of the bass into the midrange and quite thick sounding. TimeEar tuned the NH60 to be exactly the other thing, sharp, crisp and fast. If you have a boomy, bassy, or smooth sounding source, you will balance their tuning a bit, but they will still be far from sounding warm or bassy.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Despite the short-throw design of the dynamic driver, NH 60 can produce a high loudness and will not distort easily. For an experiment, you can actually play music at around 100 to 120 dB and leave the earbuds on the table, a situation in which they will act like mini speakers, similar to a smartphone speaker. They are really good for loud playback, but due to the particular tuning they have, I would generally recommend the NH60 for listening to musical and easygoing tracks, as they are too aggressive for rock and metal.
Value – Conclusion
As with most earbuds, I keep trying to make reviews, but as they do not stay in my ears, my review should be read as a warning too, the price is not high for the kind of sound they produce, but you have to know that this type of earphone works for you. I would test a couple of earbuds as I found that those who get good comfort with one earbud will generally get a good comfort with most buds. For this price point, the company should most definitely include a transport case, and maybe some hooks that could keep them in place.
At the end of the day, most earbuds are similar, and TimeEar NH60 is different, they sound bright, sharp and well-defined, have a really nice shell and modular cables, so they offer many unique characteristics being a good choice if you’re looking for a bright – neutral sounding pair of earbuds with a high resolution.
PROs
- Detailed, crisp and sharp sound with excellent resolution
- Short-throw driver that is fast and revealing
- Good cable with modular jack connectors
- Neutral tuning that is different from all the earbuds out there
- Open sound that can create a huge soundstage
Cons
- There is no transport case included with NH60
- They will not sit in my ears for one second without falling, very large and heavy shells
Product Link
Amazon – https://link.amazon/B035a6yla
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3xRp4sr
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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