SOUND
The TOTL category is filled with lots of monitors nowadays, so the competition is tight. Where does the InEarz Nirvana stand? Well, it stands in the timbre and tonality side of things, as well as the meaty, dark and bold presentation side. To me it resembles the original Noble K10 and Spiral Ear SE-5 Ref, as well as my old JH Audio Angie, in terms of dark tonality and non-aggressive, romantic character.
The InEarz Nirvana is a coherent, very controlled and consistent monitor with its sound and it has impressive technicalities. While saying that, I also should add it’s not for everyone, like the K10 or Angie wasn’t back then. Some people would find it dark, a little bassy or too warm. For me it’s absolutely great, because I like my sound smooth and warm. But the lovers of an open and brighter sound signatures could find this one a little dark for their liking.
The InEarz Nirvana has 8 BA drivers per side. The configuration consists of 4 drivers for lows, 2 drivers for mids and 2 for highs. It has a 3-way integrated crossover with 3 bores which carry the sound to your ears.
BASS
The lows of InEarz Nirvana have a midbass focus and good enough subbass presence, which gives the monitor a good body and a filling sound signature. The bass surely is very complete sounding and nothing is missing. Thus, you get a meaty presentation overall and that’s a good trait if you prefer to have that kind of sound. Furthermore, the midbass focus does not hurt the overall sound since it has a great control.
InEarz Nirvana
The slam and rumble is very good for a balanced armature monitor. It’s not a surprise for me, because 4 drivers out of 8 are dedicated to the bass region alone. If you love the BA bass, you’ll like the Nirvana in that perspective. It hits good and recovers nicely and the decay is controlled. The InEarz Nirvana is not a bass-head monitor to say the least, but it definitely has very strong and authoritative lows when asked.
The extension and deepness of the lows is also impressive for a BA monitor. It still doesn’t reach as deep as the dynamic hybrids nor has it great subbass presence, but that’s not unexpected and totally understandable. Like I said, if you’re used to have the BA bass filling your ears, the InEarz Nirvana will give you one of the best bass performances. It’s like the Spiral SE-5 Ref as much as I can remember. Bold, big and significant. Finding this kind of authoritative bass with multi-BA monitors is not usual.
MIDS
The mids are dark in tonality, and romantic in presentation. Also, they’re a little bit behind in the sound stage but not too distant to give a v-shaped monitor feeling. Therefore you don’t get an in your face mid reproduction here, instead they stay in a realistic distance and a little veiled tone. Where the Nirvana excels is the tonality and timbre. You can find it dark and veiled in terms of mids, but the tonality is sweet and actually very correct when compared to many monitors.
The timbre of instruments is very natural and non-aggressive. They also have a good definition and especially guitars sound very nice, thanks to the good overall body and natural tone. But again, if you’re a fan of open and bright mid character, than it’s not the perfect monitor for your liking. If you have a smooth and dark taste though, than this is your type of CIEM. I wouldn’t mind a little more openness and a touch closer vocals but it’s still very good as it is. And most importantly, it’s very natural.
InEarz Nirvana
TREBLE
I find the highs of the Nirvana to be very very good and articulated. The character of the mids discussed above isn’t totally the case here for the treble. Highs are resolving and a little more open when compared to the mids, but again the positioning is very realistic. The extension of the treble is absolutely nice to hear, and they definitely can reach up top like most high level monitors. In this very region, I found some resemblances to the JH Angie.
One of the best things with the Nirvana is the non-aggressive trait. Treble is never hot or too sparkling and you can always enjoy the relaxed approach. And despite that, it has a good resolution and articulation with the treble, as well as very good extension. In my book, this makes a monitor a high level one. It should give you a great resolution and good extension in treble but not edgy or hot sounding in any way. The InEarz Nirvana achieves just that, it sounds so natural and effortless in terms of highs, just like the mids.
Go to PAGE 3 for technical comments, sources, cables & conclusion
