Several Audiophiles would argue that the Harman target is the one and only target to adhere to. It contains a tasteful bass boost to emphasise that Meghan Trainor bass weight. A magical midrange with a strategic boost in the ear gain region that translates to excellent clarity. Ending with a sparkling and exciting treble extension that would bring shame to champagne bubbles.
To be honest, that all just sounds like a clever cover scheme to say it is V-shaped to me.
Table of contents
Open Table of contents
Accessories, Build, Comfort & Design
As per usual with the Truthear brand, you get a colourful box with some anime styled art displayed. Inside you will find the IEM’s alongside a nice selection of tips, a little pouch and a 3.5mm terminated fabric cable.
Other than the standard silicone and foam tips. This is the first time I have encountered an IEM that comes with dual flanged ones. As per my default choice, the M-sized silicone tips, seemed to give me a great fit. I didn’t bother trying these dual flanged variants out. But it is a welcome surprise to see tips for people who feel experimental. The pouch is quite nice and compact. It fits the IEM with the cable and is very pocketable, great.
The cable however, has got to be total let down. While it looks and feels nice with the blue and black braids. The choice of fabric ruins the pretty looks with it’s extremely microphonic nature. Every bit of contact with any surface is audible when wearing it and can be quite distracting at times.
The IEM itself is quite nice though. A very slightly contoured resin shell with a very pretty blue faceplate patterned like a butterfly who has joined the blue man group. The shell is lightweight and fits very well into my ear. The structure leading up to the nozzle is shaped nicely too allowing for a moderate range of insertion depths. Absolutely no complaints from me.
Sound
Below is the Truthear Nova with the M-size silicone tips measured on a clone IEC 60318-4 coupler without a pinna. The displayed measurement is of the L/R averages of different insertion depths per side. Diffuse Field-compensated using the Headphones.com IEM Diffuse Field HRTF, as well as a raw visualization with a 90% inclusion zone.
I’d like to display an extra raw measurement compared to the Harman IE 2019v2 Target.
Bass reads and sounds very sub-focused. It has some thump to it, but due to the shape of the bass shelf, there isn’t a great balance with the mid-bass. The physicality is sorely lacking as a result. Drums don’t carry the same natural weight, and the bass itself sounds, unsurprisingly, lean and thin.
The midrange, following the Harman target, has a big scoop taken out of the lower region while the upper range is emphasized. Male vocals are put in the background, and female vocals are so separated from the rest of the music, it’s almost as if Moses passed through it. The result is a midrange lacking body and sounds hollow. This also affects the bass, as a lot of the early bass harmonics and texture live in this lower midrange region.
While I did notice a little too much ear gain, this is somewhat masked by the forward nature of the 1-2 kHz region. While the tuning following the lower midrange leans bright, I must say there isn’t much harshness or sibilant, sharp tendencies that I would typically experience with V-shaped tunings. While the lower treble is a little too hot for my liking, being followed up by a lot of mid treble again masks some otherwise problematic issues I would have.
Don’t get me wrong here, the issues of harshness and sibilance are present, but not of a scale that I would have expected when reading the graph. The mid treble rise rolls off just around the region where you would get the most sibilance problems for me. While “rolled off” is not at all what I would describe this treble presentation, it does lower back down in the upper treble. This balance of a small rise in the lower region, big emphasis in the mid treble and a recession in the upper section, sounds quite “whooshy”. The typical benefit of clarity is seemingly not present to me in this set.
Conclusion
So while I have many issues with the Harman target. You have to acknowledge the fact that the Truthear Nova manages to nail it’s intended presentation. I’d like to state that there are no actual treble spikes other than the natural resonances that can occur. This allows for easy adjustments towards personal preference with EQ.
Do yourself a favor by swapping out the cable and you have a pretty nice set in your hands. In it’s stock configuration, the Nova looks and feels promising but kind of sucks. It really has value when customizing it to what you personally like. If you ever find it on sale. It is definitely worth the consideration of buying one.
Score
Bass: 3 Mids: 2.5 Treble: 3
2.8/10