Jon Peddie Research - a technically oriented marketing, research, and management consulting firm in the graphics industry.

The Specialist Headphone from Nox Audi

Posted by Kathleen Maher on June 23rd 2010 | Comments Closed
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: gaming games audio audiophile sound headphones

While strolling the aisles of E3, we ran across some compact headsets from Nox Audio. The new design includes an integrated 4 mm omni­directional microphone slickly tucked by the left ear pad. It rolls out when needed and rolls back up discreetly to avoid the geek factor that gamers might as well give up worrying about because they’re a lost cause. The other side has a similar knob that turns up the volume. The earphones don’t have noise cancellation but they do employ noise reduction strategies in the construction of the headphones—meaning that they’re designed to block sound. The earphones work well with phones—cutting off the tunes when a call comes in, and resuming when the call is ended. The same idea works for telephoning over IP, gaming, etc.

Designed primarily for gaming, the Specialist is compatible with the Xbox 360, PS3, as well as PCs. It also works with handheld gaming systems, iPods and iPhones. The headphones are available with an optional Optical gaming adaptor.

How does it sound? Really, surprisingly great. The sound quality is “brilliant,” with good depth and bass. I have become so conditioned to expect noise cancellation and large pads that I wasn’t sure what I’d be getting with these headphones, but the Specialist is comfortable and I get really good sound through them. The company says they use custom 26mm Mylar drivers for the headphones. On calls and gaming, voices come through perfectly. On a voice over IP call, the Nox voice quality was described as slightly clipped but good.

The headphones have style, at least if you go for the ones that add a little color to the wheels on either headphone. They come in red, blue, and green. Black is available for people who are looking for a more discreet profile.

The company’s spec sheet puts the headphones’ noise reduction capability at 6 dB @ 1 kHz. Not huge but I’m realizing that I really do not like the noise cancellation effect of the slight hiss and I do believe I hear some sound distortion as active noise cancellation ear phones decide what I want to hear or not. Frequency response comes in at 20 Hz to 20 kHz, sensitivity at 104 dBSPL @ 1 kHz, THD: <0.5% @1 kHz, <2% from 40 Hz to 20 kHz, input impedance at 32 ohms.

Where these babies get a lot of points from me is the fact that they’re lightweight, very comfortable, they work very well with the phone. I appreciate audio control—not enough mid-range ear phones include them. And most of all, they fold up and are easy to pack. These are all the right plusses for me. The people at Nox Audio are low key, they let their headphones do the talking. It’s not a bad strategy, I came to these ‘phones expecting little and they are now my favorite, and official headphones for office and travel. (I’ll let you know how they perform on the plane in an update.)

The Specialist’s retail price is $79.95 and the company is selling them now through online retailers and Amazon.