Intro
Truthear has been on an absolute tear this year. The Hexa, both flavors of the Zero (blue & red), and the Hola, have all been widely received as very good in their own ways and price points – heck, I’ve reviewed almost all of them.
With such previous hits, Truthear’s last release of 2023 has a lot to live up to. The expectations have been set very high already, and the Nova will have to live up to them or face being a dud in the otherwise stellar Truthear’s line-up. Plus, the Nova’s frequency response graph is almost a dead ringer to the very highly regarded Moondrop Blessing 2: Dusk.
A lot is riding on Truthear with this release. Is it a colossal failure or a great success? Read on to find out.
Tech Specs
Driver Configuration: 1DD + 4BA
Sensitivity: 123db/vrms@1kHz
Impedance: 14.8Ω
Frequency Response: 8 – 40 KHz
Connector: .078mm 2 pin
Price: $150
What’s in the Box?
Surprisingly, Truthear ditched the usual sets of eartips, cable, and pouch for an all new line-up! This is a welcomed change as I usually swapped out the cables, eartips, and never used the pouch.
The eartips are mostly new; however the Nova comes with 3 pairs (SML) of what used to be their small bore tips, but in dark gray this time. One pair of foam tips is also included, as well as two sizes of dual flange eartips. I really appreciate the wide assortment and variety that they included.
The cable is all-new and is quite handsome without being overly flashy. It’s a blue and black twisted color scheme (which matches the IEMs by the way), and is wrapped in fabric. Despite my hesitancy with fabric wrapped cables, it’s a great cable and looks very nice. My only complaint here is that the fabric does make it stick to itself a little bit and can be prone to tangling – but this is a fairly minor thing.
The case looks really high quality and helps raise the feeling that the Nova is a premium product. It’s a durable black plastic-like outside with a chrome zipper and mini-carabiner at the top. I’m not sure that I’ll really use it a whole lot, but it looks impressive.
The Nova themselves are built like typical Truthears IEMs in beautifully 3D printed resin. There’s not a hint of a sharp edge in sight and they look semi-custom. The blue design on the faceplate is absolutely gorgeous, but at the same time fairly subtle and not over the top.
Fit, Comfort, & Isolation
Even though the Nova’s size is a little on the hefty side, they’re pretty lightweight, and I found the comfort to be very good. Those with smaller outer ears might have problems with the Nova though. They’re among the chonkiest of IEMs that I’ve reviewed so far. Even though the Nova has four vents, the isolation is very good.
Sound
Overall
The overall sound is very similar to the Harman target…but don’t stop reading here if you don’t like that signature! There is hope.
The Nova has a neutral style of tuning, with a boost in the sub bass and in the lower and mid treble areas (aka: Harman).
However, to my ears, narrow bore ear tips seem to scoop out the mid bass, leaving it hollow, and over emphasize the lower and mid treble making it quite spicy up-top. Just like the Quintet, a wide-bore eartip like the Tangzu Tang Sancai wide bore or the Spinfit Omni help modify that Harman-style sound into something more refined. With these tips, bass is smoothed out a bit, with the sub bass emphasis getting lowered a tiny bit and mid bass coming back into play, in a neutral, but fun way. The lower and mid treble gets smoothed out a bit as well. All of these are welcome changes from the narrow bore eartips. However, we’re only talking +/- 2-4db, but it really makes a difference in the overall tuning.
Bass
The first word that comes to mind when describing the bass is clean, clean, clean. While the bulk is in the sub bass, the mid bass isn’t wimpy or being overshadowed either. Because there is a “scoop” in the upper bass, the sub and mid bass become slightly more emphasized. However, this also has an effect on the punchiness that dynamic driver bass can have, resulting in the Nova not being overly thumpy or punchy as a typical bass-head would like. I find the thump to be perfectly natural and realistic though.
The bass is pretty quick, well textured, and has a natural decay. Bass drums and bass guitar sound great and are incredibly natural in timbre. While the Nova’s bass isn’t going to compete with other higher end IEMs in terms of technicalities, it certainly performs better than what the price would indicate.
Mids
Here is where the Nova really shines. With the slightly scooped out upper bass and lower mid range, the pinna area stands out in a good way and vocals and instruments in this area are front and center. They are very transparent, quick, and resolving, just as you would expect from balanced armature drivers. They don’t suffer from weird “balanced armature timbre” that cheaper drivers can have. Because of the scoop lower in the frequency range, higher pitched male vocals can feel a little on the thin side at times. Again, with the right eartips, the mid range is really beautiful and vocals stand out.
Treble
The lower treble is a little boosted from what I would normally prefer, although large bore eartips really help tame this region. I found that all of my test tracks that are sibilant-prone did exceptionally well with the Nova, in spite of this extra boost in the 5-8kHz region (the eartips did some heavy lifting here). The Nova has a great balance of extension/air while being easy to listen to and smooth in the upper treble. Every once in a while, cymbals can sound a touch thin, but that’s a small quibble. Just like the mid range, the treble doesn’t suffer from balanced armature timbre. The treble here is the perfect balance of detail, speed, and smoothness, helping encourage long listening sessions.
Technicalities
Just like its little brother Hexa, the Nova has superb instrument separation, and instruments all have their own unique space. While the stage isn’t the biggest out there, I find the instrument separation truly addicting and it really helps make the Nova stand out in this price range.
While the Nova isn’t a detail monster like the Kiwi Ears Quintet or any of the planar driver IEMs of the moment, it finds the equilibrium of detail retrieval and smooth listenability.
All of these technicalities help make the Nova stand out in a crowded price bracket and even punch into higher price tiers. This is exactly what I was expecting from the Nova since the Hexa forged the road before it.
Conclusion / Mini Rant
While many reviewers naysaid the Nova before even listening to it because of the Harman-like tuning, it stands out in a sea of Harman-tuned clones. It took everything that was great with the Hexa, added some bass, increased the resolution, and made the technicalities even better. There are few, if any in this price range that are this enjoyable to listen to.
If the Nova is anything like the Moondrop Blessing 2: Dusk, the Harman haters have completely missed out on an incredible IEM at less than half of the Dusk’s asking price. A few short years ago, the Dusk was the be-all end-all, and broke the boundaries for the price range. Truthear took the Nova, slashed the Dusk’s price, and gave us something incredible.
Is the Nova the perfect IEM? No, it has some very small flaws, but those haven’t stopped me from enjoying it a whole heck of a lot. When I don’t want to listen to the detailed beast of the Quintet, I pick up the Nova and have a great and long listening session.
It goes to show, you can’t judge an IEM by its frequency response graph. While there are many other IEMs in this price range that have the same style of sound, the Truthear Nova does it better than most and is highly recommended.