I first encountered the Swedish audio firm Nocs Design round 10 years in the past, when it launched a few trendy earbuds. I examined these—the titanium-bodied NS400 and the bass-forward NS600—and located each to be fairly nice, with very good sound, sharp aesthetics, and a superb in-ear match. Nocs went on to make some good DJ headphones and a set of desktop speakers, then the model form of disappeared.

More precisely, it mutated. The founder and lead designer, Daniel Alm, converted to designing some fancy watches that have been offered underneath the title Nocs Atelier. After some years within the drift, Alm and his staff are returning their consideration to audio. The first Nocs audio product in years is a pair of wi-fi earbuds referred to as the NS1100 Air.

So much has modified through the time Nocs has been absent from the portable audio market. The wi-fi revolution has upended every little thing. Now we’ve acquired AirPods and Pixel Buds and Beats and Galaxy Buds. We’ve acquired luxurious buds to match your Jaguar’s paint job, and sufficient low cost dross to fill the Hudson Bay. These Nocs had higher impress. Well, they do. The earbuds are snug to put on, simple to handle, and sound nice. They even have a cool, elegant design and—perhaps better of all—value lower than $130.

Air Supply

The Nocs NS1100 Air are a wirefree design, with a pair of buds that nestle right into a charging case that matches into your palm. Inside every bud is a 9.2-mm driver, a pair of mics for taking calls and for feeding each the lively noise-canceling (ANC) system that blocks exterior sounds and the transparency mode that pipes a bit of out of doors sound into your ears. They use Bluetooth 5.0, so their sign vary and stability are each exemplary. I by no means skilled a dropped connection in my months of testing them, even with my laptop computer within the subsequent room or with my telephone buried inside my backpack.

When you first open the field, you’ll discover six sizes of eartips. This is three greater than most corporations provide; consequently, it’s simple to discover a tip that gives a superb match and seals correctly inside your ear canal. A tip on the ideas: Your ear canals could be completely different sizes. Mine are, and I are inclined to overlook this till I get to check earbuds with eartips that really match correctly. 

The buds are largely plastic (they’re solely out there in a matte black end) and whereas that makes them really feel sort of flimsy, it offers them a lightness that makes them extra snug to put on. With the proper-size eartip, the light-weight and comely design permits the earbuds to form of float in your ear. It makes them much less fatiguing to put on for lengthy stretches.

They’re managed by contact panels on every earpiece. Tap the suitable ear to play and pause the music, or go to the following observe. Tap the left ear to modify between three states: ANC mode, transparency mode, or naturally remoted sound with each of these modes off.

There’s no audio indicator to let you already know which mode you’re in, only a chime to announce you’ve switched modes. If you need to know which mode you’re in, you may obtain the Nocs app, the place the controls are labeled. In truth, I like to recommend downloading the app simply so you may strive the choice to personalize the sound of the headphones. This is a function Nocs Design developed with the assistance of its know-how associate Audiodo. Launch the calibration function and also you’ll hear a collection of tones within the headphones. Whenever you hear a tone, inform the app you may hear it; this works similar to a listening to check you’d take at an audiologist’s workplace. After a few minutes of enjoying aural hide-and-seek, the app generates a Personal Sound profile. You can then activate or deactivate it within the app any time you need. (The app can retailer a number of profiles directly.)