Polk Audio Nue Voe In-Ear Headphones Review Highlights

Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity has been following the burgeoning headphone market by bringing its readers headphone reviews of the latest offerings from the premier audio companies.

This review looks at the Polk Audio Nue Voe in-ear headphones (earbuds) which features a single balanced armature design whose frequency response has been tailored with a passive equalized network (P.O.E.T.). The purpose of this design feature is to allow this type of driver to produce bass response more closely matching the midrange and high frequency output. At the expense of some sensitivity, this design allows the earphones to produce full bass response, while maintaining the rest of the audio spectrum in a stylish and highly portable form factor.

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

Polk Audio Nue Voe In-Ear Headphones Highlights Summary

  • Frequency response above and below the range of normal hearing
  • Stylish design
  • Three-button remote for I-devices
  • Loop design holds earphone in place during activities such as walking
  • Multiple tip sizes and designs included for comfortable fit
  • Requires a bit more power to drive than many similar earphones

Introduction to the Polk Audio Nue Voe In-Ear Headphones Review

Polk Audio is a name long known for making quality speakers, having been founded in 1972 by Matthew Polk, George Klopfer and Sandy Gross, who later co-founded two other well-known speaker companies. Secrets reviewed and awarded a Best of Award for the Polk Audio LSiM speakers in 2013.

POLK AUDIO NUE VOE HEADPHONES SPECIFICATIONS

  • Design: Single Balanced-Armature In-Ear Headphones (Earbuds)
  • MFR: 10 Hz – 21.5 kHz (-3 dB)
  • Nominal Impedance: 32 ohms
  • Cable Length: 48”
  • Included Ear Tips: Silicone and Memory Foam
  • Input Connection: 3.5 mm Gold-Plated
  • Color: Black with Silver trim
  • Sensitivity: 101 dB
  • MSRP: $199 USD
  • Polk Audio
  • SECRETS Tags: Polk Audio, Nue Voe, In-Ear Headphones, Earphones, Earbuds, Single Balanced Armature, Polk Heritage, Headphone Reviews 2014

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

It seems that just about every major audio manufacturer has jumped into the headphone arena over the last several years, some mimicking their success in electronics or loudspeakers and some who found that designing and building a headphone was a bit different from designing a loudspeaker, receiver or even a high end audio cable.

The Polk Nue Voe is part of Polk’s Heritage Collection which consists of two full-size headphones and two earphones, the Nue Voe being the more expensive of their earphones.

 

The Design of the Polk Audio Nue Voe In-Ear Headphones

The Nue Voe is made of hard polymer and comes in two colors, black and tortoise, the latter of which I find very unique and attractive. They come with an assortment of silicone, rubber and Comply foam (memory foam) ear tips, so it was pretty easy to find something that gave me a comfortable fit and a good seal for those important bass notes. The bundle also includes a soft cloth bag for transporting the ‘phones in luggage, pocket or backpack, although I would have preferred something a bit more solid to protect them from damage.

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

The Nue Voe feature a fairly unique design in that they have a hard plastic “loop” perpendicular to the direction of the nozzles. I have seen this on only a couple of other earphones; it is used to help locate and direct the nozzle so that sound is properly directed into the ear canal. The loop also helps to hold the earphone in place during movement, such as when exercising or even walking as it tends to “lock” the earphone in place. The loop is placed into the lower portion of the outside ear such that the upper half of the loop rests against the fold of the ear. I found after several hours of listening that the loop made the part of my ear where it rested slightly sore, but this was not enough to discourage me from using them again and did help them stay in place during my usage on my treadmill workouts.

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

The cables are made of a medium thickness black rubber (white on the tortoise model) with a slider at the Y to allow adjustment and for preventing tangles in storage. The cable is terminated with a 90 degree gold-plated plug and the right side of the Y contains a three-button controller and microphone compatible with I-devices only. Unfortunately, I do not own any I-devices, so I was unable to evaluate the effectiveness of this feature on the Nue Voe.

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

The other unusual aspect of the Nue Voe is that it is a balanced armature design, rather than the less expensive and more common dynamic driver found in many inexpensive earphones. One of the problems with a single armature design such as the Nue Voe is a lack of bass response, instead typically emphasizing the mid and/or high frequencies. The more common way to solve this problem is to simply add one or more additional balanced armature modules, much like adding additional drivers to a loudspeaker. In this method, one driver will handle only the bass frequencies and another will handle the mid’s while a third or fourth will handle higher frequencies. That solves the problem of poor bass response, but the cost of adding two or three additional armature modules quickly moves the earphone into the upper tiers of earphones, price-wise.

Instead of adding additional driver modules, Polk has adopted a clever and unique technique of modifying the mid-range and high frequency response of the driver using a passive network to lower the levels of these frequencies to more closely match the natural bass response of the balanced armature driver. Polk calls this technique “Polk Optimized Electro-acoustic Tuning” (P.O.E.T.). This certainly sounds like an interesting approach to offering a more balanced sound signature from a single balanced armature design. Does it work? We shall find out shortly, so don’t touch that dial!

Since I believe that most buyers of most in-ear monitors (earphones) will primarily be using them on-the-go, I spent most of my time listening to the Nue Voe’s with various portable devices of various levels of quality and output power. I began at the bottom of the totem pole, size-wise and power-wise using a Sansa Clip+ (8 GB) containing mostly higher quality WMA rips from CD’s and also a few resamples of hi-rez downloads from HDTracks. First up was Paul McCartney’s “Bluebird” from his Band On The Run album, down sampled from the 96/24 FLAC download. I compared this song via the Nue Voe and then a pair of MeElectronics 151A earphones, which also feature a single balanced armature design. The Nue Voe’s had a much warmer overall sound and Paul’s voice was quite mellow compared to the 151A’s.

The other striking difference was the volume level required for the two ‘phones. I had to turn the Clip+ to just one notch below maximum volume to reach a satisfying level, whereas with the 151A’s I had to drop the volume about three clicks to approximate the same volume level. It was obvious that the Nue Voe’s were not the best match for the Clip+ due to the limited amplifier power available. Further, the triangles in this tune were much more distinct and crisp sounding with the 151A’s and Paul’s vocals had a bit more presence and clarity as well.

Next I listened to “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen’s album of the same name. This was from a resampled FLAC rip of the CD. Once again, the volume difference was very obvious, although I favored Bruce’s vocals through the Nue Voe’s. In this case his rather coarse voice was a bit too much so with the 151A’s. The drums were also quite different in that the 151A’s had more initial attack, but less of the fullness and therefore I slightly favored the Nue Voe’s reproduction of them. So out of the two songs played on the Clip+, I preferred the sound of one on the 151A’s and one on the Nue Voe’s, although some might like to play Springsteen a bit louder than the Clip+ could muster with the Polk earphones.

I proceeded to listen to a number of additional tracks directly from my laptop and came to the conclusion that overall, on most songs, I really preferred the warmer sound of the Polk’s to the MEElectronics, despite better detail in the mid-range and treble by the later. The problem was that the 151A’s were just really lacking in bass and at times vocals were so clearly defined that they sounded almost artificial, especially when compared to the more organic sound of the Polk’s. I think my “ideal” earphone would sound something like 70% of the Nue Voe and 30% of the 151A’s sound, but for day in, day out listening, I prefer the sound of the Nue Voe’s.

In an effort to see how the Nue Voe’s would work with a variety of portable devices, I then moved on to my Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone, streaming music from the Amazon Cloud as well as my small collection of music in the cloud, recently purchased from Murfie (www.murfie.com). I started off by listening to a great album by Dire Straits, “Brothers in Arms”. I listened to the entire album and found that the Nue Voe really complimented Mark Knopfler’s smooth and mellow voice. The Samsung provided reasonable volume for the Nue Voe, but, again, was only a few clicks away from its maximum volume. Still it did provide a very decent volume against the relatively quiet background in my work office. The sound was warm, but I was able to hear brushes on cymbals quite clearly, so that the bass never covered up or obscured the mid’s or highs.

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

Next I listened to Linda Ronstadt’s new album, “Duets”, pairing her with a variety of male and female vocalists. Again, I listened to the entire album and it sounded very good and Ronstadt’s voice sounded just as I expected, having listened to her for many years singing many different types of music from pop to standards from the 40’s with Nelson Riddle’s orchestra to traditional Mexican “canciones” she heard as a child. The Nue Voe’s worked very well with vocals, both males and females, giving them a mellow, organic sound that sounded, well, human!

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

Finally, I moved on to the “big guns” in terms of a very high quality portable playback system (Acer netbook with SSD drive running JRiver Media Center 19) playing through my favorite portable usb DAC (Audioengine D1) and playing high resolution music. First up, was Cat Stevens venerable album, “Tea for the Tillerman”(96/24 bit HDTracks download) and listening to his “Where Do the Children Play” his guitar was full and impactful and gave me that “you are there” experience we all strive for, but so often fail to achieve in our music listening. This was followed by one of Steven’s best-known songs, “Wild World” and, again, the sound was so full and dynamic that I felt transported to the recording studio listening through the control room monitors. This is quite an accomplishment for a pair of reasonably priced in-ear monitors!

Polk Audio Nue Voe Headphones Review

Moving from pop to some high resolution jazz, I listened to a wonderful 96/24 bit download recorded by speaker legend Paul Klipsch direct to his two track open reel deck at 15 ips. The artists are the Joe Holland Quartet (Klipsch Vol. II, part 1, High Definition Tape Transfers) playing the song “Jammin’ the Blues” and this really sounded stunning over the Nue Voe’s. This recording was done long before the invention of Pro Tools and the loudness wars and is one of the best examples of what a truly great recording can sound like when heard through a high quality playback system. The drums on this recording, both the snares and the toms are very much in evidence and I heard all of the impact and the delicacy of these instruments through the Nue Voe earphones. Also, the clarinet and the upright bass, which were apparently not as closely miked as the drums, were very clear and sounded quite realistic. Every note on this song came through the DAC/earphone combination with stunning clarity and presence.

 

Conclusions about the Polk Audio Nue Voe In-Ear Headphones

One caveat for anyone purchasing the Polk Nue Voe earphones: the first song or two I listened to on them didn’t sound very good and at first I thought something might be wrong in my setup. As I continued to listen, they rapidly improved with each song and continued to improve over the entire period of my review listening. Such behavior is pretty common not only among earphones, but speakers as well. However, the degree to which the Nue Voe’s improved was greater than any earphone I have ever used, so be sure to give them ample time to break in before passing judgment on their sound quality.

Polk, a brand long known for making excellent loudspeakers has entered the hot earphone/headphone market with two earphone models and two full-size headphones. The Nue Voe is their higher priced earphone and features a single balanced armature design. The bass response of the Nue Voe is, in-effect, “boosted” or improved by utilizing a passive equalizing network to reduce the output of the mid and high frequencies to match the bass levels. The results are excellent bass response, without the bloat or excessive bass found in some competing earphones.

I would characterize the overall sound of the Nue Voe’s as rich, warm and full and a pleasure to listen to with pop, folk and jazz in particular. The only “penalty” that I could find with Polk’s technique for using passive equalization in the Nue Voe’s is a slight decrease in sensitivity, meaning they require just a tad more power to drive them to loud listening levels. In this regard they worked pretty well with my smartphone and even better being driven directly by my laptop. When I added a portable usb DAC/headphone amplifier which provided even more power, they really sounded excellent and I was pleased to see how well the Nue Voe’s scaled up their performance with better playback devices.

The Nue Voe’s come with a nice assortment of various sizes and various types of ear tips, so that users should be able to find a pair that allows a good fit for comfort and good sound isolation. Although style is a matter of personal taste, I found the Nue Voe’s to be attractive, especially the tortoise color, although my review sample’s black with silver accents was also nice looking. I thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to the Nue Voe’s and I think Polk has done an excellent job in providing a reasonably priced earphone with style and great sound that should appeal to a lot of people in the very competitive headphone market. Polk has carried over their experience in making fine sounding speakers into the earphone arena and I will miss having them in my laptop bag for listening every day at work.