Thanks to the folks at MEElectronics for providing a sample of the new N8 earphones for review.

Packaging and Accessories: Uncharacteristically sparse for MEElectronics, only including the earphones, a shirt clip and the standard array of eartips (with a set of double-flange tips as well).

Design and Build Quality: Standard for MEElectronics, which means good. The cable is both functional as well as beautiful and is well relieved. The housings are metal and feel solid without being heavy on the ears. Microphonics were not an issue. Only downside is the significant driver flex.

Comfort and isolation: Of course, your mileage may vary but I found them to be comfortable and they isolate decently well. The driver flex makes them extremely sensitive to seal and insertion depths but I was able to achieve a nice balance.

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Sound Quality

Burn in: These earphones were given upwards of 50 hours of burn in time prior to review. No significant changes were heard.

On MEElectronics’ N8 product page, there’s a section dedicated to the “Big Bass Sound” of these earphones, and states,

I don’t think I could’ve come up with a more apt statement about the N8. As soon as you start listening to these, you’ll notice the massive, pounding bass that doesn’t skimp on the detail. Bass lovers, you’ll want to take note. These are among the bassiest IEMs I’ve ever heard.

But, the low end quantity does result in a lack of control and the bass bleeds over the midrange and warms it right up. This results in the midrange sounding a bit subdued in the soundscape but that is primarily due to the forwardness of the bass. However, even with the low end bleed, the midrange isn’t lacking in detail or “musicality” (whatever that means).

The high end is more slightly more present than the midrange, but not to the point that I’d describe these as “V-shaped” in response. Treble presentation is dry (as is the rest of the sound signature) and decently airy and clear.

In the pantheon of MEElectronics IEMs I’ve reviewed so far, these are about the same level as the M31 or M9 in terms of overall sound quality. The bass is just…freaking huge but I can’t say I don’t like the N8 because it doesn’t really suffer for it in the same way many mainstream cheap IEMs do.

Conclusion

The MEElectronics N8 will retail exclusively at Newegg for $24.99 upon release (as of this writing, they are not currently available). If you like your earphones big and bassy and you love genres that benefit from enhanced bass like Electronic, Dubstep and Hip-Hop; these are for you. If you’re looking for a balanced frequency response, you’re not going to get it here because that’s not what these are intended to deliver. Mainstream listeners should be plenty pleased with the N8’s sound signature and budget pricing.