BUILD AND DESIGN

Kublai Khan comes in what’s become the standard package for the top of Noble Audio’s IEM lineup: a premium case, a selection of eartips – with foam, double-flange, and two varieties of silicone – the Noble 8-core cable, and of course, the IEMs. Kublai Khan has an understated design, with a resin finish featuring a marble look to the faceplate, a gold dragon on your left ear, and the Noble logo on the right.

The IEMs themselves are on the large side, which makes sense considering that there are seven drivers inside with four different driver types: bone conduction, dynamic, balanced armature, and a Piezo super-tweeter. The bulky shell combined with the deep insertion make this an IEM that’s clearly for very experienced IEM users. While the name demands attention – the package and design are more understated, but excellent notwithstanding. So will Kublai Khan’s sound be understated like its design or will it stand out?

SOUND

Kublai Khan is fast, spacious, and brilliantly tuned. As someone who doesn’t like too much treble – and was on the edge with the original Khan’s treble – Kublai Khan dials it in just right in the upper registers. Putting it all together, you get an absolute flagship caliber performance from Kublai Khan.

The bass is thick and deep, but comes up short of a more heavily emphasized “basshead” low end. There’s strong impact from the dynamic driver and seemingly bottomless extension from the bone conduction driver, but no bloat or bleed up into the mids from the bass.