Review: Comply NR-10i for iPhone

When it was realized that soft rubber tips could be slid securely into the ear canal as opposed to traditional earbuds that merely sat beside the ear canal, listening to music through earbuds suddenly took a huge step forward in terms of audio quality and the ability to block out external noise. Hearing Components thinks it’s found the next breakthrough in earbuds, in the form of squishy foam that’s even softer and fits even more comfortably into your ear canal than rubber. And having spent the past week using their Comply NR-10i earbuds, I’m left to conclude that they’re right.



You squish the foam in your fingertips (much like you would with foam earplugs), insert them into your ears, and the foam immediately re-expands to fill your ear canal. In my experiences, the foam tips are better at blocking out external noise, and better at creating an intimate listening experience, than rubber-tip earbuds.



The letdown comes when you realize that the foam tips are the star of the show here; beyond the foam, the NR-10i is basically just standard fare. It sounds fine for its price, but even with the better noise-blocking and the more intimate feel, the NR-10i doesn’t quite produce the same overall level of audio quality as, for instance, the Ultimate Ears MetroFi 220 – which is priced ten dollars cheaper.



The cables on the NR-10i are thin, and the design is lightweight overall. One oddity is that the play/pause button is up around your chin, leaving you reaching around for a button whose exact location you can’t really see out of the corner of your eye.



Basically, these are 3.5 star earbuds that get upgraded to four stars due to the foam tips. A few other earbuds also come with foam tips (Westone 3, Ultimate Ears 700, etc), but not typically at the sub-$100 price point. If you’re wishing you could keep your current earbuds but switch to foam tips, you’re in luck – Hearing Components sells the foam tips for use with various third party earbuds for $15-$20. Based on my experiences using the foam replacement tips with some of my favorite earbuds, they’re worth their price.

Learn more at ComplyFoam.com

review by Bill Palmer