Hi. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to partake in this interview.
Thank you for offering us this chance to introduce our small company to you.
So before we dive in, tell us a little bit of background about NCM, how did it start? How did it evolve over time to what it is now?
Well, way before NCM came around, we were actually authorized dealer and reseller for some of the big CIEM makers on the market. However, as a dealer for consumer audio, you also get to face the most common problems that a lot of CIEM users faced, broken sockets, connectors, faceplates coming off etc. Overtime, we learned how to fix the issues ourselves without sending it back to the manufactures thus reducing the costs our clients had to bore in the process. It was during this learning and fixing process that we came about the idea of creating our own inhouse monitors for the Vietnam market, and the opportunity to create our own line of ciem with unique signature was also a unique opportunity in the Vietnam Market. Long story short, we started experimenting with dynamic and various BA driver from different makers. And that’s how we ended up here.
Your current lineup, tell us about the current products you offer, and the direction they have in terms of who they are for or what they provide to the listener?
Our most basic model is the single BA/Dynamic ciems, which comes in both universal or customs version. We design each models so they each have their specific sound signature and pricing to cater to different customers. Although our best selling models are still the hybrids, DB3/NC5v2 and Bella with Tango the favourite among our BA line.
One of the most unique things about NCM Audio is you offer an upgrade service for some models allowing buyers of some entry models to step up with no reshelling fee, how did that come to be?
It was just part of our initiative to reward our customers who trusted us enough to purchase our products even though we were a small and an unknown ciem brand. I think the very least we could do is give them the ability to upgrade their old models to better ones
Let’s talk specifically about the Bella, your flagship product it is unique in many ways, especially seeing a 1 Dynamic 8BA driver configuration isn’t all that common, what made you choose that configuration and what else makes the Bella unique?
Bella was specifically designed as an upgrade to its little brother NC5-V2. Hence they both share a very similar sound signature, with a little more forward mids, deep sub bass. Making transition from NC5 to Bella is actually very smooth for upgrading customers. Our air vents are slightly larger than others and we cover it with fine wire mesh so you can occasionally actually clean out the dusts easily, it also helps in reducing driver flex on the 10mm dynamic driver. The Bella however compared to NC5 has a slightly wider width (space) as some might call it, a little more pronounced shimmer in the treble region. The mids though might sound a little aggressive to some?
How does the process of designing and building a custom IEM with NCM usually go?
I don’t really know how to explain this one :D I just target a certain Freq signature that I would like to achieve and then start messing with the BA / Dynamic Drivers and crossover design calculation. The result can be quite time consuming and usually expensive not to mention frustrating, but the final result is a sense of accomplishment like what I had with NC5 and Bella.
What would you consider to be the main philosophy of NCM as a company?
I like where we are now and don’t know where i might be heading. I would still like it to be a small boutique Ciem company in future if there are still buyers for my products. And last of all, I would still like to keep making out upgrades of older models in future when I design newer ones.
Do you have plans to expand your product range? Or if no hard plans even certain concepts or ideas you want to be able to develop?
Working on a BA Line Flagship at the moment. But I don’t see myself going into mass production for universal lines anytime soon.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Ah yes, we are experimenting with multi colored artwork for faceplates at the moment as well.
That concludes the interview, thank you again for taking the time to answer the questions. Have a great day!
Thanks for the opportunity!
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