Q ‘n A Saturday: Noble Audio

HFN: John, how does being a doctor of audiology play a role with Noble?
JM: Somoene once asked me how an audiologist would become invloved in this industry, and my reply was, the question should be, why would an audiologist not be involved?

I rely on audiology in just about every aspect of Noble. From customer service to the external physical designs to the internal designs of the monitors. From the begining, essentially every aspect of a CIEM was taken from audiology/hearing aid industry.

• Drivers, from hearing aids
• Cable, from hearing aids
• Internal solder wire, from hearing aids
• Acrylic Resin used in CIEMs, from hearing aids
• Tools required to build CIEMs, from hearing aids
• Sockets, from hearing aids
• Internal tubing, from hearing aids
• Tuning skill sets, from Audiology (understanding the psychoacoustics of sound, the physics of sound, the effect that the human anatomy has on sound as it travels through the auditory chain)

HFN: Brannan, how does being a musician play a role with Noble?
BM: Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a musician, but having played music I definitely have an understanding of acoustics, sound quality, and an appreciation as to why IEMs/CIEMs were originally developed.

HFN: How do you stand on analogue vs digital?
BM: Analog is great, I have dabbled in vinyl and tape appears to making a little bit of a resurgence, but I can’t see anything taking the place of streaming music for me personally.

HFN: In your opinion, what is the most underrated product of yours?
JM: The Sage is definitley a product that is often over looked due to the misnomer that great sound requires a high driver count. The Sage refutes that idea, and Noble will continue to dispute that myth with future products as well. Interestingly, in home audio it is generally accepted that more does not necesarily equal better and we’ve saw the same mindset in the car industry with the recent release of supercars with small engines (ex. Ford GT).
BM: In my opinion our most underrated products are our flagship products, Katana and Kaiser Encore. Naturally these are the products that are talked about the most, but in my mind they represent tremendous values. From sound quality to the construction of the pieces our flagship products are truly class leading.

HFN: Did you ever plan to partner with another company (audio player, cable makers)?
JM: If it makes sense, we would certainly consider it.

HFN: John, how do you keep coming up with new designs? What’s your inspiration?
JM: Life is my inspiration.

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