Review of the Head-Direct RE-02
Equipment:
Source: iPod 5G 60gbs w/ rockbox
iRiver ihp-140 w/ rockbox
EMU 0404 USB
Lenovo R61i
Amp: Rockhopper M^3 with STEPS
Music: (mix of Flac and mp3 v0)
Daft Punk – Discovery
Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine (both versions)
Mozart – Requiem (Marriner, St. Martin in the Fields, by Philips)
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde (DCC) and Highway 61 Revisted (DCC)
Joan Baez – Diamonds and Rust (MFSL)
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (DCC)
A Tribe Called Quest – Low End Theory
Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts – Cowboy Bebop OST 1
Nirvana – Nevermind (MFSL)
I first heard the RE-02 at the NYC meet and I was pretty surprised at how good it sounded (even in the noisy conditions) so I bought a pair the day after from Fang at head-direct. The RE-02 is a semi open IEM. It isolates more than most closed headphones I’ve tried but not as much as a normal IEM like the im716 or a Shure e500. The design of the RE-02 is similar to a Sony Fontopia headphone and is designed to wear like a normal earbud.
The RE-02 comes with a female 1/8” to male 1/8” extention cord and 4 sets of tips (3 pairs of different black soft flex tips and one pair of biflanges(which I already lost
) as well as the actual IEM. The build quality seems to be pretty good. The wires are light, but they seem to be built well.
Sound:
The easiest way to describe the sound is grado-ish. The highs sparkle but are not harsh and the bass is tight and doesn’t go into the other parts of the music. I would characterize this sound as “fun” etys. They have a similar treble boost but unlike the er-6i, I didn’t find the treble harsh at all. The only problem I had with the re-02 is that there’s a treble spike at some frequency which makes the music too unnatural. It’s not noticeable at some songs but in some songs certain notes are over amplified. Another problem is that I don’t feel that the highs and lows extend low as they can. Especially compared with the er-4s, the extreme highs are slightly rolled off and there doesn’t seem to be any good sub-bass. This is usually unnoticeable in pop songs, but with certain classical pieces, the lack of an extreme high end is a problem. The soundstage for an IEM is surprisingly good. Left and right space is very large and top to bottom and front to back depth is not bad. What I felt missing was the pinpoint imaging that my im716 has. They sound really good with rock and pop, but are slightly lacking with classical and jazz and they need a little more bass quantity for electronica and rap.
I mostly listened to the IEM with my ipod and my stock laptop sound card. Out of the ipod, it sounds fine. It gives them more than enough volume and with the EQ from rockbox, they sound great. Out of the laptop, the high sensitivity of the IEMs exposed a lot of hiss from my laptop. Aside from that, I had no problems. The re-02 is extremely sensitive and can be powered well from most any portable source.
Just for fun, I tried the IEMs out of my home setup consisting of an EMU 0404 usb and a m^3, and the IEMs scaled up pretty well. The bass went deeper, but not as deep as ER4S still, and the treble became more balanced. I really want to try these out with a portable amp, but I didn’t have one available.
Overall, I would highly recommend these for a person looking for their first foray into “hi-fi” IEMs. While they're not extremely neutral, they're very fun to listen to. Even with my problems with it, I would still be very happy if they were my only IEM. I would put them in the same arena as my im716, which I feel is one of the best IEMs under $200, so at $80, which is the group buy price, they're a major steal.
Head-Direct RE-02 Review
