HifiMan RE3
Head-Direct has produced a new top of the line canalphone, which will hit the market in few weeks, and I have been sent a pre-production sample to review. My review sample is going to be equal in sound quality to the finished product, but the outer shell isn't the final one, and has some quirks that influence fit and aren't going to be there in the final unit.
The new RE3 sports a few interesting new characteristics, starting with the new cable. It's a great improvement over the cheapish, thin and still older cable, and looks pleasantly handmade. Essentially, the new cable cover is made of cotton. I think this is a first among earphones. The benefits involve a much more flexible behaviour, and much less microphonics. The overall quality of the cable approaches Westone ones, especially thanks to the feel and flexibility, and surely betters that of my old Shure SE530, Klipsch X10, stock etys, Altec and such. The Apuresound Ety cable is in a class of its own, but that's an expensive aftermarket product like no others.
There is also a shirt clip, which is pretty effective but also has the tendency not to hold the wires for much time, so I need to readjust it every half an hour or so, when wearing the canalphones. The clip is useful to reduce microphonics, and pretty low profile. I am going to use it only in summer, while during winter I am accustomed to have earphone cables hold by the jackets.
The second "exterior" new feature is the overall design of the earphone. It looks pretty unique, sporting a cool looking rubber shell, and shakes off itself the overall "cheapish" feel that previous models had. Here are some pics (poorly made with my Nokia E90):
The design is cool, but has some shortcomings that determine why my unit is a pre-production model. Basically, the rubber shell in my one is a bit hard and makes difficult to fit the provided tips, since it presses against my ears when I try to achieve the seal. The final product is going to have a softer rubber shell which will make the canalphone much easier to fit.
I must say that I haven't had any problems to use Comply T400 tips, that means foamies, since those seal instantly. After a day, also, I managed to fiddle with the provided biflanges (medium and "huge", although not as comfortable as the use of foam tips, and not easy to wear for long periods), and experienced the earphone with silicon tips too, like, in my opinion, it will have to be used to provide the best sound quality. I'll elaborate more about it in the sound section.
The canalphone is vented. The old RE0 approach (closed, fully isolating canalphone) has been put aside to come back to the RE1/RE2 style. This means you won't risk to be killed by a bus due to total isolation from the outer world (I have risked that two times since last september... Once even without IEM's, due to distraction and to the "immortal" feeling that I had developed when wearing Etys
), but the downside is that loud people on train will be heard during quite passage of your music. So maybe the RE3 is best suited for walking people over those taking public transports (I fall in both cathegories...
).
Anyway, isolation is obviously much superior to earbuds, clip-ons and closed headphones like ATH-ESW9, but not on par with closed IEMs.
Venting the canalphone produces a larger soundstage than what was found in the RE0, and similar to the size of RE1. Soundstage width is also superior to Altec iM716, and obviously Ety ER4P (which I find narrower than the Altec in HD mode), when using a mp3 player.
The RE3 are slightly easier to drive than ER4P, I use about 31/40 as volume on my iAudio 7 which is pretty underpowered. Etys need 34/40, Altec iM716 need 39/40, Westone 3 were about 26/40 and the easiest to drive of the bunch. The RE3 are not prone to pick up hiss from the player, provided that the noise floor doesn't increase with volume. My iAudio has volume-dependent hiss, while other sources like Kenwoods have independent noise floor.
So, after having described the canalphone from a technical point of view, let's finally jump into sound quality description.
First of all, the RE3 has a burn in period that has been about 10-15 hours in my case. During this period, midrange comes out more, making for a pretty midcentric presentation (400 Hz and over). Unlike the previous RE0, which had recessed mids to me, the RE3 has a different approach to sound and confers vocals and midrange instruments a strong presence, big imaging and some resonance. This last part can be sign of a peak around 2-3 kHz, which makes instruments like electric guitars or trumpets a bit aggressive, and stresses the character of honky vocals in many old tracks. Earlier in the review, I said that foam tips aren't the best choice for these earphones to achieve their best potential. This is because certain foamies, especially complys and shure olives, tend to give their own coloration in the midrange, by raising the midrange around 1-2 kHz, and also darken the upper treble area. Foam tips work well with iems that would otherwise sibilate. The RE3 have an excessively midrangey personality which doesn't couple well with those foam tips, making mids screechy even when being just prominent with biflanges.They also have a flat and smooth treble that doesn't have to be darkened by complys. So I suggest to use the RE3 with silicon tips, especially biflanges, which won't add up any coloration to the mids on their own, and don't affect treble extension either.
With biflanges, treble is fast and resolved. The whole spectrum is quick, and has fast transients. The sound has no sibilance, doesn't grate, but it's very detailed.
The bass is very well extended, as opposed to what was offered by RE0 which had limited extension and presence.
The most interesting quality of the RE3 is soundstage, due to a peculiar ability to portray vertical placement. Vertical soundstaging is much more capable than most armature IEMs. Both the Altec and Etys sound less spacious by comparison. This is probably a combined advantage of using a dynamic driver, in conjuntion with good high performances and a vented design.
So, summing it up, the RE3 behaves in a stellar way on both bass and treble portrayal. Midrange is clear and "big" sounding, although unforgiving over recordings that are prone to screech or honkiness.
I can suggest them to people loving details, and being picky about bass and treble, although not as much about midrange. Well produced music minimizes the effects of the upper midrange flaws.
Tstarn06 reports that with more burn in time, the RE3 starts evolving again and the upper mids seem to mellow down. I'll report back as soon as my holiday is over.
Tony
Two more updates (coming from late posts in the thread):
Update 1 (08/03/2009):
Ok, I have a fair bit of material to "patch" the initial review (which underwent many updates already), and I'll do so when I get my hands onto a proper computer rather than a smarthphone and its limitations.
In short:
-if you want to figure the frequency range that's bumped, just think of the sound that crickets do. The range is much wider, but you get the picture.
-the bump has become milder and I consider every song to be "listenable", in that it doesn't spoil anything to death. Still, there is a tilt on certain vocals (or even electronic samples) that would make for an excited listening and make certain passages "snarly", giving them more rage and strength than otherwise.
-the bump is also responsible of a high sense of speed and details, many in the "crickets" region. The feeling is quite pleasing since it makes for a non-steely presence of details. Some sounds' attacking edges, if belonging to the 1-3 kHz range, come out with high definition contributing to this feeling.
-the sense of space is extremely high and pleasant, and superior to Etymotic, Altec and others.
-I call the upper midrange bump a coloration, and a noticeable one, which by definition doesn't make me happy. This doesn't prevent me to enjoy the earphone for what it is, a portable headphone that doesn't have to be my main playback tool, and that manages to impress me with its qualities when I am around.
-I am reaching for the RE3 more than the Altec during the last days. This might not say much by looking at the price of the iM716, but the latter is an earphone I consider a sort of FOTM-killer, if not a giant killer, and its value is not represented by its low price.
Update 2 (08/31/2009):
Quick news: looks like the RE3 is extremely picky on fit and tips, not only as far as comfort goes, but especially on sound. First, I noticed an increase with bass extensionwhen switching from the normal biflanges to the big ones. Today, almost randomly, I jammed the big biflanges deeply inside my ear canals and the bass improved massively. The sound is much warmer and impactful, the tone much righter. All the speed, imaging and separation characteristics stand still, with a much fuller tonality. Fit is very fiddly and I still have problems with my right ear (weird ear canal shape that gives me problem with almost any silicon tips around), but once it is got right, things improve massively.
HifiMan RE3 Canalphones Review
