Hello. This is a review for my newest toy, a pair of Head-Direct RE1 IEMs.
I have received them a few weeks a go and have been listened to them until now. I also bought the Etymotic ER4P to make a direct comparison with them, and I'll talk about it.
The IEM
The RE1 are a 150 Ohm dynamic driver IEM. This means they need an amp to shine, and they improve with more power (soundstage especially).
Gear used
4th gen DIY iMod with blackgates and Sonicap docks. Minibox E+ as amp (and some hours with an unknown home amp).
Past experience
UE Triple.fi 10 Pro, tweaked Super.fi 5 Pro, Ety ER4P, ER4S, Apuresound ER4S, Shure E500, ATH-ESW9, Sennheiser HD650 and minor IEMs
Build quality and fit
It's 6.30 in the morning here, and I am really too sleepy and lazy to take pictures of the IEM. You can see very nice pictures in ClieOS review thread. The RE1 look quite spartan, don't have a fancy cable like that of Westone custom IEMs. The cable is a bit micophonic without a shirt clip, but with one microphonics are negligible. The cable is also stiff.
The RE1 come with two pairs of biflange. The bigger pair is very important to achieve a proper seal. The nozzle are the same diameter as the Triple.fi 10 Pro. They can work with Comply T400 tips, Sony tips, Sennheiser tips.
The RE1 have vents on the back (I have been said that's for reproducing the bass), but provide enough isolation for train, underground and road. This comes from someone (me) who didn't have any use of the ATH-ESW9 for their insufficient isolation on the go. The RE1 are up to isolate against any noise.
The sound very first impressions (foam tips)
Ok, let's start. At first I listened to the RE1 using my pair Shure black foam tips. These couldn't fit the RE1 normally, but I practiced surgery on the tips replacing their nozzle with a comply T400 one. The sound was very dark. Lots of bass/midbass and recessed upper midrange were the distincive characters of the IEM. The recessed upper midrange had two effects: there was no sibilance at all with any recordings, but vocals lacked some air.
I talked with Fang about it, and he adviced me towards using the big biflanges. It took a few days before I tried those.
The sound: definitive impressions
What brought me to try the biflanges was that I recalled the effect that Shure black foam tips had on Etymotic ER4P: they reduced the upper midrange by a lot.
Switching to the biflanges, the upper midrange came out more, the overall sound became clearer, with better representation of the 6 kHz range and cymbals, even if still subdued. The bass also became deeper: Shure black foamies in my book are not famous to represent deep bass (it's like if the bass lacks pavement with Olives), and the biflanges do it better.
Vocals sound with enough air. The overall sound reminds me of that of my Triple.fi 10 Pro with foam tips, but with less sibilance, and chesty vocals. The RE1 also remind me of an in-ear ATH-ESW9 with less upper treble. The ESW9 are the first portable headphones I found to be totally forgiving towards sibilance, mellowing the harshest cymbal crashes and strong "s" pronounced by singers. The RE1 have the same forgiveness. While having a darker top end, they also seem less congested in the midbass-lower midrange, which is probably more linear than the Audio-Technicas. I didn't like my Triple.fi with the Minibox E+ because of sibilance. I can't detect any with the RE1. I listen to lots of 60s-70s rock music, and the RE1 are the first IEMs that let me listen to ALL my music without complaining of sharpness.
Apart from this, they are warm, have fat bass and very big soundstage. Treble is not up to that of ER4P, about which I'll elaborate in future. Vocals are meaty.
Regarding the soundstage, here is an anecdote. I've listened to an acoustic illusion track shacking a matchbox. It was incredible. I could "feel" the matchbox shaking not only over and behind me, but also down to my belly, almost expecting to be tingled by it. This is what the RE1 are able to do at their best, even if "normal" a track doesn't do such a crazy use of soundstage.
In the end, I really advice towards biflanges as they are the tips the RE1 are thought with. Foam tips don't do justice to this IEM.
The big and soft biflanges, though, suffer from wear, and after a few weeks they'll become loose on the nozzle, and sometimes they stick in the year after removing the IEM.
Being a dynamic driver IEM, the RE1 is supposed to burn in. I have felt it does, but it might have been my ears that "burned in". Anyway, it's not as dramatic improvement as switching from foam tips to the biflanges.
RE1 vs ER4P
At first, a premise. I decided to remove my rankings from my signature because I felt it could condition too many new buyers. Rankings have a more persuasive effect than extensive reviews on people. The reason for I removed them is that many top IEMs are simply different flavour, and ranking some on top than others is a simple matter of preference. For example, while I liked the Triple.fi 10 Pro over the Ety ER4P, they are not that far in terms of sound quality. The Etys have really tight and deep bass, clear vocals, strong upper midrange, exciting treble, which makes for an artificial, innatural and electric sound. Sometimes I feel Ety bass is the best, sometimes I feel they are sickening. The real problem of the ER4P is the boosted upper midrange. It can provide lots of details, but gives also a terrible harshness with many tracks.
The RE1 are different from Etymotic. They have fat bass, reasonably deep. Fuller sounding vocals, more delicate/forgiving upper midrange, less exciting treble, big soundstage and good details. I could say that the RE1 with Etymotic treble estention (but not the same harshness) could be the best IEM in the world. Or that the ER4P without the crazy upper midrange boost, and with more bass volume could be the best IEM in the world.
Conclusions (updated 07/24/2008)
As they stand, the RE1, the Triple.fi and the ER4P are differently flavoured IEMs. With rock, the RE1 are very smooth, fun, thumpy, big sounding and quite detailed (even if many metallic details are hidden due to the upper midrange dip), but they could make you want to raise the volume too much to be satisfied by their treble energy.
The Triple.fi are uncomfortable, the removable cable is a pain in the butt and they have sibilance. I would definitely place the RE1 over the Triple.fi if the former had just flat upper mids and lower treble, which instead are recessed.
Side note:
At this moment I am seriously convinced that the brash upper midrange/lower treble is a property of all balanced armature IEMs, not only Triple.fi. This doesn't seem to have to do with roll off, as roll off usually concerns an upper part of the treble. To give more validation to my hypothesis, I have looked at many graphs at Headroom, and all those armature IEMs have some spikes in the upper mids region (each to a different extent). This could explain why some people consider them to be more detailed than dynamic driver IEMs, and why other people consider them unlistenable. I consider them sibilant for this reason.
Not all dynamic driver IEMs have smooth upper mids, though. For example the Sony EX700 have been reported to be sibilant by some (like ClieoS), and their frequency response confirms it, with an awful hill at 8 kHz.
The RE1 are soft, but too relaxed to be perfectly enjoyable for treble lovers. They do some things very well though, like bass definition, imaging (much superior than the other dynamic driver IEM, the Atrio M5), soundstage, and overall clarity over other dark IEMs.
The ER4P would come third in this ranking due to the strongly bright and unnatural sound.
Priced at the 169$, the RE1 are very good value, especially if you already own a portable amp, but they high levels of SQ even unamped, at least if your player provides enough volume kick.
Informative note: The Big Clear BIFLANGES
The RE1 big clear biflanges are the best ones I ever tried. They are soft and seal well, they are very comfortable. Though, as stated above, you need to be aware that the inner diameter gets larger after many times you plug/unplug them from the nozzle, so they might need to be replaced every 1-2 months. Think about them like disposable biflanges.
I know that the RE1 come with two pairs of these, and Head-Direct has started to sell them separately, along with filters.
Tony
Review: Head-Direct RE1 IEM
