Hi guys,

I picked up Senn HD555 for ~$80 and I am very impressed (have yet to do the foam mod to turn them into HD595s). I also want to get a pair of IEMs for portability and isolation, preferably at around the same price, $80-100. I will be listening to classical music (piano + orchestral) on the go, with iPhone + 400 kbps AAC source. I was thinking RE0 for the excellent value but I'm wondering if there are any superior IEMs since then. I think the only other competitor at this price point would be the RE-ZERO, but to my understanding there's very little improvement and probably not worth the extra price premium. Thoughts?

Quote:

uberb said:

Hi guys,

I picked up Senn HD555 for ~$80 and I am very impressed (have yet to do the foam mod to turn them into HD595s). I also want to get a pair of IEMs for portability and isolation, preferably at around the same price, $80-100. I will be listening to classical music (piano + orchestral) on the go, with iPhone + 400 kbps AAC source. I was thinking RE0 for the excellent value but I'm wondering if there are any superior IEMs since then. I think the only other competitor at this price point would be the RE-ZERO, but to my understanding there's very little improvement and probably not worth the extra price premium. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Nice score with the 555s. I chose 448s over 555s because I needed closed cans for office use, but I've always wondered about what I gave up by not buying 555s.
 
Anyway, I've been shopping for IEMs--again, mostly for classical--and everything I've read points to the RE0 and RE-zero as the best choices for $100 and below...and that's by a large margin. As for the 0 vs. the zero, this is what someone posted in reply to my thread:   "if you are going to amp then go with the RE0 if you are not going to amp then the re-zero."  I don't know if that's a consensus view or not.
 
Please keep me posted with what you end up with. Right now I'm thinking I either be frugal and get the RE-Zero or I splurge for a DBA-02, for almost twice as much.  In between there are several good options, but it's dizzying trying to sort them out.
 

^ So I just realized that the RE-ZERO requires an adapter if you want to listen to it from a portable source. That is a major put off for me because it's annoying and losing the adapter could be a major problem. So I think I will go with the RE0's. Even though they have a high impedance, I don't think they should be that hard to drive as some people make them out to be.