Upcoming Hifiman IEM's: RE-400 and RE-600 - Page 33

A note on soundstage:

Soundstage on RE-400 can be perceived in different ways depending on which tips you use or if you mod it. Personally I don't have a problem with it's soundstage anymore here is why.

 

I bought the Sennheiser HD-598 first and almost immediately liked its soundstage. A month later I bought the Sennheiser HD-600 and thought its soundstage was boring. With time I realized I prefer the soundstage on HD-600 compared to HD-598 because when listening music with HD-598 soundstage is wide all the time regardless of what song I'm listening to whilst in HD-600 it is wide when the recording calls for it (live music for example). So in this regard I see HD-598 as "fun" and HD-600 as "natural".

 

That is why I like the RE-400 so much because I find it natural.
 

what does re600 look like? is there any picture yet?

According to the (leaked) photos it is like a gold re400 but it would suck if it has the quality of re400 for the price they are asking.

Depends on which quality. If sound, then uhm, yes - but it's not easy to improve on that.

Cable and cinch, definitely. Shell itself is very nice and doesn't need much improvement.

I got this off the site just the other day.

 

 

Now that I also bought a pair of the HE-400 planar headphones I just want to see how the RE-400 compares as far as sound signature but not the presentation as the HE-400 should win hands down.

 

To me, RE-400 soundstage is pretty eartips dependent. The big bi-flanges is the one that is better for soundstage. However, the reason why I said it is 'above average' is because, although the overall size of the 3D space is not big, the layering is still fairly clean. Instead of mashing all the detail to a blurry mesh or have everything flatten out, I can still hear a decent detail of separation, image, and position. That's why I described it as 'third role of a small theatre' - where you are not that far away from the action, but still far enough to identify the whole picture.

Edited by ClieOS - 3/6/13 at 2:31am

Yes i meant the physical quality such as the cable cinch, and the nonsleeved cables above the splitter which are thin, feels flimsy and cheap. I have modded stretched out a pair of shure foamies for my RE400 and i think it gives it a bit more life in the mids, brings vocals closer. Soundstage also increases possibly because the driver is further away from the ear

 

I hope there will be orthodynamic IEMs someday. I would be all over those.

One thing RE-400 handles great would also be distortion. Check Rin's measurements on this and compare to RE-272 (which already had good values). Not a bad feat of a 99$ IEM (courtesy of the titanium driver I guess, surely not only).
 

 

I hear ya, the soundstage doesn't have to be huge but like you describe it is great.  The SM3 while its soundstage width isn't huge but with the separation and 3D imaging it makes them sound much bigger than they really are.  

 

I'm really looking forward to hearing them as they might be the best $100 and under IEM you can get.  Your 7.5 rating and 5/5 sonic diamond is high praise though I don't expect them to sound as good as my e-Q5 because I think the e-Q5 sounds every bit as good as the SM3 V2 and is why I sold them which helped me get the RE and HE 400.

 

I remember someone posting that Vsonics was coming out with a pair sometime in the future as there was no time frame but I don't know how true that was.

Looks so sexy:))

Just finished a long listening session. Not fatiguing at all.

 

I can't agree too much with this reasoning. So if they sold them for 200 USD - would this automatically make them better. If they sold them for that much I would personally not complain. But really, the price is not always a measurement on how good something sounds even if it's mostly so. Audio Technica increased the price on the M50 once they realized it could be sold for more. Surely Hifiman could do the same thing, but probably won't.

 

To me the only thing that counts is that it sounds good, that is always priority imo. If it is at a reasonable price, then count that as a bonus.

 

Joker's review is probably coming any day soon. I guess 8+ (high 8 something) and would not be very surprised if it received a 9 (low 9).