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Head Direct RE-252 Review
First impressions: Since unusually I’m writing this sometime after my first impressions are going from memory. The reason for this is that before I got these I had a long time waiting but knowing I was going to be sent a pair so with all the love the RE-0 was getting I picked up a set. I figured that the RE-3 (then renamed to RE-252) as head directs now high end option had to be even better than the RE-0. Having had the RE-0 and being just astonished by them I thought OMG how amazing must their successor be??? My god they could be the best universal IEM ever seeing at how close the RE-0 gets to the top. So when they finally came I was so excited to get to hear them I just couldn’t wait. Out came the RE-0 from my ears and in went the RE-252, oh how epic was this going to be!!!!! Then I pressed play. I was so disappointed. Just so impossibly disappointed, after the months of waiting this was it? I was not a happy bunny. Where was the bass??? Where was the treble??? Once I got home I thought oh maybe they just need a good burn in desperately clinging to the hope that they may yet spring to life and blow me away. While they were burning in I couldn’t help but look at them and think “my god head direct, what happened to you?” Aesthetically these look ridiculous and the feel of them is awful, great cheap rubbery blobs and to make matters worse they demand being worn down. Words can’t express how big a letdown these were to me.
I’ve now had these for several weeks and frankly they are still a puzzle to me. I feel like I just don’t know what to make of them at all. One part of me thinks these are amazing and yet meh. I know that makes no sense but I well have a try at explaining but I don’t know how well I will do for a poet I am not.
Since I still don’t know what to make of these let’s have a start with the things I do know about them.
Fit: At first I did not like the fit, I do not want to wear these down. I do not like the way they are supposed to fit and frankly I want to know why on earth they have been designed that way? It’s just awful and every other review of these I’ve seen says the same. They just don’t fit quite right and I certainly wasn’t hearing them properly wearing them as they are supposed to be. It was never uncomfortable but it never felt right and I really do not like wearing IEM’s down especially outside. Why would you design it like this??? I really just don’t understand why you would do this. My conversations with another chap with a set average joe, he found trying them upside down and rammed into your ears worked wonders for him so I gave it a go. It looks like it should be uncomfortable but it isn’t. In fact I can’t really feel them at all, its weird ass rubbery blobbyness means no hard points and even thought it looks weird its fine and I can actually get the sound aimed properly down my ear canal that I just never could wearing them down. So fit really is a pain in the bottom but now I’ve figured out how to get these right I have no problem getting the fit right. The thing is just because it work for me doesn’t mean it will work for you but its rubberyness means I’d hope it should be.
Comfort: Well wearing these down I didn’t like. They weren’t a problem really but they always felt wrong. Now that I’ve got them sitting happily then they are perfectly comfortable and maybe even one of the most comfortable things I’ve used. However its weird ass shape mean for you it could be utterly hit or miss.
Cable: meh. Nothing really wrong with it I guess but just to me feels like it doesn’t really belong on a high end premium product. I rather liked the mesh covered cable on my RE-0 better but it works fine.
Isolation: For a dynamic its pretty good, a little better than the IE8 so perfectly useable out and about. Probably not something far a flight to New Zealand but for most flights id could live with these quite happily.
Microphonics: Cable down it sucks. Cable up it sucks considerably less, not perfect but pretty close. Again why the designed to be worn down???
You may have noticed by this point I’ve said nothing about how they sound which is easily the main thing I’m sure you want to know about these. Frankly I don’t know. These have no sound. I know that sounds crazy but most of the things I’ve heard they have their own sound but with these, no. When I first listened to these after a few hundred hours of burn in I was so disappointed with them. I wanted them to be the RE-0 but with even more transparency and more bass. I wanted that crisp upfront super detailed treble that feels so bright and shiny. The RE-252 at first felt like it was all mids and not that great mids either. The more time I’ve spent with these the less wrong I can find with them. That sounds weird I know but it’s how I feel. They have no sound. When wearing these audio somehow enters creation without form or flaw. These don’t make sound they just somehow allow it to exist, when god said let there be light and it just was, so these say let there be music and there it is.
It took time but I acclimatised to these and they are so effortless. They take you and sit you in an ocean, mystically the waves of that ocean rise and fall and as they gently move, washing over you you hear music. Like a wave on the ocean it comes from no one place but yet they exist. The smallest tiny, most delicate ripples are there if you look along with great deep ocean swells. This is how these feel and it’s like nothing I’ve heard elsewhere.
I’m now going to have a go at being more technical about these, it really won’t capture the essence of these but I know it’s what you want to see, here goes.
Lows: At first I thought there was none, now I disagree. The bass is there and is a paragon of perfect neutrality. Many will want more but these are right, you are wrong. Still I want to be wrong sometimes, for fun thumping bassy songs I can’t say I can find it be lacking in abundance but it’s so uncoloured I want to say I want more bass. However my brain is telling me to shut up and that the bass is perfect. My heart says “meh, I’m bored.”
Mids: for most this will seem a bit mid focused at first but again you’re at fault not these. Once more my brain recognises the mids have to perceptible flaws coming through the portal in space and time these have opened up to let you hear the singers voices. The mids have no flaws I can find and I want to say they are 530 good but they just aren’t. These have no emotion or life in them yet they feel acoustically perfect. I know it makes no sense but there you are anyway.
Highs: many will want these to be more abundant and aggressive, these know better than you. The treble is fantastically detailed but so soft and polite in its presentation to you. Those who are familiar with my thoughts will know I’m not a treble junky but it was just so great, fun and lively on the RE-0 I can’t help but feel these lack that explosion of life the RE-0 have. These present the treble in perfect clarity my brain says perfect, my heart says meh.
Soundstage: Vast. These do not produce music they merely allow you to experience it. The IE8 sound huge these sound different. They have the most strange, expansive quality to them that I don’t really know how to quantify it in limited human language. Music seems to come into existence but I cant place where from and yet they don’t make me think “wow, these are huge” like the IE8 does when you first hear it. Music is just somehow there and sometimes if feels more intimate but never does it feel closed in or like its coming from a small speaker next to my ear. This has the strangest spatial presentation of anything I’ve heard.
Value: Erm I really don’t know. These do things nothing else does. You either want how these enable you to hear things or you don’t, cost really isn’t all that big a factor in buying these or not.
Conclusion: Well I have no idea what to say. These are stunning in their bland unassuming transparency and super neutral weird sound. When I hear them I can’t help but feel these must be close to perfection as I really can’t pick fault with how they sound. So you would think I’d want to listen to these all the time them wouldn’t you but I don’t. These have no soul. I know what a 530 sounds like, I know what a TF10 sounds like, I know what the ER4 sounds like. They each have a sound of their own and these just don’t.
Think of it like this, the 530 is a warm milky cup of earl grey, the ER4 is a sour lemon slush puppy (do you even still get slush puppy’s anymore? Not seen them in forever) okay I’m not sure what this would make the TF10’s but you get the idea. The RE-252 would be a room temperature glass of distilled water. Perfect and without flaw but somehow not really all that inspiring.
I really can’t find a fault with these but these make me feel nothing. Audio is presented to me faultlessly, so smooth and gentle yet with vast detail and clarity. I feel like everything is there in front of me but yet somehow they make me think “meh.” These are I think too neutral, too uncoloured to capture my imagination and make me really love any music on them but I can’t escape the feeling that it’s me at fault not these as everything sounds “perfect” on them so why don’t I love these? I don’t know but I just don’t. I feel these ought to be my favourites but no matter how perfect I know them to be my heart just isn’t interested.
btw pics will be added i just keep forgetting to take them, so i thought posting the review would force me to quickly
First impressions: Since unusually I’m writing this sometime after my first impressions are going from memory. The reason for this is that before I got these I had a long time waiting but knowing I was going to be sent a pair so with all the love the RE-0 was getting I picked up a set. I figured that the RE-3 (then renamed to RE-252) as head directs now high end option had to be even better than the RE-0. Having had the RE-0 and being just astonished by them I thought OMG how amazing must their successor be??? My god they could be the best universal IEM ever seeing at how close the RE-0 gets to the top. So when they finally came I was so excited to get to hear them I just couldn’t wait. Out came the RE-0 from my ears and in went the RE-252, oh how epic was this going to be!!!!! Then I pressed play. I was so disappointed. Just so impossibly disappointed, after the months of waiting this was it? I was not a happy bunny. Where was the bass??? Where was the treble??? Once I got home I thought oh maybe they just need a good burn in desperately clinging to the hope that they may yet spring to life and blow me away. While they were burning in I couldn’t help but look at them and think “my god head direct, what happened to you?” Aesthetically these look ridiculous and the feel of them is awful, great cheap rubbery blobs and to make matters worse they demand being worn down. Words can’t express how big a letdown these were to me.
I’ve now had these for several weeks and frankly they are still a puzzle to me. I feel like I just don’t know what to make of them at all. One part of me thinks these are amazing and yet meh. I know that makes no sense but I well have a try at explaining but I don’t know how well I will do for a poet I am not.
Since I still don’t know what to make of these let’s have a start with the things I do know about them.
Fit: At first I did not like the fit, I do not want to wear these down. I do not like the way they are supposed to fit and frankly I want to know why on earth they have been designed that way? It’s just awful and every other review of these I’ve seen says the same. They just don’t fit quite right and I certainly wasn’t hearing them properly wearing them as they are supposed to be. It was never uncomfortable but it never felt right and I really do not like wearing IEM’s down especially outside. Why would you design it like this??? I really just don’t understand why you would do this. My conversations with another chap with a set average joe, he found trying them upside down and rammed into your ears worked wonders for him so I gave it a go. It looks like it should be uncomfortable but it isn’t. In fact I can’t really feel them at all, its weird ass rubbery blobbyness means no hard points and even thought it looks weird its fine and I can actually get the sound aimed properly down my ear canal that I just never could wearing them down. So fit really is a pain in the bottom but now I’ve figured out how to get these right I have no problem getting the fit right. The thing is just because it work for me doesn’t mean it will work for you but its rubberyness means I’d hope it should be.
Comfort: Well wearing these down I didn’t like. They weren’t a problem really but they always felt wrong. Now that I’ve got them sitting happily then they are perfectly comfortable and maybe even one of the most comfortable things I’ve used. However its weird ass shape mean for you it could be utterly hit or miss.
Cable: meh. Nothing really wrong with it I guess but just to me feels like it doesn’t really belong on a high end premium product. I rather liked the mesh covered cable on my RE-0 better but it works fine.
Isolation: For a dynamic its pretty good, a little better than the IE8 so perfectly useable out and about. Probably not something far a flight to New Zealand but for most flights id could live with these quite happily.
Microphonics: Cable down it sucks. Cable up it sucks considerably less, not perfect but pretty close. Again why the designed to be worn down???
You may have noticed by this point I’ve said nothing about how they sound which is easily the main thing I’m sure you want to know about these. Frankly I don’t know. These have no sound. I know that sounds crazy but most of the things I’ve heard they have their own sound but with these, no. When I first listened to these after a few hundred hours of burn in I was so disappointed with them. I wanted them to be the RE-0 but with even more transparency and more bass. I wanted that crisp upfront super detailed treble that feels so bright and shiny. The RE-252 at first felt like it was all mids and not that great mids either. The more time I’ve spent with these the less wrong I can find with them. That sounds weird I know but it’s how I feel. They have no sound. When wearing these audio somehow enters creation without form or flaw. These don’t make sound they just somehow allow it to exist, when god said let there be light and it just was, so these say let there be music and there it is.
It took time but I acclimatised to these and they are so effortless. They take you and sit you in an ocean, mystically the waves of that ocean rise and fall and as they gently move, washing over you you hear music. Like a wave on the ocean it comes from no one place but yet they exist. The smallest tiny, most delicate ripples are there if you look along with great deep ocean swells. This is how these feel and it’s like nothing I’ve heard elsewhere.
I’m now going to have a go at being more technical about these, it really won’t capture the essence of these but I know it’s what you want to see, here goes.
Lows: At first I thought there was none, now I disagree. The bass is there and is a paragon of perfect neutrality. Many will want more but these are right, you are wrong. Still I want to be wrong sometimes, for fun thumping bassy songs I can’t say I can find it be lacking in abundance but it’s so uncoloured I want to say I want more bass. However my brain is telling me to shut up and that the bass is perfect. My heart says “meh, I’m bored.”
Mids: for most this will seem a bit mid focused at first but again you’re at fault not these. Once more my brain recognises the mids have to perceptible flaws coming through the portal in space and time these have opened up to let you hear the singers voices. The mids have no flaws I can find and I want to say they are 530 good but they just aren’t. These have no emotion or life in them yet they feel acoustically perfect. I know it makes no sense but there you are anyway.
Highs: many will want these to be more abundant and aggressive, these know better than you. The treble is fantastically detailed but so soft and polite in its presentation to you. Those who are familiar with my thoughts will know I’m not a treble junky but it was just so great, fun and lively on the RE-0 I can’t help but feel these lack that explosion of life the RE-0 have. These present the treble in perfect clarity my brain says perfect, my heart says meh.
Soundstage: Vast. These do not produce music they merely allow you to experience it. The IE8 sound huge these sound different. They have the most strange, expansive quality to them that I don’t really know how to quantify it in limited human language. Music seems to come into existence but I cant place where from and yet they don’t make me think “wow, these are huge” like the IE8 does when you first hear it. Music is just somehow there and sometimes if feels more intimate but never does it feel closed in or like its coming from a small speaker next to my ear. This has the strangest spatial presentation of anything I’ve heard.
Value: Erm I really don’t know. These do things nothing else does. You either want how these enable you to hear things or you don’t, cost really isn’t all that big a factor in buying these or not.
Conclusion: Well I have no idea what to say. These are stunning in their bland unassuming transparency and super neutral weird sound. When I hear them I can’t help but feel these must be close to perfection as I really can’t pick fault with how they sound. So you would think I’d want to listen to these all the time them wouldn’t you but I don’t. These have no soul. I know what a 530 sounds like, I know what a TF10 sounds like, I know what the ER4 sounds like. They each have a sound of their own and these just don’t.
Think of it like this, the 530 is a warm milky cup of earl grey, the ER4 is a sour lemon slush puppy (do you even still get slush puppy’s anymore? Not seen them in forever) okay I’m not sure what this would make the TF10’s but you get the idea. The RE-252 would be a room temperature glass of distilled water. Perfect and without flaw but somehow not really all that inspiring.
I really can’t find a fault with these but these make me feel nothing. Audio is presented to me faultlessly, so smooth and gentle yet with vast detail and clarity. I feel like everything is there in front of me but yet somehow they make me think “meh.” These are I think too neutral, too uncoloured to capture my imagination and make me really love any music on them but I can’t escape the feeling that it’s me at fault not these as everything sounds “perfect” on them so why don’t I love these? I don’t know but I just don’t. I feel these ought to be my favourites but no matter how perfect I know them to be my heart just isn’t interested.
btw pics will be added i just keep forgetting to take them, so i thought posting the review would force me to quickly
