[Hi-Fi'er]

  That is very similar to my experience - took the best possible care and they only lasted around 10 months (this was a replacement).
 
I guess Re-600 is "built-not-to-last". I have HiFiMan Re-0 which I am using for 5+ years without any issues. 

They should recall the RE-600's and recable them for free with the RE-0 cable. Why they refuse to do this is not surprising, for them it's better to replace and keep replacing till either your 1 year is over and or the RE-600 is no longer available and they can wash their hands of it.

 

[tgdinamo]

  They should recall the RE-600's and recable them for free with the RE-0 cable. Why they refuse to do this is not surprising, for them it's better to replace and keep replacing till either your 1 year is over and or the RE-600 is no longer available and they can wash their hands of it.

 
Even though that most likely means washing their hands of the RE-600 customer for all their future products? They certainly accomplished that with me - RE-600 was the first and last product I will ever buy from them, and it's all because of that cable.

 

[Hi-Fi'er]

   
Even though that most likely means washing their hands of the RE-600 customer for all their future products? They certainly accomplished that with me - RE-600 was the first and last product I will ever buy from them, and it's all because of that cable.

I agree, the cable ruined the whole product. Take a awesome car and put crappy tires on it is what they basically did. Worthless. What's worse is that they acted dumb when I brought it to their attention by asking "hasn't anyone else reported this premature failure?" The lady was nice and sweet and said "No." I can't believe that.

 

[520RanchBro]

  I agree, the cable ruined the whole product. Take a awesome car and put crappy tires on it is what they basically did. Worthless. What's worse is that they acted dumb when I brought it to their attention by asking "hasn't anyone else reported this premature failure?" The lady was nice and sweet and said "No." I can't believe that.

I didn't even bother with them. Just sent mine to get recabled elsewhere and all is well. I love how small they are and the sound is awesome.
 
That said, if I could go back and buy a different IEM, I'd probably get one that's more durable. No intention of selling mine though, pretty much my endgame for IEMs.

 

[Hi-Fi'er]

Well I'm happy to announce that a great replacement IEM for the faulty RE-600 is the Ostry KC60A. The Ostry KC60A has more bass and midrange and top end clarity than the RE-600 and costs way less and is way more reliable. 

 

[rebbi]

Got my RE-600's about a month ago and they are still working well. Mine, too, have bumpy spots in the cord below the Y-splitter; never really thought of this as a defect, though...
This is actually a replacement pair. My first pair had a slight bend in the unbalanced adaptor plug and gave a strong impression that one channel was louder than the other - enough to skew the center fill phantom image off to one side. Rather than replacing them through Hifiman, I returned them through Amazon.com and my second pair has been fine. I do very much like their smooth, even, non-fatiguing sound! Detailed without hyped up treble or bloated bass. Nice!

 

[Hi-Fi'er]

  Got my RE-600's about a month ago and they are still working well. Mine, too, have bumpy spots in the cord below the Y-splitter; never really thought of this as a defect, though...
This is actually a replacement pair. My first pair had a slight bend in the unbalanced adaptor plug and gave a strong impression that one channel was louder than the other - enough to skew the center fill phantom image off to one side. Rather than replacing them through Hifiman, I returned them through Amazon.com and my second pair has been fine. I do very much like their smooth, even, non-fatiguing sound! Detailed without hyped up treble or bloated bass. Nice!

Add the warranty for 3 years through Amazon cause eventually they will fail. I did and I'm going to get a new pair but something else likely.

 

[goldtuba]

I'm having the same issues as everybody else, the cable is crap.  There are a couple of spots that the wire is poking through the sheath, but, luckily, my RE600's are still playing.  I've actually contacted BTG audio about getting these recabled.  If I didn't recently have unexpected vet bills, I would have already done it.  Although the recabling would not connect directly to the driver, it would be a much better alternative to given cable.  I've also had thoughts about upgrading, but I feel like I would have to spend $1000 plus in order to really upgrade.
 
To demonstrate how much I enjoy how my RE600s sound, I sold my Westone 4s after I bought these.  These match very well with the LG V10; almost the most balanced and natural music I have ever heard.  I finally found a portable combo that gets out of the way of the music.
 
Just adding in my 2 cents about the great IEM, terrible cable that everybody loves to hate.

 

[rebbi]

  Add the warranty for 3 years through Amazon cause eventually they will fail. I did and I'm going to get a new pair but something else likely.

I don't think you can go back after the sale and add that warranty, can you? I've had mine for a month. Love to be proven wrong on this, though!

 

[rebbi]

  I'm having the same issues as everybody else, the cable is crap.  There are a couple of spots that the wire is poking through the sheath, but, luckily, my RE600's are still playing.  I've actually contacted BTG audio about getting these recabled.  If I didn't recently have unexpected vet bills, I would have already done it.  Although the recabling would not connect directly to the driver, it would be a much better alternative to given cable.  I've also had thoughts about upgrading, but I feel like I would have to spend $1000 plus in order to really upgrade.
 
To demonstrate how much I enjoy how my RE600s sound, I sold my Westone 4s after I bought these.  These match very well with the LG V10; almost the most balanced and natural music I have ever heard.  I finally found a portable combo that gets out of the way of the music.
 
Just adding in my 2 cents about the great IEM, terrible cable that everybody loves to hate.

Yes, gorgeous sounding phones. Just listening to Norah Jones having an out-of-body experience.  

 

[Hi-Fi'er]

  I don't think you can go back after the sale and add that warranty, can you? I've had mine for a month. Love to be proven wrong on this, though!

I don't think you can after the purchase. Go try and see if there is a way, but I don't think so. It can only be added with the purchase. I'm waiting for mine to fail again so I can get these:
 

Final Audio Design Heaven IV Noir Balanced Armature Earphones Noir, Black

 

[rebbi]

  Got my RE-600's about a month ago and they are still working well. Mine, too, have bumpy spots in the cord below the Y-splitter; never really thought of this as a defect, though...
This is actually a replacement pair. My first pair had a slight bend in the unbalanced adaptor plug and gave a strong impression that one channel was louder than the other - enough to skew the center fill phantom image off to one side. Rather than replacing them through Hifiman, I returned them through Amazon.com and my second pair has been fine. I do very much like their smooth, even, non-fatiguing sound! Detailed without hyped up treble or bloated bass. Nice!

Spoke too soon - guess what?
 
This evening, the right earpiece started to short out when the main cable is flexed at the stress reliever near the plug! Holy crap(py cable)!
 
If it were only me, this would be one thing, but given the failure rate reported here, this is ridiculous. 

 

[Hi-Fi'er]

  Spoke too soon - guess what?
 
This evening, the right earpiece started to short out when the main cable is flexed at the stress reliever near the plug! Holy crap(py cable)!
 
If it were only me, this would be one thing, but given the failure rate reported here, this is ridiculous. 

Welcome to the club.

 

[Kibble Fat]

I thought it was odd to see an older headphone release at the top of this section. Started reading and sure enough, discussion is all about the high failure rate. heh.

I'm on my 3rd pair. One channel started cutting out on both of my previous RE-600s, getting worse and worse over a period of 2-4 weeks of moderate use until I could only get both channels to work if I had the cable positioned perfectly and didn't move my head or breathe. A small price to pay for top notch SQ Props to HiFiMAN for accepting my 2nd request for replacement 1 month beyond the 1-year manufacturer's warranty.

I got the $20 Amazon 3-year warranty thing after having a similar experience with the RE-Zero and RE-262. I got 1 warranty replacement for each within a year of purchase. The RE-Zero replacement is still running. RE-262... not so much.

For reference, my average use is probably 4-5 hours per day, Monday thru Friday in an office environment. And I always keep them neatly coiled up in a pelican case.

Are you guys finding that these are relatively simple to re-cable? Once my 3rd RE-600 fails, I may void the 3rd party warranty and attempt a re-cable. The sound is just that good. It's hard to demo higher-end IEMs and I'm usually too picky to accept any sound signature that's not HiFiMAN

HiFiMAN 4 lyfe!!!

PS: Nankai/Fang if you're reading this, please get someone good on these reliability issues! If not for the current models, at least for the upcoming ones. You have a hardcore fanbase for your IEM line that's slowly being eroded by the extremely low MTBF. I'm sure this is a delicate trade-off between cost / mfg tech / fidelity and reliability. If it really is just the cable, then that's an easy fix!

 

[rebbi]

@Kibble Fat
 
Interesting about the short getting worse over time. Right now, it's pretty intermittent: sometimes flexing the cable shorts out the right channel, and sometimes it doesn't. Nice to know it's likely to get worse over time.  

 
In any event, I've written to Hifiman customer service....