Goku
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2010
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Cool..gotta look out for these
I'm just gonna add some heat to the flame.
Why on earth would they add a balanced jack on a $99 earphone? Nothing (so far) will work with that jack without an adapter. Only the most expensive headphone amps have a balanced jack. Who on earth will use such a high end amp for a relatively cheap pair of earphones? Maybe 0.1% of the buyers will take advantage of what balanced input jacks has to offer.
I have no idea what they're thinking when they decided "hey, let's piss off 99.9% of our customers by adding a TRRS connector to please the 0.1% of our customers that'll take advantage of that". I don't get that. Not only that, they introduce unnecessary cost (not just to make, but to design as well) to their product. Those are 2 of the biggest mistakes you can do in a business.
If you put balanced jacks on the HE-6, OK, we can understand, because it is a high end feature for a ultra high end pair of headphones. For the $99, absolutely not, no matter how great the improvements. I highly doubt you can hear a noticeable improvement from a balanced jack anyways, certainly not on a pair of $99 earphones.
I'm just gonna add some heat to the flame.
Why on earth would they add a balanced jack on a $99 earphone? Almost nothing works with that jack without an adapter. Only the most expensive headphone amps have a balanced jack. You can probably count the total number of devices that can take a TRRS jack with your hands. Who on earth will use such a high end amp for a relatively cheap pair of earphones? Maybe 0.1% of the buyers will take advantage of what balanced input jacks has to offer.
I have no idea what they're thinking when they decided "hey, let's piss off 99.9% of our customers by adding a TRRS connector to please the 0.1% of our customers that'll take advantage of that". I don't get that. Not only that, they introduce unnecessary cost (not just to make, but to design as well) to their product. Those are 2 of the biggest mistakes you can do in a business, purposely introduce unnecessary cost and pissing off 99.9% of your customers at the same time.
If you put balanced jacks on the HE-6, OK, we can understand, because it is a high end feature for a ultra high end pair of headphones. For the $99, absolutely not, no matter how great the improvements. I highly doubt you can hear a noticeable improvement from a balanced jack anyways, certainly not on a pair of $99 earphones.
Well, price doesn't mean anything. When the RE-0 first came out I think they were $200USD, then slowly dropped down until $79. Does it mean the RE-0 now being $79 can't compete with $200 IEMs? If you think it can't then you're highly mistaken. So, the whole $99 is an understatement. Another thing, it is a limited edition, so they added something special. Not everyone has to go out a buy the RE-ZERO, you can still buy the RE-0. It doesn't matter if people can't benefit from the balanced jack and have to use an adapter because it sounds great already. But, when in time if buyers do get a balanced amp they have the option of using their RE-ZERO. So I don't understand where this whole "pissing off 99.9% of your customers at the same time" thought process. They do offer several adapters, so if you don't want to use an adapter, that sounds like a personal problem.
Let's put it this way, Head-Direct can do whatever they want on their product, think of the balanced jack as a small freebie for a pair of IEMs that only cost $99 but well push beyond it's tier level.
I'm not quite sure yet as my burn in on them isn't complete but initially the bass seemed very similar... so if you get them, you may wanna keep that FiiO E5 handy.
I don't have my RE0 anymore but from memory it seems as if the Zero just presents it a bit differently.
I agree that the RE0 is far beyond its $79/$99 suggests. But from a business standpoint, a price of $99 is geared toward the mass. The mass cannot take advantage of what the TRRS connector brings. Not only the mass can't take advantage of it, they can't use it at all without an adapter. It is inconvenient to carry around another cable. What if you lose the adapter? Forget to bring it? Then you can't use it at all. Only the few hard core audiophiles can take advantage of it. What are the percentages of hard core audiophiles buying the RE-ZERO? Very little, probably less than 1%. Therefore it is inappropriate, again, in a business perspective, to bother the mass with an adapter so you can please the VERY small niche with the benefits of a balanced jack.
I had the HE-6 example in my previous post for the same reason. The HE-6, at well over $1000, is geared towards hard core audiophiles. If they put a balanced jack on the HE-6, chances are that they'll be pleasing a lot more people than bothering.
I agree that the RE0 is far beyond its $79/$99 suggests. But from a business standpoint, a price of $99 is geared toward the mass. The mass cannot take advantage of what the TRRS connector brings. Not only the mass can't take advantage of it, they can't use it at all without an adapter. It is inconvenient to carry around another cable. What if you lose the adapter? Forget to bring it? Then you can't use it at all. Only the few hard core audiophiles can take advantage of it. What are the percentages of hard core audiophiles buying the RE-ZERO? Very little, probably less than 1%. Therefore it is inappropriate, again, in a business perspective, to bother the mass with an adapter so you can please the VERY small niche with the benefits of a balanced jack.
I had the HE-6 example in my previous post for the same reason. The HE-6, at well over $1000, is geared towards hard core audiophiles. If they put a balanced jack on the HE-6, chances are that they'll be pleasing a lot more people than bothering.
I don't have my RE0 anymore but from memory it seems as if the Zero just presents it a bit differently.