antonyfirst
Headphoneus Supremus
I have got a HifiMan package, the RE-262 canalphones and HM-601 portable player, meant as a review combo. I have had them for about a week, forming impressions by using them in combination, separately with other gear, and meeting a friend audiophiles who has heard quality gear in the portable realm.
Since, expectably, many words have already been spent on the HM-601 firmware usability, I wont repeat much information in that regard (although I will pick on a couple of issues that did bother me), and I will mostly focus on the sound of both devices (and fit, in the case of the RE-262).
The way I mentally built this review, I am going to describe the RE262 first (independently from the player they came in bundle with), then do the same with the HM-602, and finally post insights on both they signatures and how well they can go together in my opinion, and what their best matches would be to my ears.
RE-262
The RE-262 follow a similar phylosophy to that of the RE-252, both aesthetically and in some choices tonally, but improve on everything across the whole spectrum.
They are similar in their body, although instead of the rubber arm of the 252s (which many of us found uncomfortable), they sport a sort spherical addition where a small opening (a "port") exists, and is fundamental for the RE262 functionality.
An opening as such means that the isolation is only partial, which can have upsides and downsides (on the good, they are safer for road awareness; on the bad, some details are lost in noisy transports or you can hear idiots talking too loudly during quite passages).
Soundwise, just like it happens the 252s, the stage size becomes huge (for a IEM!) and widely out of the head, resembling more that of earphones like Yuin PK1/OK1/OK2 and feeling much wider than IEMs like Etymotic ER4 or Westone 3, still slightly wider than Triple.fi 10 Pro.
The port is also instrumental to tweak the behavior of the dynamic driver they used in order to make it sound as intended.
Tonally, the RE-262 are like "ER4 merges RE252 and then the result becomes warmer". In fact, using ER4P as a choice of living (best compromise I have
found for comfort, sound and durability as their cable will likely outlast the local Economic system, so I will have other things to worry about rather than the wire breaking at the jack, which happens with 95% of the Iems/earphones in existence, especially for a listen-on-the walk freak like me), I would first want to focus on the differences between these two, widening the horizons only after that point.
A reason for I like Etys is that I find their vocals rendition acceptable. They aren't the last word in fullness, but they produce the right presence and intimacy, which I locate in the frequency spectrum in the 1-2 kHz area. The RE262 have similar upper mids presence, but make the overall voices fuller by extending the "sense of tilt" to the lower midrange. This makes vocals fuller (and some male singers not "castrated", as a friend in US said once, although as an exaggeration, about Etymotic) -- in other words, ER4 sound more "digital"a by immediate comparison, while RE262 confer to humans some more "meat". So, presence, humanity, intimacy in the midrange department. Some area in the lower highs area is slightly tilted too, which translates in certain electronics sounds (see Trance like Shulman) being a bit too resonating but these occurrences are usually far between and occur mostly with that kind of music. This also happened with one female singer, Bjork, in some of her loudest "cries".
The rest of the treble is basically flat and perfect, at least with silicon tips (I mostly used the big biflanges), being on the spot without attenuating cymbals, nor producing artificial sibilance. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Comply tips, because they reduce the highs, preventing the canalphone from performing at its best.
The bass is just tight and right, goes the right depth (similar to Ety in extension, although slightly bigger in quantity), but has a peculiarity which I personally appreciate, and adds to the sense of expansive soundstage (for a IEM). Whereas the low bass hits, with usual iems, are produced by the air pressure in the depth of the ear canal, the RE262 do something different and those "bubbles" of deep bass are to be perceived where the "port" opening is supposed to be.
So, while a solid bass foundation often makes soundstage feel very "in the head" with iems, here the opposite takes place.
In regards to the RE252, the RE262 solve most of the stridency/honkiness issues I reported with the old model, reducing the sporadic issues only to the cases mentioned above.
Structurally, I have reservations (I would have to say "problems") with the fit. It's mostly because my right ear canal is somehow wider than the left one, so it's prone to lose the seal more often, and I usually have to push IEMs quite deeply to overcome the problem. The way the RE262 are conceived, they cannot be pushed deeply because their form factor prevents it. They are similar to the 252 in this regard, although the absence of the "arm" that was in the 252 makes
things better with the 262. So, while many will have no problems fitting these, I cannot guarantee that others won't have to do some trial and error, try other kinds of tips, or these could simply not be for everyone. For my personal case, I wish that the driver nozzle was longer.
As far of microphonics, they are there but can be taken care of by wearing these over the ear (I do so).
HM-602
The HM-602 feels like a vintage DAP coming from the years of Rio Karma, but is actually much lighter than one would expect. The plastic does feel a bit fragile, which is perhaps suggested also by the light weight. The interface isn't very practical but I don't spend much time by toying with daps. An issue I found is that, even when keeping the hold function on (theoretically making the dap unsensitive to touches), prolonged pressions to the "play" button area to stop the music. Then, to have it play again one has to change the hold switch (so it does work!), then play etc. I think it is a software bug and it should really be taken care of, as on the go this could be frustrating and happened to me more often than I would like, especially with such a thicker player than the norm.
Sonically, the DAP approaches a phylosophy that I agree with. Many digital sources, especially in the portable realm, measure "flat", which doesn't make them real, but rather "digital" sounding. The treble should indeed have a natural roll off with sources. This is what this source does, which is good although poses some pairing problems with certain iems.
The Hm602 has a full sound, especially in the midbass-lower midrange, which makes it couple extremely well with flat-tish earphones like ER4 (or by memory I would say JH13 and RE0), or also bright iems in general.
Last Saturday I did a mini meet with a friend who carried Westone 3, and they didn't sound as good with the Hm602 player, because by offering the same tonality in the middle/low part of the spectrum, it becomes too much.
With the RE262, I still think there is too much in the midrange although the tone is very "cohesive" and "whole-ish". In fact, I believe the biggest reason of existence of the HM602 is to act as the right dap for high quality IEMs/earphones like Jh13 or Yuin Ok1 (and, especially in the first case, the high price tag becomes easy to justify). Speaking of Jh13, they are a sort of "magnifying" glass to the source and they are just too sacrified with regular players, especially in the midrange -- as Jh13 are pretty transparent in the mids, taking out an usually "grey" midrange like is more or less with most dap's doesn't make justice to the price tag paid for such customs.
Users of other monitor-like iem's like ER4 and others would still appreciate the overall signature to be "warmed up". I wouldn't feel like advicing the player for stuff like Shure se530, the bassier westones or Triple fi because the pairing just wouldn't be what I'd want to listen to.
Finally, a couple of words about the internal amp. It's indeed powerful and can power stuff like my Thunderpants, at high gain, without problems (as far as volume goes). In this very case, the sound was a bit muffled (the TP are extremely resolving, given the right rig behind them). After trying my friend's Mini^3 out of the Hm602's lineout, the results were extremely good, to the point that clarity was much closer to what I am used to in my home rig than if using the
internal amp.
Conclusions:
I believe each product can appeal an audience, which is probably going to be wider for the iem's (even giving the more affordable price tag alone) than the dap. It's mostly because I can see the dap aimed to a range of people (custom iem users and such) that's by nature narrower than the other group (pretty much any dap user, provided their player can drive the 150 ohm load -- my Sony A846, which isn't the most powerful dap in the world, is able to altough keeping the volume level very high, while my friend's Cowon D2 drove them effortlessly). While I had suggested the old RE252 to people who weren't bothered by quirks that were particularly standing out, the RE262 will be appealing to more people because they are more refined, don't have "fatal flaws" in the spectrum, and can count on a few very good qualities. Fit reservations remain to me, but I see many people being able to wear things like Triple.fi, and dynamic driver iem's (all using tips of larger inner diameter than other kinds of Iem's like etys, shure or westones), so each one should be able to make an informed choice in regards to this issue.
Thanks for reading.
Tony
Since, expectably, many words have already been spent on the HM-601 firmware usability, I wont repeat much information in that regard (although I will pick on a couple of issues that did bother me), and I will mostly focus on the sound of both devices (and fit, in the case of the RE-262).
The way I mentally built this review, I am going to describe the RE262 first (independently from the player they came in bundle with), then do the same with the HM-602, and finally post insights on both they signatures and how well they can go together in my opinion, and what their best matches would be to my ears.
RE-262
The RE-262 follow a similar phylosophy to that of the RE-252, both aesthetically and in some choices tonally, but improve on everything across the whole spectrum.
They are similar in their body, although instead of the rubber arm of the 252s (which many of us found uncomfortable), they sport a sort spherical addition where a small opening (a "port") exists, and is fundamental for the RE262 functionality.
An opening as such means that the isolation is only partial, which can have upsides and downsides (on the good, they are safer for road awareness; on the bad, some details are lost in noisy transports or you can hear idiots talking too loudly during quite passages).
Soundwise, just like it happens the 252s, the stage size becomes huge (for a IEM!) and widely out of the head, resembling more that of earphones like Yuin PK1/OK1/OK2 and feeling much wider than IEMs like Etymotic ER4 or Westone 3, still slightly wider than Triple.fi 10 Pro.
The port is also instrumental to tweak the behavior of the dynamic driver they used in order to make it sound as intended.
Tonally, the RE-262 are like "ER4 merges RE252 and then the result becomes warmer". In fact, using ER4P as a choice of living (best compromise I have
found for comfort, sound and durability as their cable will likely outlast the local Economic system, so I will have other things to worry about rather than the wire breaking at the jack, which happens with 95% of the Iems/earphones in existence, especially for a listen-on-the walk freak like me), I would first want to focus on the differences between these two, widening the horizons only after that point.
A reason for I like Etys is that I find their vocals rendition acceptable. They aren't the last word in fullness, but they produce the right presence and intimacy, which I locate in the frequency spectrum in the 1-2 kHz area. The RE262 have similar upper mids presence, but make the overall voices fuller by extending the "sense of tilt" to the lower midrange. This makes vocals fuller (and some male singers not "castrated", as a friend in US said once, although as an exaggeration, about Etymotic) -- in other words, ER4 sound more "digital"a by immediate comparison, while RE262 confer to humans some more "meat". So, presence, humanity, intimacy in the midrange department. Some area in the lower highs area is slightly tilted too, which translates in certain electronics sounds (see Trance like Shulman) being a bit too resonating but these occurrences are usually far between and occur mostly with that kind of music. This also happened with one female singer, Bjork, in some of her loudest "cries".
The rest of the treble is basically flat and perfect, at least with silicon tips (I mostly used the big biflanges), being on the spot without attenuating cymbals, nor producing artificial sibilance. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Comply tips, because they reduce the highs, preventing the canalphone from performing at its best.
The bass is just tight and right, goes the right depth (similar to Ety in extension, although slightly bigger in quantity), but has a peculiarity which I personally appreciate, and adds to the sense of expansive soundstage (for a IEM). Whereas the low bass hits, with usual iems, are produced by the air pressure in the depth of the ear canal, the RE262 do something different and those "bubbles" of deep bass are to be perceived where the "port" opening is supposed to be.
So, while a solid bass foundation often makes soundstage feel very "in the head" with iems, here the opposite takes place.
In regards to the RE252, the RE262 solve most of the stridency/honkiness issues I reported with the old model, reducing the sporadic issues only to the cases mentioned above.
Structurally, I have reservations (I would have to say "problems") with the fit. It's mostly because my right ear canal is somehow wider than the left one, so it's prone to lose the seal more often, and I usually have to push IEMs quite deeply to overcome the problem. The way the RE262 are conceived, they cannot be pushed deeply because their form factor prevents it. They are similar to the 252 in this regard, although the absence of the "arm" that was in the 252 makes
things better with the 262. So, while many will have no problems fitting these, I cannot guarantee that others won't have to do some trial and error, try other kinds of tips, or these could simply not be for everyone. For my personal case, I wish that the driver nozzle was longer.
As far of microphonics, they are there but can be taken care of by wearing these over the ear (I do so).
HM-602
The HM-602 feels like a vintage DAP coming from the years of Rio Karma, but is actually much lighter than one would expect. The plastic does feel a bit fragile, which is perhaps suggested also by the light weight. The interface isn't very practical but I don't spend much time by toying with daps. An issue I found is that, even when keeping the hold function on (theoretically making the dap unsensitive to touches), prolonged pressions to the "play" button area to stop the music. Then, to have it play again one has to change the hold switch (so it does work!), then play etc. I think it is a software bug and it should really be taken care of, as on the go this could be frustrating and happened to me more often than I would like, especially with such a thicker player than the norm.
Sonically, the DAP approaches a phylosophy that I agree with. Many digital sources, especially in the portable realm, measure "flat", which doesn't make them real, but rather "digital" sounding. The treble should indeed have a natural roll off with sources. This is what this source does, which is good although poses some pairing problems with certain iems.
The Hm602 has a full sound, especially in the midbass-lower midrange, which makes it couple extremely well with flat-tish earphones like ER4 (or by memory I would say JH13 and RE0), or also bright iems in general.
Last Saturday I did a mini meet with a friend who carried Westone 3, and they didn't sound as good with the Hm602 player, because by offering the same tonality in the middle/low part of the spectrum, it becomes too much.
With the RE262, I still think there is too much in the midrange although the tone is very "cohesive" and "whole-ish". In fact, I believe the biggest reason of existence of the HM602 is to act as the right dap for high quality IEMs/earphones like Jh13 or Yuin Ok1 (and, especially in the first case, the high price tag becomes easy to justify). Speaking of Jh13, they are a sort of "magnifying" glass to the source and they are just too sacrified with regular players, especially in the midrange -- as Jh13 are pretty transparent in the mids, taking out an usually "grey" midrange like is more or less with most dap's doesn't make justice to the price tag paid for such customs.
Users of other monitor-like iem's like ER4 and others would still appreciate the overall signature to be "warmed up". I wouldn't feel like advicing the player for stuff like Shure se530, the bassier westones or Triple fi because the pairing just wouldn't be what I'd want to listen to.
Finally, a couple of words about the internal amp. It's indeed powerful and can power stuff like my Thunderpants, at high gain, without problems (as far as volume goes). In this very case, the sound was a bit muffled (the TP are extremely resolving, given the right rig behind them). After trying my friend's Mini^3 out of the Hm602's lineout, the results were extremely good, to the point that clarity was much closer to what I am used to in my home rig than if using the
internal amp.
Conclusions:
I believe each product can appeal an audience, which is probably going to be wider for the iem's (even giving the more affordable price tag alone) than the dap. It's mostly because I can see the dap aimed to a range of people (custom iem users and such) that's by nature narrower than the other group (pretty much any dap user, provided their player can drive the 150 ohm load -- my Sony A846, which isn't the most powerful dap in the world, is able to altough keeping the volume level very high, while my friend's Cowon D2 drove them effortlessly). While I had suggested the old RE252 to people who weren't bothered by quirks that were particularly standing out, the RE262 will be appealing to more people because they are more refined, don't have "fatal flaws" in the spectrum, and can count on a few very good qualities. Fit reservations remain to me, but I see many people being able to wear things like Triple.fi, and dynamic driver iem's (all using tips of larger inner diameter than other kinds of Iem's like etys, shure or westones), so each one should be able to make an informed choice in regards to this issue.
Thanks for reading.
Tony
