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Insightful comparisons Deni5. Some more vs Re-272 when you're ready :-D
Hi, I did some comparison in an older post in this thread. As I see it RE-272 is the perfected version of the older driver (not sure though if they were using same version for all the older models, probably not but there are sound similarities). Of course some may disagree because some prefer warmth and like the RE-262 more, I can understand that also. Still I find that the new line starting with RE-400 is capable of better balance. As said before it is the technically better one, but it has some small flaws reaching the qualities of RE-272 as it is now. It is a little mid centric. Treble is good but very slightly withdrawn. (still if I had to choose which one to use for all time between RE-272 and RE-400 I would have personally chosen RE-400)
You can change the sound signature by modding it. There are a couple of factors dependant on its sound signature.
* Metal housing - look at the difference in sound comparing Grado SR225 vs SR325, one is plastic one is metal
* Bass port - don't know if the older RE- line used this - I can see something that reminds of bass ports on my RE-ZERO but not sure. If you cover the bass port on the RE-400 you loose lots of bass so it does something to the sound.
* Titanium coating - look at the difference in sound comparing Koss Porta Pro and Koss KCS75. One is not titanium coated and one is.
* Neodymium magnet - Able to push lots of air
* 8.5mm Titanium Diapharagm - Should be some advantage to this, not sure but I think it has something to do with how fast/precise it can be
These are technical advantages as I see it. The thing that is controlling RE-400's sound signature is the white foam and black T4000-filter. White foam controls 3-7 kHz and T4000 7-infinity kHz as AstralStorm commented earlier in the thread. I tried removing the white foam and did get a less mid centric sound, but you also loose a lot of bass so I had to compensate with an extra T4000-filter as more dampening seems to lead to more bass. But when you dampen more in the 7-infinity region you loose some air and sparkle and some warmth in the vocals (although not noticable on all occasions). You could also do like AstralStorm did by removing the T4000-filter and keeping the white foam. More air and sparkle and bass should be pretty untouched as the white foam is doing the most of the dampening.
White foam seems also to control warmth and vocal range (although I don't consider RE-400 a very warm IEM). So you could experiment with different sizes of the white foam - either dampen more or less.
If you look at RE-272 it is using T2000-filters. This is a more transparent filter, you can easily see through it (I can easily see the white foam on my RE-272). The T4000 is not that transparent so it is dampening more. I believe it is the T2000 filter that gave the RE-272 that special soundstage/airyness.
Even changing different tips does a lot to the sound signature (check AstralStorm's earlier post on this). I think the length of the tip affects airyness - that is why I liked the longstem bi-flange on the RE-272 the most but you also loose a little warmth and bass when using that. There are a lot of mod capabilities so I believe you can get a equally good or perhaps a better IEM than the RE-272 if you mod the RE-400 because it is technically better from the start. You won't get the exact sound signature though, RE-400 is tuned differently towards more balance.
If you have tried any mod you will start to realize what capabilities this driver has. I personally believe that when they will finetune and release RE-600 should be amazing and take on most competition soundwise (they are already on the road on perfected balanced sound with the RE-400 imo).
