[Badfish5446]

First off, I liked the review quite a bit.  Second I too think these things are pretty outstanding, especially given the price.  I haven't had enough ear time with these and have only used my phones (HTC M9 & Iphone 6 plus).  I can't comment on the original 0, Zero or 400 but I can say relative to the RE-600 these are much closer in performance than price.  
 
Initial Impression:
 
I honestly think these are a no-brainer for those looking for a fairly neutral pair on the cheap.  Of the IEM's I own it certainly competes along side offerings double/triple it's price.  I get a bit of "manufactured clarity" vibe aka a spike in the upper mids/lower treble  but there is also a lot of inherent clarity in these drivers. I  have no qualms with it being driven by the ever so slightly bassy HTC.
 
Will update with more impressions when I get some time with other desktop and portable sources.  

 

[RiO]

I've been looking for neutral earphones for a while and haven't yet settled with any. The RE-00 appears to fit the bill based on these early reviews and comments.

 

[mark2410]

  I ordered a pair before finishing reading the review. Can't wait to hear them. Great review! 

good.  this was i wanted my review out asap when i saw they had gone for another drop.  please come back and say how you find them.

 

[duo8]

How does the soundstage compare to the RE 400?

 

[mark2410]

  How does the soundstage compare to the RE 400?

meh, they arent very different but the 00 id say is the more direct of the two and thus tends to be smaller.

 

[H T T]

@mark2410, you heaped similar praise on the Trinity Hyperion in an earlier review. Please suffer me a few questions. Which IEM do you prefer and why? Thanks in advance for your reply!

Edit: technically the Vyrus is yin and the RE00 is yang.

In my less than audiophile opinion, having a RE00 and a Trinity Vyrus and you have the perfect yin/yang of sub-$100 IEMs.

 

[mark2410]

@mark2410, you heaped similar praise on the Trinity Hyperion in an earlier review. Please suffer me a few questions. Which IEM do you prefer and why? Thanks in advance for your reply!

Edit: technically the Vyrus is yin and the RE00 is yang.

In my less than audiophile opinion, having a RE00 and a Trinity Vyrus and you have the perfect yin/yang of sub-$100 IEMs.

well praise yes not that similar id say, but whatever.
 
well, the 00 is better. no question its better than almost everything.  now id say if your having to ask about the two then that likely means you will prefer the Hyperion.  the 00 is balanced for the more hardcore audiophile, vory neutral bass levels.  the accuracy of it and detail levels are insanely good.  the Hyperion has considerably more bass and its balance is going to be the one the proverbial guy in the street will prefer.  the same goes for the Vyrus although the vyrus is rather better than the Hyperion. 
 
so while the 00 smashes them in pure audio quality its purity isnt what most normal people are looking for.  most people simply wont like the bass levels on the 00.  it was the same with the 0 when it got its price drop.  people saw the praise, got one, discovered they hated its bass levels.
 
so which do i prefer?  personally, id probably go with the 00 but the Vyrus wouldnt be far behind.  the 00 is better but its so pure, the Vyrus is much more of an entertainer.  think of the 00 as a work of art, a masterpiece.  the Vyrus would be more akin to instead of a painting, putting a TV on the wall.  the masterpiese may be better but the TV is more versitile and offors up more fun.

 

[maxnik]

well HIFIMan should be paying you... had to go get them.... on top of HE-350....

 

[mark2410]

  well HIFIMan should be paying you... had to go get them.... on top of HE-350....

see this is whey the traditional greeting here is welcome, sorry about your wallet

 

[G_T_J]

I just read this review and I'm glad I had already ordered a pair before the end of the drop and reading this review. I'm also glad I wasn't put off by some silly comments in the massdrop discussions referring to ''how bad these iems sound''...
 
Mark is one of my favourite reviewers. I've been following him since the Triple Fi 10 years. Those were a big favourite of mine back then and he also loved them.
 
As for this specific literation of the original RE-0, I never had the originals but I always wanted to get a pair and try them. I had been keeping an eye for a used pair but never grabbed one eventually... Well up to now I guess!
 
I'm a big fan of Hifiman's trademark sound. I've had RE-600 and RE-400 and while I got rid of my RE-600 pretty soon after I acquired them as they were quite ''gloomy'' for my liking, the RE-400 are one of my favourite IEM's ever! I even tend to prefer them over my Flare Audio R2 Pro's for their lifelike sound and sheer naturalness and musicality. I've always found RE-400's bass more than adequate for my music tastes and couldn't understand those that considered them bass-light. Having said that, I'm prepared to hear less bass with the RE-00 than with my RE-400 and I'm sure I will be perfectly fine with that! I mostly listen to rock/metal music and these genres benefit from a fast accurate signature. 
 
From memory, I liked the cold accurate signature of the DBA-02 as an alternative to more ''musical'' sets even if it was a bit basslight when I was out and about and couldn't do critical listening. 
 
My questions are how close are these to DBA-02/ Brainwavz B2 and how different are from the Triple Fi's? Unfortunately I never had the Ety's to comment on.
 
 
Great review BTW. Can't wait to get my pair. I'm planing to use them with my Note 4 > OTG > Dragonfly V 1.0 and my iBasso DX90.
 
Cheers

 

[james444]

 

HiFiMAN RE-00 Earphone Review by mark2410

 
Excellent review as always, thanks! I agree these are very good value IEMs with overall great sound quality.
 

I like these a lot. A heckuva lot. Even putting aside the price. Great review overall. However, I strongly, vehemently, loudly, bigly disagree that the bass is neutral. I've worked in recording studios. I have owned several pairs of truly neutral studio headphones. These aren't even in the ballpark of being neutral in the bass. Not even remotely close. They're rolled off in the bass, no ifs, ands or buts. Now they're not dead to the point of being unlistenable. You can hear the bass. But they're simply not neutral in the bass. To say so is simply misleading. These have less bass than, for example, an audio technical ad700. Less bass than a koss ksc75.

Other than that I pretty much concur 100% with your review.

 
However, I have to agree to some extent with this post, too. To my ears, the RE-00's low end rolls off a bit early. And to add insult to injury, they sound a tad overdamped imo, which makes them smooth and non-fatiguing to listen to, but also somewhat lifeless and lacking in perceived dynamics and depth.
 
So, for those who feel the RE-00 could use a smidgen more bass and dynamics, you might want to try the following little mod. It makes them sound slightly less damped and fuller in bass, but without much of a trade-off in smoothness:
 
- Peel off the black nozzle filters. I used a thin needle and easily managed to get them off unharmed. (Guess an x-acto knife would do the job just as well.)
 
- Use a needle to pick the white damping foam out of the nozzle:
 

 
- Hard to tell from the above pic, but you'll notice that the foam is shaped like a disc (or rather a flat cylinder). Now, fold the thing into a u-shape, like a taco shell...
 

 
... and shove it back into the nozzle:
 

 
- The result should look like this, with foam taking up most of the inner tube space. However, it should leave a narrow "duct" at the edge, through which air can move freely.
 

 
- Done! Leave everything as is (you can of course put the black filters back on, though personally I prefer the sound without black filters).
 
The modded foam filter is supposed to smooth out treble almost as effectively as stock, but it offers less resistance to bass impulses (due to the "duct"), which makes the whole thing sound slightly less damped and more dynamic and alive. Bass impact after the mod is a tad higher than stock, but to my ears still close to neutral and nowhere near basshead levels.
 
Disclaimer: this mod should be fully reversible, but I haven't tried to reverse it on my pair (since I ended up preferring the modded sound signature over stock).

 

[G_T_J]

Nice mod James.
 
I remember me doing the mod you suggested for the R2 pros, the one with the teabag fabric. I couldn't stand the harshness these iems produce with silicon tips. That one indeed tamed a lot of those treble peaks. However, I decided these sound better with Comply foams and reverted back to their stock ones.
 
How would you compare the RE-00 to with the R2 Pros in a few words?

 

[james444]

How would you compare the RE-00 to with the R2 Pros in a few words?

The RE-00 are much closer to the DBA-02 you mentioned than to the Flares. Only smoother, due to DD vs. TWFK drivers. Similarly intimate and (upper) mids-forward sounding as the DBAs, whereas the Flares have an upper mids dip and sound more laid-back and spacious.

 

[G_T_J]

The RE-00 are much closer to the DBA-02 you mentioned than to the Flares. Only smoother, due to DD vs. TWFK drivers. Similarly intimate and (upper) mids-forward sounding as the DBAs, whereas the Flares have an upper mids dip and sound more laid-back and spacious.

Excellent! Thank you very much for the input! I remember me liking the DBA-02 sound a lot. They just needed silence and concentration in order to be thoroughly appreciated. 

 

[HONEYBOY]

@james444  Thanks for the mod. Am excited by the prospect of being able to tinker with the bass levels a tad.