proedros
Headphoneus Supremus
great post/review.
these are great iems and people should definitely cjeck em out
Quote:
these are great iems and people should definitely cjeck em out
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Well, I bit the bullet and grabbed RE272.
RE272's highs are fantastic. They make short work of Westone 4 and Ety 4P. Apart from the dry sounding 4kHz boost and some slight 6-9k dip, the highs are strong and even.
Extension is not measurable by my ear... beyond 19.5kHz.
Mids are well detailed, with some 2kHz boost adding extra "power" but definitely subtracting from finesse. Quite the inverse of GR07, which have 2kHz dip.
Bass with the right tips is quite on par with GR07 in quality, if not better. Subbass could be more, but with the right fit these are actually just as extended as GR07 with only a hair less energy in the lowest subbass. There's close to zero bass boost on these - perhaps a slight tinge of warmth added, as opposed to quite a bit of extra midbass on GR07.
While GR07 is mid bass-boosted and has 8k boost, but could use more extension, RE272 has slightly leaner subbass (but still great - the original tips are bad though!)
and some 4k boost. All in all, RE272 are more neutral and have that dry presentation, mostly due to the 4kHz boost. Kind of reminds me of experiments with eq before I found the actual flat sound - of overcorrected GR07. All the humps are within 6 dB of my perfect flat sound, which is a better result than GR07 (with its large high bass/low mids boost and a 9k hole)
RE272 sound kind of "electric" aggressive as opposed to "metal" (music and material) aggressive of GR07. Detailing is also different, fairly aggressive, rather on par with BA IEMs as opposed to dynamics. Especially the lower mids are presented with the exact detailing I like.
As for fit, these are quite impossible in the 2 standard position as my ear canal arcs up and these seem to have been set for downward arc. However, the reverse channel configuration is perfect, actually better than GR07.
Included tip kit is quite incompatible with my ears, only the medium single flange works decently and smaller biflange after some softening workout. Not that comfortable still.
However, to my suprise, GR07's silicone tips work extremely well with RE272 - good that I have them. I bet these tips are just *that* good for almost everything...
Medium (green core) Sony hybrid clones work decently too, but are ever so slightly inferior, boosting midbass unnecessarily and 13 kHz "sparkles" as well as providing a bit more fiddly fit.
Soundstage is wide and boundless. Works extremely well with crossfeed, otherwise it's in-head/line, similar to binaural-tuned headphones. Positioning precision is very high, though there are a few IEMs that give slightly better results here I suspect. Once you apply crossfeed, the sound seems correctly placed, quite forward,
The cable is very good, supple yet strong, however the silicone sheath will probably attract dust. Isolation is slightly worse than GR07's, but better than open-backed dynamics. Mostly leaks in high frequencies. I take some issue with the replaceable extension cord's socket part strain relief - it's hard and short, bad match for such a supple cable.
J-shaped anti-snag plug in the extension cables is a nice touch though.
Oh, and they look quite pretty. Their metal-looking (probably not though) casing has the same shape as RE252/262, but has a sheen and color like a silicon ingot - perhaps it's actually made of it too...
Packaging and accessories are almost laughable for such an expensive product.
These IEMs are quite sensitive, more so than GR07. They don't produce any important amounts of hiss though.
All in all, these sound kind of like certain studio monitors and I suppose would do pretty well as such given right tips. Definitely a candidate for custom tips.
They still can't beat GR07 for value due to the price tag and accessories, but other than that, definitely a keeper.
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Preliminary equalization:
Equalization fixes the minor leanness of bass and general dry and slightly grainy feel of sound - it gets quite a bit more delicate and refined.
(The frequency response is better than within 6 dB of flat sounding to me, barring the Linkwitz transforms; Excellent result!)