Dear all,
I finally found time to meet up with my friend who owns the R2R2000, he actually bought number 8 out of the first batch of 100.
First of all some context. This player is apparently still a bit "beta". Many things need to be improved on the firmware side, and also there are apparently some hardware glitches. My friend had his recalled to change some capacitators to improve battery life (which is apparently crappy at this stage), and now that his player is back, the 3.5 TRS jack doesn't work.
On the other hand, the player had very good exterior build quality, and is freakishly small. Like many one third of the volume of the WM1Z.
It is very nice to hold and very light. The firmware is simplistic, and only the power part of the screen is touch, but I didn't get any bugs during my short use. There are apparently still some bugs on track allocation.
I didn't get to try the features like USB DAC, or Bluetooth (incoming only). Apparently they work super well, and if you have a Huawei phone, you can stream high-res over Bluetooth with their new protocole.
Now to what you have all been waiting for, sound. I tested my tracks on the SE5U, IE800s, Empire Ears Phantom and LH Stella (their new TOTL dynamic driver), all in balanced through the 4.4 Jack, and tested low and high gain, comparing with WM1Z balanced.
First of all, once thing to be noted, there is a serious hiss problem with sensitive BAs. In low gain, the Phantom is unlistenable. Just as I am leaving the meeting with my friend and writing this from the car (can you see the dedication I have for my fans) , they apparently put out a new firmware to solve this. I would need to test again.
Now if you listen with the right pairing, less sensitive BAs like the SE5U or dynamics, the R2R2000 can shine. It doesn't sound AT ALL like I was expecting. Since the only R2R I know is the Tera, I was expecting smooth and analog. Well you can throw that thought out the window. The key work here is RAW and TRANSPARENT. It feels like it is a very unforgiving window into the music. But not because they boosted some frequencies to make the sound more clear or sparkly, more because it is completely raw. It doesn't have peaking highs or screech mids...unless your music does. Compared to the WM1Z, the level of layering and details are comparable, the WM1Z sound slightly warmer, smoother, and fuller. The Hifiman player has good depth, less width than the WM1Z. The overall presentation is significantly.more forward and aggressive, but my friend tells me it is less fatiguing than the LPG IF you listen to well recorded music. Power wise, it seems to have gobs of it waiting to be unleashed.
In conclusion at this stage I would say I am split. The player is really impressive sound wise compared to its size. The design is also quite nice and handy. Plus this player has a personality, Fang Bian is really trying to do something here. A small high end player with tons of functions, that is 100% revealing of your music and headphones.
Now the negative is that because of the hiss, firmware bugs and uncertainties on the hardware, it feels that they rolled it out too fast. Also, this take on sound, transparency over musicality (the opposite of the WM1Z somehow) is something that will not please everyone, especially if you listen to a lot of modern music.
As a side note, I briefly tried the Stella which is a priori, interesting...seems to be the IEM equivalent of the R2R2000 soundwise. Don't much like the form and fit though.