[Kitechaser]

When I had the chance to pair them with the SONY TA-ZH1ES, the CL2 were blowing past full size cans in the 3k plus range, and had one of the widest and deepest soundstages I have ever heard from a closed iem, or iems in general. There is no close second.
They love power and scale up incredibly well, and similarly scale down.
If you review them out of shanling mo, you are reviewing the dap, not the CL2.
With upgraded cables and a WM1A, I don't see myself needing another iem, until maybe the CL3 is released

 

[Kitechaser]

The real shame is how many people didn’t purchase these because of these reviews. I know I wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t trade mine straight up for any iem you care to mention.

These reviewers owe @RHA Team an apology for sabotaging one of the best iems to come out in years.
4 years of ground breaking R&D, untold amounts of sweat and tears nearly wasted because of reviewer hubris.
I am sure this is how picasso felt when he died penniless on the streets.
The curators just knew better.
I hope this is just a head-fi thing, and they are making up for lost sales elsewhere.

 

[Alkattone]

Hi guys!

I got the cl2´s and they are wonderful. I have been using the bluetooth headset and all of the sudden today the left earpiece just wnet quiet. I fiddled a bit with the cable and the sound came back. And then it cut out again.
So i removed the iem from the cable and the connector pin is still stuck in the iem.

Now here's the thing. I have not removed the iem from the cable for the last 2 months. I would have expected a thing like this to happen if i would have removed it and switched cables everyday. Has anyone else had this problem? Or am i the only one ?

 

[toranku]

These reviewers owe @RHA Team an apology for sabotaging one of the best iems to come out in years.
4 years of ground breaking R&D, untold amounts of sweat and tears nearly wasted because of reviewer hubris.
I am sure this is how picasso felt when he died penniless on the streets.
The curators just knew better.
I hope this is just a head-fi thing, and they are making up for lost sales elsewhere.

Why do you suggest that people "sabotage" RHA? People have different tastes from you and they simply don't enjoy how the CL2 sounds.

You're in this constant state of praise for the CL2 yet get suspicious when others don't enjoy it. Maybe you know...people hear differently. You've even said that before.

When's the Solaris coming?

 

[Kitechaser]

Why do you suggest that people "sabotage" RHA? People have different tastes from you and they simply don't enjoy how the CL2 sounds.

You're in this constant state of praise for the CL2 yet get suspicious when others don't enjoy it. Maybe you know...people hear differently. You've even said that before.

When's the Solaris coming?

One of the reviewers called everyone on this thread, that had over a 100 pages of positive impressions at the time, mass shills for RHA.
Another reviewer went off on a tirade saying RHA didn't know how to tune an earphone, and everyone that liked the earphone had damaged ears. Another complained about how compressed mp3s sounded like, well compressed mp3s.

I returned the Solaris, I prefer the CL2.
It's not my thing, I can see why people like it, but the resolution, clarity, bass response is better on the CL2, and this being a single driver, coherancy is obviously a major step up.
More than anything else, size was an issue, they were too uncomfortable for me to use for longer periods of time.
The Solaris is a hell of an iem, but by my tastes, I much prefer the CL2.

 

[Kitechaser]

@toranku The amount of abuse, condescending snarkiness, and outright dismissals the CL2 owners have had to endure on head-fi is something else.
This iem is hard to review, it requires a period of burn in, the driver has no coil, it needs time to break in and loosen up. Audeze does this on site, but RHA might not have the resources to do this, and still keep the prices as low as they are.
Having said that, these reviewers for the most part have just outright dismissed any and all suggestions or inputs long term users have offered as placebo nonsense.
The phrase repeated endlessly, enough to drive one mad, is "purchase justification".
I don't think any of us here are children, maybe these reviewers should stop treating us like we are.
If this is the state of reviews on head-fi in general, this place has a reviewer problem. It is a serious issue.

 

[toranku]

One of the reviewers called everyone on this thread, that had over a 100 pages of positive impressions at the time, mass shills for RHA.
Another reviewer went off on a tirade saying RHA didn't know how to tune an earphone, and everyone that liked the earphone had damaged ears. Another complained about how compressed mp3s sounded like, well compressed mp3s.

I returned the Solaris, I prefer the CL2.
It's not my thing, I can see why people like it, but the resolution, clarity, bass response is better on the CL2, and this being a single driver, coherancy is obviously a major step up.
More than anything else, size was an issue, they were too uncomfortable for me to use for longer periods of time.
The Solaris is a hell of an iem, but by my tastes, I much prefer the CL2.

Fair enough - I've had friends who commented that CL2 needs files with good mastering (no brickwall'd music at all) to work. As for the guy that mentioned damaged ears...that was unacceptable behavior.

I actually suspected that you wouldn't like the Solaris as much since both have very difference frequency response at the mids...perhaps my conjuncture was right.

 

[Kitechaser]

Fair enough - I've had friends who commented that CL2 needs files with good mastering (no brickwall'd music at all) to work. As for the guy that mentioned damaged ears...that was unacceptable behavior.

I actually suspected that you wouldn't like the Solaris as much since both have very difference frequency response at the mids...perhaps my conjuncture was right.

Mids were fine with the Solaris (not recessed by any means) I prefer clarity before anything else. The clarity and micro details on the CL2 is where it earns its money for me, amongst many other things.

 

[Wiljen]

I found there to be some truth to the fact that many are testing sources with the RL2 as it scales extremely well. Having said that, no provision was made for sending an "appropriate" source with the tour unit so it should be expected that sources will run the gamut from directly out of a cell phone or tablet all the way up to the "sky's the limit" summit-fi gear. It seems like poor sportsmanship to accuse reviewers of poor choices when no guidance was issued with regards to requirements or pairings. I put it flat in my summary. Those willing to spend the money to surround the CL2 with things it likes will be rewarded for it. Those who think a nearly $1000 iem should sound good without having to spend that much again on a DAP and cable do indeed have a right to that opinion as well.

 

[marcussmj]

One of the reviewers called everyone on this thread, that had over a 100 pages of positive impressions at the time, mass shills for RHA.
Another reviewer went off on a tirade saying RHA didn't know how to tune an earphone, and everyone that liked the earphone had damaged ears. Another complained about how compressed mp3s sounded like, well compressed mp3s.

I returned the Solaris, I prefer the CL2.
It's not my thing, I can see why people like it, but the resolution, clarity, bass response is better on the CL2, and this being a single driver, coherancy is obviously a major step up.
More than anything else, size was an issue, they were too uncomfortable for me to use for longer periods of time.
The Solaris is a hell of an iem, but by my tastes, I much prefer the CL2.

Did you give it at least 150 hours of burn-in before passing final judgment?

 

[OverlordRush]

One of the reviewers called everyone on this thread, that had over a 100 pages of positive impressions at the time, mass shills for RHA.
Another reviewer went off on a tirade saying RHA didn't know how to tune an earphone, and everyone that liked the earphone had damaged ears. Another complained about how compressed mp3s sounded like, well compressed mp3s.

I returned the Solaris, I prefer the CL2.
It's not my thing, I can see why people like it, but the resolution, clarity, bass response is better on the CL2, and this being a single driver, coherancy is obviously a major step up.
More than anything else, size was an issue, they were too uncomfortable for me to use for longer periods of time.
The Solaris is a hell of an iem, but by my tastes, I much prefer the CL2.

You jump on to defend Solaris when you have not even heard it, and now that you actually have, you didnt even give it the recommended 150 burn in time and time to demo the iem properly?

 

[Kitechaser]

You jump on to defend Solaris when you have not even heard it, and now that you actually have, you didnt even give it the recommended 150 burn in time and time to demo the iem properly?

I put over a 100 hours on it. Wasn't my thing, now if I was writing reviews on it, I wouldn't even start before burning it in for at least 300 hours, just to be safe.

 

[Kitechaser]

Regarding the Solaris...
I am coming from an in ear monitor in the CL2, that I think is the best I have ever heard.
I am not hyping it up, I mean it with every ounce of sincerity I can muster.
Driven with the proper equipment, to me it sounds better than most full size cans.
The surprise would have been if I had kept the Solaris, I see why people like it as much as they do, but to my ears, the CL2 is a step up.
Others may disagree.

 

[RHA Team]

@RHA Team When the tour is done, would you be interested in sending back the CL2 I started the tour with for another week? I'd be more than happy to give it another, more thorough go, and include the suggestions for improvement presented in this thread. After crossing so many paths it should have had ample 'burn-in' time as well.

Yep, absolutely, should be free in the next couple of weeks.

Going to take this opportunity to quickly say I enjoyed your review and it was fair and well-reasoned. Like I've said before taste in audio is entirely relative and I'd be particularly impressed (prob a bit suspicious) if someone released a headphone to absolutely universal acclaim! We're very proud of the work we did developing the headphone, the housings, the driver, the sound - it's taught us a ton and we carry all of that with us into the future.

It's a privilege that we can work with a community so passionate about audio as to engage, debate and advocate for their equipment. It'd be pretty boring if everyone agreed. The reason we set up review tours is to get a range of feedback as much as anything else; we've had as many shining endorsements as lukewarm responses, and very, very few write-offs. The HeadFi community certainly demonstrates that head-end audio is alive, well and there's a range of amazing headphones from great companies so that everyone may eventually find their perfect fit. Obviously we're very proud that some people think that's the CL2!

Colum

 

[B9Scrambler]

Yep, absolutely, should be free in the next couple of weeks.

Going to take this opportunity to quickly say I enjoyed your review and it was fair and well-reasoned. Like I've said before taste in audio is entirely relative and I'd be particularly impressed (prob a bit suspicious) if someone released a headphone to absolutely universal acclaim! We're very proud of the work we did developing the headphone, the housings, the driver, the sound - it's taught us a ton and we carry all of that with us into the future.

It's a privilege that we can work with a community so passionate about audio as to engage, debate and advocate for their equipment. It'd be pretty boring if everyone agreed. The reason we set up review tours is to get a range of feedback as much as anything else; we've had as many shining endorsements as lukewarm responses, and very, very few write-offs. The HeadFi community certainly demonstrates that head-end audio is alive, well and there's a range of amazing headphones from great companies so that everyone may eventually find their perfect fit. Obviously we're very proud that some people think that's the CL2!

Colum

That's awesome, thank you. No guarantees my impressions will change, but at the very least there will be updates to a number of sections.