Thanks tomscy2000 and everyone else on the Redgiant tour for giving me a chance to have a listen to these interesting IEMs! Here are some of my impressions, which I've arrived at from listening sessions over the course of a week or two.
Redgiant A03
Firstly, my impressions of the build are pretty positive and in line with the price. The cable is reassuringly chunky, the shells seem well built with and with a attractive duality of red and white. Nevertheless, because of the sheer size and complex shape of the earpieces and their hollowness, I would not expect these to survive any kind of strong crushing force. So don’t step on them.
In terms of comfort, I found these relatively easy to fit in my ear, but with noticeable pressure on parts of my ear from the large shell. I can’t comment on the tips, because I used medium Sony hybrids with them.
My initial impressions of the Redgiant A03’s sound were not so positive, given both severe driver flexing in the left ear that made me afraid of putting them in, and also the ‘stuffy’ impression of the sound I got coming from the clarity of IEMs like the EX1000 / JVC HA-FXD80 I had been listening to. I felt like there were was a great deal of artificial echoes and resonances from the large plastic shell chamber that were creating an epic but ultimately smeared sense of scale.
With extended listening though, from my iPhone 4 and also my home rig (Music Streamer II+ / Objective 2 amp), I can easily see this as the kind of IEM that gets fans like the Radius TWF21K and the ASG-1.
Firstly, the bass is the most prominent feature - rich, deep and authoritative. It’s not lightning quick bass, but its not sloppy either, with deep extension. Mid-bass is equally thick, so the result is a rounded and lush note tone.
Mids and vocals are recessed, and don’t make a particularly strong impression. It’s here that the sound is the most messy to me, with a particularly noticeable reverb around the vocals that lend everything a bit of veiled fuzziness.
The treble and upper vocals have a nice amount of detail to them, but its not immediately obvious because the treble is presented quite delicately. These are forgiving phones with no notable sibilance, and I think I would get fatigue from the shape of the things in my ears before I ever got any kind of fatigue from the treble.
The overall presentation of the soundstage is like others have suggested: expansive and epic, and larger than most other IEM’s. I still think it sounds a little artificial though, because of the aforementioned resonance. The stuffiness and closed design also means that I don’t get the illusion of openness that say, the EX1000 creates.
In a sense these are similar to the TWF11K in that the bass driver is providing an overwhelming scale to the sound, but the treble driver is still pushing through some detail. However compared to the TWF11K the Redgiant is a little less subtle and delicate in tone, with a stronger mid-bass emphasis.
Overall I’d say the sound was in line with what I would expect from this price, but not something I would get super enthusiastic over. I was also surprised that the A00 seem to have the better build with its metal construction.
Redgiant A00
I was super impressed by the build of this headphone, as the metal shells exude a wonderfully solid quality to them far, far above their price point. (Similar to my impressions of the JVC HA FXD80 build). Of course, the trade-off is added weight, but once in the ears they aren’t so bad. The metal jelly bean shape is quite comfortable, though I would really have liked to be able to wear these over the ears. The cables are again lovely.
I again got driver flex with these in both earpieces, though it was a little less severe than with the A03.
In terms of sound, in many ways I actually preferred these to the A03’s. They seemed overall more balanced in tone to me, with vocals more forward in the mix and less of that resonance / reverb of the plastic shells.
However, the driver is noticeably less articulate in the lows, with a kind of sloppiness in bass notes compared to the A03 and not nearly as good extension down low. Treble is also less articulate and quick, and every now and then there is a little ‘hiss’ to the sound.
They are similar overall in character to the A03 though, and considering the price and build quality I thought these were excellent. However, my vote will still go for the HA-FXD80 for the sound / build / value trinity.
My Impressions of Redgiant, the Company
Despite neither of these IEM’s hitting it out of the park with me, I am actually very impressed by a new company that got the build quality part of the equation so right with their first attempts. The earphones seem to have been designed to please a lot of people with the sturdy quality and the forgiving and fun sound, though I would be a bit wary of these designs if I had smaller ears. I also really hope they resolve issues with driver flex as I cannot vouch for the long term reliability of IEMs with such severe flex issues.
Its clear that the company has got some innovative thinking and some care was put towards the design. I’d keep my eye out for the next iteration of designs from them, as this is a pretty darn promising start.
It was a blast randomly running into you in a random store in Taipei Tom. Hope your tests go well.
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