[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 
Thoughts?

I think everything is up in the air if there are actually four revisions of the same phone.  Toss most of the impressions out the window and start over.
 

 

[Elanzer]

Hmmm... awhile ago I was looking for a decent IEM ~$50-100 and RE0 kept fitting the bill in everything besides bass, and now there's a new version with better bass? Sign me up.

I hope these will do the trick for what I'm looking for. I was going to order these earlier but was turned off the weaker bass response. I'll primarily be using them while riding my motorcycle and the bass must be slightly exaggerated to sound at a normal level because of the bike's noise. My Sennheiser CX-55 with some bass boosting through my Cowon PMP can sort of do the job, but everything else about the CX-55 is just muddy and gross regardless of what I do with it in any use, and in general just sounds terrible in comparison to all the >$50 full sized headphones I've used.

 

[FlySweep]

I think everything is up in the air if there are actually four revisions of the same phone.  Toss most of the impressions out the window and start over.

 
I doubt the revisions reflected a significant change in the overall signature and tuning cause I'm sure there would've been an uproar about such an alteration (in either direction).. I digress though and your charge is duly noted.  I'd certainly welcome a slightly warmer thicker variant of the RE0 if the clarity, treble, and detail retrieval remained intact.
 
@Gavin.. what changes did you notice after 100+ hrs of burn in?

 

[psgarcha92]

RE0s, the first version, were my first pair into Head fi world, and i went to the ZEROs and then the v3 0s again, all i would say is, placebo or not, the first batch was the most satisfactory in the sound department. the v3 0s have a wider soundstage, but the highs are one of the strongest point, IMO that the v1 0s had best. Head Direct, please donf eff up the v1 0s, please change the housing back to normal, change the cables to the best u can get, let us get those phones. Since the day i've lost my 0s to the cable defect, i've only been frustrated by how the ZEROs sound, and the 0s i brought again, the v3, didnt have all the highs and the way they got smoother with burn in.
i just wish i never lost the v1 0s.
 
@Anaxilus, ur right about the writing reviws and impressions thing again.
but most of us wont have both the v1 and the v4 at one time to compare.

 

[mephiska]

I suspect the change had more to do with product reliability rather than modifying the sound signature.  I think the housing change was probably done to try and fix the issues with them splitting, and the plug change was again for reliability.  The change from metal to plastic at the Y cable split was probably cost savings.

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

RE0s, the first version, were my first pair into Head fi world, and i went to the ZEROs and then the v3 0s again, all i would say is, placebo or not, the first batch was the most satisfactory in the sound department. the v3 0s have a wider soundstage, but the highs are one of the strongest point, IMO that the v1 0s had best. Head Direct, please donf eff up the v1 0s, please change the housing back to normal, change the cables to the best u can get, let us get those phones. Since the day i've lost my 0s to the cable defect, i've only been frustrated by how the ZEROs sound, and the 0s i brought again, the v3, didnt have all the highs and the way they got smoother with burn in.
i just wish i never lost the v1 0s.
 
@Anaxilus, ur right about the writing reviws and impressions thing again.
but most of us wont have both the v1 and the v4 at one time to compare.

 
I actually found v3 smoother in the highs than v1 and just as extended and detailed. But the latest v4 lacks in the treble department compared to the previous versions to my ears - the highs are noticeably grainier and less refined.

 

[rroseperry]

 
I actually found v3 smoother in the highs than v1 and just as extended and detailed. But the latest v4 lacks in the treble department compared to the previous versions to my ears - the highs are noticeably grainier and less refined.

Interesting. I think I must have v.3. And I have to apologize to you Pianist. I thought you were exaggerating about the RE0's quality when amped. (I'd been running them out of my players.) But I used the Headsixx a couple of nights ago and wow, what a different an amp makes.

 

[Pianist]

Ok, I just tested the frequency response of v3 RE0 vs the v4 using a hearing test program using the same ear and the both have a nearly identical response +/- 3-4 db here and there, so frequency response is definitely not the issue with the v4. BTW, I also measured the response of my e-Q5 and compared to that of the RE0 v4. Here's the result. The RE0 is in red and the e-Q5 is in blue. I used the same ear and same source for the test:
 

 
Sorry if the pic is too small. I will enlarge it later. Basically, as you can see the e-Q5 is more neutral overall, while RE0 is stronger at the extremes.

 

[kiteki]

That is some pretty intense sub-bass

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

That is some pretty intense sub-bass

Lol, the test doesn't actually plot the FR of the phone.  The black dots are the baseline reference for the hearing test.
 

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

That is some pretty intense sub-bass

 
lol What Anaxilus said. The black dots represent the reference, flat response.
 
Actually, I inserted the foams back into the new RE0 and I think it sounds better now than I remember it sounding out of the box - a bit smoother and more dynamic perhaps. Still lagging behind the v3. I have ~20 hours of burn in on the RE0 so far. With foams in, the frequency response is now different too I am sure. I will measure it later this evening and post the results, but with the foam in RE0 is damn flat - I think maybe even flatter than the e-Q5. Really, the way it sounds to me now, RE0 should be used with the foam in for best SQ and BTW, the foam in the new RE0 is about half the size of that which was found in v1 and v2, so it has less effect on the sound. I don't know how large the foam was in the v3 though, since the friend's pair I have is defoamed.
 
EDIT: Actually, wait. No, I think the new RE0 with foam in sounds a bit too recessed around 7-10 kHz. This results in odd sounding cymbals with good sparkle on the very top, but lacking body.  I hope additional burn in will help.

 

[Inks]

nice job on plotting the differences Pianist. I'm surprised you haven't pulled the trigger on the RE-Zeros personally. 

 

[rera]

Got these ("fat" jack, new housing) a while ago, my brother bought them as he destroyed my old beloved RE0. Sent mail to head-direct to know about the differences, officially there's no  version 4, latest is version 3 as told me by HiFiMan support. Who knows.... it's a bit confusing 

 

[Mad Max]

...

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

Got these ("fat" jack, new housing) a while ago, my brother bought them as he destroyed my old beloved RE0. Sent mail to head-direct to know about the differences, officially there's no  version 4, latest is version 3 as told me by HiFiMan support. Who knows.... it's a bit confusing 

 
It's version 4: The first one used a rubber cable, the second one used a cloth cable, third one used a PPE cable and a small L-shaped plug and the last version uses the large, rounded L-shaped plug and a more plasticy cable.