Sorry to revive old threads, but this was the one that made me pull the trigger on the RE2 + E5, except if I waited it would've been even cheaper (now 50 bucks together) since my E5 only shipped like today from Hongkong after 2 weeks. I got my RE2 TODAY and my first and only experience with IEM is the Creative EP-630, which unfortunately broke a month or so ago, so the majority of my impressions will be weighed against that and couple of cheapo earbuds I used for substitute meanwhile.
Once again this is my out of box impressions. First thing I noticed is that the wires are quit a bit stiffer than my EP630, and as soon as I put it on I noticed the microphonics which is a lot worse than the EP630 as well. The EP-630 also suffers from the same problem but nowhere as bad as this, as it stands I'll be taking a walk with these tomorrow but these are definitely not for you if you want to jog around - then again maybe you should look into earbuds. For me I will primarily be using these at work as well as on the bus (roughly 2 hours each day), so the microphonics is not the end of the world, however isolation is something I'll have more thoughts on in the coming days.
As for sound, having read some negative reviews since on this forum I was quite afraid that it'd turn out to be disappointing and make me regret not getting NE-7M - but so far I'm reserving judgement.. When I started I tried all the tips but I never inserted them any deeper than I did with my EP-630 which is quite shallow. The result of that with biflanges of course is that the seal was probably not good and the bass was severely lacking. I then switched to the regular tips, and even used my EP-630 one that previously fit me perfectly, but the result just didn't seem to be as good and there certainly was not the boomy bass I was used to with the EP-630, but then again the 630 is pretty much known for that and nothing else. So at this point I was beginning to wish for my e5 to get here, and I began playing some music and compare different tips on left and right - and suddenly entirely by accident I started hearing the bass I was looking for. Turns out since the biflanges go way deeper in comparison I never did insert them properly and deep enough to create a good seal, and my accidental push and twist motion did the trick with the default white biflanges. Of course the bass still doesn't match the EP-630, but I'm willing to wait it out and see, plus the real test is when I'm on the bus listening to nonstop roaring of the engines. However I will say that the biflanges aren't as comfortable to me due to the deep insertions, so as a first impression, I have to give comfort to the EP-630 but obviously I need to give it time, but I would say that the build quality etc of the EP-630 appeared to be better.
While looking for bass the other thing I noticed was that the sound stage, at least what I think is the sound stage mentioned on these forums, to be a lot bigger than I was used to. And, surprise, I was able to hear things, well, rather, notice guitars etc in songs that I've never noticed before with the EP-630. At last here is the thing that people have been raving about for the RE2, and I'm quite pleased that this is the case...
I expect to receive my E5 within the week, and of course between then there'll be plenty of burn in, psychological, physical, or both, so I'll try and report back further impressions, though at the moment it appears that RE2 has fallen out of favor and everyone is singing praises for the NE-7M.
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