Liking the RE00 so far. I'm mostly using it with the conform super isolating tips with ear wax guard, which are the bassiest, most treble reducing of the conform tips, and it seems to be a good match. Will rotate some other tips with it over the next few weeks, but really, these are the tips that I bought it for, as I wanted a super isolating relatively cheap IEM for some upcoming trips. I hate the idea of taking, and potentially losing, $700-$2000 custom molded IEMs on international trips, so I wanted something that could take one of the super isolating foam tips, which tend to be bassier/roll off some treble, and sound pretty neutral thereafter. The RE00 fit that bill.
Some of the nicest, smoothest vocals I've heard out of a universal IEM. Bass is lacking. No way around that. It's not awful, but it's certainly less bass than neutral. Mids are sublime. Treble is fine. It doesn't take my breath away with extension, but it also doesn't offend in the treble.
Very good dynamics, punchy without being obnoxious.
Soundstage is a little wonky. It's very hard left/right/center. Left and right are decently wide, and center is right in front of your face, creating a very disconnected soundstage. It's the normal headphone disconnected soundstage, taken to an extreme. To some this will sound wide, to me it just sounds weird. If you have crossfeed available in your system, definitely use it with these.
For the price I find the midrange resolution great. Bass resolution is fine as well, but is hard to hear, due to the lowered bass levels. What I will say about the bass, while it's overall lowered, it is flat, in that it does have decent sub bass extension. The very lower midrange is also a bit sucked out. While it sounds very smooth, it does lack some body. Treble resolution is a bit lacking, but that may be the tips I am using. I will report back after I do some tip rolling.
The very good midrange resolution means that it scales up fairly well with good amps and DACs. It doesn't need the power of an amp very much (I was under half power on my iPhone), but does, I think improve with a cleaner amp/DAC. Sounded great out of my m9XX. Amping didn't change or improve the tonal balance. No magic increase in bass. But I wasn't expecting that out of a neutral amp/DAC like the m9XX. But they do definitely sound great straight out of the iPhone too. Haven't had a chance to try them with the dragonfly red yet,
Isolation with these tips is very, very good. To me isolation in universal IEMs depends more on the tips than anything, but it's at least worth mentioning, I guess.
Cable has virtually no microphonics, which is a big plus for me. It also seems to be a very robust build quality overall, which was the big criticism of its predecessor, these feel very solid. I feel like these will take a lot of abuse and keep on ticking. I hate angle terminations, but that's HiFiMan's thing, shrug. I may eventually reterminate. Cable kinks pretty easily, but I think/hope that goes away over time.
erformance ratio wise, pretty darn good.
