My impressions of the RE2000 Silver.

As part of the HiFiman RE2000 tour, I was asked to write down a review or impressions of my time with these earphones. I’ve use them for a solid three weeks, with a light rotation of some other earphones to keep the RE2000 sounding fresh and unique to my ears. They will soon be going on to the next person on the tour.

The RE2000’s are a lively and enjoyable pair of reference earphones. They are very musical but also exhibit details to keep things interesting. Low end is full and has rumble and punch when needed. Mids make both male vocals and especially female vocals sound very natural. Tremble is airy and extended but never harsh. Soundstage is wide and they go deep. The signature is not dark, but rather warmish and to me close to neutral. There is an extra kick on the bottom end to keep things lively, PRaT is solid. Clarity is perfect with these, every sound is heard in your music, with little if any distortion. In rock music guitars have crunch. In modern pop and electronica, the low end has punch and is rich, vocals have emotion. In indie music the vocals and acoustic guitars sound lively and engaging. In classical orchestral music, the music is grand and full with strings and cymbals sounding natural. In jazz the timbre of the instruments is perfect.

The RE2000’s fit very nicely into my medium sized ears, giving good sound blockage and a decent seal. Tips I used were the Final Audio E Type ear tips, which worked very well with the RE2000’s and helped with the seal. I found that any good copper cable works well, balanced gives it an extra edge. The unbalanced tube amp DX220amp9 is truly excellent, making the rich bottom end and the natural mids melt into your ears. Truly a great combo. The Sony NW-WM1A was also an excellent pairing.

Some comparisons:

Vs the Campfire Audio Atlas – The Atlas has a deeper low end, and a wider sound stage. The RE2000 have better PRaT, slight mid bass bump for that extra bass sound. Playing something like the Clash’s Guns on the Roof, one feels that the sound, although lively with both earphones, it just has an extra kick with the RE2000. Details sound great on both, but the Atlas does have the bigger sound stage, as stated.

Vs. Massdrop x Empire Ears Zeus - The Zeus is brighter and more detailed, it’s also a multi-BA driver vs a Dynamic driver. Nothing unexpected. The RE2000 is more musical and gives a better since of coherency to the sound. Personal preference here. The Massdrop is quite the bargain for it’s selling point, but the RE2000 is a better bargain for it’s current asking price.

Vs the Beyerdynamic Xelento – The RE2000 have a bigger sound with fuller mids and thicker bass. The Xelento’s are another single dynamic and are a pleasure to wear for the fit and lightness of the earphone. The RE2000 is much bigger and doesn’t fit quite as well, but IMHO, they sound better with a bigger and livelier sound.

Other thoughts:

To me the star of the show is it’s striking low end which takes nothing away from the rest of the signature. As mentioned, it has a full low end that gives a nice thump to your music. With something like Bowie’s classic Fashion, the club dance beat is balanced perfectly with those soaring but smooth guitars. None of this taking away from Bowie’s fantastic vocals.

Any negatives:

The RE2000’s are a bit big, and some with smaller ears may not get the best fit. Some may not enjoy the fun musical signature and prefer a more clinical or balanced signature. Some may even perceive the clear and full bass as a weakness in the sound, yet it is fairly close to the sound of many bands that I have seen live.

The RE2000’s are a great set of earphones and highly recommended, especially at the current price.

Tested on various classical and jazz pieces, found the SD3 to give commanding performance on all. Note, I used high quality flac versions of all songs tested.
 
SD3's are about two days old and have about 8 hours on them, hardly broken in.
They were bought from this shop and imported into the states at the regular retail price.
Eartips used were Sony hybrids, peach inner color.
Equipment used: Burson Audio Soloist, Eastern Electric Minimax Tube Dac with Musical Fideltiy V-Link for usb support with a Windows pc (self built). As just mentioned, flac files, played through foobar at default settings, no eq used.
 
Acoustic jazz (Fred Hersh - Heartsong, McCoy Tyner - Miss Bea,  Lenny Andrade - Maiden Voyage)
Saxophones sound full and rich with that great open sound that they have, pianos have that percussive quality as they should, bass is natural and noticeable but as part of the general sound presentation as required by the music - equal with other instruments, not lost, but not in your face. Lead instruments, such as trumpets, take center stage and are the obvious lead performers during the solos. While all the obvious rhythm instruments, piano, drums, bass all do their parts without being lost. Bass are warm and sweet, cymbals crisp and never lost in the mix.
In Lenny's interpretation of Maiden Voyager, her voice is immediate, earthy, and sensuous. She sounds like she's singing right next to you, while the bass, piano, and other instruments are a few feet away. Bass has excellent decay on this song, staying just long enough as a fine glass of red wine would on ones taste palate as it's being sipped. Yet, never getting in the way of any other instrument or Lenny's vocals.
Overall, great atmosphere, with excellent wide sound stage, and natural sounding tones.
I can see why the SD3 would be loved by a stage musician.
 
Vocal music (using Chesky Records - The Ultimate Demonstration Disk - There is a Rose in Spanish Harlem - Rebeca Pidgeon
This song starts with a bass lead, quickly followed by Rebeca's vocals taking center stage, bass politely going into its background rhythm mode, Rebeca's vocals sound natural and full, you can hear her breathing at times, but  never sibilant. Piano comes in sounding as natural as one would expect. Strings come in later, sounding rich and lush as expected in this type of music. Constanellas (sp?) play in the background, sounding quite natural.
Rebeca's vocals control the center stage, in my teen years I loved the original version of this song, Rebeca's interpretation of the song, as heard on my SD3 is just amazing, sends goosebumps up my spine - no really. Again, I'm sitting right next to Rebecca, my wife is going  to get jealous.
 
I can go on and on, depth reproduction, sound stage, all sound excellent.
 
Classical test: From Chesky Records - The Ultimate Demonstration Disk -Britten- Festival Te Deum- Westminster Choir
Okay, I'm sitting in the middle of the church, with the choir's sound enveloping me. The microphone for this performance was hung from the air above the choir, and that is how it comes off with the SD3, you get a sense of openness with the sound, choir hits all the notes clearly and distinctly. The organ has a slight bit of warmth, but that is intentional. Organ is firmly in the background, vocals very upfront. Notes change quickly in the later part of this performance, and all is handled well.
Stravinsky- The Royal March -Solisti New York
This piece has many changes in musical volume, and instruments coming in and out of the sound, making for a good test for complex classical movements. The piece starts off with a march motif, which it comes back to several times. Again, the SD3 handles all the changes well, including the volume changes throughout, the  speed of the trumpets,  and the the drums. The drums and horns sound clear and again, natural.
 
Solo bass - very natural with great decay, nice bass detail.
Solo drums - again, very natural with clear and nice prat. Cymbals sound natural.
 
Finally - going back to the pop side of things:
 
James Blake - limit to your love:
James vocals sound soulful and rich, piano accompaniment sounds natural and spot on, then at about 50-60 seconds into the song, your ears just go WOW.
 
Final words, SD3's are not just for electronic music as they may have originally been intended. Musical reproduction is first rate, with an easy and commanding handling of all genres tested, classical, jazz, and vocal music. As has been said, bass reproduction is deep and detailed, but appropriate for the recording.
 
I'm quite happy with my SD3's.

These earphones are an excellent pair for any music that requires solid bass plus good high end. Electronica, dance, and jazz sound really good with these.
They have dynamic and balanced armature (BA) hybrid dual drivers, giving you the best of both worlds.
This is from Clio's review, and I couldn't say it better:
Quote:

The overall sound signature is a close to extreme V-shaped balanced sound with big boomy bass and bright sparkly treble, not for the vocal lover. It is the mix of
bright and aggressive IEM (like Brainwavz B2, Fischer Audio DBA-02, or EXS X20) with a lot of bass. Treble is crisp, sparkly and extended, maybe a bit aggressive as well, but milder than X20 while still bright and analytical. Mid is a dip in the whole presentation, lacks warmness or sweetness for good vocal. Bass, though not quite as deep and textured as the best bass monster, is still commendable for overall good quantity and quality. It is slightly on the boomy side, but it remains clean and doesn’t flush out the mid. Soundstage is specious and very much opened. The only downside is that it doesn’t quite have the depth to match its width.

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As for cons, they are pricey, especially if you have to order from the UK. When I wrote this they were not available in the US.
 
If you can afford them, and are looking for something different, then these are highly recommended.

 
First off the disclaimer, the Realvoice IEM’S were given to me a month or two back for reviewing. I would like to thank Spider Cable for the review sample and my apologies for taking so long in writing this review.
Since I have had these I have used them about 75% of the time when I am using earphones, which probably averages about two hours per day. So I have put quite a few hours into them and they are as burned in as one would expect. I own quite a few earphones as well as many full size headphones. I have used this on both my 3^rd generation IPhone and on my cowon  J3. This reviewer’s ears are on the midlife side of age, so take general observations with a grain of salt. Hearing, especially at the high end of the spectrum, does degrade over time.  
 What I like:
Sound signature: Fun sound with bass that is non-intrusive but still gives a kick, excellent mids, and smooth highs, sound is non-fatiguing. Mids are warm and clear, voice presentation is especially good. Tremble is there but not overly sparkly, perhaps a bit recessed; this is not an earphone for those who like overly sparkly trembles. The non-fatiguing signature does not over emphasize detail in the music, these really are a fun earphone and not analytical. On the J3, when bass boost is used, the bass sound becomes really punchy and quite good without being muddy. They respond very well to EQ on the J3, really shining across the spectrum.  Still, without EQ, the earphones really shine with vocal presentation, a point also made by other reviewers. However, I should stress that the sound signature without EQ is equal or slightly better than the best in the same price range, including the RE0 as well as many earphones going up to the $175 price range.          
Fit and comfort:
So why have I used these so much in the last couple of months when there are obviously more expensive and better sounding earphones in my collection?  The Realvoice earphones fit well, are comfortable, and are relatively easy to just dig out of your bag and use. The lines do not tangle as easily as many of my earphones. The earphones do not go over ear so it’s a basic insert into your ear and you are set to roll. The fit is almost always the correct fit, I use double flange tips, and they do a great job with both the sound and the seal. These fit and are more comfortable than many of the earphones I own that are twice as expensive.
Build:
The Realvoice earphones are built well with solid medal earpieces that look to withstand being thrown loosely into a bag on a regular basis, as mine have been. The packaging has been described before, see for example: http://www.inearmatters.net/2011/08/review-spider-realvoice.html , so I will not go into that description.
Review request:
Spider Cable requested, when giving out samples of the Realvoice IEM’S, that the reviewer have an iPhone and one of several earphones within the $50-$100, including a pair of Head-Direct RE-0, to compare them to. I found these earphones to work really well with the iPhone. I’m actually not a big fan of the sound of the iPhone, the sound just didn’t compare to the sound of my Zune or the J3. These earphones actually made the iPhone sound better than with some of the other sub-hundred earphones I’ve used with it. The volume/mute control on the earphone line is quite handy as well. If you use an iPhone to listen to your music, than I would recommend this earphone. The sound reproduction is good, and the controls are useful. That said, the music still sounds much better on the J3 playing through these earphones.
As for the comparison with the Head Direct RE0, I would rate them very close in sound signature. After a week of going back and forth with the two, I finally just left the RE0 at home. It was easier to use the Realvoice earphones, they fit better, did not tangle as much, and the soundstage was as good or better to my ears.
My recommendation:
The Realvoice IEM’S are recommended at their current price, they do a great job within the cost/performance ratio. They are built very well, are very comfortable and easy to just pick up and use with a great sound that is mid-centric with a slight bass boost. They are easy to EQ for those music players that have that capability; they work well with the iPhone, and sell at a very reasonable price for the IEM one gets.     
 
 
What else do I own or have owned:
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 4, Shure 530, Westone 3, HiFiMAN RE262,  Shure SE535, Westone 4, Phonak Audeo PFE-112, Shure SE215, Phiaton PS 200, EarSonics SM3, Victor/JVC HA-FX700, Brainwavz M3, Fischer Audio DBA-02, Monster Golds, Monster Copper, Monster Miles Davis - 176.46, MEElectronics A151-BK , Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10,  and the ATH-CK10.
For the purpose of this review, I also borrowed my daughter’s pair of Head-Direct RE-0, this year’s model.