Performance

Judging the performance of headphones is always a hard thing to do because there are no real benchmarks you can put them through, at least none that will give a definitive answer. The Head-Direct RE2s are a bit special since I had to use non-original tips to make them sound best. This should not be a problem with the final product because Head-Direct will include both foam tips and a bigger double flange in the final incarnation of the RE2. So potential buyers do not need to worry about fit. I am confident that the guys over at Head-Direct will come up with a good solution to the fit problems.

As far as comparison goes, these in-ears will be up against my main earphones which are: Westone UM2 & Sleek-Audio SA6. I also have a lot of big headphones, but those are only used as reference in regards to sound characteristics and are not used as direct comparisons since they are a completely different type of headphone mainly aimed at home listening.

To start off with I let them burn-in for about 50 hours with a mix of both white and pink noise just to get them to sound their very best. Since the RE2s rely on a dynamic driver, you should not expect them to sound their best straight out of the box. Like with most dynamic cans their membranes need time to settle in to their ideal state.

After the initial burn-in I tried them out with my Cowon iAudio i7. The mids were spot on for me, rich in texture and incredibly detailed. Male voices sound really good on these in-ears. The mids are clear and present, overall a lot more musical than that on the Westone UM2s and SA6s. I definitely prefer the midrange of the RE2s to that of the SA6s because it is much more present and with a more airy sound.

I would actually go as far as saying that the RE2s have what resemble a more earbud like presentation when it comes to sound stage. The instrument separation is far better than that on most conventional in-ears. All of this completely caught me off guard I was not expecting these to be so different from what I am used to, and I certainly did not expect them to outperform some in-ears that cost twice as much. The treble and bass extension with the RE2s is not as good as that of the Sleek-Audio SA6s. The SA6 clearly wins when it comes to the high tones and the presentation of classical pieces. The RE2s have a good and smooth treble response it just has a more noticeable roll off than that of the Sleek-Audio SA6s.

To me the RE2s are ideal for most people who listen to rock music because of their incredible midrange reproduction. For the money I think you will have a hard time finding any real rivals to this earphone. It provides an extreme degree of detail and has above average bass reproduction. The only performance aspect where these earphones fall substantially behind the much more expensive offerings is the treble extension, they cannot reach the extreme high tones without sounding a bit odd.

These earphones are quite demanding when it comes to sources, so if you have a DAP with lower than average output rating I think you will need an amp to drive them the way they deserve. If you use them along with a MP3 player with a good output stage they will sound incredible.

The bass on these earphones is really good and well controlled for the price. It does not go quite as deep as the UM2s or the SA6s, but is a bit more present. The bass is really good for a pair of earphones that only costs $80!

Noise attenuation with these earphones is a bit below that of the Westone UM2s and Sleek-Audio SA6s, but not that far off. If you use them on your daily commute they will still block out enough noise to allow you to enjoy your music. Then again they are not marketed as hard-core isolating earphones and in my opinion it does not hurt their performance in 99% of the usage scenarios. If you plan on using your earphones in an extremely noisy environment then you should consider going for one of the brands that do better in terms of isolation.

During the course of my testing I found that the RE2s handle microphonic noise by the cable reasonably well. They are not silent like the Westone UM-series earphones, but not nearly as bad as their Ultimate Ears counterparts.