HI!
Welcome to Lachlan Likes A Thing, a show where I take a thing and see whether or not I like
it.
Now the thing we're going to be looking at in this video is the HIFIMAN RE-400 inner
ear earphones.
Now if you've never heard of HIFIMAN they're a company from China that originally started
off by making good quality, good value for money earphones that would outperform brandname
competitors that were many many times the price.
My first pair of good in-ear earphones were the HIFIMAN RE-0's and ever since then I've
had a bit of a soft spot for the company because I think that everything they make is good
value and really sensibly designed.
Now since the introduction of the RE-0 they've branched out into making much more expensive
high-end earphones and headphones so it's really interesting to see the RE-400, which
is basically HIFIMAN attempting to reset their entire lineup of earphones and trying to recapture
some of the same magic they got with the RE-0 at the $99 pricepoint.
And HIFIMAN is so confident in the RE-400 that they've also nicknamed the RE-400 the
'waterline', which implies that they believe the RE-400 is the reference point for not
only what they can achieve with $99, but what the entire industry should be doing for $99.
So that's a pretty big claim, so it's worth taking a closer look.
The RE-400 has a simple but really quite sensibile design.
We have the really light machined aluminium body and a relatively thin nozzle so that
it will fit in most ears quite well.
However I found the included tip selection didn't quite fit my ears so I've been using
Sony silicone Hybrid tips with my RE-400's.
We have here a strain relief that's quite nice.
We have a cable that is actually rubber all the way up to the strain relief and then fabric
wrapped all the way down to the plug.
So presumably, this is to, you know, improve durability while reducing cable noise.
What we have here is a quite substantial plug, so all in all it's not a fancy design but
it is practical and well thought out.
Now I've mentioned the RE-400's in a number of previous videos as a good alternative but
now that it's actually time for me to describe their sound to you it's actually a little
difficult because they are just neutral, understated, good performers.
In terms of signature they're just on the slightly warmer side of neutral with a slight
emphsis on the bass, but nothing overblown.
And it's actually kind of interesting because most HIFIMAN models have been considered under-emphasised
in terms of bass.
In terms of sound staging they are very clean precise earphones.
You don't get an incredibly spacious sounding soundstage but you get something that's quite
high precision.
So overall they're just really balanced earphones where nothing really jumps out at you but
what you hear is really really balanced.
You know there are earphones out there that I think have more interesting sounds.
So perhaps say the XBA-40 which has that crazy holographic soundstage or maybe the EX1000
which has that kind of smokey, dry, romantic sound.
But if you wanted something that was balanced it's really hard to go past these especially
for $99.
These are really good earphones and I really love them.
I think HIFIMAN has absolutely hit the mark in considering these a waterline reference
for $99.
So I recommend anyone at all, who's interested in collecting in-ears, go out and buy a pair
of these, these are fantastic.
Anyway thanks for watching, thanks to everyone who's liked my videos and subscribed to my
channel.
If you ever want to have a chat with me about gear hit me up on Twitter, my handle is @lachlikesathing
- and happy listening!