HIFIMAN RE400 in-Ear Monitor-Hi Fi Earphone/Earbud

----- The quick and short of it is that these:- Sound incredible with a very balanced, slightly warm sound that is not bass heavy or too bright on the treble- Are very small and compact that allows for a very comfortable fit within the ear even if you have small ears- Have a good build quality that, when treated well and used with a case, can last years with daily useSome users may think that these don't have enough bass, but throw some more bass at them from through an EQ and they will happily take it! I definitely recommend taking a few days to get used to the sound these make and you'll start noticing things in your music that you did not recognize before with lesser earbuds/headphones!----- The long of it is:These things are wonderful! You can read reviews on these things all day long and read about everything I could possibly tell you, but in my personal experience thus far, I have not been able to find a negative that would knock this back from the 5 stars "I love it"! Sure they aren't perfect, but for the money, they sure are incredible!One of my favorite part about these are that they are very minimalistic in their size so fitting them in your ears is easy and effortless all while the sound is superb and without sacrifice. The tiny body these things have are a fantastic thing to have since I am used to larger buds that just get uncomfortable to wear. I have worn these on 8+ hour flights the entire time and never found them to be uncomfortable or fatiguing!Personally, I was one to go for bass heavy earbuds and headphones until I got a pair of these guys. In the past 2.5 months of using them nearly every day at work, home, with friends, airplanes, cars, trains, etc., I have found a completely new found love for the balance these earbuds put out! I had a very hard time believing that such a small driver and package could deliver such an excellent balance from the very bottom of the range all the way up to the inaudible mosquito like high tones. The bass is certainly less loud overall than I was used to, however, the authority is still there and I found that the bass was much more refined and full-bodied in virtually every song I played compared to anything else I was used to. I had to go back and listen to my entire library of music because I kept finding new things and little nuances that I had never noticed before! Strictly in regards to sound, I do not believe you can get a better bang for the buck, these simply do sound magnificent! Unless you are an avid audiophile, these earbuds should satisfy pretty much anyone who is looking for a set of good fitting, well-isolating, incredibly sounding earbuds under $100.On the topic of build quality and overall durability, I would say that these are certainly not built like a tank and will not last forever. The flip side to that is that I have used mine pretty heavily for nearly 3 months now and I don't see any signs of wear and tear as of yet! The biggest complaints that I see come from what I would account to negligence with the cables and using the headphones in a way they were not designed for. I always use the clam shell case that these came with, I never fold or crease the cables, and I wrap the cable VERY loosely around 3 fingers before putting them back in the case. When I put them in my ears and remove them, I ALWAYS grab them by the body of the earbud itself, never by the cable or strain relief. When I plug them in or unplug them from something, I grab the plug itself, not the cable or strain relief. I also don't use these for anything athletic because these were not designed to be used that way, they don't have the means to mitigate the stresses caused by those activities. By no means do I baby these things when I am using them and I won't recommend someone else resorting to that to make these last, but treating them well and not using them for things they weren't designed for like running, working out, and sports is really the best way to make them last. You are buying the incredible sound when purchasing these earbuds and while an indestructable build quality and fancy materials would be nice to have, these are the best sounding sub-$100 earbuds I have ever experienced!----- UPDATE!Well it has been almost 2 years now of using these nearly daily and I have a few more things to say! First, they still sound amazing and I couldn't recommend them enough! The only issues so far are that the plastic strain reliefs on both sides have broken away from the body of each earbud, but a small dab of superglue later and they haven't broken again since being repaired a few months ago. I suspect this is due to how I am grabbing the bud and pulling them out of my ear and have since started grabbing the metal housing instead. As for the cord and connector, they are both in pretty good shape! They hardly show any wear and tear from my nearly daily use and dozens of flights all over the world, but no frays, splits, kinks, or anything broken! At their new, lower price, I cannot believe the value you get from these and how well they can rival earbuds and headphones that are many more times the price!

These are extremely good all around IEMs that I would highly recommend to almost anyone. In my opinion, these are pretty much the pinnacle of laptop earbuds. I wouldn't pay for anything more that will have waste thanks to source quality, but at the same time I feel these are completely worth the money. Why 4 stars instead of 5, then? I really wish I could give partial stars because then (for laptops/phones/etc) it'd be a 4.5, maybe even 4.75, but it comes down to two (very small) reasons. First, if not for the bag of extra tips included in the carrying case (the clear cone tips), there wouldn't be pair I found comfortable as none of the flange sizes really worked for me. Second, the latter half of the phrase jack of all trades: master of none.Now even that's being a little harsh, as its midrange, upper bass, and most of the treble are all utterly fantastic (with an odd outlier very, very rarely). However, the lower bass is lacking. Don't get me wrong, they sound good, but not as good as the rest of its range. It's where I notice songs/genres sound great with other headsets or my 5.1 speakers but just good with these, if that makes sense. To give you an idea, I used these for about a week watching youtube and running Spotify for hours each day and then went through a playlist with songs from these artists/bands:All Time Low, The All-American Rejects, August Burns Red, Avicii, AWOLNATION, Basshunter, Boys Like Girls, The Bravery, Cascada, Darude (you know which song), Eminem, Epica, Flobots, FM Static, Green Day, Imagine Dragons, Iyaz, Kesha, Lady Gaga, Lindsey Stirling, Linkin Park, Metallica, Mitis, Nickelback, OneRepublic, Pegboard Nerds, Pentatonix, Pitbull, The Pussycat Dolls, T.I., Taio Cruz, Taylor Swift.So I missed some genres (Rap, classic rock, metal), but I feel like hit a good range of sound. 99% sounded great. For some reason, they did not like the intro to Love Drunk (BLG) a cracked a bit in The Great Escape as well. Those were the only times it could be said to sound bad. My quibbles with treble at times I can put aside since of freaking course my bookshelf monitors that cost $200 each and are a little more high end sensitive are going to sound better in that area. But Emergency (Pegboard Nerds), Radioactive (Imagine Dragons), and basically all of Midas (a rather mellow electronic artist comparatively) showed how the lower bass, while it still sounded good, just wasn't all there. I'm not even kidding when I say I plugged in my Xbox stereo headsets (Turtle Beach XO One and the MS brand ones) and they sounded better at equivalent volume levels. Side note: I never have to turn the laptop volume past 20% with the RE-400s.So tl;dr: For listening to the vast majority of music made from the 90s to the present, these are great. Rap, metal, classic rock, I can't say (though I think classic rock would be ok given how Unforgiven, Wheel in the Sky, and Don't Stop Believin' sounded fine). The only people I would outright recommend against getting these are those who listen to primarily electronic/dubstep/EDM as you want something with more than just "good" bass. For those who dabble in such but are more mainstream radio listeners like me, these are pretty much what you want, as even though they might lack some oomph at times they still make every song across a broad range enjoyable.