Updated: HifiMAN HM-801 Portable Music Player Preorder

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by GreenLeo

Oh, interesting. I've never noticed it. I guess I'm too concern of its sonic ability

Yeah, I guess silly old me is paying too much attention to nonsense like usability, user friendliness, features, performance specs, and other useless junk like that...

[.coco]

This player has a chance to survive as long as Apple doesnt decide to put an optical output in their products..lol

It's funny because people are really excited about the swappable amp...seems that you are forgetting that if RSA or a similar company builds an amp for this device, you should expect to pay a few hundred bucks for that. I am guessing that a fully decked out system, ie full sized media card and aftermarket amp, will cost around $900.

[fuzzy]

Originally Posted by .coco

This player has a chance to survive as long as Apple doesnt decide to put an optical output in their products..lol

It's funny because people are really excited about the swappable amp...seems that you are forgetting that if RSA or a similar company builds an amp for this device, you should expect to pay a few hundred bucks for that. I am guessing that a fully decked out system, ie full sized media card and aftermarket amp, will cost around $900.

I doubt Apple will do that anytime soon considering their recent cost cutting strategy on the ipod line (I collect 160 gig classics, lol).

No, I am excited about the headphone amp that comes with it, presuming it is of better quality then what is in my Ipod. Aftermarket options, that will be intersting. if the sound of the built in DAC is anywhere close to what is promised then it's worth it to me.

Media will come down in price.

I don't know if it has been said elsewhere but my Ipod classics are not even able to resolve a 192 kb vbr mp3 file due to the poor output circuitry. I like to see a portable where I can actually hear the virtues of lossless. If this unit is anywhere close to resolve a top quality mp3 file it will have excellent sound. Even with MP3s I still enjoy having gargantuum storage and wish there were better options, even a portable HD connected through USB...but a 256 gig ssd drive would be SO great!!

[fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Edwood

Hi, Fang. It was great great finally meeting you in person. ...........
-Ed

Ed, have you really posted here over 19000 times? WOW, my hat off to you, Sir!

[Kibble Fat]

As soon as 64GB SDs come out, I'm getting rid of my ipod and picking up one of these!

I own a 6Gen ipod classic and like most of the features it has except for the rating system

I would like to rate songs on my portable and have it added to "My top-rated songs" (or whatever it is) automatically. This would be for **** and ***** -rated songs. For me this would be excellent because when I'm playing songs on shuffle (I'm assuming this new device has a shuffle function), there are sometimes songs I've never heard before that I want to add to the top-rated playlist. In retrospect I should make a seperate playlist and manually add them, but this can be difficult while operating a motor vehicle

Sync'ing portables is a great idea, but it should be able to sync both ways (as in the above example) at least for playlists. Rating songs on my ipod is useless because I can never find them again. CRY!!!
I'm not sure if sync'ing fits with removable memory. I guess not, but do you understand my point?
Would it be possible to do two SD slots, one with your music (ie Songs A-J) and the other dedicated to storing your playlists?

An option to view all of a song's tags might be useful as well.
Also, the one thing I love about the ipod, and probably others as well, is that you can select which menu's you want to be available. An example would be choosing to display the "video playlists" menu and not display the "games" menu. This way you can streamline the menu tree to your liking. Rockbox has been mentioned... although I don't know much about it, it would be nice to have this option.

[nc8000]

Originally Posted by Kibble Fat

As soon as 64GB SDs come out, I'm getting rid of my ipod and picking up one of these!

I don't expect there ever will be one as the SD spec tops out at 32 GB to the best of my understanding. Higher capacity will be under the new format that I can't remember the acronym for.

[Kibble Fat]

right, sdxc
same sd packaging, different pin layout?

[GreenLeo]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Yeah, I guess silly old me is paying too much attention to nonsense like usability, user friendliness, features, performance specs, and other useless junk like that...

Not at all! In fact I admire your ability of observation very much and I concern about the user friendliness like the ability to create my own playlists as well. But I can't understand the specs like WindowsX and don't know which opamp/chip is better

[GreenLeo]

Originally Posted by .coco

This player has a chance to survive as long as Apple doesnt decide to put an optical output in their products..lol

It's funny because people are really excited about the swappable amp...seems that you are forgetting that if RSA or a similar company builds an amp for this device, you should expect to pay a few hundred bucks for that. I am guessing that a fully decked out system, ie full sized media card and aftermarket amp, will cost around $900.

Actually I prefer a DAC only version of the Hifiman better. Lot's of headfiers have already got high quality portable amps.

One of the leading edges I find in this product is that it can play 24/96 files directly through a good DAC. Hence HiFiMan DAC only + favorable amp is really nice combo to me.

Of course I am not objecting the 3 in 1 concept provided the amp is really good. In this case I will buy it in a second.

Anyway, it's always good to have more than one GOOD options.

[GreenLeo]

Originally Posted by nc8000

I don't expect there ever will be one as the SD spec tops out at 32 GB to the best of my understanding. Higher capacity will be under the new format that I can't remember the acronym for.

Yeap no SDHC > 32GB, thanks for the fault of SanDisk. Sigh.

[jp11801]

this is the real deal folks Fang has a a real high fi player in a portable size, dang I wish I had the cash for this as the amp and dac section is superb

[boomana]

I, too, was quite impressed by the sq on the short listen I gave it at CanJam. It's also more lightweight that the pics make it seem. Since I'm a mac plug and play type person (yes, I know that sucks to you geek types), I did ask Fang if a version supporting Apple lossless might come out at some time. He said it was a consideration, more or less, but if and when it does, I'd be interested.

[tyrion]

I was pretty impressed with the sq that came out of this dap. I didn't play with the controls so can't comment on the interface and ease of use. It looks and feels better in person than it does in pics. I asked about alac as well but didn't get the impression it was going to happen any time soon but who knows. A little more than half my music (about 500 gb) is in alac. I'm not in the market for this at the moment but I would not let the lack of alac support stop me. I have another 300 gb of flac available.

[GreenLeo]

Hi NanKai,

I've told by a headfier that you're working on integrating the MiniBox E+ amp to the Hifiman. Any update on this?

[Anouk]

Hello, Well, i myself really wonder about the ease of use (what ui is used, what type of buttons etc etc). I hope the euro/dollar exchange rate stays good because I am very itnerested in this product but I will be wating for reviews of the finished product before buying.
Greetings, Anouk,