Pros: Excellent pre-amp, headphone amp and dac for a great price
Cons: Nothing I can think of
After having a few dacs and amps , I wanted an all-in-one package that would leave me happy for a very long time. The size of this thing is small and portable which is an added bonus. I didn't like dealing with interconnects with amps and dacs so this thing was a blessing.
I only owned a handful of amps but I compared this Meier Corda Arietta and from what I was hearing out of my RS1 was better attack and speed. It is not as warm as the Arietta but for me this is a good thing. The transparency and soundstage depth is improved over the Arietta as well. I felt the HDP amp is a better match for my RS1 than the Arietta. If there was one thing that I wished it could improve on would be the width of the soundstage but this is minor for me since my AD700 already offers a huge soundstage.
I did not get a chance to compare with my other DACs since I sold them all betting that the HDP would triumph them all 
. Clearly it does not disappoint when I received it.
There is no hissing on my unit with my AD700 and RS1. The unit runs cool all day and never gets hot, but lukewarm leaving it on 24/7.
Overall I'm impressed by the price and the features of the HDP, it's hard to find anything with all the features at the same price. I feel as an headphone amplifier, it could very well be worth the entire price of the HDP at $449 but Nuforce managed to fit an excellent DAC packed with features all for the price of one. Like some have already said, this entire package offers a lot of bang per buck.
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