hotaudio40 's amps - Page 7

Oh oh, hotaudio, you might consider asking the mods to give you 'member of the trade' status. Might help brand image?

hotaudio40

what headphones do you use for your headphone amps?
i want to get an idea what kinds of headphone amp combination will be of great synergy

mmm..interesting indeed. Looks like we have a new giant killer on the block as Head-Direct were when they emerged in the IEM market. What I would love is some comparisons vs other portable amps/DACs, portable hi-fi'ers gogo!

Anyway, someone give Jude a nudge and get him to give hotaudio 'Member of the Trade' status.

"Member of the Trade" status...

Oooo, that sounds kinda cool....

Exactly what trade are we talking about... lol, just kidding.

That would be great

I get lots of support from this forum, and am indebted to you guys for sure, and now "Member of the Trade" status...

I would also like to point out here, if I may, that I also make headphone amps...

I don't just make the HOTUSB1....

I even have a new "buffered" series of DAC coming out very soon.

I've built 3 new versions.

A HOTUSB1 with a buffer capable of 150mW into 32ohms.

A PCM2702 model with a buffer, which it needs as 2702s can't drive headphones directly. ( I just finished it last night ) Still running AB tests on it against the others...

And a PCM2906 model with buffer and get this, it has a line input ADC !

My first Analogue to Digital USB recording device !!!

I am very exited about this model as now I can record directly to the computer via USB.

It ONLY will accept Line Level for recording so far, as I haven't come up with a good mike amplifier yet...

But for recording line level audio, it does a very nice job

Not sure what to call my newest models either...

Any suggestions ?????

I usually choose my own names, but I would love to hear some input into names for my new DACs....

The names should have something to do with the properties of the DAC as well as my company name "HOTAUDIO.COM"

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hotaudio40

Actually, they CAN still use the DAC to feed an amp capable of driving the K701s. I think I've read of at least one person using your dac with a big amp.

I have a suggestion for hotaudio. I think it would be really helpful if there was a clear comparison of the various products being offered. It's really not clear to me what features come on each product. Some have attached cables, some have RCA jacks, some have a 1/4" jack, etc. I guess it should be a good sign that the web site is less than stellar - that usually means the owner is a HW-geek not an html-geek, and that's good for the products, right?

Questions about 9V battery models

Let's say I buy one of the models that use a 9V battery and an On/Off switch. If the switch is ON, but no headphones or speakers are connected, will the battery run down? What if headphones are connected but no sound is being played?

If I must remember each time to turn the switch to OFF, I'd feel more comfortable if there were an LED to remind me when it's ON.

of LEDs, comparison tables, and human factors

On the Mark IV, there's no battery that one might inadvertently allow to drain.

While your attention to engineering is second to none, I hope to one day see the same regard for your customers' human factors. As a technical writer, I was floored by your response to the forum member's request for a comparison table. You basically told him, "If you read each page, you can figure out how my products differ." In the usability world, the value of comparison tables has been long-settled, and so definitively that its value is beyond debate and its omission egregious.

Ditto for a power LED: It's not as simple as a choice between "aesthetics vs. sound purity"; that's a false dichotomy. The power LED has been proven to be an almost indispensible visual aid to remind the user that his battery is being drained.

As I'm sure you know, engineers (and no offense is meant here) usually do miss out on user empathy, it comes with the territory really.

What hotaudio suggested the user do makes sense, no? Gather the information in your head and make your own comparison chart. I do it all the time, even though I'm not an engineer, when you're looking up things in the tech world the number of websites that 'get it right' are few. I remember looking up lenses for my Nikon DSLR, and there was just one website that had the type of charting that I needed. The rest of the acronyms and numbers had to be done the manual way!

I suppose Paul is right though, since hotaudio is getting bigger all these things will become much more important. Site design, usability, charts, and so on. But these things also add cost and unminimalism.

I'm curious how the HOTUSB1 would compare to the HeadRoom Total BitHead. I know the HeadRoom costs much more, but I can buy them used for a few bucks more than the HOTUSB1.

Hi,

Congratulation on your succesful venture!

I am thinking of buying one of your products to work as sound source between my PC and T-amp. Frankly I do not need headphone features. Which one would you suggest forme.

Thanks

S. Bhat

I can't answer that question directly, as it would be a breach of this forums policy.

Direct promotion of products by a seller is strictly prohibited!!!

And I can see why they have this policy.

It is much better if others promote my products and not me as I am slightly biased...

To keep everything real, it does make sense that seller should not be able to promote their products.

But you can email me directly at hotaudio40@hotmail.com if you have any questions!

Dave (hotaudio.com) was very good to me when I ran into a problem with my Paypal account after purchasing one of his amps. He was patient and it all worked itself out. With that said, I challenge anyone to read through the hotaudio.com web site and understand ALL the differences between the products he sells. You can't just go by the specs since several of the products use EXACTLY the same specs even though they are much different prices. You also have to look at the pictures and carefully read the text descriptions. Even after reading them several times, I was still confused - and I'm willing to admit it.

I *have* an engineering degree (though not EE) and I have worked with engineers of many disciplines for well over 20 years - therefore I feel I am able to say, with all due respect to Dave & his fine products, that his web site sucks. It's a typical site from a down-in-the-weeds HW guy - I have no doubt HE understands it perfectly.

Anyone who has been around these forums for several years has seen bright guys selling good products come and go. I could list 10 right off the top of my head. One of the things I have noticed is that they tend to fall into 2 camps - guys who sell the same product for a long time (Gary and his PA2V2 comes to mind immediately) or they pop-out new products fairly rapidly (like Dave at hotaudio or maybe Norm from the original go-vibe). I hope that hotaudio doesn't go down the path of far too many other guys that make good products, become popular, and then fight a losing battle between wanting to be an R&D engineer vs being a producer, fulfilling orders and doing customer service. What's the number 1 complaint we see in these forums for dealing with many respected vendors? They often don't communicate very well with their customers & prospective customers. Dave is excellent at answering his email - that's one of the things that impressed me and made me pull the trigger and purchase from him. But, if he was suddenly deluged with orders for all of the different amps he currently has listed on his site - would he still be as responsive?

I think we're really all trying to help - I know that if I had a marketable skill, I might be giving it a go myself, and I hope that I would take feedback for what it is - an attempt by a happy customer to make my business better.

Ordered a HotUSB1 this weekend!

Admittedly my website isn't very well organized...

And yes, If I was "suddenly deluged with orders" I definitely wouldn't be as responsive with my emails....

But I do break up my day, building amps, testing amps, designing amps, and then to relax, answering emails

And not necessarily in that order.

I answer emails first, then build, test and ship orders. Then when I have nothing else to do I do R&D and order new chips and build new units.

I actually have 4 more units still not even listed.... I don't want to confuse anyone....

And I will most likely be streamlining my product list soon. Perhaps by DAC IC number. Not sure yet how I'm going to do it...

There are so many chips out there, and I want to try them all. I can't help myself. It is like an addiction.

More, more, more, I want to try more....

Website design is boring. Making amps is fun

Perhaps I will purchase a professional website someday. But then I would loose my creative freedom as those sites are very difficult to customize.

I am not too big a believer in MOST specifications either. I only put them up as I've always seen that in magazines and such.

But in reality, as far as listening goes, most specs mean nothing at all....

Even the cost of ICs is not a relative indicator of sound quality. I mean it CAN be, but it is not always the case...

I do appreciate the feedback though. Even when it hurts my ego...

Some day I'll get around to streamlining the web-pages, but for now, I'm R&D all the way !!!!

I really do love listening to all the new chips.

Some of them blow my mind

hotaudio40