Updated: HifiMAN HM-801 Portable Music Player Preorder - Page 32

Mine has arrived.



I have managed to make a few hours listening until the remaining battery run out. I tried it mostly on the go with Edition8 and JH13. Both of them has great synergy.

Here is the first impressions.
HM-801 is laterally a bit bulky but much better than carrying dap/amp combo. In addition, HM801 is lighter than I thought.

Sound quality is simply outstanding for a portable. Not in the portable league, this is even better than my iHP140/D10(8397) combo in one box.
Overall sounded much detailed, refined and neutral. In short, an audiophile sound. Bass is deep and not humped, the control of bass is fairly tight, I was impressed.

LCD is simple, no frills but clear enough and works well. However I think key operation is not so intuitive. (no manuals provided at this moment)
I use HM801 mostly with FLAC, that is ripped using EAC.
Song track navigation is Rockbox like and file/folder management is easy to understand. I even tried some 96/24 flac which I bought from LINN, HDtracks and others. 96/24 works fine but some track caused freeze. Not all but some of them. 44/16s are no problem at all.
I use Sandisk 32GB SDHC. I also tried Transcend 8GB SDHC and this works well too.

This is a fantastic piece of work.
Thank you Fang!

Aaron, I am tempted to buy a plane ticket! But I can eat and drink a lot. Cheers, and I hope you enjoy the unit.

Fang congratulations in bringing the product to fruition.

How about with k701 or 601?
Sasaki.
thanks.

Sasaki, congrats on your purchase and with getting one of the special firsts of this highly anticipated device.

Keep the impressions coming, I am especially taken by the "even better than my iHP140/D10" observation.

Enjoy.

Better than ihp140+d10? Hmm... Interesting... Can you make a comment about hissing with iems? I will be using it with very efficient ones if I decide to get one. Can you also compare the dac to other dacs like benchmark, apogee etc.? Thanks.

Thanks for the review. How does it compare to IMod + VCap + D10/Lisa?

I'm now counting the days.

Sasaki-San
Thank you for nice review. Please try UE11Pro.

I would be very interested in UE11 impressions with the HM801 as well. If the amp section really is based on the MBE+, that combination should hiss quite a bit.

Thank you Sasaki, for your Post!

Then, how about the rest of three?
Especially immetbiker, it's no drinking matter!

Tomorrow's the big day for me. I am going to wear my best Tuxedo and play a game of Baccarat before heading to pick mine up, and of course all listening will be shaken, and not stirred.

It should be a good day in 'biker history.

Can we actually use the HM801 as a USB DAC alone like my headamp USB DAC? From PC USB to 1704UK DAC to external amp?

Yes.

Thanks! This is like a mini portable Ref 1 that can be used as a dedicated dac as well. Very interesting device~

Hi all,
Thank you for the comments!

> I am especially taken by the "even better than my iHP140/D10" observation.
> Better than ihp140+d10? Hmm... Interesting...

Yes, but this is no wonder. The DAC chip of D10 is WM8740. WM8740 is used in my Onkyo PC sound card. But HM801 employs PCM1704 which was used in Mark Levinson No360. Wadia series9 also employs 1704.
DAC chip alone is not all but it surely matters.

> Can you make a comment about hissing with iems?
> Please try UE11Pro.
> I would be very interested in UE11 impressions with the HM801 as well.

I tried it with my UE11. To my surprise, I found almost no hissing even the volume is all way up. This is almost best I ever heard in portable audio.
I think fairly amount of noise is coming from iPod on the iPod based setup. One piece solution HM801 is extremely quiet and fairly IEM friendly.

> How does it compare to IMod + VCap + D10/Lisa?

I don't have Lisa nor VCap. Comparing to iMod+SR71A, performance-wise HM801 wins. But I miss warm and pleasant sounding of Ray's amp. I hope Ray would make an amp module of HiFiMan.