HiFiMAN HM-801 Portable Player / DAC Review: Part One of Two - Page 30

Just remember to add the price of as many SDHC cards you need to the cost of the HM801

This probably is'nt as important to most posters over here but all of your comparisons to other portable rig set-ups leave out a significant specification. Imods or the Jriver setups won't playback Hi-Rez music files . I can appreciate the fact that these other setups may also play state of the art(or near) Redbook , but we may be nitpicking here about the differences (I'm talking about SQ not price)we're talking about Redbook! It does appear that the HM 801 may have a slight advantage for the fact that it is an integrated solution to the player/dac/amp setup for HQ portable playback. All the concern about which version of 1704 chip is being used has me a bit dumbfounded! Are there a number of available portable players using HQ dac chips that we are'nt aware of. As is often said ,you guys may be "sweating the small stuff". If I did'nt already have my Korg MR1 (which was a lot work to make it an "acceptable" portable player, but I love the fact I can now listen to my SACDs when I'm out) this is the player I most likely would have gotten. (I know, Boo, Hiss he does'nt even have this player. I could'nt help but applaud this effort as I really hate the acceptance of compressed music as the norm)

Besides the fact, and this is the most important one to me, is the fact that the HiFiMAN is the best sounding unit out there on the market. Couple that with the ability to use it as a standalone DAC/Amp, in both co-axial and USB modes , make this unit a top of the line possession.
As nc8000 pointed out, you do have to factor in the price of additional SD cards (about $69-79 each) however, since my iRiver H-120 only holds 20 gig, 2 32 GB card has tripled the capacity of the iRiver, which in itself, is a monumental improvement, besides the fact that having multiple cards make your storage capacity limitless, depending on how much you want to shell out for additional cards.
To me, 2 cards, or 64GB is more than enough, right now.

It "only" uses SDHC so you are "limited" to 32 GB per card.

It plays hi res files with a lot higher quality than iRiver with RockBox does.

32gb will be enough for me

Thank You for adding this. This has been a main consideration in my decision to get a HiFiMan801 in the first place.

I think what you meant to say is 4 cards, or 128GB is more than enough, right now.
To begin with, 2 cards or 64GB will have to hold me.
That is about $160.00 added to the price of the unit which right now is $650.00 plus $20.00 shipping. Total = $830.00
Still cheaper than the iMod/V-Cap/P-51 Mustang combo when you factor in 2 ALO Cryo SXC 18G at $195.00 apiece. $1,600.00? Oh and shipping.

My bad, I can't do math on weekends. Especially when working 20 days in a a row.
32GB max...2 cards would be 64GC which is 3 times more than my iRiver H-120.

But seriously, even if it only sounded "as good" as the iMod/V-Cap/P-51 Mustang combo, that puts the HiFiMan801 in the "huge bang for the buck" category.

The iRiver iHP-120/140 has the added advantage of being adaptable to newer memory technologies like SSDs. And I'm sure once the SDXCs start coming out, somebody will make an adapter that can make it work with the iHPs, like the CF to SDHC adapters.

Yeah, if I didn't already have the iRiver H140/D10 + the iMod/Pvcap/P-51 (or any other amp) I would be in the market for the 801.

I sold my H120/D10 kit to make room for the 801!

A single box, plus the idea of having a much larger music collection on me at all times (via carrying a few small cards around) pushed me over the edge.

I'd still like to use the D10 with my Sony PCDP via optical, and I don't know if the 801 via USB from Macbook will be as good as my current opamp rolled D10 via optical from Macbook.

802 can't not have SDXC, which should mean, card prices allowing, that I'm scratching foobar/USB altogether. SDXC has to be the next most significant step on the upgrade path.

One of the major complaints on 32GB SDHC is that people lose them. Mind you, I'm using them currently with my iRiver iHP-120s. My next upgrade on my iHP-120 would be a 128GB or higher SSD. 128GB or higher SDXC would probably not be available for at least another year or so, I'm guessing here.