HiFiMAN HM-801 Portable Player / DAC Review: Part One of Two - Page 35

Geez, I have been following this thread religiously. With all the production delays and problems with shipping, I would never order one at the moment. There still has not been any complete reviews! I don't even know if, in an output effort, what problems might arise (hardware/software?). Things seem to be a bit dicey at the moment and I would rather wait until full reviews come in and there is plenty of stock available.

David,
As soon as everybody gets their orders shipped and received, there will be a plethora of reviews and info posted that you will be able to make an informative decision based upon. I can tell you from my personal experience that you will not be unhappy with purchasing one or both of these components.

Thanks Aaron,
As you know, I am a snail. I must be the only one here who is a Headphoneus Supremus that doesn't own any headphones. Maybe I'm too much of a snob for beauty or I just don't think that the technology in 2010 is where it should be (I was hoping for virtual music environments by now, oh, and cars that fly). For the last few months I have been saving up for the JH-13 Pro and now comes along the JH-16 and UE-18? That made me take two steps backward. And now the HiFiMan Hm-801. Forget cars that fly, can anyone make a portable music player with a high-end DAC and amplifier? Baby steps I know. Glory will be the day when a headphone exhibits true soundstaging but that it science fiction for now. Come on people, even rocket science isn't rocket science.

David,
If you wait your whole life waiting for the perfect stuff that is unsurpassable, you are going to look back at age 60, and see that life has passed you by, and you missed out on so much. Grab the bull by the horns and live more for now, dude.

That is my philosophy lesson for the day.

Ahh, existentialism Aaron... hmm, you might be on to something.

By the way, I loved reading your story about having to pick up your kids' Xbox on Christmas morning.
You sound like a great father.

make the review!!!

Very good analogy.

what is competition for the hm 801 and how large capacity hdd?

hi guys,

Just received 2nd batch HM801(Firm 0.11 updated as of 2010/01/11

I'd burned-in for 50hrs

For the first listen:
-Powerful as hell
-Pretty detailed sound
-somewhat sennheiser-ish veils around mid-low bass

For the 50hr burned-in
-the senn veil gets better
-powerful as hell
-(from the headphone out) maybe deep-base around 30hz decays


compared to all of my DAPs HM801 surely is the best
but the low-impedance BA earphones doesnt work well with this player;
it's just over-powered for those

From what i tried the best sounding ones are
HD650
HD25-1
IE8
K530
ESW9
DT990 600Ω

and the ones i felt doesnt match with HM801 were:

SR225
K340(Electstat&Dynamic)
K450:
DJ1PRO
HP-1
TF10PRO
K171MKII


it seems HM801 is good for large dynamic headphones
my main portable rigs was:

iPod classic 160GB > Dock Staar DS-GETa > XO(AD8620) > IE8 or TF10PRO
or
Alneo V80 > IE8/TF10PRO
or
Teclast T51>IE8/TF10PRO

among those I can say although HM801 has following controversial points
-the power intensity around mid-bass
-somewhat sennheiser-ish fogs covering around whole sound
-iPod-like round-sound sigs
-bad compatibility with BA earphones(except ER4S)
it is still the best of what I have.

btw for the UI-wise it is pretty messy, i really hope rockbox firm for us.

so far i haven't encounter any of HW/SW crash yet, nor Eeee noise by button maneuvers.

It has pretty good S/N ratio and almost no noise.


P.S
As a USB DAC it sounds even better than the M-Audio USB Transit

hopefully there would be more reviews from who received 2nd batch recently..
enjoy

Hmm.. I've tried it with the SR225 and found them to be AWESOME. The best I've ever heard SR-225's sound. Not sure why you didn't think they were a good match

The UI is weak indeed but.. its doable.. I very much doubt rockbox will do anything.. its not a popular enough player and never will be due to price, so nobody will bother to rockbox it.. I hope I'm wrong but.. I don't think so

The 801 does not have a hdd. It uses SD cards up to 32 GB. So you can theoretically have as much capacity as you want, if you are willing to buy multiple SD cards.

Currently, there is no competition (unless you want either an iMod with a line out to a portable amp, or an iRiver digitally out to an iBasso D-10.

Basically, this was a new innovation that has no current production competition yet. No HDD, just as many 32GB SDHC's as you can afford, There's 2G onboard.

Mine arrived yesterday, early evening. Will test out today.

Enjoy your new toy.

Enjoy it indeed! Are you planning on taking it to the meet on February 27 in Fort Myers? I hope so.