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Audiophile music player

post #1 of 40
10/20/09 at 6:06pm
Thread Starter 
I am on a quest to get a good audiophile player: I play only APE and FLAC files.

Sound quality is crucial, so the newly realized HiFiman 801 is on my alley, but not at $650USD! That is a price I am not willing to pay

The AMP3 was considered as well, but their hissing problems made it a no-deal.

So..I was wondering if there is any other portable player that can be considered audiophile.

thanks!
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post #2 of 40
10/20/09 at 6:22pm
an iRiver/D10 kit is a fantastic setup. runs about $500 with a sysconcept optical cable
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post #3 of 40
10/20/09 at 6:23pm
You'll be looking at Rockboxable players, for Ape & Flac.

SoundCodecs < Main < Wiki
Current Rockbox Builds
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post #4 of 40
10/20/09 at 6:56pm
vdgraaf, I'm not willing to throw that kind of money around either, but my experience has been that $650 is a long way from excessive when you start using the 'audiophile' word. The problem with the HiFiMan, for me, is the small build numbers - coming up with the money is the easy part.
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post #5 of 40
10/20/09 at 7:40pm
Just received mine. Gotta say it sounds good apart from its budget and hiss is annoying.
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post #6 of 40
10/20/09 at 8:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vdgraaf View Post
I am on a quest to get a good audiophile player: I play only APE and FLAC files.

Sound quality is crucial, so the newly realized HiFiman 801 is on my alley, but not at $650USD! That is a price I am not willing to pay

The AMP3 was considered as well, but their hissing problems made it a no-deal.

So..I was wondering if there is any other portable player that can be considered audiophile.

thanks!
$650 is only the start~ reason ?

-supply and demand not in par therefore if he feed up with order request he could just put up the price to slow down every one and perfect execuse.

-de-valuation of U$ dollars makes it a perfect excuse and reason to raise price, while it makes 801 cheap and fall into reasonable price range for oversea buyers and drive up the demand.

therefore you will only see the price going up until 2 things happen:

-other player enters the market( which is not likely as its niche market and no one see any reason to cut their profit margin, soon enough there was another player tried to do the same thing and already cost 700 start - dont have link and it turn out to be desktop instead portable player)

-the production volume pick up to drive down the price ( that my friend is impossible in 6 months time not to mention he can actually control how fast he wanna make 801,but because there are already huge demand in china within where almost biggerest Market globally of sony D50 player is now and D50 aint cheap which proves the chinese have the capacity to chew it)
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post #7 of 40
10/20/09 at 8:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WindowsX View Post
Just received mine. Gotta say it sounds good apart from its budget and hiss is annoying.
really ? i m disappointed to hear that and you r about 2nd person other than Edwood say so.

its quite confuse here as some say hiss and some say fine (immitbiker i think) and Jude didnt follow up(i bought hifiman because his review and his creditability is good to me but just wish if he have the time to follow to us one day)

quality built is bit un-even at the moment, i m concern how ever i still have faith and try to figure if i became unrealistic with the expectation from head-direct? after all if u search the forum the hype is quite scary as it almost sound like people believe every thing from head-direct is perfect?

mind if i ask when u ordered ? i m struggling here as life is so boring without music right now
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post #8 of 40
10/20/09 at 9:14pm
hi,vdgraaf

I have a AMP3 PRO2, and I also read some reports on the hiss issue. I have test my player for several days, I can say it almost has no hiss.

With the stock earbud,which is really very decent phone. there is no hiss can be heard. With the high sensitive IEM there is slight hiss can be detected only at the quiet environment (night).

For sure, you can also put on a post on AMP3 thread to consult other owners of the hiss issue.

By the way, if you want to buy other good player, T51 of Techlast is also a good option, because it has a line out. the price is very moderate. but you need to have a external amp to pare it.
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post #9 of 40
10/20/09 at 9:29pm
There must be many fluctuations with build then because my Pro2 AMP3 hisses more than my macbook. When there is no signal, no hiss, but with signal is a hell of a lot of hiss. The stock phones with attenuator applied don't hiss too badly, but I have never heard so much hiss from a portable source. Even my DJ1Pro hiss with it (fullsize 64 ohm phones with added resistance).

I haven't received a reply from hisound yet, but I hope it is just a faulty unit. More likely, people here have different tolerances for hiss, possibly because they have always used hissy sources. This thing is a bloody beast!

Other than that, it sounds good though.
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post #10 of 40
10/20/09 at 11:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vdgraaf View Post
I am on a quest to get a good audiophile player: I play only APE and FLAC files.

Sound quality is crucial, so the newly realized HiFiman 801 is on my alley, but not at $650USD! That is a price I am not willing to pay

The AMP3 was considered as well, but their hissing problems made it a no-deal.

So..I was wondering if there is any other portable player that can be considered audiophile.

thanks!
On the 801, you also have to factor in the cost of 32GB SDHCs.
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post #11 of 40
10/20/09 at 11:23pm
perhaps a used redwine audio imod?
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post #12 of 40
10/21/09 at 1:30am
Thread Starter 
Thanks people for all the comments.

It seems that there is nothing yet on the market that would fit my budget and requirements

I'll wait for the AMP3 maybe, until the hissing problem would be solved.
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post #13 of 40
10/21/09 at 1:39am
still, it is doubtful that the AMP3 Pro1 or 2 will play APE files unless rockbox is developed for it. hissing seems to be an issue with some of the units, like mine, but for others, isn't a problem more than other daps.

as for audiophile, i would be careful about searching for audiophile. you will likely get marketing praise, advertisements, or simple nonsense. it is good that you specified which files you like, but i would hesitate to buy based on someone else's recommendations based on 'SQ' or 'sound quality' as they never, ever match up simple because everyone has a different opinion on what sounds good and rather than pinning opinion to the matter, they simply claim that player 'a' is the best evar.
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post #14 of 40
10/21/09 at 2:55am
Quote:
It seems that there is nothing yet on the market that would fit my budget and requirements
Not new anyway..
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post #15 of 40
10/21/09 at 2:56am
There are a few who use Korg portable recorders as DAPs. I've considered it, but don't want to put too much money into a DAP. Why? Storage size doubles or reinventsitself every few years and most consumer models are only engineered to last 24-30 months or so. I'm not going to drop that kind of money on something with such a short lifespan.

My turntable will be the same in five or ten years. I might replace the bearing, but that's $20. Not to knock portable-fi (I love my iPod), but I see portable gear as short-term, temporary equipment. As such, I'll buy modest players and save the big bucks for headphones, speakers, turntables, amps, and other stuff I expect at least 20 years of use from.
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