I believe I have come to a conclusion regarding High-End Chinese DAPs - Page 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by wind016 

Great thread. I may not have heard Hifiman, Sflo, or Colorfly, but it reflects my assumptions. Head-fi is not the only forum. Many other forums talk about it and they are far more critical since Hifiman is not their sponsor.

 

Also, the "only comment if you've heard it" is good to a certain existent. At the prices Hifiman charges, I'd rather have all the opinions I can get. It would be a heavily biased forum otherwise. Of course, owners would speak well of their $800 DAP.

I'd hope the 801 sounds good at the price it goes for and way past any amount I'd want to spend on a dap no matter how good people say it is. I'm happy with my 601 and in the end it came out to be around the same as many daps that are not targeting the audiophile market. I think the cheaper daps by Hifiman are more attainable and also much more affordable as they are around the same prices as many other daps on the market.
 

I don't think the opinions are specially biased on the forum just because they're a sponsor. In the end, it's the users who decide the quality of the product and all the flaws and strengths of the Hifiman DAPs have been well established here. It's just the nature of the forum to priority on SQ and thus they get more attention here (though the sponsoring does bring in more attention), the Hifiman line delivers sq even though in a specialized colored way. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by wind016 

Great thread. I may not have heard Hifiman, Sflo, or Colorfly, but it reflects my assumptions. Head-fi is not the only forum. Many other forums talk about it and they are far more critical since Hifiman is not their sponsor.

 

Also, the "only comment if you've heard it" is good to a certain existent. At the prices Hifiman charges, I'd rather have all the opinions I can get. It would be a heavily biased forum otherwise. Of course, owners would speak well of their $800 DAP.

Owners speak well of their $200 Hifiman DAPs so let's be clear.  I tend to be picky about the quality and craftmanship of my electronics, at least to the point I can have some say in it.  One reason I went w/ Robert's Arrow over the iBassos I was considering at the time.  The quality of the design, component implementation, craftsmanship and attention to detail were exemplary.  Not to be snide but probably the best quality product I've seen come out of Germany in a while w/ the exception of a Porsche.  The iBasso was just left in the dust by comparison.  Though the iBasso P4 looks much better than previous products all around though.  Very intrigued by it.  However, after listening to the Sflo2, Gumstick, QA350, 602 let's just say my tolerance has grown as the SQ has increased proportionally.  The difference is clear to my ears, period.  The Colorfly is another matter, I have a lot of concerns on a lot of fronts w/ that device.