HM-901 - Page 18

Originally Posted by customNuts 

 

the 602 came first, then the cheaper 601. I bought the 602 and was personally not impressed by it at all. My iphone sounded far better to me.

That's because your iPhone is like DVD quality and the HM-60x is like VHS quality, the HM-60x was designed to sound analog and smooth like CD players in the early 90's, i.e. 20 years ago.

I'm surprised the advertising hasn't covered this, I remember reading once these players were made with 20 year old sound in mind.  The HM-60x don't really use the best capacitors or op-amps you can find, though, and the TDA1545 DAC chip is said to sound better than the TDA1543, so the HM-60x weren't really pushing any limits in NOS sound.

I own a DAC which uses eight TDA1543 chips in parallel, it's higher resolution than the HM-601 for sure, it's called the Lite DAC-AH, another popular one is called the TeraDak, so I can see some users like myself asking themselves, do they really need a lower resolution device with limited battery life, that won't even fit in my jeans pocket, for portable use?

Without any advertising, it seems like this could have injured the Hifiman line, so... they may opt for 2x ES9018 with something like AD797 and Nichicons now, to get a fresh start and claim a place ahead of the line.  After all, we already have the HM-801 with PCM1704 and OPA627, so it makes sense in that respect. 

I think they just don't see any need to advertise these facts or brief us, we're only naive customers after all, not designers right.

I have an Iphone 5 - I think it sounds terrible, brash, harsh, soul-less, sucks all the emotion out of the music

Not sure, have only ever heard the cheaper ipods so wasn't impressed, I would expect them to sound better than the phone though,

Not exactly an Apple fan, have the 5 from my employer, but keeping my Nokia N8, which aside from app choice, processor 

and web surfing, is better in many ways.

But I would guess that the Ipod must be good in someways, given the amounts of users here, 

and hysterically, also on ABI !!!

The iphone4 from what I have heard is their best sounding DAP of them all. I think it sounds pretty good for what it is. But still not comparable to my higher end sources :).
 

1st set are ready... http://www.erji.net/read.php?tid=1376201  Go Go Go

Sometimes I pop back into this thread to see if anything new has popped up....

After so many months the 901 seems like to be on the wrong track. If you have good alternatives like DX100 and RWAK100 or even the F807. (I am pretty happy with my F807 running FLAC or WAV files.)

At this stage I rather buy some better CEIM or Headphones.

I'd sure like to hear these swanky set-ups.

Looks really bulky, and not digging the design. Haha, Ultrasone IQ.

I actually like the design. lack of info and wait will be the deal breaker.

If Fang would pop by this forum, like in the past, they might be able to keep interest. Currently I am not that impressed. They guys from RWA, Heir and  The Centrance  show how it is done:) Companies that include the Head-fiers and actually listen. If I need to spend 1k or more I rather do it with those companies than on Hifiman and Co.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bokyung 

Looks really bulky, and not digging the design. Haha, Ultrasone IQ.

Before seeing it in that picture today, I actually had never heard of the Ultrasone IQ. Is it a laughable IEM? I guess the name impressed me. I heard of Ultrasone (as in 8 and 10-- full size headphones with a pretty good rep around here). Oh well....

It's in English so maybe it won't be years before it's slated for stateside.

Oh, I wasn't laughing at Ultrasone IQ, I was just glad to see an IEM I recognize.

I haven't heard of it, but here's few impressions if you are interested.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/622813/ultrasone-iq

The most surprising news is they gonna raise the price after 1st three batches. $999 won't included any amp module card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tupac0306 

The most surprising news is they gonna raise the price after 1st three batches. $999 won't included any amp module card.

Wait a minute? So you are saying they are selling the unit for $1,000 and you need to buy the amp separate to get the damn thing to work? What a fail. I'd say avoid like the plague. Much better options for less out there... Plus they are gonna jack the price up even higher after 3 batches? lmao.

Yeah Fang said $999 will just be a empty player (After first 3 batches) which is pretty much useless without external portable amp.  He said if he sell 901 with a standard amp card, it cannot drive all earphones/headphones well, so people will have chance to say 901 is garbage. lol. I don't buy this at all.

901+amp card+stand will probably be $1500 at least.