HiFiMAN HM-901 visit pg 18. IMGS pg 19. NEW beta FW 1st page. . to the 901s. .new 901s FW . | Page 74 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

pekingduck · Aug 18, 2013 at 1:17 AM

I wonder how long the battery would last with the U235...

Quote:

kkcc said:
I tried driving a demo HE6 with my 901, even with the highest powered discrete amp board I need volume 6.5 to 7, no distortion or clipping etc but cannot say it sound like how it sounded from the EF6. Dynamic range and sound stage became more compressed. Maybe the last announced card, the U235 card that was rumored to put out 6W at 32ohm is the one that can drive the HE6.

basementdweller · Aug 18, 2013 at 1:17 AM

Quote:

brunk said:

Quote:

kkcc said:
I tried driving a demo HE6 with my 901, even with the highest powered discrete amp board I need volume 6.5 to 7, no distortion or clipping etc but cannot say it sound like how it sounded from the EF6. Dynamic range and sound stage became more compressed. Maybe the last announced card, the U235 card that was rumored to put out 6W at 32ohm is the one that can drive the HE6.

I can see it now....battery life 30 minutes...be careful not to touch unit while in operation with bare hands to avoid burns....

I was waiting to hear more about the minibox and iem cards but I got impatient and placed an order for the balanced card. At least I know, from the crowd here, it won't suck.

kkcc · Aug 18, 2013 at 3:08 AM

pekingduck said:
I wonder how long the battery would last with the U235...

True... they need a higher capacity battery to make this card worthwhile! 6.5 hrs for balanced card is really the minimum I can accept.

Llloyd · Aug 18, 2013 at 12:56 PM

Quote:

jelt2359 said:
I don't think the 901 is designed to drive the HE6. At least the 801 isn't, and the 901 doesn't look that different in it's power usage.

Yeah. I was mainly just referring to the HE-500.

fzman · Aug 18, 2013 at 8:08 PM

How long are people charging their 901s to get 6-8 hours of play time? I am still trying to figure out how to manage the battery in mine. I've been alternating the iem card and the minibox card, and using re600s and the new Cardas's's's's's'

Ollie6052 · Aug 19, 2013 at 12:56 AM

So is the balanced amp card really worth $300 and decreased battery life, is the sound remarkably better than the standard card?

Would it make much of a difference with unbalanced headphones (Sennheiser HD650) or only really with balanced (RE600)?

In what ways does the balanced card sound better than the standard?

kkcc · Aug 19, 2013 at 1:30 AM

ollie6052 said:
So is the balanced amp card really worth $300 and decreased battery life, is the sound remarkably better than the standard card?

Would it make much of a difference with unbalanced headphones (Sennheiser HD650) or only really with balanced (RE600)?

In what ways does the balanced card sound better than the standard?

Yes. It is well worth. Any of these upgrade card sounded significantly better than at stock card at the expense of battery life.

Hifiman really didn't do themselves any favor by calling the balanced card "the balanced card". I have seen so many people thinking the balanced card is a balanced version of the stock card. It is not - it is a totally differently designed amp that draw and put out much higher power that benefits both single ended or balanced mode. The single ended mode on the balanced card outperformed the stock card in a degree similar to an DAP un-amped vs with it paired with a top balanced portable amp used in single ended mode. Imagine running HD650 straight from IPC vs from IPC+sr71b.

The difference between single ended and balanced mode both on the balanced card is more subtle for sensitive IEM. It is more significant on harder to drives IEM or full size cans eg my LCD3.

jelt2359 · Aug 19, 2013 at 1:38 AM

Quote:

fzman said:
How long are people charging their 901s to get 6-8 hours of play time? I am still trying to figure out how to manage the battery in mine. I've been alternating the iem card and the minibox card, and using re600s and the new Cardas's's's's's'

What are your impressions about IEM vs Minibox card?

fzman · Aug 19, 2013 at 7:02 AM

So far, I have not had enough time to listen to them any where near as much as I would like. I think both cards benefit from some burn-in, and do sound better, as does the 901 itself, after about 15 minutes of warm-up. Given the amount of time it takes to swap cards (not really difficult, but long enough in terms of quick comparisons) I have been trying to get an impression of what each one can do, one at a time, and will then try to make a true comparison.

That said, both sound much better than the stock card, which is not bad, but cannot compete with its bigger siblings. If I had to make a quick "guess" at this point, I would say that the IEM card has a wider soundstage, and the Minibox a deeper, but narrower one. With speaker setups, you almost always have to chose between the size of the soundstage vs. pinpoint imaging. It's seems like these amp crds show a bit of this. This is a preliminary judgment, so I do reserve the right to change this, but I do think the IEM is the more spacious and airy presentation, the Minibox denser, more palpable and present, but a bit smaller.

I've also been using the Cardas 5813s and the RE600s for this audition, so there's a lot to keep track of. The Cardas and the 600s sound very different, and having the HD/vintage switch comes in handy as well.

More to follow.

ChiAki · Aug 19, 2013 at 9:54 AM

Quote:

fzman said:
So far, I have not had enough time to listen to them any where near as much as I would like. I think both cards benefit from some burn-in, and do sound better, as does the 901 itself, after about 15 minutes of warm-up. Given the amount of time it takes to swap cards (not really difficult, but long enough in terms of quick comparisons) I have been trying to get an impression of what each one can do, one at a time, and will then try to make a true comparison.

That said, both sound much better than the stock card, which is not bad, but cannot compete with its bigger siblings. If I had to make a quick "guess" at this point, I would say that the IzEM card has a wider soundstage, and the Minibox a deeper, but narrower one. With speaker setups, you almost always have to chose between the size of the soundstage vs. pinpoint imaging. It's seems like these amp crds show a bit of this. This is a preliminary judgment, so I do reserve the right to change this, but I do think the IEM is the more spacious and airy presentation, the Minibox denser, more palpable and present, but a bit smaller.

I've also been using the Cardas 5813s and the RE600s for this audition, so there's a lot to keep track of. The Cardas and the 600s sound very different, and having the HD/vintage switch comes in handy as well.

More to follow.

Hi fzman, would you be kind enough to share some early thoughts about the 5813s? thx

brunk · Aug 19, 2013 at 12:35 PM

Just want to say thanks to Team HifiMan for taking care of me with a replacement charger. Since I have one on the way, i took the liberty to take apart the defective one and take some pictures for anyone curious. You'll notice that the 33uf/400v electrolytic appears to have been both physically and electrically damaged. The physical damage was impossible from my part because of where its located.

fzman · Aug 19, 2013 at 12:48 PM

Chiaki, I sent you a PM.

jamato8 · Aug 19, 2013 at 5:11 PM

Maybe it is here somewhere but once you download the firmware, how do you update the 901? Obviously, I have never done it but want to go to the latest. I found the info on Hifiman. I will like it as there may be other who have the same question, or maybe not. :^)

Firmware Update Instruction:

1. Please download the new firmware zip file first and then copy it to your SD card (Do not change the name of the firmware file or decompress it). Only the FAT32 SD card can be used.
2. While pressing the HOME button, hold the Power key up until the HM-901 is power on. After the screen is on, release the power key. Then release the HOME button until the hifiman logo disappears. Now the player will be in recovery mode.
3. Wait until the first picture shows on the screen. The system will be updated automatically.
4. After the update is done, power off the player and then reboot it to finish the whole process.

Bug issued:
Support DSD(DFF) files playback

Download link: http://down.head-direct.com/hm901/update.zip

jelt2359 · Aug 19, 2013 at 7:16 PM

jamato8 said:
Maybe it is here somewhere but once you download the firmware, how do you update the 901? Obviously, I have never done it but want to go to the latest. I found the info on Hifiman. I will like it as there may be other who have the same question, or maybe not. :^)

Firmware Update Instruction:

1. Please download the new firmware zip file first and then copy it to your SD card (Do not change the name of the firmware file or decompress it). Only the FAT32 SD card can be used.

2. While pressing the HOME button, hold the Power key up until the HM-901 is power on. After the screen is on, release the power key. Then release the HOME button until the hifiman logo disappears. Now the player will be in recovery mode.

3. Wait until the first picture shows on the screen. The system will be updated automatically.

4. After the update is done, power off the player and then reboot it to finish the whole process.

Bug issued:

Support DSD(DFF) files playback

Download link: http://down.head-direct.com/hm901/update.zip

Some other poster wrote about this also. I think it's also important (and counterintuitive) to note that you should copy the ZIP file, not unzip the file and copy it's contents.

jamato8 · Aug 19, 2013 at 8:12 PM

Quote:

jelt2359 said:
Some other poster wrote about this also. I think it's also important (and counterintuitive) to note that you should copy the ZIP file, not unzip the file and copy it's contents.

The first time my computer automatically unzipped the file and then I realized I had to just use the unzipped file, as you mention.

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