HiFiMAN HM-801 Portable Player / DAC Review: Part One of Two
May 16, 2009 at 4:30 PM Post #91 of 625
Quote:



and in the absence of fang either wanting rockbox or his team being able to port it or lacking the desire to, its down to the rockbox development team or anyone else who would volunteer to do it.

Whining that it doesn't come with rockbox is like whining ipods dont come equipped with it.

On an audiophile high end dap, I would imagine the focus is elsewhere other than ensuring rockbox is available on it.

If you wan't it on there, buy one and donate it to someone over at rockbox if they are interested in developing for the player like I originally said.
 
May 16, 2009 at 6:31 PM Post #93 of 625
Quote:

Originally Posted by dazzer1975 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
and in the absence of fang either wanting rockbox or his team being able to port it or lacking the desire to, its down to the rockbox development team or anyone else who would volunteer to do it.

Whining that it doesn't come with rockbox is like whining ipods dont come equipped with it.

On an audiophile high end dap, I would imagine the focus is elsewhere other than ensuring rockbox is available on it.

If you wan't it on there, buy one and donate it to someone over at rockbox if they are interested in developing for the player like I originally said.



I don't think fang has said that he doesn't want rockbox on it yet, although he hasn't said he does want it either.

Methinks the reason this is being pushed is because it is already pretty darn close to being the PDAP to end all PDAPs. From the looks of it it just lacks a few small things that keep it from becoming that as well. Rockbox would take care of almost all of them.

Personally, I think that SDHC cards would work fine. A full CD is about 2gb or so in FLAC last I checked, so you could hold 8 albums on a 16gb card. When you think about it, you can just buy a few extra SDHC cards and swap them out as well as just put different albums on them every few days/weeks. It might be a bit of a change for the people who use 160gb ipods and 240gb H1xxs, but I get by with a 8gb cowon u5 myself, so I'm perfectly fine with swapping songs on a regular basis.
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Oh, jude said that part 2 would be in a few days on the 12th. It's the 16th now, any updates?
 
May 16, 2009 at 6:49 PM Post #94 of 625
Quote:

Originally Posted by KONAKONA /img/forum/go_quote.gif
....Oh, jude said that part 2 would be in a few days on the 12th. It's the 16th now, any updates?


I'm actually waiting to test a pre-production unit with the updated software (I had some pretty early version dev version on the one I previously had). I should be receiving that sometime next week.

I will, however, make some comments later tonight. I think this is a product that isn't, at first, easy to understand--it is rather unique.
 
May 16, 2009 at 7:24 PM Post #95 of 625
So, Jude, is this player limited production or a permanent installment in the Head-Direct product line?
 
May 16, 2009 at 7:29 PM Post #96 of 625
Quote:

Originally Posted by KONAKONA /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Personally, I think that SDHC cards would work fine. A full CD is about 2gb or so in FLAC last I checked, so you could hold 8 albums on a 16gb card. When you think about it, you can just buy a few extra SDHC cards and swap them out as well as just put different albums on them every few days/weeks. It might be a bit of a change for the people who use 160gb ipods and 240gb H1xxs, but I get by with a 8gb cowon u5 myself, so I'm perfectly fine with swapping songs on a regular basis.
biggrin.gif



I'm not sure what kind of FLAC files you listen to but most of my FLAC albums are much smaller than 2GB, more on the order of 250 to 500MB.
 
May 16, 2009 at 7:32 PM Post #97 of 625
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PCM1704 DACs inside, and an output stage that includes OPA627's. Sick. And I mean "sick" in the that's insanely cool and unbelievable kind of way. (For those of you who don't know a thing about the PCM1704 or OPA627, just know that you'll typically see these parts used as bragging rights in high-end components, but rarely, if ever, in portable gear.)


What high-end components?

Why not try a Sabre DAC (i.e. 21st century). Not saying old is bad, quite the contrary, but just curious; maybe more cost effective?

This is a great portable device either way as PCM1704 is highly regarded.

DC
 
May 16, 2009 at 7:56 PM Post #99 of 625
Implementation is important and I'll bet the DAC sounds great. Recording engineers were comparing the Lynx L22 to the 1616m and choosing the Lynx sound; both use the same AD converters.

I'm selling my Lavry AD10 and going back to 1212M/1616M for vinyl archiving; I think the emphasis should be placed on the source in this case with a good cart and clean gain.

Considered Layla 3G for a bit but it's too big and I'm already familiar with EMU Patchmix.

Echo>"We are using really high end digital audio converters > CS4272 ( almost as good as a Lavry AD10)".

DC
 
May 16, 2009 at 9:18 PM Post #100 of 625
Quote:

Originally Posted by KONAKONA /img/forum/go_quote.gif
A full CD is about 2gb or so in FLAC last I checked, so you could hold 8 albums on a 16gb card.


Don't know how you figure that. Highest capacity 80 minutes cd's are 700 MB raw data and since flac compresses size (not sound) a full album in flac usually never exceeds 500 mb.

EDIT: PeterDLai beat me to that comment
 
May 16, 2009 at 9:41 PM Post #101 of 625
Quote:

Originally Posted by KONAKONA /img/forum/go_quote.gif
A full CD is about 2gb or so in FLAC last I checked, so you could hold 8 albums on a 16gb card.


You ever thought about audio compression is there to make things smaller? FLAC is usually about 50% of uncompressed PCM/WAV audio, as found on audio CDs. So since a 74 minute audio CD holds 650MB, the resulting FLAC would be about 325MB.
 
May 17, 2009 at 3:06 AM Post #103 of 625
since its a lossless compression format, i would suspect that final results depend on how detailed is the album being compressed with relation to the algorithem used for the compression,

in other words, it depends on the album,
 
May 17, 2009 at 4:07 AM Post #104 of 625
Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif
True Audiophile No-Compromise Quality Audio.

Reasonably sized.

Removeable Battery.

Removeable and Expandable Memory.

Functions as an external DAC and USB DAC.

Built in Modular High Quality Amp.



Yes, please. I will buy one of these. Price is perfect considering what it's bringing to the table. The HiFiMan is not a mass market product, thankfully. Penny pinchers look elsewhere. iPod worshippers look elsewhere. Low end headphone users look elsewhere.

-Ed



Bingo.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised at the response this has got.

This is easily one of the coolest, most ambitious, most desirable products I've ever seen come from this community, assuming it lives up to expectations. There has been a vacuum in portable hi-fi audio for something like this for AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER.

How many people here have invested $1000 in an Imod and portable amp?

For me, this all boils down to size.

If this device is able to do the things it's said to be able to do in a package that's more manageable than the external amp/dac/dap combos that are currently 'bundled' together in a supremely non-ergonomic fashion, I am going to be a happy camper.

This thing has the chance to be a giant-killer. I agree with those that are skeptical as to whether the end product can come together in such a way as to be truly market-changing, but applying criticism at this stage is way too premature, IMO.
 
May 17, 2009 at 4:15 AM Post #105 of 625
How would an earphone sooo sensitive like the Shure SE530's see as an improvement with this HiFi Man portable player coming from the headphone out of an already superb sounding player? The Zune. Jude, I want to experience the feeling of the sound of a $700 hi fidelity portable audio player.....
 

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