Howdy all,
 
I have been meaning to make some time to write this review and tonight I just so happened to fall upon that time.  My wife told me she wanted some time alone to read some book called 50 shades of something…. What ever that means. 
Anyway, it means I get to put some thoughts to keyboard about this great mid-fi priced dap.
 
I was lucky enough to be a step in on the recent (still ongoing) Australian tour of the HUM Pervasion DAP.  You may or may not have heard of this DAP out of China, there hasn’t been a whole lot of hype about it.
 
Before I get too far into my thoughts on the DAP, I would like to thank H20 for allowing me to participate.  This was my first tour outside of my Beyer a200p review.
As it so happened at the time of review I also had a HM901, Cayin N6 and an Alien in my possession.  Which was both a curse and a blessing, as I got to compare the 4, but I also got some strange looks from the boss at work swapping and changing, cursing when I forgot to push out the auto power down timers etc etc.  Some of my co-workers found it amusing.
 
For the most part I reviewed the unit with my Tralucent Ref1’s as these are my only headphones I currently own of quality.  I also briefly tried the HUM with my Sennheiser Momentum in-ears.
Well, to get on with it hey?
I did take a heap of photo's but for the life of me no idea where they are, so I have but one to share that I took the day the device was sent on.
 

 
 
Aesthetics.
 
When I received the unit, it come in an iphone-esque minimalist white box.  Personally I love this.  While I am not an iFan, I do love the quality feel you get with their devices. 
Unfortunately for me though, once I opened the box I felt it took a step down.  I was met with a very plain looking, garish red, chubby android phone, roughly the size of 2 iPhone 4’s on top of one another. 
When I first picked the device up I was surprised by how light it was.  Instantly my mind went to negativity.  But when I gave it a light squeeze, a light shake I had to re-assess. 
This felt like a solid unit in the hand.  It was playing mind games with me.  How could something be this solid, yet be so light. *shrugs*.
 
Next I turned the unit around to get a look at the output’s, inputs etc on the unit.  I was very very happy to see a dedicated LO as well as a headphone out. 
Being the nosey kinda fellow I am I took my headphone jack and popped it into the headphone out.  It was solid.  This thing was pegging back the points.  I was now willing to give it a fair trial...
Until I saw the 2 volume controls.  WTH was my initial thought.   But it actually was a useful addition in being able to adjust small increments with IEMs. 
However most of the time I left the digital volume at max and used the analogue volume to adjust. 
 
Speaking of the analogue volume control.  It is a horizontal disk like volume control that is somewhat stiff.  Obviously so accidental adjustments don’t happen.  However with how powerful the amp is, we had a love hate relationship over the course of our time together with over adjustments in each direction causing quite the fuss.  Anyway, this is me being petty.  It is a great option to have, I just wish the volume for the amp section was done in a different manner.
 
Ok so back in time, I am still looking around the unit (remember I haven’t heard it yet at this point, I just took it out of the box… Don’t know what all that stuff above was about).  Hmn, having come from an N6, ak100ii, hm901, Alien… I am frantically looking for the hardware media controls.  Sadly any track changes you want to make to assert your dominance over your DAP must be done via the touch screen. (Sort of, I will touch on this later).
 
Ok, so in short, I was impressed with a few features, less so about others.  But how does this thing sound….
 
 
Sound Quality:
 
Disclaimer:  I much preferred the sound of the brighter N6 with my Ref1’s, but I will try to be fair.
In short, it sounds great!!!  No its not the sound I prefer when in combination with my Ref1, but it truly does sound good.  The overall sound I would pin down as Neutral to Warm.  Very smooth and musical, but not lacking in detail in any such way.
 
Highs:
 
I found the highs to be smooth and coherent.  There was a nice transition from mid to high and they seemed to extend quite well.  I never felt I was missing any detail in the music.  I found that the music sounded quite natural. 
 
Mids:
 
I thought the mids were quite well presented.  They didn’t sounded thin or brittle, nor thick.  I quite liked both Male and female vocals and how they were presented with enough texture to engage with the music and emotion behind the lyrics.  Personally I felt the bass crept into the lower mids a little, but that again could have been my iems as you need a very strong dap to keep the bass in check on these Ref1’s and any emphasis in the bass region and you are not going to have a very nice day.
 
Lows:
 
I thought the bass hit hard.  It had purpose and that purpose was to make you want moar bass.  Even though you know you have enough, its an all you can eat buffet and you start looking for more.  The bass extended well into the depths of my dentists pockets when I need to have these fillings reset.  However I did feel the bass, as grand as it is, as stated above, had a bit of a hump.  But if I am completely honest, I have not yet tried a DAP employing this DAC that I have enjoyed with these IEMs and this implementation was as good as any I have tried, which puts it in the leagues of the AK100 and for me almost ak120.
 
Soundstage and separation.
 
I know these are 2 different things but how many sections can you put in a review before people just give up on you as a member of the human race….
The soundstage to me was intimate.  I am writing this reflectively (omy now I am writing in past tense… WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GUY DOING?... Now 3^rd person….. DIv/0#) and if I recall it correctly It was intimate.  Left to right were narrow but it had decent depth.  I cant specify height as I only listen to music where people play while standing/sitting, not flying.  But I will update this review when this occurs.
Separation was excellent.  Even in complex passages I never heard the HUM trip over its self in an attempt to escape the tortures of dream theatre, Tool, some twiddly twiddly passages in some Damian Rice songs.  It was always with me and rocking on.  I know a few of you out there listen to Classical and would probably be able to get the HUMs head spinning, but not I.  I was quite impressed.
 
Output power:
 
Well I know this doesn’t really fall under sound as such, but this thing has enough power to start a light truck in a pinch, so you should be fine with most portable headphones and I would imagine even some full sized cans.  I used about 10% tops on the dial for my iems.
Ok, so that wraps up the sound, for now, until I hear the flying band at the very least.  So how was it to use, you know after turning it on, as opposed to the canning I gave it above without even turning it on.
 
 
UI:
 
Let me ask you a question.  Do you like android or are you willing to try and use it?  NO?
Then get a different DAP.  Seriously, this isn’t for you.

The HUM Pervasion employs a stock version of android and has no dedicated music interface like you may expect to see on pretty much every other dap on the market. .. Is this a bad thing?  In my eyes heck no!!!
I have been a faithful android user for many years so for me I was right at home.  What this does is it opens up your player, UI, control, sound options.  The options are so diverse I cant even count them on a centipedes fingers.  You can stream (though the wifi is flakey), you can use google play, you can use Neutron, Playerpro, Poweramp, Noozy…. If its on the market and available for that version of android, then you can have it.  If you want EQ you can, if you want playlists, folder players, movie players, its all at your disposal.
Personally this got a huge thumbs up from me and it also allows such things as being able to use volume buttons for track changes as options within certain players (though I must confess I didn’t try this but have in the past on phones, so perhaps someone else could confirm this)
The UI was smooth, the touchcreen reactive and screen clear and easy to read.
 
 
Ok so whats that, UI, Sound and Aesthetics.  Hmn… how did it compare to the others in the stable….
 
In Short for me.
HM901>= Cayin N6 > HUM > Alien.
This is based on perceived audio quality.
 
 
HM901 VS HUM
 
I find the HM901 to be superior in most regards.  However the HM901 is almost 3x the price of the HUM, so one would certainly expect it to excel.  I used 2 cards in the HM901, the Fen-Li discrete card and the IEM card.  HUM VS IEM card I found the IEM card bright when compared to the HUMs warmer sound.  The 901 presents a wider, airier, more detailed and with more bass control.  Overall a more balanced sound imo, however if you have bright headphones, it may get fatigueing.  Which is one thing I noticed with the HUM… I never got fatigued when listening.
When comparing to the Fen-Li Card, I found they were a little more similar.  Both present in a natural smooth way.  The Fen-Li card has bass impact and control over the HUM, however I felt that the mids on the HUM to be more natural, particularly male vocals, which I find to sound odd on the Fen-Li card.  The upper register I found quite similar on both.  The soundstage again was a bit larger on the 901 with separation being similar.
Fairly impressive considering the HUM is up against the Goliath of DAPs to many.
Regarding usability, while I have no gripes with the 901’s UI, the HUM pervasion blows it out of the water with its versatility and stability.
 
 
HUM VS N6
 
These are 2 very different beasts.  This is almost an unfair comparison as I feel the N6 has the best synergy I have heard with my Ref1.
I felt that the N6 made the HUM sound a little slow in the bass and glossed over in the highs.  I thought the mids were presented differently but I perhaps enjoyed them more on the HUM.  Where the N6 is an aggressive (but refined, I like to think of it as a dx90 but sounds more refined and natural), the HUM sounds more like an ak100.  I find myself wanting to reach for the N6, but an hour later have a rest, when I did reach for the HUM, I would find myself still listening when it was time to go home from work 5 hours later.
 
 
HUM vs Alien
 
I think I am one of the alien’s biggest fans.  I truly do love it.  But sadly, I must say that the HUM bests it in almost all regards.  In fact, I find form factor and simplicity to be the only things on the Aliens side in this battle.  Yet, I find myself reaching for the Alien over the HUM 9/10. Why I hear you ask?  Are you even reading what you are writing?  Because there is something magic about the Alien that is just missing in the HUM.
The highs are clearer and contain more data than the Alien, the mids are smoother and more textured than the alien, the bass is stronger, it has line out, more output power, no dreaded hiss.  It is musical.  So why do I choose the Alien?  I honestly cannot tell you in anyway that involves technicalities.  I simply just love its sound.
 
 
Summary:
 
Ok, so we have established that I don’t like it’s sound, but think it sounds great.  That I love the UI.  That I don’t like how it looks like it will feel, but love how it feel’s.
Since that all makes sense I think I will call it a night.
I will add to this review in seriousness as I get time, but I felt I needed to get some thoughts out there to maybe inspire some other people on the fence to give it a try.
If you loved the AK100, if you love that warmish neutral sound, you like a smooth but detailed presentation, if you like a bit of power in reserve and if you like android, this is a great option and I would jump on it!!!!

Firstly, I'd like to thank @H20Fidelity for including me on this tour. It's always a great experience and privilege to be a part of such a great community which organises these tours for members like myself to try out new gear that we may not have a chance to audition. I do feel very lucky to be a part of it.
Disclaimer: I did not purchase the HUM Pervasion and do not own it. I've had 1 week with it. So please take what I have to say with a grain of salt, or two.
 

 
 
 

A little about the HUM Pervasion:

 
 
The HUM Pervasion comes to the market with only one thing in mind; to bring only the highest quality and highest fidelity possible at a reasonable price. It does this quite reasonably well.
It houses a Wolfson WM8741 DAC which is one of the most highly regarded value for money DACs to this day. To go with this it uses a TI LME49720 operational amplifier that runs a ±8V which gives it more than enough power to drive cans all the way up to the 300Ω I suspect. Unfortunately I cannot be for sure. All I can say is that it definitely has a lot of headroom for anything that I threw at it. 
In addition to this wonderful DAC and op-amp combo, HUM boasts to have cherry picked only the best electrical components that are not audio related, these being WiFi module, other ICs, DC-DC converters to form a perfect power supply structure for the Pervasion. 
 

Specifications

 
 
 

 

Conclusion

I do conclude with the hope that HUM does listen and updates their ROM to a newer version of Android with hopefully some features from community built custom ROM. 
It is a truly remarkable device which sound absolutely divine. It's only fault is the outdated software it is running. Once this is fixed, the HUM Pervasion will truly be a force to be reckoned with!
 
 
Cheers!