[hvu]

I am considering getting a pair of ESW9 or ESW10 to got with my HM-602. Has anyone tried this combo?

 

[Hero Kid]

I personally have always thought that would be an amazing combo. Having never heard the ESW9 or 10 take that with a grain of salt.

 

[MayaTlab]

I own the ESW10, and have heard the ESW9 and ES10.
 
I do not own the HM-602 or HM-601
 
The Hifiman is supposed to be warmer than an iPhone 4. Therefore I'm not sure that the ESW9 will be a great match : they're already quite warm. it migth become too mellow and not energetic enough.
 
The ESW10 on the other hand is very clear sounding with a slight wood resonance in the lower midrange. Its bass is on the slightly light side. I think that it will pair perfectly with the HM-602. 
 
The ES10 is very slightly clearer than the ESW10 (no wood resonance) and definitely more energetic. It will probably be just as good with the HM-602 but its bass is already huge. It might become too much (just a thought, I have really no idea).
 
All of them but especially the latter two have a dip in the lower midrange - something that I feel will pair very nicely with the sweet and reportedly sugary mids of the HM-602.
 
Of course none of these ideas will replace the true experience of having heard the ESW9 / 10 and ES10 on the HM-602.

 

[yooss]

I am hearing the ES7 (borrowing from Shigzeo) right now. I know, the differences between the ES7 and the ES10 are HUGE.
 
I can't comment much, but the ES7 doesn't have a strong synergy(or should I say almost none) with the player. I'm quite surprised, but listening straight out of my Droid, I can't tell that much difference. With my friend's ATH-PRO500 too, no big synergy. With the RE-Zero or my friend's Aurvana Air, I can hear a huge improvement. So, what can I say? You would have to hear it first before you really know.

 

[Anaxilus]

Ok, just got done reading the 29 page 801 firmware debug thread.  It appears no less than 7 others report not being able to play 24/88 files on the 801.  I understand the possibility of down sampling to 24/48 yet one person here and Fang says they can play 24/88 w/o issue.  I decided to upload a sample FLAC for you all to try and see if you can play it of get an endless loop/freeze requiring reset.  I also tried converting the file to WAV but it just gets passed over in the song cycle.  If anyone has a 24/88 file that works w/ the 602/601/801 please give a link for testing.
 
http://www.mediafire.com/?43p3htvgz8t13jg 

 

[warp08]

I'll try to upload a 24/88 track somewhere later.  But most of the lately published high-res albums on my Bowers & Wilkins Society of Music subscription is only made available in 24/48 FLACs (for hi-res) and not the usual 24/96.  I have found it interesting that they had done this, but had no time to investigate the reason.
 
The HifiMAN players I have can play all of these without any hitch.   There is a trial membership available here:  http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Society_of_Sound/Society_of_Sound/Music  Perhaps you can test some of those files, too, and see if they work.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

I'll try to upload a 24/88 track somewhere later.  But most of the lately published high-res albums on my Bowers & Wilkins Society of Music subscription is only made available in 24/48 FLACs (for hi-res) and not the usual 24/96.  I have found it interesting that they had done this, but had no time to investigate the reason.
 
The HifiMAN players I have can play all of these without any hitch.   There is a trial membership available here:  http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Society_of_Sound/Society_of_Sound/Music  Perhaps you can test some of those files, too, and see if they work.

 
Cool, thx man.
 

 

[nickosiris]

Anaxilus' file failed to play on my 602. The play screen appeared with the correct tag info and bitrate, but the audio never started and then the screen went blank and the player froze. Needed to reset it to get it going again.
 
I'd have to check to be certain, but I'm pretty sure all my 24 bit files are at 96kHz. All of those have played fine. As I have said elsewhere on this thread, the only other file that has failed to play for me so far was a massive 16 bit APE.
 
Perhaps 96kHz is ok but 88.2 not?

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

Anaxilus' file failed to play on my 602. The play screen appeared with the correct tag info and bitrate, but the audio never started and then the screen went blank and the player froze. Needed to reset it to get it going again.
 
I'd have to check to be certain, but I'm pretty sure all my 24 bit files are at 96kHz. All of those have played fine. As I have said elsewhere on this thread, the only other file that has failed to play for me so far was a massive 16 bit APE.
 
Perhaps 96kHz is ok but 88.2 not?

24/48 and 24/96 work great and sound great now that I got things sorted.  24/88 is no go so far which represents about 30% of my hi-rez stuff.

 

[Gav]

Can I ask you guys what app you use to convert your 24 bit CD files to what ever format  Flac / WAV 
 
i have a few XRCDs I would like to be able to play at 24 bit any suggestions as to how best to achive this

 

[Hero Kid]

For windows dBpoweramp is (nearly) undoubtably the best. For OSX I use Max. 
 

 

[yooss]

I use Exact Audio Copy though it's a little slow. I rip to FLAC and then use LameXP to convert to lossy codecs. Lossy for 602 may not sound good but with my equipment(602 in USB DAC mode and my phones--currently only ES7) and my ears I couldn't even successfully abx(foobar) between FLAC and aoTuV q-5, so no complaints. Maybe I'll have to re-encode them after my Fischer can arrives...maybe not. 
 
dBpoweramp is very good, but you have to buy it or use the pirated version(or use the trial version), and that doesn't make me happy. I'll buy a copy later, but until then, I won't use it. 
 
IMHO, using lossy codecs is better, if you can't tell the difference(and I use Foobar abx for it). 

 

[warp08]

Quote:

Quote:

I'll try to upload a 24/88 track somewhere later.  But most of the lately published high-res albums on my Bowers & Wilkins Society of Music subscription is only made available in 24/48 FLACs (for hi-res) and not the usual 24/96.  I have found it interesting that they had done this, but had no time to investigate the reason.
 
The HifiMAN players I have can play all of these without any hitch.   There is a trial membership available here:  http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Society_of_Sound/Society_of_Sound/Music  Perhaps you can test some of those files, too, and see if they work.

 
Cool, thx man.
 

Here it is.  A 24-bit/88.2kHz sampled FLAC. This link expires in 7 days.  https://files.me.com/warp08/0xwnbt  Size: 76MB

 

[nickosiris]

Ok that's weird. warp08's file plays fine on my 602. It's clearly a 24/88.2 file, so 88.2kHz files DO play on the 602. Strange.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

Ok that's weird. warp08's file plays fine on my 602. It's clearly a 24/88.2 file, so 88.2kHz files DO play on the 602. Strange.

Yeah.  Plus people are still looking for a solution on their 801s too.  Some saying its not even possible to play 24/88 w/ the hardware?!  I'll have to DL some HDTracks because it is claimed none of those 24/88s work.