[david1978jp]

Last night I tried Shure adaptor on S:flo2; yes, its line-out sounded better than phone-out. I also tried a old Creative Nomad - both good with different flavors. The Shure in-line adaptor does blur sound a little; I don't think the adaptor degrades the sound enough to be a distraction. Aren't line-out usually cleaner and more balanced than phone-out? A little blur is possibly not very noticeable; lesser bass is obvious. Are you in US? Some stores will let you try it.
Quote:

Thanks for that David1978jp.
 
Thats very interesting, i hadn't thought about using something like that.
 
So you can just add a volume control to the line out?
 
What is the difference in sound between using this vs the headphone out? ...
 
It would certainly make it portable again!

 

[musicbased]

Im very interested in this, thanks for telling me. i will have to get get one of these things and test it!
I'm in the UK, but somebody might let me try one first...
 
Hopefully in the long run, i will still buy a stepdance, thats if they still exist by the time i can afford one!! ...
 
 
 

 

[musicbased]

 
Hi Faichiu,

 

Thanks for that. Wow, that looks pretty complicated inside there!

 

I sent it to a company here in England for repair but they said it needed a new main circuit, so i guess it has damaged it somehow?...Not sure how though as it was just a bit loose.

 

They sent the jack part back in a separate bag, so i know they definitely had a look inside, but i don't know anything electronics so i'm not sure.

seems like you could just put it back on to me, but i'm sure they would have done that if they could!

 

Ok i might have to have a look inside now, just to check! ...

 

[immtbiker]

I don't see any pictures in the thread you pointed out. Just words. I would like to know what it looks like in there.

 

[ClieOS]

The pictures of the PCB have already been posted on Head-Direct's sub-forum by the way. Here.

 

[musicbased]

immtbiker, i didn't see any pictures at first either, but i reloaded it and left it for a while.
They just seem take a long time to load. There is a lot of really good pictures of all the different components.
Someone really took it apart!-Very interesting, and even had a close up of my broken jack attached.
 

 

[immtbiker]

Thank you for the info.

 

[warubozu]

Wow, sorry to hear that they won't fix your HM-801 unless you provide Head-Direct with a receipt showing proof of purchase. That's really messed up that you need a receipt in order to have them to do the repairs yet you don't need a receipt if you want an upgrade or and exchange for another unit. Sounds like an ass backwards customer policy.

 

[skeptic]

Thank you for posting on this issue.  I will definitely be steering clear of head-direct and its Hifiman line after reading about your experience and their preposterous "no repairs" policy. 

 

[faichiu]

For good customer service, Head-Direct should keep track of serial number database instead of keep asking customer for proof of purchase.  If the serial indicate that the unit was purchase directly from Head-Direct, there's no reason to refuse customer service.
 
By the way, you should try to contact "Fang" directly, he's the owner of the company and he's a really good guy.  He should be able to help you.

 

[musicbased]

Yes, i tried Fang a couple of times, but only got one brief reply so i'm not sure he wants to help.(?)
 
Fang, are you out there?...Is there anything you can do?...
 
It's very depressing to see my Hifiman just sitting there gathering dust actually.
I'm finding it hard to accept that it can't be fixed!...I want to move on, but it just sits there haunting me every day.

 
I've had to dig out my old Archos Gmini400 now!-It's not the same.

 

[Willieboy]

For what it's worth Musicbased, I've had my 801 hooked up to a NAD intergrate amp for the last week or so.  I am using a Silver Dragon mini-mini interconnect between the 801's line-out and the NAD's input.  The results are very nice.  I decided on the integrated amp instead of a dedicated headphone amp to gain greater versatility down the road.

 

[AndrewG]

dont many people use the line out to an external amp anyway, since the internal amp of the hifiman is the bottleneck?

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

dont many people use the line out to an external amp anyway, since the internal amp of the hifiman is the bottleneck?

If you mean desktop amp, then the internal amp might look like a bottleneck in comparison - but that is more because of desktop vs. portable/. If you mean portable amp, then the internal amp is more than capable of rivaling many if the mid / high end portable amp out there. I don't really find any significant different between it and 3MOVE. Only when I use the Stepdance that there is a more noticeable improvement over the internal amp.

 

[angeloz]

I purchased 2 different 801's from Head-Direct, and both arrived with dead SD card readers.   It took me forever to get refunded, and then I got charged for shipping on both  (I had to pay return shipping, plus they deducted $30 from each refund for their shipping costs.  They definitely need some help with their customer service!