[Makiah S]

   
Congrats on the new player  
 
The headphones in this photo look nice. Love the headband and the dark color wood cups. 

That would be the Allesandro MS1i, built and modded my Joe Doe, those are walnut Cups. That would be my walk about rig right there! For days at the mall or even just derping around campus. Wore that during my lecture class today to, my teacher didn't realize SOME headphones don't actually block sound 

 

[Makiah S]

Holy Crap... there's talking in the back ground of Dave Brubecks Far More Drums :O never heard it till now outa the hm901! Yikes that detail xD 

 

[Kiats]

Holy Crap... there's talking in the back ground of Dave Brubecks Far More Drums :O never heard it till now outa the hm901! Yikes that detail xD 

Wait til you listen to Diana Krall on Live in Paris: there's a lady in the audience who's coughing intermittently throughout the performance.

 

[Makiah S]

Wait til you listen to Diana Krall on Live in Paris: there's a lady in the audience who's coughing intermittently throughout the performance.

My review of the Unit is Live guys! 
 
http://hifilittleriver.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-big-thanks-to-drew-and-every-one-at.html
 
I'll do an Unboxing video for it Tommorow! 
 
Now we just need news on the HM 901S 

 

[Mimouille]

Ok the discrete card is awesome soundwise but it's RF noise fiesta. Anybody compared with Minibox?

 

[fengwei007]

Ok the discrete card is awesome soundwise but it's RF noise fiesta. Anybody compared with Minibox?

Sound wise I prefer the discrete card, although the minibox card is pretty good too. And yes, the Minibox is much less prone to RF noise.

 

[jamato8]

I never got RF. What do you have it next to?

 

[Russian1]

I have a HiFiman 901 with IEM card. It works fine with my In ear monitors. I really enjoy it.
As an owner of DX50 I felt great improvement which I hoped for such high price.

But I want to buy an external Amp Hifiman EF5 for my Hifiman901 in order to listen to headphones Hifiman HE-560.

Would you please give me some advice?

1) Will it work? I mean the connection from hifiman901 to hifiman EF5? I mean cables and the like.
Will I have to remove my internal amplify IEM card from my hifiman901 for that?

2) Does it make any sense?

Thank you

 

[Mimouille]

I never got RF. What do you have it next to?

Not sure we have the same. Because this card is reputed to have this issue. It is just sometimes, but when it happens it is annoying.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

I have a HiFiman 901 with IEM card. It works fine with my In ear monitors. I really enjoy it.
As an owner of DX50 I felt great improvement which I hoped for such high price.

But I want to buy an external Amp Hifiman EF5 for my Hifiman901 in order to listen to headphones Hifiman HE-560.

Would you please give me some advice?

1) Will it work? I mean the connection from hifiman901 to hifiman EF5? I mean cables and the like.
Will I have to remove my internal amplify IEM card from my hifiman901 for that?

2) Does it make any sense?

Thank you

You just need this LOD to RCA adapter:

http://hifiman.com/Products/?pid=172

It's up to you to remove the amp card. If you do, the playtime is longer. It will work even if you dont.

 

[Makiah S]

You just need this LOD to RCA adapter:

http://hifiman.com/Products/?pid=172

It's up to you to remove the amp card. If you do, the playtime is longer. It will work even if you dont.

The new HM91 comes with that cable, though if you got one used you may need to buy a new one [assuming you just plain didn't get one]
 
how ever, I use the Internal Classic Card as much as I do line out so I usually keep my amp card in 

 

[LarsHP]

I have a HiFiman 901 with IEM card. It works fine with my In ear monitors. I really enjoy it.
As an owner of DX50 I felt great improvement which I hoped for such high price.

But I want to buy an external Amp Hifiman EF5 for my Hifiman901 in order to listen to headphones Hifiman HE-560.

Would you please give me some advice?

1) Will it work? I mean the connection from hifiman901 to hifiman EF5? I mean cables and the like.
Will I have to remove my internal amplify IEM card from my hifiman901 for that?

2) Does it make any sense?

Thank you

If you are sure about what full size headphone you want (in this case HE-560), I would suggest that you start buying that and see how you like it directly out of the player. Then you know if you feel that you in fact need an external amplifier and also what kind of sonic character you would like it to have.
 
For instance: do you prefer a more soft, spacious character or is transparency and bass quality more important. In other words: Is a typical tube sound or a typical solid state amp to your liking? This preference has often to do with what kind of music you listen to.
 
Also: How much power do you need for the particular headphone to get the sound pressure level (SPL) you typically listen at. If you play at very loud SPL's, then the HE-560 (90dB @ 1mW and 50 Ohm) driven by the IEM amp card (65mW @ 30 Ohms) might not be loud enough for you. However, if you mostly listen at a "sensible" (not ear damaging) loudness, then you could get away with the power that the built-in amp has. Going by the spec's you should be able to get about 105dB undistorted peaks. In my experience this is usually enough (for me).
 
I often drive my HE-6 directly out of the internal amp card (I have the Balanced amp) even though I have two high end headphone amplifiers that I really love (Burson Soloist and Audio-gd Master 6). There is certainly a step up in both sound quality and especially max volume, but often I find myself moving around in the house with just the HM-901 and HE-6. This combo sounds really nice for my preferences and the SPL I usually listen at. Your preferences may differ.

 

[Russian1]

Thank you, LarsHP for your most detailed reply to my question.
You really understood my problem.

I am going to follow your advice and first buy HE-560 and try them directly out of my player.
You see, At the moment I own a pair of headphones DT 990 PRO 250 OHM and sometimes use them with my Hifiman 901. And they sound nice, I like the sound of open headphones. And I do not lack any volume. I am not a basshead and I prefer quiet blues, soft rock etc. I do not like my music too loud.

But you see, comparing to my in ear Westone 60 these Beyerdynamic headphones lack quality of the sound.
I started to guess the reason might be that my built in iEM amplifier is not good for the headphones and I need external outboard amplifier.
But now I guess that the quality of DT 990 PRO 250 OHM is just lower than quality of my Westone-60, that might be a reason, not the amplifier.
And I hope that buying HE-560 for my Hifiman 901 (with IEM card) will solve this problem and they will sound much better than my Beyerdynamic headphones.

 

[LarsHP]

Thank you, LarsHP for your most detailed reply to my question.
You really understood my problem.

I am going to follow your advice and first buy HE-560 and try them directly out of my player.
You see, At the moment I own a pair of headphones DT 990 PRO 250 OHM and sometimes use them with my Hifiman 901. And they sound nice, I like the sound of open headphones. And I do not lack any volume. I am not a basshead and I prefer quiet blues, soft rock etc. I do not like my music too loud.

But you see, comparing to my in ear Westone 60 these Beyerdynamic headphones lack quality of the sound.
I started to guess the reason might be that my built in iEM amplifier is not good for the headphones and I need external outboard amplifier.
But now I guess that the quality of DT 990 PRO 250 OHM is just lower than quality of my Westone-60, that might be a reason, not the amplifier.
And I hope that buying HE-560 for my Hifiman 901 (with IEM card) will solve this problem and they will sound much better than my Beyerdynamic headphones.

You are welcome!

When you say that you don't like the sound from your 250 Ohm headphones out of the HM-901 with IEM amp card, I am not surprised since the IEM amp card only has a max voltage swing of 1.4 Volts. This is far from good for high impedance headphones. High impedance headphones need a lot more voltage (but needs just a little Ampere).
 
Now you have two choices:
1. Keep the 250 Ohm headphones (but only for use with desktop / home amplifier).
2. Get a headphone with lower impedance (like the HE-560) and be able to use it with both the HM-901 and via desktop / home amplifier.

 

[jamato8]

The 560's are great headphones. My favorite of all I own.