So that happened:
I am a fan of Hifiman and my friends know it;] and one decided generously lo loan me his freshly acquired unit for a very short time… I am away from home so that means very limited gear I can use with it therefore it will not be review just very quick first impression.
I have to travel light so I only have on my Hifiman RE-800 silver, Meze 12 CLASSICS and VE BIE. Shanling M0 and Phone running LineageOS 17.1
So here, more photos, quality is just OK as it is quickly taken with mobile
Build quality is on pair with R2R2000 – obviously bigger and heavier ;] and gold.
Semi transparent plexi proudly shows 3 out of 4 DAC chips – unit feels good at hand. Is comfortable to use with just one hand. Limited number or physical controls – but all what’s needed is there. Volume controls is done by + and – buttons and that’s my only complain – I think I prefer wheels – also long press is not currently supported so to change volume up or down one need to keep clicking – Might be something changed in FW later on ( or not)
Unit after a 15 minutes of operation over BT gets slightly warm – after 10 min connected to laptop gets warmer and quite much so but nothing like Mojo when charged and used at the same time ;]
Operation – I am limited to BT from phone or usb from laptop (windows 10) as I do not have with me USC C to USC C OTG cable to check it with my phone. I downloaded beta version of Hifiman Remote app – unfortunately My Lexar 64GB Card seems to not be supported, HM1000 Scans card but cennot find any files ( maybe fix will arrive with newer FW) I read that initially that feature was not supported – with it being added later with FW update and possibly this unit runs older FW, Hifiman do not officially relisted any update yet
– Or maybe it is a case of problem with LineagerOS hard to tell.
I have it for a limited time only so I do not think I will be able to run proper battery test – for now with BT and 3.5 SE is more than 7h but didn’t test how much longer that 7h.
App itself seems to work fine - connects to the unit without problem – reposts BT version of driver (but not FW) and give options to scan sd card over OTG, Manually and wirelessly – If I can I will try to source OTG cable and try to scan over wire.
Sound: Friend mentioned that he didn’t have time to use it for more than couple of hours so it would be fair to treat it as fresh out of the box – Nevertheless HM1000 sounds great from start!
I am long term user of R2R2000 and even I do not have it on me I can say both share very similar sound tuning. It would be very interesting to directly compare them – but unfortunately for me – not this time.
Looking at the gear I took with me one could deduct than I am a fan of single DD and one would be absolutely correct;] – Non of the IEMs at my disposal now are very sensitive – but with all of them there is no detectable background noise on Super Low Gain up to High Gain.
I have read some posts about HM1000 measured distortions (unit used for measurements was black- I am not sure if that was older version or even beta one) - Also Not sureif Hifiman implemented any changes between Black and Gold unit - but this kind of distortion should be audible - and there is not a hit of any with loan unit i have - so there...
Sound over BT (LDAC HQ) is very very good actually it is so good that I cannot hear any difference between BT and over USB – It is first time when I cannot hear any difference – It the past I tried A&K SR25, SA700, Fiio M11 and even Hifiman DEVA or Ananda BT (all supporting LDAC HQ) – all sounded slightly different over BT and USB – With HM1000 I simply do not hear any difference – It would need more tests but I just hope it means Hifiman worked some magic with BT implementation – and even if there are tiny measurable differences – if one cannot hear them then it is as good as there is non right?
Just one more word about amp section – RE800 are one of my favorite IEMs -RE2000 are better but are bigger heavier and bassier ones and for me RE800 works better in terms of overall use and as a benchmark to try other gear – It is safe to say I know them very well – And I never ever heard them sounding so good – regardless what was the gear I plugged it to – Some top DAPs portable or full size amps and even R2R2k…
That’s it for now – If I am lucky fiend will not turn up tomorrow to pick it up and that gives me more time to play with it ;] You know who you are so massive THANK You for the opportunity.
