Hi Head-Fi’ers!
I’ve waited quite a bit long to use SuperMini and obtain its possible rival players at the same time (like Sony A15 and the new A35).
I came across SuperMini a few months ago, and only by looking its specs and “promises”, I instantly wanted to give a try to it. So I volunteered for a review that you are reading right now.
I want to thank from here to Hifiman for the review sample.
In the previous reviews, many Head-Fi’ers shared beautiful photos of the device with some satisfactory descriptions of the players user interface. So to not to repeat some obvious things about the player, in my review, I’ll focus more on the sound performance of SuperMini.
First things first ; let’s take a look at the presentation and “offerings” of SuperMini, by its creator who is also the CEO and founder of Hifiman, Dr. Fang Bian :
“We spent years on a crazy project: SuperMini. We selected a low power consumption controller chip with a DAC built-in. After heavily modifying firmware and drivers of decoding/Audio/DAC, we have changed its original sound signature and achieved an amazing result: a sound signature similar to our flagship hi-fi music player HM901. That is why SuperMini sounds transparent, warm, sweet and punchy. It is one of the smallest portable hi-fi devices. Its battery life is 22hrs. Full Size headphones? Not even a challenge. The swing of output voltage is 4.2V peak to peak, capable of driving most full size headphones.”
From one point, this review would be an evaluation of how the performance of SuperMini measures up to the companies claims.
Introduction :
In the recent years, I have used more than 30 players from different brands (including Fiio, Ibasso, Sony, Astell & Kern, Hifiman etc.) with various different headphones and iems.
Four years ago, eras popular player Hifiman 601 had been my first Hifiman device. Though I liked the devices sound signature, lovely mid-bass, detail and separation performance, 601 was weak in measurements ; especially in distortion levels.
Despite it's weakness in measured performance, I considered Hifiman 601, as my first portable “Hi-Fi” player.
Following that, I’ve used lots and lots of players ranging from $100 to $3500 and most of them utilized some fancy discrete DACs like the ones of Texas Inst. PCM 1792A, Wolfson WM8740, ESS Sabre 9018S, Asahi Kasei AKM4490 or Cirrus Logic CS4398.
These DAC’s, while elevating the sound quality of daps above the ones built-in DAC’s provide, come with a considerable drop in the players battery life.
And with my experience, I came to the thought that, in practical terms, it was the implementation of the amp section that contributes to the sound performance more obviously than the DAC section. That observation brought me to the idea that power hungry flagship DAC’s were more or less extravagant on entry to mid range portable players.
Thinking about that, incidentally I came across SuperMini.
The idea of a highly modified built-in DAC supported with a strong amplifier section instantly grabbed my attention. The following are my findings about this little player.
So let’s hit the road.
a) Design, Build, User Interface
The SuperMini is super small. If you have some chance the hold a Sony A17, you should know that SuperMini occupies roughly the same space. Apart from the glass on the screen and plastic buttons, it is all metal. It has a very fine build quality, especially for its class. Definitely better than Sony A17.
The screen is real glass (not a popular “glass-looking plastic”) and it looks one-piece as its corners are not highlighted. Very stylish.
The monochrome OLED display (reminds me of atari graphics of the past) performs nicely even under direct sunlight. And a screen-protector comes with the player. Yet, I would rather prefer if the screen protector was attached. It may be cumbersome for many users to attach these screen protectors properly.
In the past, I’ve used several players from Chinese brands, and I can easily say that the user interface of SuperMini is the slickest and most bug-free one among them. (Well, very occasionally, the player exhibits some bugs / freezes, but it is not a big deal. Even Sony players can freeze sometimes)
As a little bug, the player sometimes skips the first like 0.5 seconds of some songs, but it is occasional.
The players buttons respond quite swiftly, and overall operation is fast. It took me like one minute to get used to the players interface.
I tested the player with various Sandisk Ultra and Samsung Evo micro sd cards with capacities from 16 to 64gb, and encountered no big problem with them. In case of a failure, I resetted the device and the cards were read correctly.
SuperMini has no equalizer or any kind of sound tweaks. It may upset some people, but if you match the player with a headphone of balanced sound signature I would doubt that you would need any equalizer. Yet still, it would be a nice thing if the player has some sort of bass control option.
Besides, the playback screen does not show the duration of songs. That would be a nice addition.
When the screen is off, the first button you press would turn the screen on, then you can do whatever you want to do. I believe, that is a good thing in general principle, but volume buttons could have been added as an exception to that.
In other words, in order to adjust volume, you first press a button and turn on the screen, then you adjust it. Changing volume without turning on the screen would have been more convenient in terms of user experience. Maybe in the following firmwares, Hifiman can address this issue.
b) Sound :
Character :
I tested SuperMini more than a dozen of headphones to reach a generalizable average on sound and output power.
Besides, as a trustworthy indicator of sound signature, I plugged SuperMini directly into my Yamaha HS7 Reference Monitor.
Through Yamaha HS7, the player exhibited a little bit of warmth as it was suggested while retaining it’s clarity.
However, on most of the headphones I used, the player showed to have a quite neutral sound signature.
It is not a dark or bright sounding player having no easily noticeable “colour” in sound.
There are some slight bumps in the frequency response of the player, but overall I can easily say that SuperMini is a balanced sounding device.
Bass :
Nice and textured bass with good control and tightness. Does not show any bleed into the mids. I felt a little bump in the mid-bass section, but it does not present any muddiness or overpowering.
The bass is not shallow, definitely, but it also does not go very deep into the sub-bass frequencies. Besides, due to lacking a bass equalizer, you would not be able to make any adjustments.
Midrange :
Neutral, very clean, defined and well separated.
Instruments have weight in their sound and they’re portrayed with a pleasing level of accuracy. Timbre is impressive and on spot.
Varying on headphones, vocals can sometimes sound a bit upfront, which can
slightly affect the balance of the sound. However I did not witness any hint of shoutiness.
Clarity is top notch. There is no veil between you and the instruments.
(This is one of the points where SuperMini performs considerably superior compared to Sony A15 which sounds veiled and a bit “simulated”.)
In fact, this can be the very point where SuperMini performs above its class.
Comparing SuperMini to Hifiman 901U (with balanced card), Astell & Kern AK380, Sony WM1A / WM1Z over Hifiman HE560 and Sennheiser HD700, I was surprised to see that in terms of clarity and transparency, SuperMini was very close to the above “flagship” devices that cost several times more.
Definitely impressive.
Treble :
Again, a strong point for SuperMini.
Resolving, very crisp, controlled and dynamic.
Not too aggressive (free of fatigue) and not too smooth (free of being boring) at the same time. Nice balance. Good job.
I noticed a treble roll-off, so the treble extension is not the best of its class ; but it is barely percievable, and it does not cripple the dynamics of the player. (This was a noticeable case for the past era players like Hifiman 601 or Fiio X3 1st Generation ; both of which presented a steep treble roll-off, causing the players to sound a bit dull without sparkle)
SuperMini is not the most airy sounding player in the market, but with its limited soundstage it does not give any feeling of boxiness. There is also some nice sensation of space between instruments. Imaging is decent.
Resolution :
SuperMini is not the most analytical player resolving every bits and nuances of a recording, yet it produces some decent level of instrumental detail easily matching its class, and these details are quite accessible by ear thanks to its high level of clarity and transparency.
Instrument Separation :
Hifiman SuperMini again does a good job on instrument separation and crosstalk performance. Not only in standart popular songs having four to five instruments, but also in complex musical passages, the instruments do not collapse over each other or give the feeling of any kind of congestion. Decent crosstalk performance.
Soundstage & Imaging :
Probably the weakest link in the chain.
Despite the players mighty performance on many areas, soundstage size is just average It is not very wide nor deep, so I suggest a compensating headphone to be paired with this player (like Sennheiser HD600 which gives great soundstage virtually free of the source).
If you plan to use SuperMini with Grado’s, TTVJ Flat Pads do present a nice soundstage also with a balanced sound (for a Grado).
Noise Performance :
SuperMini has low distortion levels and quite a black background with a good signal to noise ratio. I did not hear a noticeable hiss on any headphones I’ve used. Nice job again.
Power :
SuperMini is one little beast when it comes to output power.
Let me state that in single-ended output comparison, it delivers more power to headphones compared to Sony’s new WM series Walkman’s.
Apart from some easier cans, I used SuperMini through various 300 ohm headphones (like Sennheiser HD600, 650 and 700), and the player drove these phones to a satisfactory level even in single-ended connection!
And as another plus, I was unable to perceive any extra audible distortion at maximum volume!
(However, the player can have more volume steps than its current number of 32, especially in the higher volumes. There is a great difference in volume from 30 to 32)
Through 3.5mm balanced connection, I believe what you would get will probably be better body and soundstaging.
It is such a surprising feat that Hifiman has achieved, delivering so much power from a tiny player
weighing only 70grams.
Headphone Matching :
SuperMini has quite a neutral and balanced sound which makes it ideal for a variety of different phones. However, again a headphone with a balanced sound signature would most probably match SuperMini best.
I especially liked the match of Sennheiser HD600 and 650, and Hifiman He560 (though this one is stated as “challenging” in Hifiman’s chart).
On the other side, there had been one headphone whose synergy I disliked with SuperMini :
Audio Technica R70X Pro.
In SE, SuperMini again drove 470 ohm R70X Pro to a satistaftory volume level, but the sound was edgy, mids were harsh and treble roll-off just absorbed any energy in sound. Definitely a no-go.
Apart from that, SuperMini responded well to matching with other headphones.
Battery Performance :
Another exciting feature of SuperMini due to the clamied “22 hours of playback” by the company. However, this part may be the one that the player falls a little bit apart from Hifiman’s claims in real-life conditions.
If you use SuperMini with relatively easy-to-drive headphones, then you may reach a playback time of 20 hours. (I often use SuperMini with my Grado HF-1 outside, and battery lasts +15 hours – all files flac – very good)
But in other cases, in case you pump up the volume of the player, the battery life will fall considerably to
~10 hours level. (Yet even at that case, SuperMini is a clear winner with its tiny battery)
(One criticism I can mention is that the battery indicator should be more precise. The indicator can show a full battery when you actually have 4 to 5 hours of playback time, and then it drops swiftly.)
The bundled iem with SuperMini (that seems to be between RE400 and RE600 quality-wise) has 3.5 mm balanced connection, and sounds decent. As a listener (and lover) of headphones, the bundled iems bass sounded not quite the most enjoyable to me, but it is very clear in mids and treble with good soundstaging.
However, I believe SuperMini’s true potential would be revealed through matching it with a suitable high-end headphone in balanced connection ; otherwise it would be
domesticated with the bundled iem.
Conclusion :
From the time I’ve seen its specs on the internet, I approached SuperMini with some great expectations, and I am here relieved to say that it is a highly worthy product.
With it’s serious sound quality and excellent price / performance ratio, I do not hesitate to recommend it to any music lover.
Good job Hifiman!
Pros :
- Very clear, transparent and dynamic sound
- Tiny form factor, good build and decent UI
- Powerful in both balanced and SE
- Very good battery life (though not as claimed)
Cons :
- Unimpressive soundstage
- No sound enhancements
