[Makiah S]

I use HM-901 with Balanced amp card for both my CIEMs and HE-6 (!). With sensitive IEMs you will of course have less and bigger steps in volume (since 901 sports a true stepped attenuator), but I can live with it.

To me, the point getting 901 is that it performs superbly as a stand alone portable unit as well as being able to deliver very high SQ (high end SQ in my opinion) from line out in a desktop scenario (feeding a HQ amp).

The line out SQ is simply jaw dropping good. When the rest of the chain is high end quality, you will hear what that little box can do. I literally dropped my jaw the first time I heard it through Burson Soloist to HE-6 with hi res music. This was even as a DAC (fed from my SqueezeBox Touch). SQ is even better when playing onboard files.

However, if an external portable amp is better than the Balanced amp card, I don't know.

I don't have teh Balanced Amp Card, though I feel my iBasso PB2 is very simmilar and on par with the Balanced out of my NFB10ES2, the only differance I can hear in the two is in the bass. With the NFb10ES2 being a touch tighter, though with my HE 4 it could be the Extra Head Rooma nd power that gives the Headphone a Tighter Bass out of the NFB10ES2
 
though for balanced amps go, my iBasso PB2 with LME 49990 OP amps is end game for me! The battery life is great, the sound is great and yes it will run my HE 4 to some very LOUD levels :3 I'm very happy with it
 
Though I don't know how it will compare directly to the Balanced Card within the player 

 

[fengwei007]

I've been considering buying an HM-901 for a while now having read that it is the best sounding DAP. I was satisfied until recently using my portable iPod/Hifi M8 combo with LCD-X and JH-16's, but my my high-res music collection is growing pretty quickly, and it'd be great to be able make use of it with my car stereo and away from home. Being a total DAP noob though, I have several questions to confirm whether or not it would be practical for me.

Since I'd be using the 901 with LCD-X and JH-16 (plus car stereo system,) which combo would likely sound better? Should I connect headphones directly to the 901 -OR- combo 901 with Hifi M8 via line out USB? I understand that the 901 has an amazing DAC chip, but I'm concerned that the amp section won't be able to drive LCD-X with conviction, not to mention the M8's built-in DAC is no slouch.

If it would instead be more practical to do 901 line out to M8, would using different amp cards affect sound quality in that case? And would it even be necessary to buy the most expensive hi-res DAP?

To summarize, I want the best-sounding high-res capable DAP solution possible that can power my IEM's, planars, and car stereo system. What do I need to do?

I'd guess the discrete card should have enough output oower to drive the LCD-X in pretty loud level, but how well the combo will sound, I don't know, never had an LCD-X. But if it'd anywhere near the LCD-2, the discrete card should behind. Probable is that you can't find a discrete card easily now.

The balanced amp card should work well with both the LCD-X and JH16 (which I also have). The other option will be minibox card. Actually the new stock (classic-II) card is pretty powerful already.

If you are using an external amp together with HM901, the amp card you use in the HM901 won't affect the sound quality. You don't even need to put in any amp card if you use line out to external amp. Of course you can use the line out to your car audio system too.

As to the M8, I wonder how you'd hook up with the HM901? The M8 only has USB input, right? If so, you can't use 901 as a source as far as I know.

 

[audiofrk]

Any word on that revision currently my front runner for my future gear is a rwak 120-s + vorzuge pure, but I really liked the hm901 when I heard it only reservation is the channel imbalance at low volumes, UI, file skipping, and the battery life.

 

[fengwei007]

As far as I know the revision is on the way, but no ETA. Current production 901 is called HM901a, which Hifiman claimed to have a better wheel. 

 

[audiofrk]

Cool my trigger finger is getting itchy

 

[LarsHP]

Any word on that revision currently my front runner for my future gear is a rwak 120-s + vorzuge pure, but I really liked the hm901 when I heard it only reservation is the channel imbalance at low volumes, UI, file skipping, and the battery life.

I have absolutely no issues with channel imbalance at any volume setting - and there shouldn't be either since the 901 has a stepped attenuator for volume control. What you may have experienced is a setting between two steps one the volume dial where one channel connects to a different resistor value than the other. This will cause channel imbalance, but it is not related to low, medium or high volume settings, but solely that the volume dial isn't put in a proper posistion.
 
What do you mean by file skipping? I haven't experienced that either, however, I have experienced that the first second or less of the beginning of a new-selected track is cut off.
 
UI and battery life are partly a matter of taste and how you use the unit. I certainly think the UI needs some improvement regarding tag browsing / reading and the lack of a playlist function. Battery life (with Balanced amp card) is enough for me.

 

[audiofrk]

I have absolutely no issues with channel imbalance at any volume setting - and there shouldn't be either since the 901 has a stepped attenuator for volume control. What you may have experienced is a setting between two steps one the volume dial where one channel connects to a different resistor value than the other. This will cause channel imbalance, but it is not related to low, medium or high volume settings, but solely that the volume dial isn't put in a proper posistion.

What do you mean by file skipping? I haven't experienced that either, however, I have experienced that the first second or less of the beginning of a new-selected track is cut off.

UI and battery life are partly a matter of taste and how you use the unit. I certainly think the UI needs some improvement regarding tag browsing / reading and the lack of a playlist function. Battery life (with Balanced amp card) is enough for me.

That's great to hear I didn't experience any imbalance but I was auditioning with headphones that weren't mine. I only heard of problems.


Ok the "file skipping thing" I was tired I see now this don't make sense. I have qualms about the file navigation, file recognition ( my old hm601 had a problem recognizing some mp3s, but I am almost completely on flac now so shouldn't be a problem), and yeah that skipping of the first couple of seconds you are talking about.

I heard some people say that the player gets really hot and only last like 5 hours is there any truth to that?

Also has anyone a/b against a rwak 120-s?

 

[maxsimus]

I have absolutely no issues with channel imbalance at any volume setting - and there shouldn't be either since the 901 has a stepped attenuator for volume control. What you may have experienced is a setting between two steps one the volume dial where one channel connects to a different resistor value than the other. This will cause channel imbalance, but it is not related to low, medium or high volume settings, but solely that the volume dial isn't put in a proper posistion.

What do you mean by file skipping? I haven't experienced that either, however, I have experienced that the first second or less of the beginning of a new-selected track is cut off.

UI and battery life are partly a matter of taste and how you use the unit. I certainly think the UI needs some improvement regarding tag browsing / reading and the lack of a playlist function. Battery life (with Balanced amp card) is enough for me.

and I had an imbalance of sound I sent back to corporation hifiman and they sent me a new player!

 

[LarsHP]

That's great to hear I didn't experience any imbalance but I was auditioning with headphones that weren't mine. I only heard of problems.


Ok the "file skipping thing" I was tired I see now this don't make sense. I have qualms about the file navigation, file recognition ( my old hm601 had a problem recognizing some mp3s, but I am almost completely on flac now so shouldn't be a problem), and yeah that skipping of the first couple of seconds you are talking about.

I heard some people say that the player gets really hot and only last like 5 hours is there any truth to that?

Also has anyone a/b against a rwak 120-s?

The cut off in the beginning of tracks is less than a second. How much less I can't say, but it's less. However, it's important to understand that this cut off only is when you select a new track. When playing tracks in a sequence, there is no cut off.
 
I have never actually measured the battery time, but if someone claims it to be 5 hours with Balanced or Minibox amp card it could be true. I never listen to music that long anyway.

 

[audiofrk]

ohh ok thanks LarsHP
 
That's good to know I haven't been able to read all of this forum so I might be a little lost.

 

[the8o88y]

Looking to buy a 128 gb sd card for storage, and on the side of the 901 is labeled "SDXC Memory."
 
I was about to order an SDXC card until I read that the newest firmware update stated "only the FAT32 card can be used." I thought that regular SD cards were FAT32, while SDXC are exFAT.
 
I'm confused now. Which is the right card to use?

 

[fermelom]

Looking to buy a 128 gb sd card for storage, and on the side of the 901 is labeled "SDXC Memory."

I was about to order an SDXC card until I read that the newest firmware update stated "only the FAT32 card can be used." I thought that regular SD cards were FAT32, while SDXC are exFAT.

I'm confused now. Which is the right card to use?

For update the firmware you have to use a FAT32 card. It can be a 1GB or less (the firmware is less than 100 MB). For storage and playback music you can use both, FAT32 and exFAT.

 

[the8o88y]

Thanks, does it have to be 1 gb or less? I'm trying to use a 2gb FAT32 SD to update from 1.084 to 2.001. I followed the directions, but about a quarter of the way through the update, I get a "firmware error", the screen then reads "update complete", the 901 turns off, and the firmware remains 1.084.

 

[LarsHP]

Maybe the firmware file you downloaded is corrupt? Try to download it again and retry updating the firmware.

 

[fermelom]

Thanks, does it have to be 1 gb or less? I'm trying to use a 2gb FAT32 SD to update from 1.084 to 2.001. I followed the directions, but about a quarter of the way through the update, I get a "firmware error", the screen then reads "update complete", the 901 turns off, and the firmware remains 1.084.

Remember DO NOT decompress the file. The file in the FAT32 card must be a zip file. Sometimes the file is decompressed automatically by the downloader or your computer.