Introducing the HIFIMAN EF400 Balanced Desktop DAC/Amplifier!

[Hyde00]

And what is going out is the music untouched, not treated by the DAC, right?

Yeah since usb out would mean it's sending digital data to the EF400, then the dac on EF400 is doing the decoding.

 

[Patlezinc]

I am really torn between thinking a 1500€ DAC/Amp would bring something better and the opposite. I mean, the Fiio M15s is a great DAP and the He1000SE is known to be easily drivable by DAPs. Don’t want to spend 1500€ to have 5% better separation, details or whatever…

 

[Johnfg465vd]

I am really torn between thinking a 1500€ DAC/Amp would bring something better and the opposite. I mean, the Fiio M15s is a great DAP and the He1000SE is known to be easily drivable by DAPs. Don’t want to spend 1500€ to have 5% better separation, details or whatever…

People generally get an R2R DAC for it's natural/organic tonality. If that is something you are interested in then the EF400 is worth a try. It's also going to drive the HE100SE better than the M15s.

If you are not able to audition the device then maybe get something like the Cayin RU6 or HiBy FC6. They may not be as technically capable as the EF400 but you will get an idea of what an R2R DAC sounds like and it's not a big investment. If you end up liking the sound then you can sell the dongle DAC and get the EF400.

 

[boodi]

I really hope they release a dac only EF200 LOL. Since I already have decent tube amp so I only really need a dac.

I wasn't thrilled by ef400 dac really

 

[boodi]

People generally get an R2R DAC for it's natural/organic tonality. If that is something you are interested in then the EF400 is worth a try. It's also going to drive the HE100SE better than the M15s.

If you are not able to audition the device then maybe get something like the Cayin RU6 or HiBy FC6. They may not be as technically capable as the EF400 but you will get an idea of what an R2R DAC sounds like and it's not a big investment. If you end up liking the sound then you can sell the dongle DAC and get the EF400.

Aside from an imbarassing number of issues in ef400 (reported from users here or over the web as well as technicals/unbalance in full scaled reviews )it is more suited towards high impedence cans.

Hifiman wanted to recall all units or good part of them at a point for the reviewed issues.

While the presentation is quite musical separation and details are not particularly convincing and he1000se won't benefit
Been there
Just my2c

 

[Patlezinc]

People generally get an R2R DAC for it's natural/organic tonality. If that is something you are interested in then the EF400 is worth a try. It's also going to drive the HE100SE better than the M15s.

It is what I usually dont get. What does need the He1000SE? Voltage? Power? Current? We all kow the relation between the 3 but...
I am at 25% of the volume on the Fiio and it is right for my ears (Ultra High Gain). I think it has more than enough power (1.2W starts to be a nice power I guess). So what do you mean exactly?

 

[Hyde00]

If you are not able to audition the device then maybe get something like the Cayin RU6 or HiBy FC6.

Cayin RU7 just recently came out, that could work too lol.

I wasn't thrilled by ef400 dac really

While the presentation is quite musical separation and details are not particularly convincing

People usually only talk about the good stuff but it's important to see both side of the picture.

Lol thanks for the honest feedback I'll keep that in mind.

 

[elwappo99]

Did the details of the recall for this unit ever come out?

 

[boodi]

It's in the thread if I do not recall wrong

 

[Hyde00]

It's in the thread if I do not recall wrong

LOL puns

 

[boodi]

Just type 'recall' up in the search so that you dont need to rabbit-hole 650posts ( not that they're that many..)

 

[elwappo99]

It's not listed on the product page? So you have to know to review the head-fi thread to find out? Not very transparent.

https://www.hifiman.com/products/detail/320

 

[Hyde00]

It's not listed on the product page? So you have to know to review the head-fi thread to find out? Not very transparent.

https://www.hifiman.com/products/detail/320

Generally company would just fixed it for all the future products / new productions so theoretically if you buy new you'll not run into those issues.

But yeah most company just pretend those issues never existed LOL. And buying second hand might need a bit of research before hand....

 

[Metal-Fi]

Hello, I got my brand new EF400 yesterday, a while ago I finally connected the device to my laptop via usb B and started a few random listens. I have read that as many other R2R DACs, the EF400 is no different in requiring a break-in period so, even if I'm already enjoying its sound signature, I will not add further comments about that at the moment.
One thing I immediately noticed, however, which is the weird behaviour of its power output. At first I was like...is this really the powerful amp they claim to be? A Sennheiser HD800S was connected to the amp, and I needed to push the volume dial up to 3PM in high gain to have a decent - not even loud - output. I changed usb port, then also the cable, and finally I also tried the EF400 on a different laptop...nothing happened. Always a low, unengaging volume level. Just out of curiosity, I decided to switch to usb C and to use my Android phone...boom! 10AM on low gain and loud!
If I'm not wrong, other people have experienced similar issues. How did you manage to solve them? Thanks in advance.

 

[Hyde00]

Always a low, unengaging volume level. Just out of curiosity, I decided to switch to usb C and to use my Android phone...boom! 10AM on low gain and loud!

I remember reading someone had similar issue switching between PC and their iPad. Like one is way louder than the other. I'm not sure if they solved it though.

Let's wait and see if anyone says anything....