[alpha421]

No, haven't heard the J3, or the X3, or basically any DAP that has been released within the last year or two. You can read the post from ClieOS who rates the X3 above the HM-601.  Hopefully someone else can chime in.  Good luck.

 

[jrazmar]

ok appreciate your help man. thanks. anybody else who has another opinion or suggestion to share?

 

[jrazmar]

x3 or 601?pls any more advice from those who have heard both. which one has better instrument separation, dynamics and soundstage? need more opinions before i finally pull the trigger. thanks.

 

[ozkan]

x3 or 601?pls any more advice from those who have heard both. which one has better instrument separation, dynamics and soundstage? need more opinions before i finally pull the trigger. thanks.

 
I haven't heard HM601 but I listened to my friend's 602 which is supposed to be almost similar sounding and had X3 a while ago. I think 602 has better intrument seperation and dynamics but it looses against X3 when it comes to soundstage. This is for only 602 so take it with a grain of salt.
 
Hope this helps.

 

[jrazmar]

thanks ozkan. yeah this helps a bit for me. btw, when you say better, is it miles ahead/night and day better? for my purpose, the OK1 has enough soundstage so I guess I'll be leaning towards the hifiman but the X3 is capable of playing 24/192 files so that's worth considering if the difference in SQ is not that significant. again, I know it's not a matter of which one is better as it's all boils to once preference of sound signature. so why did you give up on X3 then and did you ever consider buying the 601/602 after hearing it from your friend? 

 

[ozkan]

  thanks ozkan. yeah this helps a bit for me. btw, when you say better, is it miles ahead/night and day better? for my purpose, the OK1 has enough soundstage so I guess I'll be leaning towards the hifiman but the X3 is capable of playing 24/192 files so that's worth considering if the difference in SQ is not that significant. again, I know it's not a matter of which one is better as it's all boils to once preference of sound signature. so why did you give up on X3 then and did you ever consider buying the 601/602 after hearing it from your friend? 

 
Yes, IMHO 602 is significantly better sounding dap than X3. The reason why I've sold my X3 is the mid-bassy sound which was too much for my liking and I am kind of a person who hates mid-bass bumps on any device. Maybe they've changed it with the latest firmware. I have sold mine a few months ago.
 
The another biggest flaw was the freezing/skipping problem on some songs. Sometimes I was not able to change the songs and had to turn of the device a few times. X3 had a lot of firmware problems when I had it but I don't know if they had fixed the bugs or not. 
 
After hearing 602 I think I will buy either 601 or 601le but I still couldn't decide which one I should get as there is no review on 601le on any site. I guess I am going to end up buying 601le which shares the same amp on 602. I am still confused anyway 

 

 

[jrazmar]

Well, so we are on the same boat. Actually, if I based my decision solely on reviews, instead of getting helped, I get more confused because of the different opinions but at least it's better than nothing at all. So I try to limit my choices and concentrate researching on similar situation and gears as mine. Going back on the 601, I guess I have to eliminate the X3 on the equation and look for more reliable reviews of the hifiman.I cannot see the 2GB version of the 601 anymore at head-direct.com. Only the slim and LE versions are available. I don't know either where to find a complete review in the net for the 601LE. If anyone could shed some lights and help us, please guys. Thanks.

 

[gimbertt]

The 601le has the headphone out of the 602 so check out the reviews for that.

 

[jrazmar]

I still wish there would be a 601LE review out there somewhere and some comparisons with 601slim and 602 SQ-wise. My hands are itching again.

 

[GainsbarreAudio]

Hi, I do not have the 601LE, but have the 2g version of Hifiman Hm601.
In my quest to find the perfect affordable audiophile music player I pass trough the Colorfly C3, the Fiio X3, the IHIFI 801 V2 and now the Hifiman Hm601.
My two favorite of the bunch are the IHIFI 801 V2 by a big step and after it is the Hifiman. To make it fast about the Xuelin IHIFI 801 v2, it is a 250$ underated music player that have a very musical sound, beautiful dynamic and details, mids are fowards and spacious, bass is deep and round, sound is rich and detailed without being harsh or forced, it is like the perfect world between analogue and numeric sound, with same Wolfson dac than X3 but sounding nothing like it, quite its opposite in some way. There no hiss or strange backround sound but the battery life suck(4-8h), as the UI and the portability.
The Hifiman have some of this qualities, the musicality is very enveloping, the mids are fowards and very present, the bass is pumped a little but in a round way, the high are there but not that much as the NOS DAC can't go upper than 15 KHz. This player is good for long listening session, non fatiguing at all, it is spacious and dynamic, if you use it with detailed cans it will surely help his little lack of details and textures. I think this player sound better with vocals and instrumentals music that do not have lot of layers. Instruments separation is good but not great. I do like clinical sound but not in a dry way, wich is why I can't handle the sound of X3 and Colorfly C3, they are not musical at all and sound tiny, kind of suffocating. With the Hm601 I can forgive lot of flaws (poor battery life, some barely audible hissing, clumsy UI as all other players) because it is a player that make you enjoy music in a lighter way, you will not analyse track but be transport by them, the sound isnt hollow by some numerical magic trick that (poorly) try to convince you it's a 1000$ music player.
This is my point of view and I will like to write it in french so all this strange words we use to describe sound will be more precise!
hope it will help you tough.

 

[jonbmet]

I recently bought a HM-601 used to have the ability to play .flac files. While it does that and they sound pretty good I can't figure out how to get the files to play in order. A lot of the music I want to use is live and will have titles like: cj2009-10-05d01t01.ku100_at37 or cj2009-10-05d02t02.ku100_at37. For some reason the player will play these files out of order even though their track names list them in order in windows file explorer.
 
What am I doing wrong?

 

[matbhuvi]

  I recently bought a HM-601 used to have the ability to play .flac files. While it does that and they sound pretty good I can't figure out how to get the files to play in order. A lot of the music I want to use is live and will have titles like: cj2009-10-05d01t01.ku100_at37 or cj2009-10-05d02t02.ku100_at37. For some reason the player will play these files out of order even though their track names list them in order in windows file explorer.
 
What am I doing wrong?

 
It plays in the order it is in the folder in SD card unless shuffle mode is on. Rockbox it to get better usable GUI.

 

[Makiah S]

   
I haven't heard HM601 but I listened to my friend's 602 which is supposed to be almost similar sounding and had X3 a while ago. I think 602 has better intrument seperation and dynamics but it looses against X3 when it comes to soundstage. This is for only 602 so take it with a grain of salt.
 
Hope this helps.

Hmm that's good to hear, on a simmilar not the HM 801 has a better sense of seperation than the Fiio X5, but the X5 remains a little wider in terms of sound, how ever it doesn't have the sense of presentation, dynamics or speration as the hm801, and it's not that much wider imo 
 
its funny though that the hm601 compares to the x3 simmilar to how the hm801 compares to the X5,

 

[jonbmet]

   
It plays in the order it is in the folder in SD card unless shuffle mode is on. Rockbox it to get better usable GUI.

I don't think I described what is happening well enough. The order the songs are in on the SD card are correct. They scrambled when I put it into the 601. The track and disc numbers are recognized by fubar 2000 for the same songs. Also, when I try to play a song that's 24/192 the player freezes. Maybe I need to update the firmware. If so, how?
 
I'm open to rockbox if it's stable.

 

[KT66]

601 won't play 24/192., it will play 24/44 and maybe 24/48 but no higher