[mgoodman]

I agree strongly here. Imagine using this thing on the subway or something and you have a bunch of meters flashing every which way! People might think you've got a bomb!

My suggestion is to make the meters an optional feature. I have no use for them--if I want to study the mastering levels of my music I'll do it at home in a DAW.

@mgoodman, is the value proposition here for sort of a fully balanced HiFi-M8 V1/BlueDAC hybrid? As someone who only uses IEMs when mobile, why shouldn't I just use a BlueDAC or comparable product when I'm on the move?

This is supposed to be "The Best of CEntrance", a combination of BlueDAC, HiFi-M8, DACportable, and some other stuff. Basically, a new flagship DAC/Amp that utilizes our best technologies to date. The preorder price is very low for that set of features.

The meter is definitely a visual feature. It's not necessary for audio enjoyment. The thought behind it was that you could set the unit on a small tripod stand next to a bed, or next to your stereo system, and watch the meters for added enjoyment. Having said that, the subway or the bus are not ideal places for the meter, we agree.

We have designed the meter to be defeatable -- at the lowest brightness setting the meter is essentially off. But if the very idea of a visual meter is disturbing to a lot of people, we can consider removing it. Let's get a little bit further with the design, look at some good progress pictures and then consider this together as a group. We intend to do an email update tomorrow to share our status.

 

[schalliol]

Rough guideline on shipping costs: US: $10

Huh? It said free shipping before, during the order process and in my confirmation.

 

[schalliol]

Thanks to this amazing community, we have received enough orders do make the project a reality. Watch your email for project updates shorty.

Great support, people! I hope the mainstream orders are coming in too. I was fine with the crowd platform that would’ve given more visibility, but I can see why others were not.

 

[mboerma]

Huh? It said free shipping before, during the order process and in my confirmation.

That is exactly why I held of committing. It was unclear and still is, to a point. I don’t understand why this is so often an afterthought.

 

[benzfong]

Huh? It said free shipping before, during the order process and in my confirmation.

Me too. When I place the order it’s say free shipping!

 

[mgoodman]

Huh? It said free shipping before, during the order process and in my confirmation.

On the store page, accessed here:

https://centrance.com/store/HiFi-M8...gh-Power-Amplifier-for-Audiophiles-p142693925

It says: "Shipping fees will be collected at shipping time, based on your region. CEntrance will work with Distributors in EU to facilitate cost-effective shipping options."

The price offered now is already very low compared to retail price. We cannot afford to give free shipping at this low price and need to charge what we are charged by the postal service, depending on region. We have some discounts with fedex, which we will give straight to you. Many people in EU requested a cost-effective option, so we will work to find it. Because of these unknowns, and since we don't know final weight yet, and because someone may move apartments between now and November, we decided to charge shipping later, when actually ready to ship. Indiegogo does it this way, it's explained in our campaign there (we built it but never started due to community requests to move preorder to our site) and so, we did it on our site the same way too. Apologies if this was not clear.

 

[mboerma]

On the store page, accessed here:

https://centrance.com/store/HiFi-M8...gh-Power-Amplifier-for-Audiophiles-p142693925

It says: "Shipping fees will be collected at shipping time, based on your region. CEntrance will work with Distributors in EU to facilitate cost-effective shipping options."

The price offered now is already very low compared to retail price. We cannot afford to give free shipping at this low price and need to charge what we are charged by the postal service, depending on region. We have some discounts with fedex, which we will give straight to you. Many people in EU requested a cost-effective option, so we will work to find it. Because of these unknowns, and since we don't know final weight yet, and because someone may move apartments between now and November, we decided to charge shipping later, when actually ready to ship. Indiegogo does it this way, it's explained in our campaign there (we built it but never started due to community requests to move preorder to our site) and so, we did it on our site the same way too. Apologies if this was not clear.

If I try to check out it says: Shipping Free. Without even knowing where to ship to. So you might want to check this again.

 

[mgoodman]

Great support, people! I hope the mainstream orders are coming in too. I was fine with the crowd platform that would’ve given more visibility, but I can see why others were not.

Yes, we w

If I try to check out it says: Shipping Free. Without even knowing where to ship to. So you might want to check this again.

That's correct. In order to postpone the shipping collection until a later date and let the order itself go through without collecting shipping fees today we have to tell the system to not collect shipping fees now, which it interprets as "free shipping." But the way to read that correctly is "no shipping fees charged at the time of order", with shipping fees to be actually collected later, at the time of fulfillment. Hope this makes it clear and apologies for the inconvenience.

 

[nerip]

"The meter is definitely a visual feature. It's not necessary for audio enjoyment. The thought behind it was that you could set the unit on a small tripod stand next to a bed, or next to your stereo system, and watch the meters for added enjoyment. Having said that, the subway or the bus are not ideal places for the meter, we agree.

We have designed the meter to be defeatable -- at the lowest brightness setting the meter is essentially off. But if the very idea of a visual meter is disturbing to a lot of people, we can consider removing it. Let's get a little bit further with the design, look at some good progress pictures and then consider this together as a group. We intend to do an email update tomorrow to share our status."


I like the meter, don't remove it, just let it be switchable.

 

[schalliol]

I like it, but I agree it should go off not just low-dim. I wouldn’t worry about making the brightness adjustable if turning it all the way down to low doesn’t turn it off. One dial that lets you go from off to bright would be the best, but in the absence of that, cycling should work for most.

 

[slim2000]

This looks great but was wondering what DAC chipset you used and if the bass is better than the dacportable(it was a bit underwhelming even with the boost)

 

[TonySunshine]

Which bluetooth codecs will this support?

 

[doctorjazz]

I have no use for the meter, wouldn't pay any attention to it.
The DAC chipset and other hardware upgrades would also be of interest, though.

 

[schalliol]

I agree that the meter is secondary. If you can advance the audio quality above that intended when the pre-order came out by dropping the meter. I’d go for it.

 

[astr0n0m1nus]

Will the V2 unit use mini-USB connectors for charging and digital inputs or will these be type-C?

Also, will the unit employ dual AKM D2A converters for truly balanced?