[JamesMcProgger]

Quote:

 
Think of it as a sound-card, it has to be connected to a computer, and will act as the sound-card of the computer.
 
As soon as you disconnect it from a computer, it can't do anything, furthermore, it has no audio inputs.
 
 
With the line-out, you can connect it to a cmoy or or Fiio amp, but the built-in amp is so good I see no point in doing that.
 
I haven't listened to the line-out properly yet, but I'll connect the LO to my stereo later.
 
 

wait, It has a build in amp? then dont they promote it as DAC + Amp? they never said a thing in the web about an amp
 

 

[kiteki]

 
Their marketing really sucks, I'm helping them out for free here.
 
 
This is a killer Dac/Amp in the size of a box of matches, and yeah, I bought it as soon as I saw it uses the TDA1308 amplifier.

 

[germanturkey]

so what you're saying is, one will not miss out on too much when buying the mage over the miracles?    i'm sorely sorely tempted to get a pair of those within the next 6 months.

 

[JamesMcProgger]

Quote:

 
Their marketing really sucks, I'm helping them out for free here.
 
 
This is a killer Dac/Amp in the size of a box of matches, and yeah, I bought it as soon as I saw it uses the TDA1308 amplifier.

it does, they should be advertising that DAP with an azn loli instead of a floating hand.
 
does it have volume control then? how is it, I asume digital, is it OK?
 

 

[ericp10]

kiteki you are pure madness!! and i like it!!

 

[milosolo]

I'm not trying to sidetrack this thread but I just have to say... These comments hit the nail on the head.
 
Someone else said something to the effect that consumers have a hard time/won't adapting to something that is different than they are used to. That reminds of the example of Windows Vista compared to Windows 7. (I worked for Microsoft for several years and I could never get used to Vista.)
 
Quote:

Apple phones are a bit overpriced and closed-circuit, they force you to use everything apple.
 
Google I just don't like as a company, on the previous page I called them the blob, I used to think google were cool before they went on the stock market, and then it just became more intense and now they want to "google-ize" everything and "own" information, when information (and the internet) should be free, I don't want the internet to become a google database and that's what they want.

 

 

[milosolo]

The HiFiMan Express HM-101 at $39 seems like a no brainer as kiteki recommends. It sounds like it would be super easy to pack along in my laptop bag and plug into my desktop at work.

 

[a_recording]

Oh Kiteki, you so crazy.
 
It does seem interesting as a uDAC alternative, though I do wish for a physical volume control. 

 

[EpicPie]

Great review.

 

[kiteki]

 
Quote:

so what you're saying is, one will not miss out on too much when buying the mage over the miracles?    i'm sorely sorely tempted to get a pair of those within the next 6 months.

Depends what you're after in sound, I'm sure a lot of people will prefer the higher bass impact and surround sound of the Miracle, but I couldn't notice any particular difference in sound quality from my listening sessions on the demo units.
 
 
Quote:

it does, they should be advertising that DAP with an azn loli instead of a floating hand.
 
does it have volume control then? how is it, I asume digital, is it OK?
 

But it's a well manicured male hand, did you miss that?
 


 
Quote:

kiteki you are pure madness!! and i like it!!

 
That's what happens when your sound quality improves and you stay up all night.
 
 
Quote:

The HiFiMan Express HM-101 at $39 seems like a no brainer as kiteki recommends. It sounds like it would be super easy to pack along in my laptop bag and plug into my desktop at work.

Yup.
 
There might be more sophisticated burr-brown PCM2702E + Phillips TDA1308 DAC/Amp units out there, but at a quite higher cost, I imagine.
 
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/PCM2702E-datasheet.html
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/TDA1308-datasheet.html
 
 
 
Quote:

Oh Kiteki, you so crazy.
 
It does seem interesting as a uDAC alternative, though I do wish for a physical volume control. 

Thanks.
 
Why is it a uDAC alternative?

 
Quote:

Great review.

Thx.
 
 

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

[...] Why is it a uDAC alternative? [...]

Because it is a small, cheap bus powered DAC.

 

[rawrster]

kiteki, nice impressions of the dac/amp by hifiman. I was tempted to pick one up and i may do so next week or so but i don't really need a dac/amp for my netbook.
 
Curious but how is channel imbalance at low levels? Usually with amps connected to my customs I get channel imbalance except for 2 amps I've tried. Those are my Leckerton UHA-4 and my PPAv2 amps.

 

[kiteki]

Hi there rawrster,
 
Low volume monitoring or background listening isn't really my forté, the HM-101 doesn't have any volume control, you control it's volume via your PC, just like you do with a sound-card, if I lower the volume really low... like -50dB in foobar, I can't detect any channel imbalance, or it's very minimal, at -30dB everything sounds fine, hope that helped.
 
With the Sony EX600's, with modern pop music with loudness, I'm listening to the HM-101 HO at around -22dB in foobar, with the sound-card output at maximum.
 
 
 
 

 

[justie]

haha..get a mini iem organised! bring ur hifiman along while i can bring my fiio combo so we can compared them :O apparently the fiio e7 has a pretty decent wolfson dac in it.
 

 

[kiteki]

Hi justie!
 
We just had a headphone meet, let's wait a bit for the IEM one, but I'll bring my laptop and the HM-101 along with me.
_________
 
 
HM-101 review extended