HiFiMAN HM-801: big sound in your pocket

    Start


    Jude Mansilla, Founder of the Head-Fi Forum, 05/12/2009.

    In our sales and sponsorship community, Mr. Fang, Head of Direct-Direct (or HiFiMAN) was one of the most interesting personalities for me. We met him a long time ago, when several years ago he offered me a sponsorship offer and was actively interested in our affairs, sought to cooperate with me and asked how well he could fit into the movement of our community with his players and high-end headphones made in China. I immediately thought that the guy was crazy, given the fact that I had never heard of this man and his company, not even looking at the country of the manufacturer. I don’t know what others would do in my place, but maybe I made a mistake and I should have worked with him immediately.

    The first headphones that released Head-Direct were Yuin PK-1, and even then the oldest of our community knew that it was with this model that the company showed its supernatural abilities, without even knowing about them. Years passed, and Yuin PK-1 are currently the only headphones with a standard form factor that I (and many other music lovers) use regularly, because they sound very good if you have a portable amplifier.

    In the same line with the PK series was the OK series, this is another product that I initially overlooked. They isolated from the noise a little unusual, passing some frequencies of the surrounding world into their ears. One of my friends told me that he wanted some in-ear headphones that retained their inherent sound, didn’t fall off his ears, and most importantly could give him the opportunity to work in the office, communicating with colleagues. You should have seen his joy when I brought the little-known Yuin OK-1 to the test.

    Of course, Fang brought a lot of different products to us, even a whole line of full-sized electrostatic headphones, portable amplifiers and many other devices. Head-Direct has come a long way before we work together. For all the time I learned that Fang never sits in place, when it comes to sound quality in the project idea, it seems to me that he never sits at all.

    Fang was very proud to work with us, being the only representative from China, he was proud of his people. Once he sent me a large package, inside which was a collection of plush toys from a cartoon dedicated to the Olympic Games in China. When I asked him why he did this, he simply replied that he was very excited and proud that China was going to host the Olympics, and would like to share this spirit with me. I still look at these little toys from time to time and do not hold back my smile. So Fang's pride helped me make sure that such Chinese products deserve respect. Later I realized that in addition to respect, products can be unique, innovative and high-performance.

    It was spring, Fang contacted me to talk about a new product that he is working hard on: a high-end portable digital player. What was he going to offer, I thought? His response shocked me. He swore my iPadwith lossless, nothing is everything - nothing compared to what his team is currently working on. Fang went on to quickly say that he is now developing a portable music player with removable media, with its user interface, with a 15-volt lithium-polymer battery in order to integrate a high-quality headphone amplifier module and allow the user to connect the amplifier using the player as well desktop, as a sound card. Well, sort of great, also fantastic, I said. He continued that his main goal is to have the player with the best sound device for converting a digital code into an analog signal (DAC), so this is the most important operation in obtaining high-quality sound with minimal losses. I smiled at first, then asked what will he do for this? To which he clearly answered that he plans to install a DACPCM1704 , together with the OPA627 operational amplifier . I said that they are crazy in the sense that it’s cool and no one has done it before (for those who don’t know, PCM1704 and OPA627 were previously used as honorary rights only in high-end audio systems, but never in portable equipment )

    Initially, Fang wanted to enable only the coaxial input for the external DAC, but I strongly suggested turning on the USB port, given the rapidly growing popularity of computers. I said that it would be a shame if the device has PCM1704, but there will be no way to upload recordings via USB to the player. A few days later, Fang called back and supported my idea, but I said that I would be the first in line to buy this device. After telling me the price, he asked a question about what I think about the price of the device. I replied that this would find its niche in the market and everything would work out. Fang was very happy and said that he wanted to sell the player with my information support, as well as previous projects, from which we will receive for a limited time 10% of sales. So HiFiMAN HM-801 was born .

    A few months later, Fang called and called me to test the prototype of the future player. It just had firmware with a raw media player and a board with PCM1704without an amplifier module for headphones. He wanted me to rate the player as standalone, play with sound sources, and compare it with other models. This is what I did for several weeks.

    What did I think of this prototype? The very first thing that caught my eye was a huge building. We made compromises and made an analogue line-in via a mini-jack, and analogue coaxial through a mono-mini-jack, reducing its size. I showed the guys from Moon Audio the player and agreed with them to create cables for it. In the end, we decided to use the i2Digital X-60 coaxial cable , which proved to be very good. At a theoretical level, this could continue to improve, but we decided not to waste time on it. Cardas stereo-mini-RCA was used for analog output. From the point of view of cables and performance, it seemed that the HM-801 is the best that is among portable players to date.

    In the first full-fledged version that I managed to listen to, I described the sound with two epithets: large and great. You don’t even have to try to say that such a sound is excellent for portable devices - it would also sound great, being considered a desktop studio equipment. I can only highlight the main thing: there is nothing better in a large army of portable players whose sound characteristics are better than what I listened to. There are very noticeable similarities with my Wadia CD player , and for my ears the sound is almost identical, but with a different shade, which does not prevent me from enjoying the sound from HiFiMAN .

    From the creators


    Fang, the creator of the player, 05/12/2009.

    With the development of high-speed Internet, users are increasingly downloading music without compression, with a high level of quality. Unfortunately, most portable players cannot show even a smaller part of the potential that is embedded in the audio recordings. The HiFiMAN HM-801 is designed to play high-quality, lossless audio tracks in accordance with the Hi-Fi standard.

    With two high-quality DACs, the player outperforms most desktop CD players. Even in comparison with some high-end non-portable sources, the player shows its best side at medium frequencies, which is clearly visible in the frequency range where vocals and violins manifest themselves.

    Overview


    Tronz, Head-Fi Review, 12/31/2012.

    image

    User interface


    The HiFiMAN HM-801 has one of the simplest user interfaces, with a very small color LED display and five buttons located in a circle to the right of it. Looking at the player, you can immediately understand that the designers in this company are paid much less than everyone else, and well-known brands like Ala Cowon or iPod are very far from him. HiFiMAN HM-801also has four buttons that are located at the top of the device: power, go to the previous record (next) record and track loop button. Five buttons on the front panel are responsible for navigation: the top - forwards and backwards, the central - confirms the choice, and the bottom two - down and up. At first, this is a little inconvenient, but after several days with them it turns out to fly well on the user interface, which, unfortunately, is not without drawbacks. Firstly, this is an absent search, and secondly, the response time in the menu is very low, sluggish, and sometimes, choosing a song in a hurry, you can (not just this) start listening to another one, because the interface does not keep up with user commands. In addition to the minuses: sometimes it turned out that the battery charge indicator froze in one place and the device turned off with an allegedly charged battery. But that’s all

    Downloading music to the player is also simple. You can connect a flash card directly to a computer, or you can connect a player via USB and, in addition, have access to two gigabytes of internal memory. In the interface I found a five-band equalizer that I could not cope with, and I think that editing it can only harm the sound.

    The entire user interface can be replaced with the popular Rockbox firmware, which is a huge plus that eliminates all the above problems, reducing the risk of new ones and adding previously inaccessible features to the player.

    Build quality


    Despite the fact that the product is made by a small company from China, the build quality is very good. It is not as good as the iPod , but the device will not fall apart over time either. Even if the device is very reminiscent of a brick, then it is a smooth, with a metallic sheen, gold accented element, promising brick that looks serious and solid. The main problem in the assembly can be considered only if it is soiled, because the device attracts fingerprints, along with minor scratches with a bang. Due to the type of outer material, the scratches are not so noticeable, but under intense light everything is different, and the scratches are annoying, and the gold paint on the buttons erases over time.

    image   image

    image   image

    Sound quality


    All aside, because we got to the main thing. My only headphones for listening to music on this app were Westone ES5 . I did not use any external portable amplifiers. Most of my music is FLAC (about 30%), the rest is in mp3. I will compare the portable player with the 3G iPod Touch.  

    The HiFiMAN HM-801 has a warm, surround sound that makes you euphoric. He wins the iPod in greater liveliness, energy, due to the lack of decline in the middle and upper frequencies. There is no limit to detail; audibility extends to the smallest detail. The player produces a real sound, without embellishment and the better the recording will be, the more natural the reproduction. After listening to the HiFiMAN HM-801 for a long time , the sound of myThe iPod seemed dirty, dry and cold, I would never have thought so, but the HiFiMAN HM-801 made me do it.

    Bass The HiFiMAN HM-801 's
    bass is bold and strong, there is no excessiveness and you can hear all the bass notes. The bass is wider than the iPod, and I did not even think that with my headphones this is possible. The rest of the frequencies even after such a bass remain intact. The bass has a very hard and sharp focus, due to the high power output. He is a little bloated rather than bright, but nicely presented. Mid frequencies


    These frequencies are more pronounced than all others. Surprisingly, this does not make the sound too tiring. The vocals, namely the presence of presence is clearly higher than that of the same iPod . You can admire the wide scene and quite often find something new for yourself. The voices sound smoother, brighter and more realistic. The lightness of the guitar, together with other instruments of this range, is also frantically felt.

    Low frequencies
    Gentle, precise and natural. The iPod has a more hazy and lifeless sound compared to the HiFiMAN HM-801 . Someone calls this sound “digital” when for some time it is exciting, but later becomes tedious. HiFiMAN HM-801received very few high frequencies, which from the point of view of realism in sound is good, but maybe not what you wanted, because a neutral sound is not the most beautiful in terms of musical pleasure. The energy at these frequencies is less than on the iPod, but to my great surprise, this is enough to show a sound scene that is not on the iPod.

    Summarize


    HiFiMAN HM-801 will not end in the battle for the best portable player for true music lovers. It has its advantages and disadvantages that keep it among the leaders in the market of sound sources, like some other models. For some, this may seem like a huge waste of money or a marketing scam. In my opinion, all this is an obvious lie, and if you like music and you have high-quality headphones, then feel free to take into account the HiFiMAN HM-801. Its sound is exceptionally excellent, which is confirmed by its legendary iron filling, which is highly regarded in the world of audio professionals, as one of the best DACs ever created. I'm glad I took and bought this device.

    image   image

    Conclusion


    From the translator.

    Be that as it may, the HiFiMAN HM-801 player has no analogues. There is a lot of reasoning to say about the sound, saying that Kenwood, long-discontinued hard drives, or top models from iBasso or Colorful, can serve as an alternative, but this is all one field of the berry and only a smaller part of those that could notice the difference between them can notice the difference the latest iPod and HiFiMAN HM-801. In general, portable amplifiers can be used, but this is an overweight device and a box that often does not please the end user. So the choice is yours.

    And finally, the technical characteristics and cost of the device to which the article is devoted.

    Features


    • Bay Modular Amplifier (GanQi Bay) and 14.8 Volt Lithium Polymer Battery;
    • Memory card: SDHC;
    • DAC functions: Coaxial (44.1 kHz, 96 kHz), USB-DAC (16 bit, 48 kHz);
    • DAC chip: Burr-Brown PCM1704U-K;
    • Size: 114 mm 78 mm 25.5 mm;
    • Outputs: Headphone output 3.5mm Jack, line-out;
    • Battery operation: from 7 to 8 hours, depending on the installed amplifier module;

    • Display: LCD (320x240);
    • Audio Format Support: MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, FLAC, APE, WAV, PCM, ADPCM;

    • Case material: metal;

    Device Price: $ 790 .

    The originals of all articles here , here and here .

    Also popular now: