First of all, I want to thank Head-Direct for providing the review samples. Just about a year and a half ago, the HifiMan HM801 was announced. It is considered by many as the first audiophile targeting digital audio player (DAP) and it is made by a relatively small audiophile orientated company. It was intended to bring the humble MP3 player (or as I prefer to call it: DAP) to the next level of sound quality 2 decades after its invention. Right about half a year ago, HM602 was announced. With a smaller form factor, the goal was to scarify a little bit of SQ (compared to HM801) in order to achieve better portability and a lower, more consumer friendly price. It also features an unconventional non-oversampling (NOS) DAC section based on a competition winning design from Japan. As of recently, HM601 has been announced as a simplified version of HM602, which comes without the USB DAC function, uses a different opamp and only with 2GB of memory (with microSD slot) in order to bring it even closer to the consumer market (but the general consensus seems to suggest that HM601 and HM602 sound very close despite using a different opamp). Still, I think two things that should be mentioned before the review:
1) HifiMan isn’t really a bang-for-the-buck brand of DAP, and shouldn’t be considered in that way. It is targeting at a higher end market of portable user where price is much less important than performance. It is for those who demand the best of portable sound at almost any cost (as for whether they are indeed the best sounding portable players or not is a discussion for later on).
2) HifiMan isn’t meant to be sleek or trendy. If you want something that does video, touch screen, games, slim, light, very easy to use or seamlessly compatible to most music downloading service – then sorry, this is not that player. You should try Sony, Cowon, Apple, Sandisk or even Creative instead. HifiMan is a brand that orientated around sound quality, and it will require a bit of knowhow and effort from the user to get the best out of the player.
If you don’t consider yourself to fit into both descriptions, then perhaps HifiMan isn’t the right DAP for you, as attractive as many rave reviews you might have read. It is not because these reviews are not correct or the reviewers are some kind of elitist or obscure audiophiles. It is because where you might be looking for a DAP in general usage, they (and perhaps me in this case) are looking for an best, uncompromised sounding portable source that will better fulfill into their quest of sound quality.
1) HifiMan isn’t really a bang-for-the-buck brand of DAP, and shouldn’t be considered in that way. It is targeting at a higher end market of portable user where price is much less important than performance. It is for those who demand the best of portable sound at almost any cost (as for whether they are indeed the best sounding portable players or not is a discussion for later on).
2) HifiMan isn’t meant to be sleek or trendy. If you want something that does video, touch screen, games, slim, light, very easy to use or seamlessly compatible to most music downloading service – then sorry, this is not that player. You should try Sony, Cowon, Apple, Sandisk or even Creative instead. HifiMan is a brand that orientated around sound quality, and it will require a bit of knowhow and effort from the user to get the best out of the player.
If you don’t consider yourself to fit into both descriptions, then perhaps HifiMan isn’t the right DAP for you, as attractive as many rave reviews you might have read. It is not because these reviews are not correct or the reviewers are some kind of elitist or obscure audiophiles. It is because where you might be looking for a DAP in general usage, they (and perhaps me in this case) are looking for an best, uncompromised sounding portable source that will better fulfill into their quest of sound quality.
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