HiFiMAN Profiles HM-601 Slim, Lightweight Personal Audio Player

[btarunr]

HiFiMAN, a leading designer/manufacturer of highly acclaimed headphones and personal audio products, announced their HM-601 Slim, a remarkably small, lightweight, personal audio player. The new player, under the HiFiMAN Express brand, delivers audiophile performance that will drive most full-size headphones while handling major music formats. The HM-601 Slim will be shipping in January 2012 with an MSRP of $199 for 4GB and $249 for 8GB and is expandable up to 32GB.

High-speed internet has enabled high quality lossless music files and Computer Audio, aka Digital Audio, and it's one of the hottest ways music lovers are enjoying their favorite music. With 8Gb of memory on board, the compact HiFiMAN Express HM-601 Slim is a highly affordable yet remarkably musical player with a superb D/A converter and headphone amplifier. For use with a variety of headphones, a handy high/low Gain switch allows the player to drive most In Ear Monitors (IEM) and full size dynamic headphones.



"We have been making high quality portable audio players for years and though our customers have always loved the way they sound, they told us they would like a great sounding player that was even lighter and smaller. And of course inexpensive too." explained Dr. Fang Bian, Founder and President of HiFiMAN. "At less than one inch thick, and weighing only seven ounces, the HM-601 Slim is the answer and we believe portable music lovers will be very excited."

Key Features of the HiFiMAN HM-601 Slim:

• High performance - superb quality DAC and headphone amplifier
• Convenient - comes with either 4GB or GB 8Gb of storage already on board. Can be expanded with SD card up to 32GB.
• Compatible - can play most music formats including MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, Ogg-Vorbis and WMA
• Flexible - high/low gain switch can drive both high efficiency In Ear Monitors and most full-size headphones
• Comfortable - slim lightweight design is easy to carry. Will easily fit in a pocket or purse.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I'm sure my Cowon D2 is as good as that.

 

[btarunr]

It has a very high quality DAC and AMP.

 

[radrok]

Many portable players cannot drive my pair of cans, probably this will. Good

 

[djisas]

Considering how dirt cheap memory is, why not slap 32Gb on it already??
Why pay 50$ for 4GB extra memory when you can buy a 32GB card for less than that??

Seriously...

 

[Deleted member 24505]

My D2 is 37mw x 2, it seems able to drive full size phones, and plays all the formats that can.

I wonder what the SNR is on that.

 

[theJesus]

I'm sure my Cowon D2 is as good as that.

No, it isn't. End of story. Nobody makes players like HiFiMAN.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Lol Cowon make some of the best sounding players you can buy. Lmfao at your end of story comment.

 

[theJesus]

Lol Cowon make some of the best sounding players you can buy. Lmfao at your end of story comment.

I'm not saying Cowon is bad. I know they make good stuff; I've had one of their players. I'm just saying this is on another level.

 

[radrok]

My Cowon X7 cannot drive my HD 650 properly without a portable amp, tried that too on a local store with the D2 some time ago and it was the same.
I have to agree with theJesus

 

[btarunr]

I wonder what the SNR is on that.

127 dBA.

 

[OneCool]

Great so we have to have a player that looks like it was made and designed in 1999 for it to sound good.


What a world

 

[theJesus]

lol I like the design actually

 

[NinkobEi]

No, it isn't. End of story. Nobody makes players like HiFiMAN.

The Hifiman 601 player I bought was absolute garbage. Had to return it THREE TIMES before I finally got one that worked as advertised (which I promptly swapped on Headfi.org before it had a chance to stop working again). The first time it wouldnt even turn on out of the box. No amount of charging it or resetting it would do anything. Then, my expansion memory card didnt work, then the flash memory didnt work, then I couldnt even plug it in to my computer because the usb connection stopped working. The thing is a cheaply made piece of crap, trust me on this.

Plus there are numerous audiophile threads on how bad the HM601 sound is because it has a steep high end roll off.

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62111

 

[theJesus]

The Hifiman 601 player I bought was absolute garbage. Had to return it THREE TIMES before I finally got one that worked as advertised (which I promptly swapped on Headfi.org before it had a chance to stop working again). The first time it wouldnt even turn on out of the box. No amount of charging it or resetting it would do anything. Then, my expansion memory card didnt work, then the flash memory didnt work, then I couldnt even plug it in to my computer because the usb connection stopped working. The thing is a cheaply made piece of crap, trust me on this.

Plus there are numerous audiophile threads on how bad the HM601 sound is because it has a steep high end roll off.

http://synopsia.net/hifiman601/fig1.png
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62111

Wow. That really surprises me. Then again, I haven't really paid much attention to their players since around the time that the first one was being developed.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Well i will stick to Cowon for my portable music player of choice, i only seem to find nothing but praise for them, I also don't like wearing big phones when I am out so that doesn't matter either.

I have had my D2 for years and still get 50+ hrs on the battery, it still works fine, and sounds awesome with FLAC. It has a Wolfson WM8985G DAC

The D2 is top notch when it comes to sound quality. Without any equalization or enhancements turned on, it reproduces the whole audible frequency spectrum evenly distributed and linear. The treble and mids are there, as is the exceptionally good bass response without any roll-off.

The 74mW amp is one of the strongest – if not the strongest – for portable players today; it drives even difficult headphones up to at least 100 Ohms impedance with ease.

from-
http://anythingbutipod.com/2007/04/cowon-iaudio-d2-review/

It seems the D2 will drive some big phones with ease.

 

[STCNE]

Hey, it has the portable DAC option that used to be exclusive to the 602.
So not only is it a good portable player, but a USB DAC/AMP as well. I'm not too sure on the specifics but HIFIMAN uses an older DAC chip that was used in the 90s to get a more analogue sound.
Is there any reason that it can only handle 32GB of memory? Would a 64GB SD card not work?

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Hey, it has the portable DAC option that used to be exclusive to the 602.
So not only is it a good portable player, but a USB DAC/AMP as well. I'm not too sure on the specifics but HIFIMAN uses an older DAC chip that was used in the 90s to get a more analogue sound.
Is there any reason that it can only handle 32GB of memory? Would a 64GB SD card not work?

Read the link NinkobEi posted, after reading that and some other stuff about Hifiman, i wouldn't bothertbh. Buy a Cown j3 or a Sansa clip+ if that is too much.

 

[STCNE]

I already have a rockboxed Sansa Fuze with 24GB of storage, I was just considering this as a possible upgrade. I'm not seriously considering anything right now, but once I get my magnum headphones in I want something that can power them on the go.

 

[NinkobEi]

I'm looking into the upcoming iBasso DX100. Supposedly it has the best DAC chip in existence, and also runs Android 2.2. Meaning its useful for other things besides music. Also built in amp, which iBasso is reputable for.

DX100:
The DX100 is our reference Digital Audio Player (DAP). It can play most of the 24Bit/192kHz Lossless music. The whole design is based on the ES9018, which ESS claim as "The World's Best DAC Chip". We are finalizing the DX100 now. We can release it within 20~45 days.
The following are some main features. We will release more information later this month.
• Support up to 24/192 Decoding
• ES9018 DAC Chip
• Built-in +/-8.5V Headphone AMP
• Up to 24/192 Optical/Coaxial Output
• Line Out Function
• 256-Steps Digital Volume Control
• 64G Onboard Flash
• Support up to 32G External MicroSD
• 3-Setting Gain Switch
• SRC Function
• Slow Roll-off/ Sharp Roll-off Digital Filter
http://www.ibasso.com/en/news/show.asp?ID=112

 

[largon]

$199 for 4GB and $249 for 8GB

Retarded pricing.
Seriously, it's a portable music player and nothing more.

 

[majestic12]

^That's like saying a Porsche is just a car and nothing more.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Here's another super sweet mp3 player, much cooler than the hifiman.

The colorfly Pocket HiFi C4 Pro.

Set the SRC manually
CIRRUS LOGIC CS4398 DAC chip
CIRRUS LOGIC CS8422 SRC chip
3.7 V battery, SNR up to 108 Db, THD lowers than 0.003%
The precision of 0805 resistance is up to 1% in the simulation
Black 3U PCB
3U Gilt RCA interface for SPDIF IN/OUT (top grade)
3U Gilt interface for 6.3mm earphone (top grade)
The rate of the Jitter is lower than 5ps

The excellent 24bit/192kHz sound quality is largely due to the single HiFi DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) that has been used inside the Pocket HiFi C4. Wan抯 team who designed the Colorfly Pocket HiFi C4 Pro decided to use the CIRRUS logic CS4398, a high-end chipset usually only found in top-of杢he-range HiFi components. This DAC offers outstanding levels of performance with excellent dynamic range up to 120dB and the ability to decode 24bit/192kHz audio
http://www.colorfly.eu/product_index.html