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.

HiFiMAN, a leading designer/manufacturer of high performance headphones and portable audio products, unveiled the EF-6, a new reference quality headphone amplifier designed to properly drive the most demanding headphones. HiFiMAN's EF-6 will be delivering in January with an MSRP of $1499.

Hand-built by HiFiMAN craftsmen, the new EF-6 flagship headphone amplifier provides audiophile quality for the most demanding listeners. Weighing in at 24 lbs, the robust chassis of the EF-6 is made of high quality, brushed aluminum and steel with aluminum heat sinks. Fit and finish hint at the amplifier's exceptional performance under the hood.

HiFiMAN, a leading designer/manufacturer of highly acclaimed headphones and portable audio products, announced their HE-400, a high performance, planar magnetic headphone with sensitivity so high (rated at 92.5dB) that it can be easily driven by a conventional amplifier or portable audio device such as an iPod. HiFiMAN HE-400 will be shipping in January 2012 with an MSRP of $399.

In addition to the excellent sound of the HE-400, special attention has been given to user comfort and ease of use. With lighter weight than typical full-size models, the HE-400 features specially-designed, over-the-ear earpads and a flexible cable so that the HiFiMAN headphones can be enjoyed for hours on end. For a differentiated cosmetic touch, the ear cups are finished in striking cobalt blue.

Schiit Audio introduced the Lyr headphone amplifier today, a high-power hybrid design producing 6W RMS per channel into 32 ohms-10X more power than a typical headphone amplifier. Lyr is aimed at power-hungry orthodynamic headphones, as well as other difficult-to-drive designs.

"The popularity of orthodynamic headphones such as the Audeze LCD-2 and HiFiMan HE-4, HE-5, and HE-6 has created a need for very high-power headphone amps," said Jason Stoddard, Co-Founder of Schiit. "Lyr exceeds the power needs of these low-impedance, low-efficiency headphones, while also being easy on the wallet."

HiFiMan has come up with a new high-fidelity portable media player, the HM-801. Unlike consumer-ended product appearance and feature-sets of PMPs such as Apple iPod, Microsoft Zune or Creative Zen, this one sits in its niche of audiophile products, emphasizing on audio output quality and support for high-bitrate lossless audio formats.

To begin with, the HM-801 uses a unit design that is uncompromising from a sound perspective, featuring a modular amplifier section and the highly regarded Burr-Brown PCM1704 DAC capable of 24-bit/96 KHz. That, coupled with the OPA627 Op-Amps, which have quite the reputation among audiophiles, is bound to give you world class sound quality on the move. Supported audio formats include WMA (including Pro and Lossless), MP3, FLAC, AAC, Ogg-Vorbis, and WAV (PCM,MS-ADPCM,IMA-ADPCM). Its storage is care of an SDHC slot, that will support SDHC cards with capacities as high as the standard supports.

The HiFiMAN PMP also features an analogue and digital line out (via coaxial SPDIF) so that you can feed your portable DAC or amplifier with a good signal. Uncompromising sound quality on the move is bound to cost big bucks and the HiFiMAN is also quite costly at $700, which is $600 at launch due to discounts that include donating $10 per purchase to audiophile website Head-Fi.org. The bigger charity of course would be that you are getting this with $100 off. And this is even without a memory solution you have to buy the SDHC card yourself.