review_ hifiman hm-601

REVIEW: HiFiman HM-601

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/524012/review-hifiman-hm-601[2011/7/24 10:10:50]

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post #1 of 93711/20/10 at 9:45pm

****Note****As always, these are strictly my opinions.

I try to present these products as honestly as possible and try to describe them as best aspossible.

As always, YMMV.****NOTE****

The Hifiman HM-601

SPECS: D/A Chip: TDA1543Freqency Response: 20-20K HzDistortion: 0.09S/N: 92 DBStereo crosstalk74 DB (Lineout)Headphone Amplifier

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BACKGROUND: I have been getting requests to compare all types of IEMs to the DBA-02. One of the many,many requests I have been getting is to compare it to the Hifiman RE-252. When I getthese requests, the first thing I do is ask my friends if they own a pair so I can borrowthem. If this is not possible, then I usually try to demo them at a store or ask amanufacturer for a demo pair. In this case, I had to resort to contacting the manufacturerand my request was DENIED! The good news is that instead of the RE-252, Fang was kindenough to send me a newer IEM, the RE-262. After sending me the RE-262, Fang informedme that he would also be sending me a new HiFiman player to review! True to his word, Ireceived the HM-601 after a few days. I would personally like to thank Fang for sending methe sample HM-601 which I have here now. THE MUSIC: 1. Paul Simon You Can Call Me Al from the album Graceland 2. Paul Simon Homeless from the album Graceland 3. Nat King Cole Stardust from the DCC release of Love Is The Thing 4. Danny Elfman This is Halloween from the soundtrack Nightmare Before Christmas5. Absolute Silence custom demo track made by myself.6. Bach Solo Cello Suites from the Mercury Living Presence release feat. Janos Starker

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7. Ella Fitzgerald Sweet & Lovely from the album Sings Sweet Songs For Swingers8. Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication & Scar Tissue from the album Californication9. Lady Gaga Poker Face from the album The Fame10. Gnarls Barkley Crazy HIGH REZ MUSIC Mozart Requiem (SCO, Mackerras) Studio Master 24/96http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-mozart-requiem-sacd.aspx Beethoven - Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5 (SCO, Mackerras) Studio Master 24/96http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-ludwig-van-beethoven--piano-concertos-3-4-5.aspx Binaural Recordings Studio Masters 24/48 & 24/96 NOTES ON SOUND You only need to read past reviews of mine to know why I use the above listed tracks forauditioning equipment. Its not the only music I use but its easily available and soundsfantastic (except for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) without any further tweaking.The high resolution files used for this review are available publicly except for the Binauralrecordings which I have done myself. No tweaking wasdone to the publicly available recordings.

A NEW DAP IN TOWN The HiFiMan HM-601 is significantly smaller than the huge HM-801. It appears to have thesame dimensions as the HM-602. Its about the same height as an iPod but is about twice asthick. All in all, the player remains light and easy to carry. I really like the silver on black colorscheme. I think it makes the player look very classy and it definitely stands out from therest of isheep type of players. Those who have used or read reviews about the other HiFiman DAPs, the HM-801 and HM-602, should be familiar with the menu, firmware and other such details so I wont go intothem that much. The three slide buttons on the front are for power, hold and mute. I found the HiFiman HM-601 to be rather intuitive and easy to use. However, you have tokeep in mind that I have played with a HM-801 before so I was relatively familiar with howto use a HiFiman HM-601.

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NOS DAC What first caught my attention with regards to the Hifiman HM-601 was that it uses new oldstock TDA1543 chip as its DAC. Many well regarded and expensive DACs and CD playershave used these chips and they are well regarded by many DIY enthusiasts. Surely there must be a better, more modern chip! Well.that depends on your definition ofbetter.. Many, many people regard these old chips as among the best that were ever made. Othersfeel that they have been replaced by chips providing better specs. How does the TDA1543chip sound in the Hifiman HM-601? Lets dive in..

DAC DAC GOOSE? The TDA1543 DAC sounds great! But there is a catchmore on that later. The sound of the HiFiman HM-601 is musical to say the least. Its not an accurate playerand doesnt come close at providing a neutral signal free from coloration. However, thecoloration it does have is wonderful. This is the type of coloration you WANT if you arelooking for a musical sounding DAP. Much like vintage gear is idolized for the gooddistortions added to the music, so I see why so many love the HiFiman DAPs.The sound is warm, lush and smooth. While not 100% neutral or natural, it still sounds life-like. The sound is reminiscent of the early high-end CD players which are cherished bymany music fans and audiophiles. Vocals sound amazing, especially when paired with the HiFiman RE-262 or the Fischer AudioDBA-02s with the HiFiMan RE-262 edging out the DBA-02s with this player. That should beno surprise as they are from the same company. Call it synergy if you will. I played someLadysmith Black Mambazo and some Cantus and the sound coming out from my IEMs was



just pure bliss. Warm, intimate and life-like. I continued to play various CD-rez music files from all genres and time and time again, thesound was warm and pleasant. The HiFiman HM-601 is also a forgiving player, hiding someof the artifacts present in bad recordings like in some of the tracks from Californication anda host of other poor sounding sources I have. All in all, CD-rez files sounded fantastic and I have yet to be displeased by any track I havethrown at it. It might not be the most accurate player out there but it is one of the mostmusical players I have ever heard.

THE GOOSETHE CATCH! This is the gray area.the part that I didnt like. As I mentioned above, the CD qualitymusic did sound awesome. However, every single high resolution file I played on the HM-601 sounded significantly worse than on any other player. There was distortion present onlow gain, on high gain and on the line-out. The problem was present on any file with aresolution higher than 16/44.1! For a premium, high-end product, this was disappointing. This might be due to the NOS DACor it might be a firmware problem.who knows.but make no mistakethere is distortionbeing added to the music. The solution.. ITS HUMAN TO ERRRR..EQ! Well, after putting my nose to the grindstone, I found out why the hi-rez stuff sounded sobad.the EQ was on! Apparently the EQ was causing the music to distort, even though theEQ was set to 0 on all the bands. This is something that needs to be fixed but for now, itseasy to just go to the main menu and turn off the EQ for good. Interestingly enough, I never turned on the EQ, so if you get your HiFiman and it soundsfunny, be sure to check that the EQ is completely off. It makes a world of difference andIMHO, the EQ shouldnt even be used at all with this player. After turning off the EQ, 24/48 files sounded very good, as good, if not better than normalresolution files. 24/96 still produced some audible hiss and distortion but I doubt manypeople will be able to hear the distortion and the hiss is normal in other players thatdownsample 24/96 as well.In short, I was very satisfied with the way the HM-601 was able to handle high resolutionfiles. Musical sound was present all throughout my listening sessions. If you have hi-rez track from HDTracks or other download sites, I would recommend youdownsample your 24/96 files and higher down to 24/48 for best compatibility with the HM-601. It wouldnt be super hi-rez but it will still be better than 16/44.1!!!! OVERALL IMPRESSIONS Everybody here knows that I love a natural, non-colored presentation to my music. Its themastering engineer in me. However, when coloration sounds this goodits hard to argueagainst it. Tube equipment, especially vintage equipment, measures very poorly by modernday standards, yet it makes music sound soooo good! Many engineers know that audiophileshate neutral/natural sound and its not hard to hear why a little coloration beats outneutral/natural with most listeners. The HiFiman HM-601, or for that matter, all of the HiFiman products I have tried, make noillusion of what they want to be and for who they are made. These are hardcore products



made for music loving audiophiles. They arent flashy and dont want to be the next iPod oriBuds. These are products which many music fans will find delightful and will find themselvesreaching for time and time again. The main question you have to ask yourselves is whether you want a neutral/naturalsounding player like the Clip+ or a colored musical player like the HM-601. But WAIT.theClip+ sounds great and is under $100 while the HM-601 costs more than double the amountand takes up more than double the real estate! Wellconsider the followinga similarsounding CD player to HM-601 will easily run you over $500. I know because a friend ofmine owns one and he paid $900 for his CD player. It is bulky, old, not even remotelyportable but it is very musical. The choice of musicality versus transparency is one YOU mustmake and depends on your individual preferences. Keep in mind that an HM-601 is stillcheaper than an iPod + LO Dock + Amp and still sounds better than any iPod combinationIMHO. My friend with the CD player absolutely loved the presentation of the HM-601 with the RE-262s and found the price to be a bargain considering the sound quality it put out. This iscoming from a fellow mastering engineer. My father felt that all of his mp3s soundedwonderful through the HM-601 and was convincing me to leave it for a fewdays.something I just couldnt do. My wife wasnt charmed by the players looks but felt itsounded very nice with any music she played on it. In the end, all of the people who heard the HM-601 thought it sounded very nice. I hadreactions of smiles, closed eyes and sheer joy. I am sure many of you here will agree thatthe HiFiman HM-601 sounds extremely pleasing. Not a single person complained about thesound of the HiFiman HM-601. The bass is warm and full, the mids are lush and colorful andthe highs have a very pleasing roll-off. THE VERDICT What the HiFiman HM-601 does, it does extremely well. Its musical and all types of genressound fantastic on it. The headphone out is powerful enough to power some of the mostpower hungry headphones out there and the line out allows for even more flexibility shouldone need it. If you have been lusting after a HiFiman DAP but dont need a soundcard DACor dont have the money for the more expensive ones, the HM-601 might be the rightHiFiman for you. Youre not paying for artwork display, youre not paying for great looks or ultimateportabilityyoure paying for a high end product that produces a very specific soundsignature with plenty of tone and body that many, many people will find extremely pleasing.I know many an audiophile who has spent thousands trying to find a system with this typeof sound signature. Despite the fact that I KNOW its not an accurate player, I cant help butsmile and enjoy all types of music on this player. Ill say it once againthe HiFiman HM-601produces a very pleasing sound signature that can become very addicting. The only annoying problem I had with the HiFiman HM-601 is how it handles CUE sheets.Its not a big deal for those of you who use individual tracks but those who do use CUEsheetsyoure in for a slight disappointment with the HiFiman HM-601. Why? Well, theplayer always cues up the first track perfectly fine but every track after the first one is off!It will cue it up either a few seconds before the track starts or in some rare instances, a fewseconds after it starts. I know its not the cue sheets because they work fine on my laptop, my mastering rig, withEAC, with Foobar, with my iPod, with my Fuze and with my Clip+. I am sure this must be afirmware issue but it is a real annoying issue if you only use files with cue sheets.The last, albeit minor quibble I have with the HM-601 is that it only has 2GB onboard flash.That means you can fit only 2 hi-rez albums on there if you are lucky. Obviously, you can fitmore than 2 standard CD-rez albums but I still wish it had at least 8GB of onboard memory. Overall, very minor quibbles for such a great sounding musical player. I dont know what themeasurements on the HM-601 are but I am almost 100% that it has some roll-off in thehigh end and some phase inaccuracies. This might be what gives it its pleasing sound. In theend we dont listen to measurements, we listen to music and if you like all your music tosound warm and musical then the HiFiman HM-601 is for you. Youre not paying for theultimate flashy player but rather youre paying for a highly musical portable player thatremoves all hints of digital harshness and digital reality to produce a more life-like, coherentand forgiving musical scene. If you are not a mastering engineer with a multi-thousanddollar set-up with the skills to fix music, the HM-601 will be worth its weight in gold. RECOMMENDED!!! EDIT: For a nice overview of that special sound signature that the 601 has, pleasesee THIS POST.



Edited by LFF - 11/23/10 at 9:26pm

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post #2 of 93711/20/10 at 9:55pm

Thanks LFF for the review! Sounds like a great buy if it wasn't for the LOUSY 2GB on board memory.

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post #3 of 93711/20/10 at 10:14pm

Nice write up. Sounds how i feel about my HM602. I'm listening to it right now, it just keeps drawing me back in, LO in the car, LO tostereo at home, DAC at work, HO on the bus i can't put it away.Is there a cleaner version of the Californication album anywhere? i like the album but the quality makes me cringe.

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Edit: the storage size is a pain even the 16gig on mine fills up so quick, might have to buy a couple of 32gb cards but worth it imo.

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post #4 of 93711/20/10 at 10:24pm

Thanks LFF..Totally worth the wait for your review

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post #5 of 93711/20/10 at 10:44pm

I'm so glad the 601 has a silver color buttonIt looks much better than the 602 imo Thanks of the review

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post #6 of 93711/20/10 at 11:13pm

Thanks for the review. Glad to see someone has finally manage to review the hm-601. Any chance of a comparison of this against theteclast t-51?

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post #7 of 93711/21/10 at 12:09am

Thanks for a great review.

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post #8 of 93711/21/10 at 1:10am

It has a nicer look than the 602 and supposedly better bass extension and a lower price. Too bad it only has 2gb of memory inboard, which is very disappointing and far too little. Should've had at least 8gb imo.

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post #9 of 93711/21/10 at 1:26am

Great review LFF-I just pulled the trigger on a Hifiman HM601, I am hoping I will notice a SQ improvement over my Sony NWZ-A816which has been a great DAP. I am assuming that the HM601 is drag and drop Windows compatible?

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post #10 of 93711/21/10 at 1:43am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kernmac

I am assuming that the HM601 is drag and drop Windows compatible?

Yes. It is drag and drop!


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post #11 of 93711/21/10 at 1:52am

This could be a great combo with the DBAs! :D Thanks for the review - good read!

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post #12 of 93711/21/10 at 2:04am

sold oh and how's the soundstage?one thing i hate about my fuze and clip is the tiny soundstage compared to sound cards..

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post #13 of 93711/21/10 at 3:38am

Quote:

Originally Posted by rymd

sold oh and how's the soundstage?one thing i hate about my fuze and clip is the tiny soundstage compared to sound cards..

The soundstage is slightly wider than the Clip+. Huge if you use something like the Silver Bullets or RE-262.


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post #14 of 93711/21/10 at 4:01am

Couldn't agree more with nearly every comment you made in that review. A truly musical player that keeps you coming back for more. Fang is certainly onto something with his HiFiMan line... it's not for everyone - sure, but for those that don't want to listen to graphs andspecs, this player keeps a smile on your face and your foot tapping all the way home. I alo much prefer the silver/black colour combination rather than the gold on the HM-602. I'm tempted by this player, even though Iprobably don't need it.

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post #15 of 93711/21/10 at 6:18am

Would anyone be able to compare this player to some of the other top rated players like the S:flo2 or the Sony X or any other player? Is the EQ a 5 band adjustable with different presets? How do you find the overall build quality? Thanks for the write up.

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