http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/ Engadget Comments for HifiMAN HM-801 PMP promises to make audiophiles happy, wallets hurt http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 7:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 14th 2009 1:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 7:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 9:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 7:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
The Wolfson codecs used by iPod, Zune, et al., are a bit cheaper, though, at about $3-4. The Wolfson parts are no slouches, either...
]]>May 13th 2009 7:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 8:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
Dynamic compression is a major problem, but not every band/engineer is guilty. ]]>May 14th 2009 12:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
Especially since this idiotic "loudness war" has wrecked every genre of popular music.

So you're asserting that basically the entire range of popular music represents "terrible taste." You let us know what tiny subniche of esoteric music represents "non-terrible" taste and is still issued without being ruined.]]>May 15th 2009 6:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 8:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 8:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
I also realise this product is 'function over form', but why did they need to make it looks like a piece of shit?]]>May 13th 2009 8:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 11:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 8:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 8:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
I recently bought a "mid-level" headphone amp (Darkvoice *insert a whole lot of numbers here*) off of ebay for 200-300 dollars. For some of the more insane people on Head-Fi, a PMP for 700 dollars is nothing as long as it beats the modified Ipods that a lot of them use on the go. This product will have legs if the sound quality turns out to be worth it to that very select group (of which I am not a part. My "Audiophile rig" consists of a decent (yet relatively cheap) DAC feeding the aforementioned Darkvoice headphone amp). If it doesn't, it will quickly die.

]]>May 14th 2009 12:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
epic fail on company's part for thinking this could sell at all.]]>May 13th 2009 8:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 8:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 9:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
Have you actually tried them yourself? I owned the Cowon D2 and while it had crisp treble, it had absolutely no low bass. Sometimes it would also corrupt the media library entirely forcing you to reformat and refill if you removed it from USB without hitting the safely remove button. In comparison, from my experience with it at least, a rockboxed 5.5G iPod is almost as crisp, has great deep bass if you amplify the low frequencies and has a large soundstage.]]>May 14th 2009 8:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 9:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 10:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 13th 2009 10:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 14th 2009 12:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 14th 2009 5:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/
my amp, a ibasso D10 cost be $300. admittedly, its one of the best in its class, but even for a "cheap" one to give decent quality, its gonna cost $100 at least. unless your talking of the booster amps like the Fiio e3/e5 or the Boosteroo, but they dont reaaallly improve sound quality.

this devide would be woth having if it had a decent amount of storage, but NO storage!? damn. all i can say is it better have a crossfeed function and a 16 band equaliser (atleast!) else its missed another easy selling point.

cowans are meant to produce the best sound, but you do pay a preimium, and the lack of compatability with car stereos put me off. for the moment, il stick with my ipod + amp solution. probably doesnt weigh more than this thing anyway. ]]>May 14th 2009 9:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 14th 2009 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 14th 2009 5:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/13/hifiman-hm-801-pmp-promises-to-make-audiophiles-happy-wallets-h/May 14th 2009 12:32PM