Listened to different HFM cans in a row of these at CanJam Chicago. Might be some unit variance, as the unit that had Arya on it was great, kept on low gain. The XS had to be cranked on high gain, like past 3, to get suitably loud. Booth was uninterested when I mentioned it. Regardless, I liked using the unit.
maybe the source was turned way down?
still have hardly gotten above 9 o clock even SE
Tried that, was chastised - then I explained my surprise at how the pot needed to be up on XS. They either didn’t care or thought I was a rube (fair).
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got my 560v4 and honeycomb grilled them digging them so far with the EF400
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eggcellent! how are you enjoying the warmth of the R2R?
gotta spend some more time with it and comparing vs a K9 pro (AKM ver)
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Hifiman sent me an EF400 along with the brand new Ananda stealth magnet edition. Here are my first impressions of each:
Full reviews of each coming soon!
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Really hoped these would be great. But measurements don’t look good. Will have to wait for more reviews
Who has measured?
of course it’s not going to measure well, it’s an R2R!
You should see how the Holo May KTE measures. 140db of dynamic range, a full 20 more decibels of dynamic range than some kind of measurement queen DAC like a D90SE. Also has like 120db SINAD so it’s every bit as noiseless as the best measuring DACs out there too. Never heard one myself, but people love them.
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A Chinese website called l7audiolab
I am finally getting around to reviewing the EF400, it’s hard to stop listening and actually start reviewing!
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Nice HE1000SE
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Nice! I saw that right away too. This amp just draws you in.
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I honestly feel it’s the DAC portion. When comparing it feeding other amps, I get the feeling that the amp is fairly clean and neutral, that the DAC is doing the magic.
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The amp isn’t not involved tho. It drew me in with HE6se v2 so the amp is definitely not doing nothing and seems better at power delivery than most in the price range.
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I’m not sure it it’s just my unit or common, as I haven’t paid much attention (I try to avoid reading other opinions until I’ve spent time with stuff and reviewed them) but I find the SE section to not be very powerful.
Using the unbalanced headphone out, I find I have to give it over 60% to drive the HD6XX to my usual listening levels (which are not high). And when comparing the unbalanced DAC output, I find the output to be around 10% lower than on my other DACs.
In balanced I don’t have this issue.
I mean, it’s still powerful enough, but the reduction in power for SE compared to other DACs is very noticeable, which is what I feel is making the SE headphone output be a bit weaker also.
Again, not sure if it’s just my unit.
on my EF400 9-o-clock is louder than I usually listen with my 6xx through SE (varies a bit with song)
11-o-clock is brain shakingly loud
(low gain nos)
Yeah, the unit I have is definitely not that loud. With the HD6XX in low gain from SE I can actually max out the pot without going deaf. Yes, it’s uncomfortably loud at that point but just the fact that I can even do that makes me wonder what the issue might be.