« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2010, 03:25:38 PM »
It's actually 1 guy that is primarily responsible for this product. He is an portable audio audiophile and makes products for other portable audio audiophiles. Previously, he made the Minibox-E portable headphone amplifier, which for $200 sounded amazing and also allowed you to swap out opamps (I had one but unfortunately lost it).
One problem with portable audio is that the portable players aren't really audiophile grade. With the iPod, you can convert it to audiophile grade by modding it, but it is costly, and only available with a specific version of the iPod (5 - 5.5G), unless you do the mod yourself, in which case you have to be really good with the soldering iron.
You can read a nice review of the HiFiMan over at head-fi.org, which is an enthusiast's site for headphone audio:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/424091/hifiman-hm-801-portable-player-dac-review-part-one-of-twoWho are those guys?
Looks like a Sony reject design...
Ergonomically that is...
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Mics: B&K 4011, Schoeps MK5 (Nbobs, Naiant PFA), Busman BSC-1 (K11/K21/K31/K41 caps), Church CA-14 (o, c), Church CAFS, Core Sound Binaurals
Pre: EAA PSP-2, Lunatec V3, Nbox-Platinum, Church CA-9200
ADC: Mytek 192 ADC, Oade Mod SBM-1
Rec: Oade Supermod PMD-661, Tascam DR60D, M-Audio MicroTrack II, Korg MR-1 (32GB SSD mod); Sony PCM-M10, Edirol R09HR; iRiver HP-120
Photo: Canon 5D3, Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8, Canon EF 35mm f1.4L Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L MkI, Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS MkI, Canon EF 50 mm f1.4, Canon EF 50 f1.2L, Canon EF 300 f/4L IS, Canon EF 100-400 f4-5.6L IS MkI
Video: Canon HF100