After awning , it is truly the time to lie down and listen to the cicadas in the distance. The so-called "fruit of midsummer" is to have a period of listening silence, which can make people lazy and tempt the mind to rest. HIFIMAN I haven’t seen for a few months, so I came up with a clever idea and came out with an all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier, with the original intention of “powerful and delicate”, called EF400.
It is obvious that with the support of its highly strategic HYMALAYA R2R DAC chip, the EF400 has the thrust level and almost the same sound quality of the EF6 ten years ago, but it also takes into account the original charm of technology that is in line with the characteristics of the times - a compact body It not only contains the "power" to easily drive most low-sensitivity headphones, but also has a very affordable price.
would like to remind all non-players that the EF400 we are going to analyze today is not HIFIMAN’s first foray into desktop headphone amplifiers. As we just said, HIFIMAN had already launched EF6, which was fully recognized by the market, in the early days of its business (as for EF1000 and other works, it is not within the scope of this article). Dr. Bian Fang’s “stubbornness” towards technology determined that the EF6 was not a traditional desktop headphone amp at that time, but a powerful work specially matched for HIFIMAN’s legendary flagship HE6 headphones - however, although the EF6 is very suitable for those who need extreme The high-power HE6 is a little too powerful to adapt to other headphones.
Today, HIFIMAN has new methods and new ideas, thanks to the charm of technology, and also thanks to the pragmatic "Yangming Philosophy" - studying things and applying them. From DAC to buffer filtering, the user-friendly EF400 adopts a four-channel differential structure and four-link volume potentiometers to achieve Class A and B fully balanced and powerful output (the undistorted output exceeds 10V at 36Ω) and sufficient gameplay, making the desktop even more attractive. The entry threshold for all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifiers has been lowered a lot. The so-called bright moon scares the magpies, and the breeze chirps cicadas. This artistic conception is often about seeing one's skills in a moment.
Stacking materials, but also focusing on skills
As an all-in-one desktop decoder and headphone amplifier that is so compact that it can be called compact, HIFIMAN not only maintains sincerity in the "stacking" of EF400, but also focuses on skills. The oxygen-free copper anti-seismic potting toroidal transformer , the high-current amplification circuit with excellent redundant design has a 30000uf filter capacitor, HYMALAYA R2R DAC module, etc., undoubtedly fully express the "man's home" attitude.
After all, when EF400 was released, HIFIMAN emphasized that it had enough power to drive the "mountain stable" SUSVARA. I still remember when we were talking about SUSVARA five years ago, we said that ordinary amps cannot arouse its enthusiasm, and its requirements for amps have even become a kind of self-restraint (therefore, turn up the "thrill" of SUSVARA , it will make your ears feel great).
Therefore, since EF400 emphasizes the need to completely push away SUSVARA, first of all, the accumulation of materials on electrical components must be generous. For example, the output power reaches 4.4W/36Ω, which is a very hard indicator for a desktop model at this price. In fact, someone tested it in the early stage and said that when pushing SUSVARA with EF400 and adjusting the volume to the maximum, its dynamic feeling is not interesting, but it is easy to push HE1000SE.
However, it was later confirmed that the prototype at that time was internally set by HIFIMAN to have a medium output power, which was a conservative and safe practice. It makes sense to think about it. Since you choose to buy this all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier with a price of less than 5,000 yuan, few people will use it to promote high-end flat-panel headphones such as SUSVARA that require huge power (it is said that some people abroad use Feliks Audio Envy headphone amplifiers. SUSVARA has been fully released, and it is an object worth 100,000 yuan). This is the "consumption reality" and a rationality that takes into account the price issue.
Moreover, if someone really needs ultra-high output power, HIFIMAN will not be stingy. In other words, HIFIMAN is willing to maximize its capabilities at this affordable price. It can also be said that "pushing SUSVARA away with EF400" is more of an attitude and an iconic gesture towards popularizing all-in-one desktop decoding and headphone amplifiers.
Of course, the choice of configuration requires more skills. HIFIMAN has prepared an environmentally friendly original color paper box for the EF400 instead of a color box, which is normal. Apart from the main unit, the accessories include only a power cord, which is also normal.
Minimalism and meticulous thinking
Compared to its predecessor, the EF6, or compared to most all-in-one desktop headphone amplifiers, the EF400 is indeed compact, but after all, it is an object weighing more than 3kg, so don’t overdo it. Hopefully it falls into the category of micro devices. In terms of overall feel, the first impression it gives people is "solid" and "fine". The thick and round knobs match the thick and stable front panel, and the paint and polished details are all of a high level. The damping feel of the knob is adjusted very authentically, and the adjustment process will give people a clear sense of high-end.
From the perspective of control, EF400 can choose high and low gain as well as NOS and OS modes, which can be adjusted through the knob. The headphone output port is also very complete, including 6.35mm, 3.5mm single port, 4.4mm, and XLR balanced port. The rear input part has only two USB ports, one USB and one Type-C, and no other digital input interfaces. On the output side, there are RCA and balanced terminals.
Yes, EF400 has both RCA output and XLR output, so we can use it as a DAC alone or connect it to any of our headphone amplifiers. It is not difficult to find that from the interface, it can be seen that the EF400 is mainly positioned for use as an all-in-one computer or decoder with an earphone amplifier. This is a fact and there is no need to avoid it. The extra praise is that when the audio market realizes that it needs to start using Type-C to win over more "pan-device music lovers", HIFIMAN has already been ahead of the curve (of course, the main battlefield of EF400 is still at the desktop level) . In fact, even at this time, there are not many all-in-one headphone amplifiers with Type-C interfaces in the entire market.
Speaking of the settings of the Type-C interface, we can talk about it here. As mentioned earlier, EF400 is completely different from the expansion design of traditional headphone amps. If you just look at the appearance, this is a very decent amplifier . The front panel includes four common audio output interfaces for large headphones, and the rear panel has two audio output interfaces, XLR and RCA.
read that right, it’s all output. Because HIFIMAN EF400 is an all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier, the rear panel is the line out interface of the decoder part, instead of the traditional audio input interface . It comes with built-in decoding, so only the digital signal from the USB port is input, and there is no need to think about external analog audio input. This kind of confidence derived from its own decoding chip is very HIFIMAN style.
In other words, a Type-C data cable is connected to the computer and EF400, and automatically recognizes when it is turned on. It's that simple. As a reminder, the USB audio driver of EF400 needs to be installed. For systems below , WIN10, you can download it from the official website. Systems such as WIN10 and MAC do not need to install it.
Another thing to note is that the output data of EF400 single-port 3.5mm and 6.35mm are obviously different, and they are suitable for earphones and high-power headphones respectively. However, because the output power of EF400 is very large among similar competing products, even if 3.5 It is also easy to push the volume of the earplugs into the mm port, so you should be prepared to turn them down before using them.
Also, considering the actual needs of stacking devices (although not everyone has so many devices), HIFIMAN has set all the heat dissipation holes of the EF400 on the back of the fuselage. This consideration of both practicality and overall aesthetics, It also shows HIFIMAN’s increasingly mature design strategy from the side. If we have to talk about the lack of details, then the power switch does have a retro style, and it is not in line with the style of these years on the back of the fuselage. The voltage switch is on the bottom of the fuselage. If I were to make a suggestion, I hope that HIFIMAN can put the power button on the panel area in subsequent models and integrate it (color coordination and material coordination, such as a metal circle scheme consistent with the panel).
By the way, the previously mentioned knobs are very easy to use to adjust options such as high gain NOS, high gain OS, low gain NOS and low gain OS. Although the adjustment of the gain level is a subjective preference, which one sounds more pleasant, NOS or OS, are completely two different schools of play. According to the opinion of experienced listeners, NOS R2R DAC has been the purest and most expensive DAC technology in the world for a long time, and it is the most extreme method of processing digital audio. There is no need to discuss whether
is true or not. This is still a matter of personal preference, but at least what we can agree on is that a good-sounding sound is a sound that makes you comfortable first.NOS can indeed please more people, which is why EF400 has been so confident from the beginning. After all, for more than 3,000 yuan, you can get a fully balanced NOS R2R DAC, and it also has the powerful preamplifier . HIFIMAN goes crazy Even myself is afraid.
Zhiyin, of course, looking for good friends
We often say that listening to music is inseparable from equipment. The process of finding good friends is a kind of enjoyment for those who are obsessed with it. You must know that the pleasure of sound is a very subjective matter, but it is precisely this word "subjective" that makes the basic requirements for the technology itself more specific, otherwise "metaphysics" will really become an idle moan. However, for this EF400, it seems that it has taken on many roles and has prepared all aspects thoroughly. Even if we don’t play with additional equipment, we can still listen to the sound of nature.
In the listening session, we and traditional audio veteran players will not adopt the same "profound gameplay". After all, the information audiences are different. The experience that is more representative and more convenient is what we want to do today. We don’t have many choices of headphones. The headphones that match them are HIFIMAN DEVA Pro (wired connection) and HE-R9 (select high-gain balanced output). It is a perfect match for our own. Can you push it? These two models are child's play for the EF400. The audio source uses a more representative "ordinary method": the laptop is connected to the EF400 with a Type-C cable, and the foobar2000 player is used for playback. All old players are naturally familiar with
foobar2000. It is of great practical significance for its pure analysis of audio and its no-frills appearance (low resource consumption). More importantly, foobar2000 has a very good architecture. Except for the important audio pipeline, all functional components of the player are modular. Moreover, the noise reduction function of foobar2000 is unique and unmatched by other music players. It currently has an Android version, but in order to test the potential of the EF400, an all-in-one desktop decoder and amp, we chose to use the computer version of foobar2000 to experience it.
From the perspective of the overall texture of the sound, the HE-R9’s sound is delicate but not too feminine, and the level of sound grains is obvious. The sound is full and thick, the sound line is not too thin but not lacking in refinement, and there is no too much attention to details like the European system. DEVA Pro, a basic planar diaphragm invisible magnet earphone priced at 2,000 yuan, is actually more suitable to be enhanced, built and upgraded by EF400. This combination, on the contrary, makes the best use of everything in another sense - just like adding icing on the cake is not as good as providing help when needed.
We have chosen many audio source styles, but overall, the combination of HE-R9 and EF400 is indeed attractive. They have extremely low distortion in the entire frequency spectrum, a large limit expansion at the two frequency limits, and even have the ability to express details close to the electrostatic headphones (at least subjectively we are willing to praise it so). Moreover, compared to the obvious coloring characteristics of DEVA Pro, HE-R9 emphasizes the individual deconstruction of certain frequency bands, and the price difference between the two lies there. In this way, we can be completely free from interference when listening, and it is even easier to appreciate the technical characteristics of the headphones themselves. When playing a vocal disc, every note can be fully presented, beautifully and accurately, and the true, solid, and full mid-range is the most obvious feature. At the same time, the bass extension is very powerful, but it is not deliberately emphasized, which is very artistic. When listening to pure music, the
has an excellent sense of hearing and the flawless timbre of the guzheng is not inferior to much more expensive desktop amps. For guzheng music such as "Pipa" and "Liuyang River", the sound of EF400 is very neutral, three-band balance, warm but without deliberate sound coloration, which is in line with HIFIMAN's usual tuning style. In particular, the spatial positioning of the sound is accurate and has a full sense of presence.
Of course, we did not forget to use a mobile phone to directly connect to the EF400 to see what the difference is compared with the computer platform. The mobile phone is the flagship model of a certain green factory of the season. It uses the foobar Android version as the parsed playback source, and the tracks are the same as those on the computer.
Subjectively speaking, the combination of mobile phone + EF400 + DEVA Pro does not sound as good as the combination of computer + EF400 + DEVA Pro.This is an interesting thing, but in theory this should not happen, because the thrust decoding is all completed by EF400, and the overall equipment has not changed, but the sound source output has changed, and there will be a hearing difference. More interestingly, we noticed that some self-media players also raised this question. Therefore, although we don’t know the reason yet, we still recommend that you use EF400 for “audio decoding and amplification of desktop computers” so that it can reach its greatest potential. Some editors of
feel that EF400 can bring the sound layering of headphones of different grades closer together, but some editors believe that this kind of thing is inherently a subjective experience. If the sense of atmosphere and presence are to be better, the layering of sounds is a matter of opinion. . We almost all agree that the mid-range of the EF400 is particularly excellent, as mentioned earlier, and the vocal quality is excellent. After listening to it for a few more days, it is indeed hard to believe that this is just an all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier worth more than 3,000 yuan.
Some people like liveliness, some people like elegance. The degree of rendering determines the subjective consciousness. We will not make a conclusion on this, but at least it is certain that EF400 has a lot of room for performance, whether it is the restoration of mixed sound scenes or the restoration of human voices. . R2R tone has a very broad space for creation.
Taken together, EF400 can provide the most basic purity in NOS mode. Its high frequency part is close to perfect, and the sound is transparent without any sense of constriction, making it appear open and natural. In the mid-frequency vocal part, especially the master-level voices of Tsai Chin or Eagle Band , they are simply and oily. The low-frequency part has just the right amount of volume, and the word "comfortable" is no problem.
By the way, EF400 is also a good choice for driving daily dynamic earplugs, but high-sensitivity models will have audible noise. If you choose earplugs with lower sensitivity, they will work well, but that seems to be overkill.
EF review
For a long time, many players have always called R2R, lingering in the natural sweetness it creates, which is something that Delta Sigma equipment cannot truly achieve. It can also be said that in many people's understanding of audio analysis, "the best DAC is the R2R DAC" is an unbreakable truth. In the past many years, R2R DAC was only among those top-end expensive devices, until HIFIMAN brought its HYMALAYA R2R DAC.
In the past two years, HIFIMAN has integrated HYMALAYA R2R DAC into many of his works, redefining the "experience threshold" in various fields again and again. It can be said that the method of being both affordable and applicable is an undeniable success in itself. For this reason alone, it deserves to be respected by the public.
returns to today’s protagonist. The charm and practicality of integrating decoding and headphone amps are very pleasing to ordinary users, and HIFIMAN understands this very well. Therefore, our lament about the "way of balance" from EF400 has even gradually risen to a philosophical proposition. From external design to internal cultivation, we lament that HIFIMAN has become more and more distinguished in the past ten years.
Indeed, what HIFIMAN is best at is their flat diaphragm headphones. No matter how picky the players are, regardless of their faction or preferences, they all recognize this objective fact. But maybe "men" play with flat-diaphragm headphones too much. For most "newbies", it seems easy to forget that HIFIMAN also has unique analysis and practical skills for the headphone amplifier platform. In short, works such as the EF400 can still be regarded as HIFIMAN's move to take the opposite direction but stick to the right path. It has allowed HIFIMAN to continue to receive praise from many professional fields and also allowed it to have product lines other than flat diaphragms. A kind of confidence.
But everything has its own boundaries, or rules. The capabilities that HIFIMAN has given to EF400 have already achieved an optimal balance between technology and market. In our opinion, this is its greatest value, and it is also the so-called "true balance". The dynamic tension and quiet field control, and the sound of "power can bring about miracles" can make people calm down quickly. This is not a contradictory comment. It can also be said that EF400 is "the best companion for flat-panel headphones", which is another derivative of the "way of balance".
Of course, this feeling is very subjective to the listener, but it is real. In terms of quality, the EF400 should be able to compete with the 5000~8000 yuan level desktop decoder and headphone amplifier all-in-one choice. From my personal superficial opinion, in order to experience the wonderful tone of the R2R DAC in NOS mode, it is indeed a wise move to buy EF400 (the listening experience in OS mode will be obviously dull but more polished and rounded).
In addition, we also suggest that EF400's expertise lies in the direction of pure instruments or the direction of blues and . Although it can handle the excitement calmly, it doesn't matter if it feels less. This gives us another way to choose headphones and even speakers. . However, I would like to ask Dr. Bian why EF400 does not have Bluetooth module ? Although the signal quality of Bluetooth is not as good as high-end wires, with Bluetooth, more people will like it because it is convenient after all.
