Worth it for the amplifier alone. Tons of power and very good sound.
It's not perfect- with very good headphones you can hear some shortcomings in the texture of the high end. But, it sounds very, very good and you'd need to spend a few times the price of this unit to do any better. And if you did, you still might not have as powerful an amplifier.
The built-in amp is stunningly powerful for a portable device, and when using a balanced cable, it drives difficult cans remarkably well. It drives the HifiMan HE400S planar magnetics with relative ease.
It isn't as good sounding or nearly as powerful as my desktop Cavalli Hybrid Tube Amp, but what portable player is?
It does drive my HE400S and HE400i much better than my two USB dongle DAC/AMPs, the astounding HifiMe Sabre 9018 DAC and the very good Dragonfly Red. It can even get respectably decent (but not optimal) performance out of the notoriously difficult AKG K701 at lower levels.
Via the single-ended headphone jack, the power is less but still well above most portable DAPs. It is an extremely good match for the Sennheiser PX100 (Original Version) which was always lacking a bit to me in heft from my other portables. I find myself enjoying the daylights out of those phones when they had been stuffed in a drawer in favor of Grados and PortaPros for a decade.
I ordered mine via Amazon and the seller was the manufacturer itself, Hifiman. The item I received appeared used, and had somebody's MicroSD card installed in it with almost 2000 songs, most of which had Chinese characters for song titles. There were some log files from CD ripping that indicated the rips were done by a user in China. I suspect perhaps someone at the factory was "enjoying" one of these players before it was boxed up for sale.
However, I contacted the manufacturer, and I received prompt support. They sent me a brand new player immediately along with a paid return shipping label. The email replies were always prompt, attentive, and professional. I have seen other reviews critiquing the manufacturer's support, but my experience was quite good.
Included IEMs are mediocre.
Bottom line is, if sound quality and the ability to drive more demanding headphones is your top priority, this is by far the best deal in its price range. You can do better, but you'll spend 3-5 times more to get there. To get the most out of this player, you really ought to get a good pair of balanced headphones.
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This Item  HIFIMAN SuperMini High-Res Portable Player |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | $649.99 | $349.00 | $999.99 | $1,799.99 | $749.00 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15 | Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Battery life | ||||||
| Sound quality | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| User interface | ||||||
| Sold By | — | All About Office | HiBy | S-Waves Electronics | Hour Loop | HiBy |
| display size | 2 inches | 5.5 inches | 4.7 inches | 5.5 inches | 5.99 inches | 5.9 inches |
| memory capacity | 128 GB | 4 GB | 16 GB | 64 GB | 4 GB | 64 GB |
| supported standards | WAV, FLAC, AIFF, APE, MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA, ALAC, DSD (DSF, DFF) | MP3,OGG,AAC,AIFF,WMA,APE,FLAC,ALAC,WAV | mp3, wav, ape, flac | MP3 | MP3,OGG,AAC,DSD,ALAC,WAV,AIFF,WMA,APE,FLAC | mp3 wav,ape,flac,dsf,dff,iso |
| connectivity tech | Aux | Wi-Fi | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 5G, 2.4G, AirPlay | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, Aux |
| media type | SDHC | SD Card, Micro SD, MP3 | Micro SD | — | Micro SD, SD Card, MP3 | — |
| model name | — | M11Plus | HiBy R5 | m15 | M17 | R6 Pro II Digital Audio Player |
| component type | Battery | Battery | Battery, Amplifier | Display, Playback Controls | Battery | Battery, Amplifier |
Reviews with images
Decent sound, fragile screen, slow interface.
Bought it three months ago to have really portative audio. X5-2 being better in SQ is too big for jeans pockets.Pros: Decent sound. No jokes. For such a small DAP it's just great. Battery life is also surprisingly good.Cons: Design. This frameless screen is just fragile. See picture. 3 months in pocket and hard case I'm using for transporting my audio stuff. X3, X5, several sansa clips and ZX1 survived this pretty well. But not this SuperMini. Interface is a bit slow and, and I'm missing settings - but nothing really disapointing.Conclusion: Good DAP, but fragile screen makes it useless for me.PS. Headphones that comes with it aren't too bad, but nothing really special.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2017
Pros:
Decent sound. No jokes. For such a small DAP it's just great.
Battery life is also surprisingly good.
Cons:
Design. This frameless screen is just fragile. See picture. 3 months in pocket and hard case I'm using for transporting my audio stuff. X3, X5, several sansa clips and ZX1 survived this pretty well. But not this SuperMini.
Interface is a bit slow and, and I'm missing settings - but nothing really disapointing.
Conclusion:
Good DAP, but fragile screen makes it useless for me.
PS. Headphones that comes with it aren't too bad, but nothing really special.
Decent sound, fragile screen, slow interface.
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2017
Bought it three months ago to have really portative audio. X5-2 being better in SQ is too big for jeans pockets.Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2017
Pros:
Decent sound. No jokes. For such a small DAP it's just great.
Battery life is also surprisingly good.
Cons:
Design. This frameless screen is just fragile. See picture. 3 months in pocket and hard case I'm using for transporting my audio stuff. X3, X5, several sansa clips and ZX1 survived this pretty well. But not this SuperMini.
Interface is a bit slow and, and I'm missing settings - but nothing really disapointing.
Conclusion:
Good DAP, but fragile screen makes it useless for me.
PS. Headphones that comes with it aren't too bad, but nothing really special.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Victor Hugo Reyes
Buen reproductor de audio.
Reviewed in Mexico on October 24, 2018