HiFiMan Dac/Amp Roundup - EF400, EF600, Serenade - Which is Right for You?

[@PoGGi13]

I had an EF400, a Serenede JR and then a Serenade. Overall I agree with the review, the Serenade has much better control of low and high frequencies, a cleaner and more holographic and three-dimensional stage. But the EF400 still sounds funnier and more dynamic.

[@JTB--]

Funnier How? Does the EF400 Amoooose you?

[@G-entleManAndScholar]

​​@@JTB-- No! No! He was just saying, Tommy. It's funnier. The way it plays is .

[@DeniosG]

Will be Serenade jr better than fiio k9 pro? Serenade jr much worse than Serenade?

[@Del_987]

Sent my serenade back. My D90SE + G111 mk2 is just a touch better to my ear over the HEKSE. Will likely pick up an Oor or Prelude when I grab the Susvaras and Wandla later this year.

[@Zubcut80]

Goldensound revised his review after Hifiman fixed the phase imbalance problem that was present on the very earliest EF-400 units. You could contact Hifiman with your serial number and they would tell you if your unit was one of the faulty ones. Happily, mine was a later one that didn’t have the fault. I think it sounds very good. Your original review encouraged me to purchase it. I haven’t seen it priced over $399 anywhere for weeks. Thanks for the comparisons.

[@radiofreealbemuth]

21:09 by "splashy," do you mean there's channel imbalance? I just got the EF500, and it has the same channel imbalance with the volume control. I really think Hifiman should research how Topping makes their precision R2R volume wheels

[@ancientalien815]

Wave, has hifiman sent you the ef499 and ef500 yet? I'm really excited about those!

[@JTB--]

I liked the EF400 when I had it. Eventually upgraded. I'm surprised Hifiman hasn't done a revision to add Optical/Coaxial. Hurts EF400 sales

[@Zubcut80]

I agree that the EF-400 is comparatively barren when it comes to features such as more varied inputs. My theory is that HifiMan was going for sound quality and keeping the price down at the expense of features. For my particular use case, all I have for input is USB on my desktop, so other inputs would be superfluous for me. I would be paying more for features I would never use. So in my case at least, HifiMan increased their sales by making it affordable for me by reducing features that I don’t need.

[@maXXXjacker]

Thank you WaveTheory! This was most helpful. I am content with my EF400 for now as it's the kind of signature I am attracted to.

[@nw6066]

Great comparison! Would like to watch similar for EF500 and Serenade JR. Will they bear value for money over elder Serenade?

[@blue6point62]

I have EF400 driving DCAs and using the EF400 balanced outputs to Geshelli A3 Pro driving my custom Grado style headphones. Although the Serenade would liberate my Mac which is the streamer currently. I’ll start saving. Thanks for the great videos.

[@malihajji2870]

Awesome review Sir. I have the EF-400 and will jump to HiFiMan Prelude ones and for all.

[@nusu5331]

excellent comparison, thank you!

[@janulik9535]

Hello,.. first of all I want to give my big apreciacion and thank you for what you are doing and way you review the audio components. Dispite I like also other channels, I wish there would be more reviewers with similar aproach to your which gives me tons of important information and probably will save a lot of money too. Now I would like to ask you, this will be a bit apart of the video topic but I generaly like that you speak also about the soundstage and instruments positioniong in it. What is the level of amplification I need, to get some cosiderable level of this? Assumming I have speakers they do soundstage, dac that does well even with busy tracks, and some level of acoustic treatment, is still amplifier important? Can 1K avarage ampolifier handle somthing like that? Thank you

[@invisiblekid99]

Got my Serenade coming today.

[@wavetheorysound]

Enjoy!

[@aceofspades6667]

Hifiman has a totl hp amp called the prelude for $2k also a collab with golden wave. I had no clue that Hifiman was so involved with electronics.

[@wavetheorysound]

@@distorteddan6801 is correct. And it's a fantastic head amp.

[@aceofspades6667]

@@wavetheorysound sweet I’ll check it out. Hifim ‘s pace of product releases is almost topping/smsl level

[@AnDr3w066]

@@wavetheorysoundwould you say that ef600 isn’t worth it over the 400 if the use case is strictly for headphones on pc? Especially with the ef400 being $399.

[@rishelbhallabhatia1672]

Hello . I mainly listen to streaming music Amazon Music with iPad directly connected to my Harman kardon 3380 and paired with b & w 706 s2 speakers . I plan to use the ef 400 DAc to make the system warmer as sometimes it’s bright . What will be the way to connect the ef 400 to hk3380’integerated amp ? Thanks .

[@521ztz]

Thanks for the great review. How's Serenade vs Prelude?

[@NRobbi42]

EF400 is now... $400

[@stevendavis1135]

Wave, is going from something like a basic schiit magni hersey + modi 3E stack to something like a ef400 is a sizeable jump in technical performance or would I need to go higher in the stack to a serenade to really tell a difference. My current headphones is the arya organic and audeze lcdx .

[@wavetheorysound]

It's likely. I haven't heard that Schiit stack yet but just recently got in the latest Magni with ESS module so I should get a better idea soon.

[@FreddieDaniells]

@stevendavis1135 Don’t know if this helps but I used to have an Asgard 3 with built in multibit card driving a pair of Senn HD660s. About a year ago I got the EF400 and the Hifiman Ananda Stealth and found that a pretty good sonic upgrade. The result was a more open sound, much wider soundstage, and better placement of instruments on the soundstage. Your mileage might vary. Tempted for the Organics next, probably with a Serenade. What do you think of them?

[@DeniosG]

Hifiman ef 600 - 500 USD or Serenade - 970 USD? Should I overpay?

[@kajetan9550]

Do the EF1000 next please:)

[@kajetan9550]

I don’t love susvara on pretty much anything even envy, but ef1000 was something else

[@wavetheorysound]

Believe me I've been asking. Not many of those out there.

[@kajetan9550]

@@wavetheorysound it is great and I didn’t expect anything of it

[@Hetsu..]

@@wavetheorysound theres the ef1000 dac and amp, weird how they split it in to, buut the ef1000 dac seems to supercede the amp, as the ef1000dac seems to be the only one still on sale and it too comes with its own amp, albeit they're op-amps.

[@gavin8489]

I seriously hope that's your maid/secretary and not a wife/girlfriend.

[@aceofspades6667]

Please don’t be rude and cruel life is so much better if you spread positivity

[@wavetheorysound]

It's none of your concern. Also, having more women in this hobby would be good for the hobby. Comments like yours are a big reason why there are so few.

[@alexk1239]

Your comment reflects how miserable your inside world is, trying to make someone feel the same. Cheers🎉

[@aceofspades6667]

@@alexk1239 I agree but also responding to an insult with another insult only exacerbates the issue. I’m not sure if people like this have no kindness in their life or they are just trying to trigger a negative reaction. Perhaps they derive enjoyment from it. 🤷‍♂️

[@robertbaker4291]

@@aceofspades6667 Great first response to @gavin8489. I wanted to respond negatively to him, but you are right. The world is a better place when people with your positive message speak up. Thanks!