Hello everyone! Friends who follow me should know that I gave you a test sharing about the HIFIMAN EF500 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier a few years ago. The experience was indeed good, but I also saw many friends in the comment area leaving me messages saying that the price was too high. Some of them are a little over the budget. This is not to make everyone more casual on the HIFI road. Today I will share with you a more down-to-earth desktop-level all-in-one decoder and earphone amplifier, which is a product from HIFIMAN – HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and earphone amplifier. For now, you can think of it as the Lite version of HIFIMAN EF500. After all, the price is a thousand yuan less!
I believe that friends who are in need of an all-in-one desktop decoder and headphone amplifier should be keen on audio fever like me. Although mobile phones and computers can already cover our audio needs in most cases, but for If you have requirements for high-end headphones or want purer sound quality, maybe we need a more powerful front end to use with the headphones. This is why we want to add a desktop decoding and ear room all-in-one machine to allow us to enjoy it anytime and anywhere. to higher quality music.
I believe that friends who have learned about the HIFIMAN EF500 product will be familiar with their first impression when they see the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier. In terms of appearance design, the design has changed from the silver-based design to the black-based design of HIFIMAN EF499 today, but the same vertical rectangular design coupled with the all-metal casing still looks relatively light and luxurious overall. , of course, this vertical design also provides a place for our headphones, which saves a headphone stand and naturally effectively saves our limited desktop space.
In addition to its moderate size, the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier basically maintains the same design as the HIFIMAN EF500 in terms of front layout, button and interface design. At the same time, the golden volume adjustment knob in the middle really brings us comparisons. Eye-catching look and feel, and when actually turning to adjust the volume, the subtle damping feeling can still let us feel the detailed design of HIFIMAN; above the volume knob is a 4-speed decoding adjustment knob, which corresponds to the NOS decoding mode. High and low gain and high and low gain of OS decoding mode. As for the actual effect of various gains, it is a relatively subjective listening feedback. When we talk about sound quality later, we can try it and share the details with you.
In addition to the two knobs on the front that meet the basic adjustment functions, the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier also brings us a 6.35mm headphone jack. Although it is not as approachable as the 3.5mm headphone jack, it is equipped with a switch. The interface can also meet our basic needs for listening to music. In addition, it also has a XLR interface, which is not strictly necessary, but it feels good to directly activate the audio when used occasionally.
When we focus on the back interface of the HIFIMAN EF499 decoder and headphone amplifier, you will find that the comprehensive interface is simply impressive, including XLR left and right balanced outputs, RAC output, network interface, Type-C input, USB input, Coaxial input and switches for switching input methods are all available, especially the two audio input methods of network interface and Type-C input, which can solve my HiFi listening scenarios in most cases.
In addition to the rich interfaces and appearance design, the core configuration of the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier is also conscientiously positioned in the current price range. It is equipped with the classic R2R DAC from Philips. The actual signal-to-noise ratio performance is quite good, although it is slightly lower. Although it is the flagship performance of EF500, EF499 also has a maximum output power of 4.35W per channel and fully balanced output characteristics. In daily use, there is no problem in driving most headphones on the market.
Of course, friends who are familiar with the HIFIMAN headphone brand should all know about their flagship DAC, the Himalayan HYMALAYA R2R DAC. In fact, the Philips classic R2R DAC equipped with the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amp is also a bit inferior in terms of actual tone training. With the taste of Himalaya, the inherited tone training and the more approachable price range, I personally think the EF499 is quite attractive.
After talking about the design and configuration, let’s take a look at the daily use of this HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier. Since this product is a headphone amplifier product that takes into account both local and streaming media, we can directly connect it to the computer and expand it into A simple physical amp is no problem at all.
Occasionally, when I work at home, I just listen to the music on my work computer. It’s not that troublesome. Once I connect the Type-C cable, open the Foobar software, and put on the headphones, it feels like it’s here.
But after all, Mr. Gong’s computer storage space and our total audio resource library are also backed up on the NAS at home, so at this time, it is a better solution to use ROON to achieve webcasting anytime and anywhere. Of course, you may also be very curious about the logic of using a bridge to play local music in a NAS or use streaming media to push it. The picture below may help you understand directly. In fact, there are more We just use a data transmission between the NAS station and the router to realize the processing and output of the audio signal to the HIFIMAN EF499 decoder and headphone amplifier all-in-one machine.
In fact, the reason why everyone is gradually paying attention to online broadcasting is that the update speed of equipment is accelerating, and it is a bit uncomfortable to frequently mess with these audio resources. Now with NAS, we can directly realize cross-region broadcasting from one terminal. For listening to music, you can directly use Roon to realize online music management. In this way, you can play the music on our cloud at will, whether on a computer, mobile phone or tablet, which is quite convenient.
As an online audio management software, ROON can directly and systematically call out the music we have stored for many years. Through NAS, Roon, and HIFIMAN EF499, we can build a complete online audio playback environment for those who want to listen to music. At any time, as long as you sit next to the HIFIMAN EF500-driven headphones, no matter you are using a mobile phone or a tablet, all the music you have worked hard to collect on the NAS can be played at will, as if you are in a NetEase cloud with your own exclusive music taste. The music is on the APP, and it is natural, comfortable and easy to use.
For my recent audio experience, I have been using HIFIMAN’s DEVA headphones. After all, in the cold winter in Shanghai, it feels good to get a good-looking big earphone to enjoy close to my body. The key is that DEVA is an advanced For active headphones, the addition of NEO ultra-nano diaphragm can effectively improve the response speed of the headphones. In addition, the biggest advantage of flat diaphragm headphones is that the diaphragm vibrates evenly, the phase distortion is greatly reduced, the sound field is increased, and the three-dimensional effect is good. At this time, paired with the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amp that we bought, it is even more powerful. The main thing is to give you a rich background and bring out the details of the music you listen to.
I just came back from the Chinese New Year to get back to work, and from time to time I still think about the time when I was studying in my hometown. At that time, I was still in the stage where I loved listening to Jay Chou. The song “Black Sweater” directly makes people think a lot. And I also prefer to use the NOS mode of HIFIMAN EF499 to feel the purity of vocals, because in this mode it provides a relatively native listening experience without too many gorgeous modifications and supplements. The vocal part is clear and full of details. Make you feel like you are there.
It seems difficult to fully evaluate the overall performance of a headphone or a decoder amplifier with only human voices and no drums. This song is one of the eleven 24bit master series masterpieces released by the famous German jazz label Enja. “King” still has a good reputation in the circle, especially the drum solo and the drum and double bass duet, which make people amazed every time after listening to it. They feel the superb skills of the music master, and with the help of this HIFIMAN EF499 The all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier also allows us to feel the rich details of the music. The extremely granular beats and drums seem to hit our ears every time. They are powerful and clear, and it is very exciting to listen to.
I occasionally listen to female vocals, and always pull out Adele’s albums to find strength. For this song “Someone Like You”, it is full of impact and the sound is sonorous and powerful. The key is that it is driven by the combined efforts of HIFIMAN EF499 and DEVA headphones. , the listener can clearly feel the openness and strong sense of space, the resolution is excellent, the sound is full, and the sense of immersion is full. The main one is to feel like you are in a beautiful scene.
After nearly half a month of actual use, I still feel very good about the HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier. The key is that the price is less than 1,500 yuan. As a device that is compatible with local and online broadcasts, Audio device for streaming media indeed. It gives us more possibilities in daily HIFI. If you also have some hobbies for audio HiFi in daily life but don’t want to spend a lot of money on a fever, and lack such a desktop webcasting device, you can really consider this one. HIFIMAN EF499 all-in-one decoder and headphone amplifier! Okay, that’s today’s review sharing. Comments and discussions in the comment area are welcome. By the way, do you think this machine is worth considering now?
