3. During my time with the Tera-Player, I compared it to the Hifiman HM-801
which is also a high end portable audio player, based on the PCM1704 chip. I
found that some aspects of the Tera-Player’s sound fall short compared to
the HM-801’s, especially when it comes to recreating the ambiance of a live
music venue. Have you thought about using more reference class D/A chips
like the PCM1704? Likewise compared to the TDA1543 based Hifiman HM-602
player, the Tera-Player again fall short in recreating the ambiance of live
music. I’m not saying that the sound quality of the Tera-Player is inferior
because it is not (I will explain this part in the full review), but I just
felt that even better sound could’ve been achieved with the Tera-Player.
This is a very significant question.
Being a music lover for all my life and a professional sound-researcher for
the last 15 years, I listen to music every day, and almost all day long. This
is a lot of listening. During all this time, I have had many instances where
an highly regarded audio device or an implementation of one of my own devices
sounded very good and superior at the start, but after an extended listening
time (hours, days or weeks), irritations or distortions became noticeable.
Once detected these distortions tend to get bigger, because you now identify
them easily. So on my own audio creations I try to eliminate what I have
identified as an distortion. Because it sometimes takes a very long time to
identify something that does not sound right, the whole process can take
years, as was the case for the Tera-Player. However, when I think I have
attained to the greatest possible purity of reproduction, I find it is always
the case that the spacial resolution is fully-outfleshed, rock-solid, but
never exaggerated.
So I think it is something you can determine for yourself with extended
listening sessions, if it is only in the short run that you rate the
increased ambiance of the Hifiman highly, or if that is a feature that can
turn you down on other aspects of the reproduction during longer listening.
As I am only good in creating the sound that I like most, I probably would
have strived to attain to a similar result if I had used any other DAC chip.
4. Why such a low power headphone out? Yes there are two headphone outs, one
being louder than the other. But even with the louder headphone out, I can
barely listen to a relatively easy to drive headphone like the Sennheiser
HD25-1. In fact with classical recordings, I have to go close to the maximum
volume level even with a relatively easy to drive IEM (Shure SE215).
There are many different headphones on the market, some are extremely loud
(efficient) with only a tiny input signal, while others are surprisingly
silent.
With the current volume setting of the Tera-Player I tried to shoot exactly
into the middle and I think it already is much louder than many other digital
audio players.
However, I CAN offer a louder version too if that is desired, there’s still
headroom available 🙂
5. You just raised the price to 840 euros! Is it possible to have the old
price back?
This is a big misunderstanding and I am very sorry for it.
The nominal price for the Tear-Player was initially calculated to be EUR
960,- but whenever a new Altmann product is made available, it is given an
introductory price for a limited time, as was clearly stated on my website.
So right before Christmas there has been an introductory offer at a very
attractive price and many of my existing customers plus some brave souls to
whom I was totally unknown before, have taken advantage of it, while others
have totally overlooked the words: “introductory” and “for a limited time”.
This has created some confusion, and I will probably not offer introductional
discounts for future produts. However I have lowered the final sale price
from EUR 960,- down to EUR 840,- and given the uniqueness, quality and
extended warranty of the Tera-Player, I hope this to be satisfactory.
Charles 🙂
I think it’s always interesting to see the thought process that goes behind the development of a product. For instance, if you visit the prototype development page, it’s funny how the whole thing started from a simple game of Pong. And how later Charles discovered that there would still be jitter present even when reading from a flash-memory storage (and how he went to solve the problem). Anyway a formal review is on the way but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and if you have any other questions pertaining to why he went with certain design decisions, please leave your question on the comments section and I will bug him to answer the questions. Please keep the pricing/discount questions out.
More reading:
Erik Wijnands
This is just MY opinion 🙂 but I’d rather have 85% (and I’m being generous here) SQ in an ergonomically advanced package with full file support, media and playlists than 100% SQ in a screenless, UI-less, mp3/FLAC/Ape/OGG-less, functionality-less, spartan DIY DAP. It’s a portable device for crying out loud! If I want hifi I’ll go sit in front of my desktop rig. In a portable environment the external sound pollution will be so high you won’t even notice the difference between this and a Clip+. Try some critical listening when you’re in the metro surrounded by schoolkids.
A modern DAP is meant to entertain me on the go, providing me with a soundtrack to my outdoor activities. My focus will be on that activity, not on those last 15% of SQ. And I mean, who uses WAV these days? WAV is for grandpas. :p Kidding ofcourse, but it’s highly unpractical when FLAC will do just fine. I think the target demographic for Charles is very small. This ofcourse is perfectly fine, Charles seems like an intelligent dude who isn’t really looking to sell this to thousands of people. I see this product more as proof of concept than anything else. A DAP without compromise. I just wish he made it slightly more accessible. SLIGHTLY would be enough. 🙂 All the best!
Mike
Thanks for the feedback, Erik.
I think the points are valid, and on the formal review I will also talk about those points you mentioned.
Iyan
Very nicely written and make me curious of how it would sound like. Sometime I wonder how wide its quality gap compared to popular MP3 player, such as iDevice.
Mike
Thanks. I’ll make sure to answer that question on the formal review.
Don Vittorio Sierra
If convenience of being able to play all formats is sacrificed and the DAP is for pure sound quality alone… Whats the point if it can’t drive any good headphones. No matter how good the sound is on something, it is useless if it can only be hooked up to a very small selection of ultra sensitive IEMS and cans. I mean if you connect an amp to this, the sound will be compromised so the only way to listen to them is straight via the headphone jack and with headphones like etymotics or something like that.
Don Vittorio Sierra
I think if this was a serious DAP and had no way of getting good power output, It could at least have a line out that should be comparable in sound quality to REGA or MERIDIAN CD players for example 🙂
Andrew Smith
I was lucky enough to purchase Tera-Player (TP) number two from Charles at the introductory price and consider it a sonic bargain. For it’s size the sound quality is astonishingly good and comparable to my HP-P1, CLAS & Rx MkII and HM601. Whilst the TP is undeniably quirky, it’s a truly world class DAP with non fatiguing sound, solid construction and true 24/192 playback.
Mike
I agree with you. I think it’s world-class.
Brian Cretty
Not sure why anyone would spend this much on a WAV player when you can get a QLS QA-550 for $135.
Mike
That’s like asking “why would anyone need a player if my laptop can play WAV just fine”.
DEFAUT Quentin
hi mike,
any chance that you’ll get your hand on both the “€950 Attraction DAC and the €950 BYOB Amplifier.”
looking forward for it.
respectfully.
Q
Mike
I haven’t thought about it, but yeah maybe I’ll ask Charles. 🙂
DEFAUT Quentin
great! looking forward to it 😉
Andrew Smith
Mike, it would be extremely interesting if you did review the Attraction DAC and BYOB Amplifier, as both use 12V DC power, have no casework whatsoever and the components are mounted on a wooden plinth. There was I thinking that the Tera-Player was quirky! 😉
Mike
2nd request, noted. 😉
They are interesting indeed.
Austin Morrow
Just thought I’d give my input here on what I think of the whole price to performance ratio. Now, I haven’t yet heard this tiny little player, but I can already make a few observations. Let’s say I were to get this player and it did have world class sound that sounded good with even the most demanding and high end headphones like the HD800 or the Audez’e LCD-3, I still don’t think that the features (and the $1115 price tag) of the Terra Player will be up to par even if the sound quality is excellent. Take for example, I can totally see someone (In this case, typical audiophile A) jumping for joy if they A) needed a small, simple player that provides excellent sound quality and B) drives even the most demanding high end headphones. If I were that person, I would have the biggest grin on my face right now just due to the small package and the extraordinary sound quality with the high sampling rate.
However, let’s say typical audiophile B sees this player (AKA me). He’s blown away by the world class sound quality that lives up to the high price point, so there is no problem there. However, what person B is not blown away by is the lack of features and the limited functionality of the player. No screen for navigation (an audio junkie loves to sort through and play through his songs, not just go by a random shuffle), and only WAV support (I know a lot of people who love to use WAV, while the vast majority of the others use mostly FLAC, and sometimes ALAC). I guess I’ll just have to wait and see…
Looking forward to the review! 🙂
Mike
Valid thoughts. It’s not going to be a popular player.
carlo
The passion of Charles to create a great sounding portable DAP is commendable but the price is depressing.
I hope you can also do review/comparison with the iBasso DX1000. Thanks.
Mike
We’re not going to do a DX1000 review because they are asking us to pay $700 to do a review.
Anonymous
I think they’re selling it for $700 for those who wanted to review it. But still, you get it for $129 less and it’s yours already. Retail price soon is $829. I’m also hoping that headfonia could make a review of it.
Mike
Yes I understand and we’ve always been fans of Ibasso products before, but asking $700 for reviewers to do a review is something that I can’t accept.
Anonymous
Oh I forgot that you review products when companies give a free sample for it. Forgot that thing, really. Now I understand.
Mike
Carlos,
I paid money to buy two Ibasso products to do a review on the Ibasso PB-1 and PB-2 amps.
Now I don’t make that much and you can’t expect me to buy every new product releases out there do you? Umm let’s seeLCD-3 $2KHD700 $1KShure SRH1840-1440 $1.5KUtrasone Ed10 $2KWooWA5 $4KSAC Thailand amp $3KRSA DarkStar $3.5K
Anonymous
don’t you always sell some of those stuffs in your local forum??
Boun Ly
You Carlos, are an idiot. I, among a lot of other people, appreciate the work of Mike and Lievin. No one makes them spend their time writing reviews or purchasing equipment. They do it for the love of audio and for the community who make it worthwhile! Go read another review site if you don’t like it.
Mike, Lieven, ignore this guy, he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Keep up the good work fellas!
Mike
Thanks, Boun.
Rudolfs Verdins
I have mine for 5 days now.
As for the interface, I can do most things I’m used to, and everything I really need. The size is just perfect, too.
More important is that it DOES sound good.
As for comparison, I cannot meaningfully compare it to anything ‘in the same class’, as a) this is my first (and most probably the only) player at such a price point and b) there is nothing that promises this performance with a matching size.
To summarize – I am content.
It was not cheap, but it sounds so good that I have no urge to look any further.
Mike
Thanks for sharing, Rudolfs.
I love the Tera. Perfect size, superb sound. I just wish that the edges are a little less sharp but Charles defended the design saying it’s for opening beer bottles. 😉
Vince Huynh
“During all this time, I have had many instances where
an highly regarded audio device or an implementation of one of my own devices
sounded very good and superior at the start, but after an extended listening
time (hours, days or weeks), irritations or distortions became noticeable.”
Yes, how many times have we experienced this as audiophiles? The human brain may get confused with quick A and B testing, but long term, we always know which product we’d rather keep.
Mike
This is one of the reason it’s hard to implement a proper blind test. When given a short 5 minutes window to pick up all the nuances of an audio system, the brain tries extra hard to pick up all the details but often you only get the big picture in long term listening.