In this article we review the Hifiman EF499 DAC/Amp, selling for $299 USD.
Disclaimer: Hifiman sent us the EF499 free of charge in exchange for this review.
Hifiman
It is simply impossible that you have not heard of Hifiman. They are China-based personal audio company led by Dr. Fang Bian and they have been around for easily 10 to 15 years.
What we like about Hifiman is that they are an innovative company, and they continue to R&D new goodies for us Audiophiles. More importantly, they let trickle-down high-end technologies to their lower-range units, and that results in an impressive product line-up.
Another thing I appreciate is the fact that they have great gear in all segments of the market. No matter what budget you have to spend, Hifiman has you covered with something good.
We’ve reviewed many Hifiman gear in the past at Headfonia, and each time we get excited as if it’s the first time. Just type Hifiman in our search box. For those of you who’d like to know more about Hifiman and its founder, there’s always this interview we did with him.
In addition, Lieven reviewed the High-End Prelude model lately, and recommended it, as below:
EF499
The new EF499 ‘s Hifiman entry level DAC/Amp option with R2R ladder DAC technology. Hifiman has been utilizing the R2R DACs in many of its products so far, and they continue to do so. The nice thing is that with Hifiman, you don’t have to get an expensive model to get R2R technology, and this new unit proves that.
Hifiman says that the unit has the classic R2R sound which is warm and smooth. The EF499 has a Philips DAC chip, rather than the Hymalaya chips Hifiman uses mostly for its higher-end offerings. The Philips R-2R DAC in the EF499 supports up to DSD64 and PCM at 24BIT/192kHz. It should suffice for most digital audio file types, but of course you don’t have upper range DSD resolution levels.
It features discrete amplification and low-pass filtering for balanced output. With a maximum output power of 4.35W into a 32Ω load balanced, the EF499 offers slightly less power than the EF500. The notable thing here is that you don’t get a 4.4mm BAL output from it. You instead have XLR for BAL, and one 6.3mm output for SE. A ddHifi adapter should do the trick there.
Design & Build
The EF499 is surprisingly heavy. From the price and the pictures, I expected a much lighter chassis but it’s very well built and solid. The sockets and the knobs are very robust and the front panel looks really good with glass looking acrylic build and copper colour scheme.
You can use the EF499 either in horizontal or vertical orientation, depending on your available desk space. However, the vertical setup allows it to be a headphone stand at the same time, so it’s quite practical in that way as well.
Overall, the EF499 looks much more than what the price suggests. It’s premium and elegant, with black chassis, acrylic front panel copper knobs. A winner design in my eyes.
The article continues on the second page. Click here or use the jumps below.
Page 2: User Experience, Sound
Page 3: Technical Performance, Comparisons & Conclusion
