In this article we look at the Hifiman Serenade DAC/AMP, pre-amp and streamer. It is selling for $999 USD.
Disclaimer: The Hifiman Serenade was sent to us free of charge in exchange for this review.
Hifiman
If you’re into personal audio, then you probably have some knowledge about the Hifiman brand. It was founded in 2007 by Dr Fang in New York to produce high-end personal audio products. Hifiman was the first brand to release a high-end portable audio player, the HM-801, which was like a catalyst for Reference Audio Players that we know today.
One of the many points that make Hifiman stand out is that they are a very innovative company, and they are constantly chasing the better, in every price range. They create different flavoured headphones, warm, neutral, and balanced, for every kind of audiophile out there. We’ve reviewed many Hifiman units in the past, and each time we get excited as if it’s the first time. Just type Hifiman in our search box and discover all of our Hifiman reviews.
For those of you who’d like to know more about Hifiman and their founder, there’s always this interview we did with him: https://headfonia.com/q-n-a-saturday-hifiman/
In this new Hifiman review, we’re looking at the Hifiman Serenade desktop DAC/AMP. I last time promised to keep my reviews short(er) and to the point, so let’s see how that turns out. Let’s get started!
Intro
The Hifiman Serenade actually is part of the cooperation between Hifiman and Goldenwave. If I am not mistaken I actually think Hifiman bought the Goldenwave company, but I could be wrong.
“By bringing GOLDENWAVE under HIFIMAN’s wing, we are embarking upon a new era for both brands, with products that feature the best of what each company has to offer, with music lovers ultimately being the beneficiaries.”
So far we have seen two new Goldenwave products: this Serenade and the higher end Prelude headphone amplifier. To keep things simple we will be calling this the Hifiman Serenade.
Hifiman Serenade
The Hifiman Serenade actually isn’t just a digital to analogue convertor and headphone amplifier. You can also use it as a streamer (more on that later) as well as a pre-amp, using the analogue outputs.
The Serenade is using Hifiman’s HIMALAYA PRO R2R DAC, a technology we now see in almost all of Hifiman’s DAC products. The HIMALAYA Pro is an R-2R or resistor-based modular chipset that is discrete-designed and based on an in-house FPGA algorithm. Hifiman states that their tech equals using double Burr Brown PCM1704K balanced connections, outperforming the PCM1704 in every way.
The Serenade features an XMOS XU316 USB chipset and offers up to DSD256 and PCM 32bit/386kHz decoding rates via USB. By using the Serenade’s FTP network input and bypassing the XMOS chip, you can get DSD512 and PCM 32bit/768kHz capability. Next to this USB and network input, the Serenade also offer the typical optical and coaxial inputs (DSD DoP64 and PCM 32bit/192kHz).
The Serenade has a Class A headphone amplification circuit, supplemented by a precisely matched, fully discrete transistor amplifier circuit. According to Hifiman, the Serenade because of tis inherits the noble tone of the Prelude amplifier, for less than $3,000 USD.
The Hifiman Serenade’s dedicated web page can be found here. You can buy the Serenade directly from Hifiman here or you can purchase it from one of their dealers. The selling price at the moment is $999 USD, and the product was launched with a $1,199 USD price tag as you can still see on Hifiman’s website.
Specifications
- Frequency Response 20-20kHZ, +/- 0.1dB @ 1KHz
- SNR 110dB, 0dBFS @ 1KHz
- THD+N 0.0015%, -3dBFS @ 1KHz
- Balanced Output: 4000mW @ 32 ohms, 760mW @ 300 ohms
- Single-Ended Output: 2800mW @32 ohms, 510mW @ 300 ohms
- Line-out: 4.5V/XLR, 2.2V/RCA, 0dBFS @ 1KHz
- USB: PCM 32bit/384k, DSD64-DSD256
- Coaxial, Optical: PCM 32bit/192k, DSD DoP64
- LAN: PCM 44.1 – PCM 768k, DSD64 – DSD512
- Dimensions/Weight: 330x50x255mm, protrusions not included / 2.9kg
Box & Accessories
Looking at the box and the accessories, the package is not the most impressive. The Serenade comes in a sturdy cardboard box with foam on the inside, and as such it is perfectly protects the unit.
Accessory wise however there is not much to be found in this package. You get a power cable as well as a 1m USB-B to USB-A cable which allows you to get started right away. That’s it.
For $999 that is ok I guess, even though a supplied Optical or Coaxial cable would have been a nice surprise.
Design, Build Quality
The Hifiman Serenade measures 330 x 50 x 255 mm making it a medium sized desktop unit. It weighs around 2.9kg which is perfectly acceptable. The Serenade’s build quality is excellent, the days were Hifiman’s BQ wasn’t always the best are long gone and I couldn’t think of anything to improve here.
The Serenade looks and feels sturdy, it doesn’t move around on your desk and all of the connections and buttons are nicely finished. The aluminum chassis looks high-end and plugging cables in-and out as well as pushing the different buttons feels good. The volume control is small but precise, perfectly balanced and smooth to turn. I’m guessing it’s an ALPs one, but there is no mention of it anywhere.
I quite like the design of this unit. The curved aluminum chassis looks smooth and sexy and I really like the design of the front panel which sticks out more. This allows Hifiman to place some of the controls on the top panel. An excellent choice and design in my opinion. I also like the lay-out of the Serenade and even with all the connectors and buttons, you get a slick design which doesn’t look overly busy.
The Serenade to me is the kind of unit that disappears in your desk setup. With the option of setting the preferred brightness of the screen, the unit can either disappear or draw attention. I prefer the lowest setting as I don’t like shouty screens myself. It however is important where you put it in order to have access to all of its controls as well as in- and outputs. More on that in the usability part later in this article.
Lay-Out
Let’s start with the front panel. From left to right we have the balanced XLR-output, the standard 6.3mm single-ended output and the 4.4mm balanced output. The small and simple screen is positioned more to the other side, right next to the volume dial.
The front top part of the unit has 3 buttons in the middle: the input selector, the general select button (brightness and streamer power supply) and the output selector (DAC, Headphone Amp, Pre Amp).
On the back of the unit you from right to left have the power button, power plug, SD-card slot (upgrades), UTP connector, USB connector, optical/coaxial input, RCA input, RCA output and the XLR balanced output. It’s quite busy at the back, but the connection all have more than enough room. There are no issues having multiple cables plugged to the Serenade at the same time.
Usability
You can use the Serenade as DAC/AMP combo or you can use it as a DAC only and connect it to a headphone amplifier of your choice. I have seen people use the Serenade as a DAC in a Hifiman Serenade and Prelude stack, though I have not really used it like that myself.
Using the LAN input, I had no issues at all finding the Serenade in ROON, which makes streaming as easy as it can be. I however did not manage to stream directly from Tidal or Spotify on my phone and laptop to the Serenade. Luckily ROON has all of that covered as well. I am not sure I am doing anything wrong or if it just isn’t possible, but I couldn’t get it to work.
Connecting to the Serenade over USB, optical or Coax works perfectly. I did not really try to get the bridge function to work, which allows you to play files stored on a local NAS drive via your router to the Serenade. I wonder if people nowadays in this wireless era still do that. Let us know in the comments!
All-in-all the Serenade is easy to use, offering you a multitude of inputs and outputs. I quite liked using the analogue outputs in combination with my power amplifier in my speaker setup. But I have to admit that I prefer using the Prelude as a pre-amp even more. If you are planning to use the Serenade in a stack, we do advise to set it on top of your stack as it will be easiest to use the top faced buttons on the front.
Amplification wise the Serenade puts out 4000mW @ 32 ohms and 760mW @ 300 ohms in balanced mode, and 2800mW @32 ohms and 510mW @ 300 ohms in single-ended mode. That means it has plenty of power to drive all of the regular headphones on the market with ease. Note that the Serenade does not have a gain control, like its big brother. This might make it more difficult to use IEMs, which is not something I would personally use with this unit.
Usability wise, except for the streaming part from apps directly, I have no issues with the Serenade.
The article continues on the second page with the part on sound. Click here or use the jumps below.
Page 1: Hifiman, Serenade, Specifications, Box & Accessories, Design & Build quality, Lay-out, Usability
Page 2: Sound Intro, General, Synergy, Conclusion, Summary
Christian Wagner
I had this unit on loan from my dealer for 6 weeks. I suspect if you had used it as a preamp to drive a power amp and speakers your enthusiasm might be tempered somewhat.
Very beautiful sound, powerful, plenty of gain, and I fully agree with your sound assessment but the basic, antiquated one way push UI has no place on this unit.
Also, upon power on and off, big pops, clicks and necessary speaker and sub excursions. There is no excuse for this when other units in this class handle power cycles silently, with wholly better user interfaces, including larger, clearer text.
Its okay that you want to say it out performs others, but even better you do the comparisons, I have.
It sounds so good that if the issues were corrected I would buy it immediately, yet I went with one of the others because it isn’t just the sound that makes a unit great.