CEntrance Hifi-M8 V2 Review (DAC and headphone amplifier)

[ReAlien]

It was so generous of you to submit this for review, but I have to ask what you use it with. Many phones outperform this without any help.

Outperform in specs does not mean outperform in sound. I have heard a lot of praise for this DAC/amp from very experienced friends.

 

[AudioSceptic]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the CEntrance Hifi-M8 V2 portable headphone amplifier and USB DAC plus Bluetooth. It was kindly sent to me a member who waited over a year for it to ship! The Hifi-M8 V2 costs US $750. Yes, popcorn blew out of my nose too when I saw that price.

I just can't understand why a device like this exists. A pro product should be about performance and that is sorely lacking here. As a consumer device usability is poor and price way out of proportion with what the unit does. There are plenty of portable devices that perform superbly and cost a fraction.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the CEntrance Hifi-M8 V2.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Amir, did you measure the output impedance? That is important for driving head/earphones, no?

 

[AudioSceptic]

Unfortunately that is no simple. Nobody would buy it for $1000.

I'm trying to figure out if you are joking...

 

[AudioSceptic]

Outperform in specs does not mean outperform in sound. I have heard a lot of praise for this DAC/amp from very experienced friends.

You seem to be new here, so perhaps you don't know that this site is all about objectively provable performance, not subjective impressions, no matter you much you trust the sources of those impressions. Many, many highly regarded (by subjective reviewers) products turn out to be not just poor value, but poor in absolute terms.

 

[radioman]

You seem to be new here, so perhaps you don't know that this site is all about objectively provable performance, not subjective impressions, no matter you much you trust the sources of those impressions. Many, many highly regarded (by subjective reviewers) products turn out to be not just poor value, but poor in absolute terms.

Don't want to start a fight, but if you happen to like something and someone tells you it's junk, do you have to immediately unlike it? Are you allowed to continue liking it or is that bad form?

 

[The Jniac]

Don't want to start a fight, but if you happen to like something and someone tells you it's junk, do you have to immediately unlike it? Are you allowed to continue liking it or is that bad form?

Whether one likes it or not is immaterial; poor performance is poor performance. Loads of people like margarine, but it is still bad for you.

 

[SIY]

Don't want to start a fight, but if you happen to like something and someone tells you it's junk, do you have to immediately unlike it? Are you allowed to continue liking it or is that bad form?

It should slow one down in claiming sonic superiority of one's "liked" component.

Of course, more often than not, the inferior bench performance is not actually reflected in the sound at all, and the "liking" is guided more by non-auditory considerations.

 

[radioman]

Whether one likes it or not is immaterial;

Immaterial to a person who happens to experience joy? Is joy still allowed or have we outlawed it already?

 

[Robbo99999]

Immaterial to a person who happens to experience joy? Is joy still allowed or have we outlawed it already?

(best not to get into the subjective vs objective argument on here or "tube vs transparent" discussion - this site's main focus is on measurements and that is indeed the part that you are referring to when you say you'd like to send in another unit for retesting because you think the one tested might be faulty, so I wouldn't pursue any subjective vs objective rabbit holes when you've already committed to the standard of objective evaluation by agreeing to send in another unit for testing.)

 

[The Jniac]

Immaterial to a person who happens to experience joy? Is joy still allowed or have we outlawed it already?

Again, liking something is not relevant to discussing its performance. Liking something with poor performance is fine, but liking something does not mean that it performs well.

 

[radioman]

It should slow one down in claiming sonic superiority of one's "liked" component.

Of course, more often than not, the inferior bench performance is not actually reflected in the sound at all, and the "liking" is guided more by non-auditory considerations.

I think this is a good point. A model 3 Tesla is objectively great for the environment, but it objectively fails when used to move a refrigerator.

In the same vain, HiFi-M8 is not the world's best desktop DAC (we never intended that to be the case), but it's awfully nice by the camp fire, at a meet, in a headphone store, on a bus, or on a bed stand.

We will work to make sure Amir gets to test the whole thing.

 

[radioman]

Liking something with poor performance is fine, but liking something does not mean that it performs well.

If you like something that means it does something for you on some level. Otherwise you wouldn't like it. So the question is, do we have to constrain our vision to the standard triumvirate of THD/Noise/power or should we strive to evaluate the product on additional dimensions? And along the same lines, if someone says "I don't know why this exists" and if their words carry significant weight, doesn't that automatically guide people into thinking "this shouldn't exist"?

 

[thunderchicken]

My takeaway here is that while performance isn't state of the art, the product itself tested better than the manufacturer's spec sheet in terms of THD+N. Regardless of the other issues with the unit, that's an important point. I appreciate companies that publish their real world test results.

Whether those results meet the crowd standard here at ASR is a different issue entirely.

 

[radioman]

(best not to get into the subjective vs objective argument on here or "tube vs transparent" discussion - this site's main focus is on measurements and that is indeed the part that you are referring to when you say you'd like to send in another unit for retesting because you think the one tested might be faulty, so I wouldn't pursue any subjective vs objective rabbit holes when you've already committed to the standard of objective evaluation by agreeing to send in another unit for testing.)

Thank you for your guidance. Appreciated. And we will be sending another unit, and we are working to understand what went wrong.

And while there are objective measurements mentioned in the review, which we are trying to clarify, the esteemed reviewer added some personal notes, which don't pass for objective measurements.

We are trying to clarify the weight of those as well, since some people are driven by the logical left brain yet others, by the emotional right brain. Only the lucky few can approach the issue from both perspectives. Those people are lucky because they can easily tell the difference between the subjective and the objective.

 

[radioman]

I appreciate companies that publish their real world test results.

Whether those results meet the crowd standard here at ASR is a different issue entirely.

Fully agreed and accepted.

 

[thefsb]

You are crazy to believe some $100 Topping has a better sound or the at least the same sound.
This is $750 so has better sound quality seven times minimum.
This is the law of capitalism.

No no no. That's the wrong law. It's linearity—a well known property of audiophile equipment.

 

[Taddpole]

Getting a bit bored of him turning a bad review into a weird advertising pitch.

 

[boselover61]

Getting a bit bored of him turning a bad review into a weird advertising pitch.

Just damage control. Instead of taking feedbacks to improve the product hes just trying to refute every negative comments about this. Very unprofessional.

 

[NTomokawa]

the standard triumvirate of THD/Noise/power or should we strive to evaluate the product on additional dimensions?

Which "additional dimensions"?

 

[Robbo99999]

Thank you for your guidance. Appreciated. And we will be sending another unit, and we are working to understand what went wrong.

And while there are objective measurements mentioned in the review, which we are trying to clarify, the esteemed reviewer added some personal notes, which don't pass for objective measurements.

We are trying to clarify the weight of those as well, since some people are driven by the logical left brain yet others, by the emotional right brain. Only the lucky few can approach the issue from both perspectives. Those people are lucky because they can easily tell the difference between the subjective and the objective.

Well let's see how it goes if Amir measures another unit that you send in.