In 2007, HiFiMAN established its worldwide reputation for innovation by introducing the word’s first, high performance portable player. Knowing that was merely a start, in 2009 the company began intensive research on its 2nd-generation player. Now, three years later HiFiMAN is excited to share initial details of this new generation – with an overview of its innovative software, design and sound calibration. More information will be revealed as we approach the official launch of this product in the coming months but here is a glimpse of what we are up to.
HiFiMAN’s experienced software R&D team has experienced many challenges during the course of this project but have made solid progress during which they developed concepts from "from bottom to high level" and "from algorithm to UI". The HiFiMAN software team, consisting of many veteran engineers had a clear-cut division of labor in algorithm, codec, audio driver, player software, UI design and test. They are from the professional staffs of famous brand player manufacturers, a department manager from a famous chip corporation, a postgraduate from a top Chinese university and CAS, a PhD from a top 20 American graduate school, and senior programmer who once was national famous website CTO in China. A multi-talented diverse team.
The design of a portable player is very complex which demands close collaboration between the structural engineer, electronics engineer and industrial engineer. In fact, though the cosmetic design of its current appearance was finished a year ago, the structural design has continued to evolve. Through constant communication, the engineers have successfully solved problems one after another and achieved the goal of utilizing more components in the new player than in the HM-801. After completing the structural design, the team’s structural engineer stated, “There is no more spare space in this new player. This is the most compact design I have ever done!” For the analog section, there are several alternatives and already the prototype has reached the same performance level as HM-801. HiFiMAN however continues to improve its sound quality. A word about design environment -the first-generation HM-801 player developed in 2007 - we used a CD player costing about $3,000 as reference to conduct sound calibration. Several years later, HiFiMAN has grown much larger in both scale and financial resources. Now the top audio source equipment in HiFiMAN’s audiovisual room is a DP100 turntable which costs more than $31000 along with a Pacific Microsonic decoder.
Our promise: to make the best sound quality plan at any cost or expense and apply it in the next-generation flagship product--HM-901.

1. Audible and Measurable improvement of sound quality from first-generation player
2. Platform that accepts all formats
3. Specific design for 24bit format files*
4. Significantly improve usability, reliability and industrial design*