hiliDAC Audirect Beam 2 Discussions | Drop

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hiliDAC Audirect Beam 2

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

uw_g

Feb 10, 2020

Got it directly from the producer (Audirect). So far I am not impressed. It sounds good and seems suitable for not too sensitive mid impedance iems and low to mid impedance full size headphones. However, for headphones like Sennheiser HD600/650/800 or ZMF Atticus/Eikon with higher to high impedances there is not much headroom on the iPhone 6s Plus and the 11 Pro Max. With 100% volume said phones are listenable but don't really get enough power. And this is in balanced mode where the output is higher. The single ended Hidizs S8 has higher out than the Beam 2 in balanced mode. Disappointing. OTOH very sensitive iems like CA Andromeda have hearable hiss on the Beam 2 as soon as the source provides a signal. When the source signal is switched off or set to pause the noise floor on the Andro goes away in Spotify after 3 s or so (in Tidal it seems to take a bit longer). Moreover, there are pretty loud crackling noises on the Andromeda when switching a song in Spotify on the iPhone (funny enough not everytime but regularly). This makes such sensitive inears near unusable. Even with high impepance full size headphones pretty loud cracks occur sometimes when switching songs in Spotify on the iPhone. With Samsung S10 5G there is a bit more power than on the iPhone. This way the Beam 2 can drive an Atticus to loud enough levels in balanced mode. And the crackling noise when switching songs seems to be a bit weaker, even with the Andromeda. Edit: After applying the new firmware (0125) the noise when switching songs seems to have been reduced to mostly unproblematic levels. The noise floor problem however is still present. And there is noise even when there is no source signal at all, stemming from the GSM functionality. Only the flight mode brings it down to near zero.

(Edited)

Feb 10, 2020