HIFIDIY new products on June, 2011

[candyhifidiy]

Hello Everyone , Thank you for supporting Aune and HIFIDIY products . HFIDIY will have many new products on 2011, the following are some of the photos :






Our new project including :

Mini USB DAC
24bit /192K DAC ,support WINXP .VISTA.WIN7
24BIT/192H SPDIF




Mini AMP
Amplifier using discrete components




Mini APE Mk2
Using TI 1808 ,Chip AD1955
pic.hifidiy.net/images/newm/APE.jpg [/img]


Mini headphone amplifier

Panda SE mini version



The above only the design thoughs , the detail information will published on June after all the products finished, so you can check our website when all the products are ready !

Thanks for all your time !

[PinkFloyd]

Looking good Candy..... what material will the enclosures be made from? I really do love the knobs, very stylish looking.

[JohnnyBlue]

I hope HiFiDIY will continue to support the Aune Mini APE (Mk.1), especially as it appears to have had a very short product life.

[mrarroyo]

I actually like the looks of these units, specially for those with iMacs. BTW, what are the specs on the amp?

[cj]

I think they look very nifty!

I'm guessing they are a little wider than the out going cases, allowing for less depth?

[PinkFloyd]

I just LOVE the appearance of the Panda SE, that is one very classy looking enclosure Candy.... Can you provide the dimensions please?

[elysion]

Great stuff, Candy! I like the design (and also the knobs, which are spot-on for this design).

Apr 22, 2011 4:59:56 GMT candyhifidiy said:

Mini USB DAC
24bit /192K DAC ,support WINXP .VISTA.WIN7
24BIT/192H SPDIF

What about software support also for OSX and Linux? FireWire would also an option that could make the DAC more versatile. I know that a lot of motherboards don't have FireWire, but even today there are new motherboards that are released with built-in FireWire.

BTW: How are the dimensions of the cases? I wonder if they would fit beneath or above a MacMini or a similar nettop computer.

[joethearachnid]

Those look gorgeous. Interested in that DAC particularly. Pity I've already built a Panda, otherwise that could be quite a pretty little setup. Will they incorporate internal transformers or have a separate PSU/wallwart?

-JoetheArachnid

[PinkFloyd]

Those look gorgeous.

X2..... PURE class IMO

[candyhifidiy]

Hello Everyone , thanks for all your questions , and i am very gald that you are interested with our new products . While i am so sorry , as the new products is just in developing now , may be have some changed on the detail , so more information i will tell you after the products finished .

By the way, about the old mini APE ( the mini APE MK1) , as John methion , we will continue to support that , so please do not worry , John .
About the Size of all this new products will : 160mm*160MM , it will use the external power supply and use all aluminium chassis, even better than before, so more information will be published soon !

Thanks for all your time ! Especially thanks for Mike £¡

[Seamus]

These certainly look great. It'll be interesting to see what the specs/prices are.

[buckapound]

Please, please, please, make sure the user interface makes sense on this new model. I love the sound of the Mini-Ape I just bought, but the controls are a real mess. It is impossible to do anything but play a single song using the controls on the front of the unit, which makes them pretty much useless if you always have to use the remote anyway. The functions of navigation and playing are very mixed up, making it needlessly difficult to use. Have a look at the way the controls work on the Western Digital WD-TV unit. Same functionality, but much more logical. You'll never sell a lot of a product that only does one thing, but takes two days to learn how to use.

Furthermore, Aune has misused certain commonly used symbols (the "stop" square, for example) and assigned new functions to them unlike any other player I can think of. The "Stop" square actually means navigate back, and the "eject" arrow turns off the screen display. Certain symbols like these have specific meanings we've all learned. You can't change them randomly and not expect people to be very confused.

The industrial design in beautiful on these new models. Please take the time to make sure they are as easy to use as they are to look at.

--Buckapound

[JohnnyBlue]

Apr 27, 2011 16:27:38 GMT buckapound said:

Please, please, please, make sure the user interface makes sense on this new model. I love the sound of the Mini-Ape I just bought, but the controls are a real mess. It is impossible to do anything but play a single song using the controls on the front of the unit, which makes them pretty much useless if you always have to use the remote anyway. The functions of navigation and playing are very mixed up, making it needlessly difficult to use. Have a look at the way the controls work on the Western Digital WD-TV unit. Same functionality, but much more logical. You'll never sell a lot of a product that only does one thing, but takes two days to learn how to use.

Furthermore, Aune has misused certain commonly used symbols (the "stop" square, for example) and assigned new functions to them unlike any other player I can think of. The "Stop" square actually means navigate back, and the "eject" arrow turns off the screen display. Certain symbols like these have specific meanings we've all learned. You can't change them randomly and not expect people to be very confused.

The industrial design in beautiful on these new models. Please take the time to make sure they are as easy to use as they are to look at.

--Buckapound

I imagine that the reason the remote uses conventional symbols in an unconventional way is because HiFiDIY probably buy them in ready-made, i.e., the remotes are not specifically purpose-built for the Mini APE.

Designing and making a remote from scratch for a new bit of equipment would add considerably to the cost. I suspect the same will apply to the new series...

[buckapound]

The remote has a skin that has their logo printed on it. So, symbols could have easily been changed when the logo was added, before it was printed. I think it's growing pains for a very small company, but this is something they need to get right in the future.

[PinkFloyd]

Apr 27, 2011 16:27:38 GMT buckapound said:

Please, please, please, make sure the user interface makes sense on this new model. I love the sound of the Mini-Ape I just bought, but the controls are a real mess. It is impossible to do anything but play a single song using the controls on the front of the unit, which makes them pretty much useless if you always have to use the remote anyway. The functions of navigation and playing are very mixed up, making it needlessly difficult to use. Have a look at the way the controls work on the Western Digital WD-TV unit. Same functionality, but much more logical. You'll never sell a lot of a product that only does one thing, but takes two days to learn how to use.

Furthermore, Aune has misused certain commonly used symbols (the "stop" square, for example) and assigned new functions to them unlike any other player I can think of. The "Stop" square actually means navigate back, and the "eject" arrow turns off the screen display. Certain symbols like these have specific meanings we've all learned. You can't change them randomly and not expect people to be very confused.

The industrial design in beautiful on these new models. Please take the time to make sure they are as easy to use as they are to look at.

--Buckapound

I agree regarding the remote / front panel controls.... should the remote ever go pear shaped you would want to control things from the front panel and would expect to be able to play an "entire" album and not just one track.

Having said that, I must be one of the few people who actually find the Mini APE very easy to operate.... insert card, press play, listen to music.... erm, am I missing something here?

May well be worth trying a few remotes you have kicking about.... could be that one of them works with the APE

[buckapound]

"...Am I missing something here?"

Yes, a 1 TB hard drive. Plenty of navigating to do. Also like to shuffle, and that's fairly complicated too since you can't set it to shuffle unless there's already a track playing, so it always starts on the same track, which you have to skip. Also, the device has to read the entire disk directory before it will begin shuffling, which takes about two minutes with 500gb of files.

I've got it figured out, but none of my friends will be able to use it without a 15 minute lesson and a cheat sheet.

I took it out of town last weekend and stupidly forgot the remote. That's when I figured out just how inadequate the front panel controls are. Tried every remote in the house, but none made anything happen.

BTW, does anybody know what the (empty) battery compartment inside is for?

--Buckapound

[PinkFloyd]

BTW, does anybody know what the (empty) battery compartment inside is for?

I was about to ask you the same question

[PinkFloyd]

Yes, a 1 TB hard drive. Plenty of navigating to do.

erm....... it's a "Mini" APE and one would assume it was designed to be Minimal in size as well as function.... I don't think it's primary design goal was to navigate through 1 terrabyte worth of files and the fact that it actually "can" in under two minutes is a PLUS point from where I am standing!!

One "terrabyte" of music files on a hard drive and you are expecting "instant" access? I think your expectations of what a $300 player can do are a bit optimistic (with respect)..... I see the Mini APE as more of a "portable" / "Mini" type music centre and certainly would not expect it to handle one terrabyte of files with split second access time.....

I think you are pushing the boat out a bit too far to expect that level of performance mate.....



Mike.

[buckapound]

Well, that search time is the least of my wishes for this device. I was more making a point about the sequence of having to wait until a track is playing to turn on the shuffle feature. Generally I agree with what you say, and think it's fantastic for the money. I do appreciate the clever electronic design, the use of a quality DAC, other good parts. That's all great.

I'm a designer by trade, and it drives me crazy when user interfaces are confusing and hard to operate, because it's really not a matter of R&D money, or more buttons, or a more expensive processor, it's just about using the buttons and other controls in a logical way. This part is not rocket science. There is some standardization to a music player interface; no need to reinvent it. I'm happy to kludge my way through this inept user interface because the size, portability and price make it worth it to me. It's so close to being really wonderful, though.

Interfaces make a huge difference. Apple has built a gazillion dollar business on them.

It would be nice if that battery would allow the unit to hold some system settings, hard disk directory, etc.

--Buckapound

Apr 27, 2011 20:33:25 GMT buckapound said:

"...Am I missing something here?"

Yes, a 1 TB hard drive. Plenty of navigating to do. Also like to shuffle, and that's fairly complicated too since you can't set it to shuffle unless there's already a track playing, so it always starts on the same track, which you have to skip. Also, the device has to read the entire disk directory before it will begin shuffling, which takes about two minutes with 500gb of files.


--Buckapound

I got a squesebox touch and if you connect 200 GB of music to such a thing it takes at least 10 minutes before you can hear any music and if you want to shuffle it works in a strange way, I have a hard time getting befreinded with it also the reason why I bought an APE instead..

[sandyk]

Hi Randy.
Mike is stirring. Please stick with us, we could learn a lot from people like yourself, just like many have benefitted from an EE of the calibre of Frans being a member here too.
Kind Regards
Alex

[skp]

Pretty good design Candy... you have the marketing specs for mini-AMP (discrete components) and the mAPE-2?

[candyhifidiy]

Hello everyone , one of our new DAC will have samples at the end of this month , it is X series DAC , and also a 24bit /192 DAC , some of the informations , please check this :
pic.hifidiy.net/images/MJ/New DAC.jpg[/img]

pic.hifidiy.net/images/MJ/DAC pacakge.jpg[/img]


Speciation ::
Function £ºUSB Sound Card £¬DAC£¬headphone ¨Camp £¬pre-amp
Input :SIF¡Á1 USB£¨1.0£©¡Á1 OPTICAL¡Á1 Analog RCA * 1
Output : Output terminal , Analog RCA * 1 , 6.5MM headphone ¡Á1
Frequency £º10HZ---20KHZ (-1dB)
DAC Decoder : (BB ) PCM1793
USB sound card : PCM2707
THD 0.01%
Headphone output :0.05%
Choose button £ºInput choose ¡Á1 Output choose ¡Á1
Heaphone output £ºP£­Pmax£º10V
Headphone output impedance £º32 ohm---600 ohm
Line output £º2Vrms
Size £¨chassis £©£º135*51*170 (mm)
The new DAC use Double color LED display DAC is 24bit /192K The letter of the front panel use laser print Controller by Single Chip Micyoco
Chassis use X style


Hello Mike , i will send this new DAC sample to you for review , do you want that ? by the way, if some one who want listen the DAC , aslo can ask that from Mike, thanks

[mrarroyo]

Hi would any of your USB DAC's be asynchronous?

[PinkFloyd]

Jun 21, 2011 4:02:02 GMT candyhifidiy said:

Hello everyone , one of our new DAC will have samples at the end of this month , it is X series DAC , and also a 24bit /192 DAC , some of the informations , please check this :
pic.hifidiy.net/images/MJ/New DAC.jpg

[/img]

pic.hifidiy.net/images/MJ/DAC pacakge.jpg[/img]


Speciation ::
Function £ºUSB Sound Card £¬DAC£¬headphone ¨Camp £¬pre-amp
Input :SIF¡Á1 USB£¨1.0£©¡Á1 OPTICAL¡Á1 Analog RCA * 1
Output : Output terminal , Analog RCA * 1 , 6.5MM headphone ¡Á1
Frequency £º10HZ---20KHZ (-1dB)
DAC Decoder : (BB ) PCM1793
USB sound card : PCM2707
THD 0.01%
Headphone output :0.05%
Choose button £ºInput choose ¡Á1 Output choose ¡Á1
Heaphone output £ºP£­Pmax£º10V
Headphone output impedance £º32 ohm---600 ohm
Line output £º2Vrms
Size £¨chassis £©£º135*51*170 (mm)
The new DAC use Double color LED display DAC is 24bit /192K The letter of the front panel use laser print Controller by Single Chip Micyoco
Chassis use X style


Hello Mike , i will send this new DAC sample to you for review , do you want that ? by the way, if some one who want listen the DAC , aslo can ask that from Mike, thanks [/quote]

Hi Candy,

They look very nice, well done! Sorry I haven't spoken with you in quite a while, I have been very busy with house renovations and work.... not much time to myself. I am almost completed on the redecoration front so, YES, it would be great to review one of these and I can pass the review sample on to other members so they can all have time with it.

I'll have a chat with you one of these days as soon as I have completed all my work.

I really like the styling of the DAC / amp, it's classy looking..... not so keen on the box with the "X" on it... reminds me of the cheap Musical Fidelty V series but, as they say.... "looks are not important as long as it sounds good"

All the best,

Mike.