Hifiman EF400

HIFIMAN originally developed its discrete Himalaya R2R for its portable bluetooth gear. But ever one to dream, Fang Bian's team strapped its technology to original DSP work carried on a FPGA and a massive toroidal linear power supply, before stepping back to marvel at their progress.

The promises EF400 make in terms of fidelity and power output are not small. Head-Fi has paid attention when Himalaya decodes up to 24/192 PCM ala typical R2R – NOS (non-oversampling).

That's double the feat because the precision demanded in exact resistor values – for the buttery, natural and resolving ability that R2R DAC topology is known for – goes up.

For an entirely different sound otherwise, EF400's grants users the ability to switch from NOS to oversampling mode, for the cleanest possible result. That scrubs any last distortion and artifacts beyond the audible human hearing range, claiming over 115dB of signal-to-noise ratio.

That's signal that sees EF400 output in fixed voltage via line XLRs and RCAs, in the sense of a conventional DAC. But HIFIMAN – famous for its immensely challenging Susvara and HE6 – challenge you to bring its balanced headphone outputs to bear.

A full balanced, differential, Class A/B amplifier swings plenty of signal voltage and backs that signal up with a power stage bristling with current, to claim a mighty 4.4 watts of power.  

That's power beyond measure but HIFIMAN says it's always better to have more than you need. So EF400 can go about driving the likes of their headphones, plus any HEDDphone, Sennheiser or ZMF Headphones, with tons of headroom, and no worry at all.

Throw any headphone at EF400: you won't regret it. Also, view our other offerings from HIFIMAN here, or our other amplifiers here.