Hippo Biscuit and Hippo Pearl Review

Recently i feel empty..i feel the need to find a way to motivate me...and the only way to do so quickly is to listen to music. I have Iphone 4, HTC Evo 3D, Ipod Shuffle..and why the hell do i need to look for a good digital audio player..?? I dont have a direct answer, maybe it is my fetish for aluminium stuff..maybe it is my lust to collect gadgets or maybe i believe good sound reproduction can only be made possible via good hardware and not just software like BBE.

So while i am having dinner with my lovely wife, i pass through Jaben. So i told my wife i will just hand out for a while to check out whats new. The person at the counter told me there is a new kids on the block..a mp3 player fully made of aluminium with superb clean sound. I was delighted!! MP3 full aluminium, good sound is good news to me...but wait...no screen???

• Support Audio Format : MP3, WAV
• Suitable headphone impedance : 16 ohms - 300 ohms C
• harge time : 1.5 hoursP
• lay time : Around 10 hours
• Dimensions : 62.88mm x 35.7mm x 11mm Weight : 30g
• Memory type : External MicroSD card

Yeah no screen. It means browsing through folders will be a nightmare. To add salt to injury this lil gem has a micro SD card slot..wtf..imagin having to browse through 5 folders with 100 of songs. The only way you can do it is click on next next next and next...

But then the guy over the counter try to calm me down and ask me to relax. He say chill, listen to the song first and judge the SQ for yourself first.

 

So ok i told myself to give it a try. I Listened to a few demo music from Adele, EAgle Hotel California and some other songs...The first impression i get is "Clean". No hiss no distortion and just pure clean music even if you crank up the volume. It is on the warmer side. Yeah no screen means no build in EQ too..So there will only be 1 sound signature which is a lil bit on the warm side. I did AB comparison with my iphone 4 and this player certainly win in term of SQ most probably because of the clean sound. But i have yet to test it with iphone 4 LOD.

When you amp this Hippo Biscuit with Fiio E11 amp, you will get a bass machine :)

And i think when it is pair with the IEM Hippo Pearl, it gives you a nice , warm on stage feel. Pure audhiophile might not like this as they prefer off stage feel most of the time. The V based EQ signature on this Biscuit will be easily acceptable by average Joe like me..

Another complain is it do not accept flac, WMA and other file format. Just Mp3 and Wav..Hopefully a future firmware update will fix this. I also do not have any information on the hardware. No one knows what type of AMP or chipset is being used. Google is futile...no information on the net. Navigation is simple. The middle button which has a green LED is actually the on off button. You have to hold it for 2 second to turn off or on. Press it again to play and press it again to hold. There is a volume up and down button and two more buttone to play forward or reverse track,.yeah is that bloody simple.

Summary :-If you are looking for a mp3 player with clean sound and intend to use it like the 80s walkman, then this is the player for u. It is sturdy, tough and i doubt it will ever damage cause there is no screen on it. But if you are looking for a mp3 to store all your mp3 collection, then this is not the player for you.