ЦАПы — HiFiMAN SERENADE

The SERENADE combines a digital converter and a headphone amplifier in one desktop case and is sold as the Goldenwave Serenade after HiFiMAN bought Goldenwave, a designer and maker of desktop decoders and headphone amplifiers founded in Guangzhou in 2011. Goldenwave's earlier products include the AMBER headphone amplifier, the SAPPHIRE DAC and the GA-09, and its later catalogue split into the PRELUDE reference models and the lifestyle-oriented SERENADE series. The SERENADE went on sale in July 2023 at a suggested price of USD 1,199, and a later revision added Wi-Fi.

Key specs that matter

The converter is HiFiMAN's own Hymalaya Pro, a discrete R2R ladder DAC. Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz within 0.1 dB, THD+N is 0.0015% at -3 dBFS and 1 kHz, noise sits 110 dB below full scale and channel separation is 120 dB. Line outputs deliver 4.5 V on XLR and 2.2 V on RCA at 0 dBFS. The headphone stage gives 4,000 mW into 32 ohm and 760 mW into 300 ohm from the balanced output, or 2,800 mW and 510 mW from the single-ended jack. USB accepts PCM up to 32 bit and 384 kHz and DSD64 to DSD256, coaxial and optical take DSD64 over DoP, and the wired network input handles PCM from 44.1 kHz to 768 kHz plus DSD64 to DSD512. Bluetooth 5.0 supports LDAC, aptX HD and aptX. The case measures 300 x 255 x 50 mm and weighs 3.9 kg.

Engineering and use context

The ladder is driven by an FPGA algorithm and built from resistors with 0.01% tolerance, and HiFiMAN quotes 0.0012% THD at -6 dB for the converter. After it comes a FET operational amplifier followed by a low-pass filter made from discrete parts. The headphone section is a Class A circuit with precisely matched, fully discrete transistors, and there are no coupling capacitors in the signal path, which removes the distortion that electrolytic capacitors can add. Power comes from a 50 W toroidal transformer with oxygen-free copper windings, close to 30,000 microfarads of filter capacitance and a multi-stage, multi-channel low-noise regulator circuit. In network mode the unit can act as a bridge to play files from a NAS drive.

Pairing

The front panel has 4-pin XLR, 6.35 mm and 4.4 mm headphone sockets, while the rear offers balanced XLR and single-ended RCA line outputs for an integrated amplifier, a power amplifier or active speakers. The balanced power figures cover both low and high impedance headphones.

Alternatives

The HiFiMAN EF400 is a smaller desktop DAC and headphone amplifier built around the earlier Himalaya R2R module, with a 246.5 x 228 x 61 mm case weighing 3.08 kg.