Hippo Gumstick~ Class A Amp Inside.

It really makes me wonder if this so called one of the best budget portable player could really defeat the iPod. I've been testing both the iPod classic 80GB and hippo Gumstick for quite a while now and I still can’t find out whether if this mp3 player is really that good. To be fair, I’m running both ampless to test the performance and I think my iPod is not even running on the wolfson chips on older generation’s iPod. The results to be honest, I still do not find it better than an iPod. It is however you can say that they are more or less on the same level.

Specs

Class A amp
Dimensions: approx 75x27x10 mm
Weight: 45 gram
Screen: 1 inch OLED b/w, 2-3 lines of text

Features:
Audio codec: MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, FLAC
4GB internal memory and micro SDHC expansion slot
FM radio
5 band EQ (normal, rock, jazz, classical, pop, bass, user +/- 12dB on 80, 250, 1K, 4K and 12K Hz)
4 playback modes (normal, repeat one, repeat all, random)
Multi-tasking
Voice and radio recorder
Text and lyrics reader
File browser
MSC, drag and drop

Included accessories:
USB Cable
Manual

Designs

When using this Hippo Gumstick on the go I find it to be quite a bit of relieve from all burden when using something that is so tiny and portable. All the weight is gone from the big and heavy iPod Classic and the ultra size Hifiman HM-602. Now I can just put Gumstick on my hand just like holding a pack of gumstick. I can adjust the setting more easily and switch songs anytime I want without struggling to take off my big DAP from the pocket added with a portable amplifier for better sound. With Gumstick I just hold it on my hand and no amplifier is necessary for outdoor usage.  

Ebook With Two Line Text

The Gumstick has quite a few good features such as supporting external expansion memory from their internal 4GB of memory and other features such as playing lossless files such as APE and FLAC, FM radio, FM Recorder, Voice Recorder and the funniest thing is the inclusion of an Ebook Reader. Yes you can practically read a book from the small 1 inch oled screen with two line of text. The manufacturer even includes a free copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Ebook inside the player. Though the text is very clear to read and you can read the book while playing your favorite tune, the two line text is a bit of problem to read because even reading one page also consumes quite a lot of time from scrolling down the page. If you are a fast reader, the problem becomes more apparent when you need to read it faster than the two line text able to provide.

Each time you switch on the player with the memory stick in, the player sounded like a CD player searching for data inside the memory card. Switching songs for external memory (memory card) also produces the same sound if you search for songs that are in other folder that requires data fetching. This is quite fun to have because it makes it sounded more like a CD player. Besides that, they also have feature such as fade in and fade out for each songs change which is a good features to have to avoid sudden shock of sound for your ear. This is a feature that the iPod and Hifiman lacks.

Three Line Text for Music and Two Line Text for Folder

On the user interface part, there are many guides out there that you can find so I’m just only going to keep it simple to the only thing that I think the users should take note of. I’m not complaining but it is something that the user should know. The two to three line text makes searching from songs in each folder much harder. You have to scroll through quite a few times to find the folder that you want. And if there are two albums with the same name in front such as Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy VIII, you have to memorize which folder is which because you have to wait a while for the album numbers to appear. They can only display the first two words. And at the time of testing, I have approximately four or five folder labeled with Final Fantasy at front and different album number at the back. Switching between them is quite a trouble especially when you want to move back after accidentally exceeding the folder you want to choose. I always have to look for the songs inside the folders to see if I’m in the correct album or not. Of course this is something that is quite common for player of such size. Remember if you have an album of similar name at front try to cut down a few words and name the folder uniquely and short so that you can always find the folder that you want.

There is another issue with usability. The songs tracking or fast forwarding a song, it takes a lot of time just only moving a few minutes ahead. They only fast forward at a very slow rate in a one second interval. If you need to fast forward to a song that is let say 5 minutes ahead in a gapless song, you have to wait very long time for it to reach there. This is some area I hope to see improvement because I don’t think there is anyone wants to wait for it if they just wanted to listen to that particular song in a gapless songs or move to the chorus of the songs being played that requires fast forwarding.

The Gumstick has quite a few EQ setting but the iPod have more than the Gumstick. But the Gumstick win over iPod because they allow the user to manually adjust the EQ setting or known as user settings. I didn’t test out much on the EQ setting on the Gumstick, so on Gumstick I will be using normal while EQ iPod is off for the rest of the test here. I find that the rock setting which is the default setting every time you switch on the player is more bloated in bass than the normal setting. So I don’t really like the rock eq setting. There is one problem with the EQ setting is that they are always reset every time you switch it on again. This is quite a hassle for those people like to use other EQ setting. The default volume is 15/31 and will be reset every time you switch on to save your hearing if you forgot to turn it down after listening to some high impedance headphone. This is a nice feature to have although I hope that the EQ setting can be retain for next usage.

I believe some of the flaws as describe above should be common for mp3 player of this size because so far the only player that I know of having the best and complete User Interface (U.I) and user experience is only found in iPod with their vast amount of team and budget on their software department.

Sounds

I find that I prefer the iPod Classic more than the Hippo Gumstick because of the way that they produced sound. iPod Classic produced sound in a more CD like way in providing a clearer and cleaner sound with blacker background while the Gumstick sounded as if they were intentionally eq. However, the Gumstick still sound quiet but not as black as the iPod where the Gumstick have a very faint hissing sound. It is not noticeable but it is there which causes a reduction in the headroom. Besides that, the Gunstick also sounded fuller especially in the mids where it brought out the mids in both the JH16PRO and the DT880.

The cleaner sound and the blacker background allow the iPod to have a better soundstage than the Hippo Gumstick in where the Gumstick sounded more compress than the iPod. In comparison, the Gumstick doesn’t have as good instrument separation and the size of the soundstage is also slightly smaller though not by a large margin. The fuller sounding with a slightly longer decay also causes more reverb in the sounds as compared to the iPod especially in the bass section The iPod on the other hand sounded a bit more dryer but the tone is a little more accurate than the Gumstick.

  

Maybe the fuller mids is where the Gumstick excel at. The Gumstick helps brings out more mids that are slightly hidden by the darker toned in JH16PRO and give a fuller mids to the DT880. Besides that, the Gumstick also sounded more dynamics in which every hit of the note has more energy in it in comparison to iPod. This is probably due to the class A amp built inside which gives it more power than the iPod is able to supply to the headphone. This is also more noticeable in its ability to drive higher impedance headphone such as DT880 in giving a sufficient amount of volume and impact. However, I still find the needs of an external amplifier because it is still not able to drive them with full authority. So basically it will still be able to get you going for a while without amplifier, but in the end you will still need an amp to power up those high impedance headphones.

The bass section is also the area where it excels over the iPod. It has better bass impact and fatter in comparison. Every punch hits harder than the iPod is able to supply. But the warmer bass does come with flaws. The bass can sound bloated as if they were intentionally eq as compared to analogue adjustment or even the more digital like iPod. Although the bass is a bit bloated, the resolution on the Hippo Gumstick is just a tad better than iPod.

So in the end you can say that the iPod is more CD like with a clean sound, thin and more accurate sound with blacker background while the Gumstick is more analogue sounding with more dynamics, fatter and warmer tone, with grain in the background which reduces the headroom in the sound but at the same time they sounded as if they were intentionally EQ especially on the bloated bass response.

Both the iPod Classic and the Hippo Gumstick still don’t stand a chance against the bigger player. They both don’t have the refinement, resolution, and more analogue and natural sounds that the Hifiman HM-602 has. So both the iPod and Hippo Gumstick are still a level behind the great Hifiman in terms of technicalities.

It really gets me questioning myself how one of the worse sounding mp3 player in the world (besides cheap brands) as deemed by other audiophiles can actually beat the Hippo Gumstick that is on par with the cube C30, Sansa Fuze and other mp3 player of this range that is said to be better than iPod. Now it really makes me wonder which iPod they are referring to after I’ve audition both the Gumstick and iPod Classic. I don’t really have much experience with Digital Audio Player (DAP/ MP3 player) of this price range but I only can tell is that iPod is still better than Hippo Gumstick.

In conclusion is this still a good player? Well if you are looking for function such ability to play FLAC and to drive a higher impedance headphone and most importantly extreme portability then this should be what you are looking for. If you are looking for better sound quality than an iPod Classic, then I think it is more of a different in tuning rather than beating the iPod Classic hands on.

I would like to thank Ronald for giving me the chance to review this Hippo Gumstick.

Note: I’m not sure about the current status of the Hippo Gumstick, but seems like they have been out of production for a while. Hippo’s products always have a short product life which is restricting the users from purchasing a good product from the Hippo’s product line. If you really need one urgently, try getting a second hand unit or you can ask the Jaben Team in your home country or Jaben Singapore for international orders on the current status of Hippo Gumstick.

Source: iPod Classic, Hifiman HM-602

Headphone: Beyerdynamic DT880, Crossroads HR1, Crossroads Woody 2, JH16PRO

Price: US$99

            MYR 319 bundled with Hippo Pearl