HisoundAudio Nova 3 Quick Review

HisoundAudio Nova 3 Quick Review

Thanks to Hisoundaudio for the sample

Brief: Hisoundaudio tries touchscreen

Price:  Presently £163 on ebay

Specification:  Memory size:  16 GB+ External SD card slot  (Up to 32GB), Size of the Screen: 1.8 inch TFT colour screen. Playing time of the battery: 20hours. Weight: 60g. Formats supported: MP3, WMA, WAV, Part of APE, FLAC, USB: 2.0, The battery capacity: 400mAh, Frequency response range: 15-25000HZ, S/N:> 96 DB, Size of the player: 93X 42x8.5mm, Colour: Champagne golden

Accessories:  1, Player: 1 unit,  2, USB cable: 1 pieces. 3, earphones: 3 pairs - PAA1  4, Some foam or silicon tips. 5, Manual 1 6, Quality warranty card 1.

Build Quality:  The main body is nice, the side buttons I’ve seen complains about but I had no bother with them.  Feels all quite solid.

In the Hand:  I don’t like capacitive buttons, this has them and that makes me sad.

UI:  Well the Far East has yet to master UI’s and this isn’t bucking that trend.

Battery:  Lasted me a day easily enough but it’s probably not making it through two.

Aesthetics:  I didn’t like the “gold” and would have much rathered the Nova 1’s gun metal look (from pic’s anyway) but I’m never a fan of gold anyway.  To quote the friend I asked the opinion of, “it looks cheap.”

Sound:  Pretty good really, it’s clearly a step above what your phone will give you but compared to the other HisoudAudio things I’ve heard I wasn’t wow’ed.  Sure it’s nice but it’s the same money as a Rocoo BA was and it was clearly better.   But then the Rocoo BA didn’t include a pretty great pair of IEM’s.  Clearly a fair chunk of your cash goes towards the 3 earphones in the bundle and should you want them, great.  Should you not, well it’s a bit of a waste of money then buying things you don’t want.  Gifts for family and friends perhaps?  (Do keep the Wooduo 2’s though they are rather good.)  Still the DAP I wasn’t loving as you effectively have to use the EQ which I dislike doing and it makes it impossible to review because every EQ setting changes it so much.  Not to mention the user EQ so it’s effectively infinitely variable.  Great if you’re only having one DAP and you like that sort of thing.  Still what was a bit bothersome were the beeps and clicks the player produces, no hiss but in quiet passages there is a constant beep and squeaking that could well annoy.

Value:  Do you need the bundled Wooduo 2’s?  If yes they it’s a great little bundle if you’re not going to use them it’s not so much.  The old Rocoo’s cost the same and are just better sounding.  Granted its better than your phone, it beats my ipod too but I’d sooner get a Rocoo.

Pro’s:  Great package, the Wooduo’s are easily the best bundled IEM’s ever.

Con’s:  Capacitive buttons, UI, get the IEM’s whether you want them or not.