Quake3World

andyman wrote:
it will open the full potential of your headphones. buy it!!

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E17-USB-Head ... words=fiio

Baader-Meinhof... I was recently having a look at headphone amps. Do you have the E17 Andyman? The E07 is about 2/3 the price but I haven't yet delved into specs etc to find out why :/

vesp wrote:

andyman wrote:
it will open the full potential of your headphones. buy it!!

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E17-USB-Head ... words=fiio

Baader-Meinhof... I was recently having a look at headphone amps. Do you have the E17 Andyman? The E07 is about 2/3 the price but I haven't yet delved into specs etc to find out why :/

yeah i got the e17 on july 21st 2012, according to amazon hehe been using it every time i use my headphones, which , for the last 7 months, has been every day. and used it a lot at home before that simply because they sound way better than any speakers I had in my shitty apartment, and also didn't want to turn up the volume and disturb the neighbors any more than I already was when i screamed at battlefield

interesting andy - so that device actually acts as an external sound card too right? Does it work seamlessly with everything, and what about my onboard audio - if I keep it enabled will that mean I get an audio signal out of both the onboard audio card and the filo?

It's a digital audio converter and amp at the same time, so it will accept and convert signal from USB, optical, and regular aux. It's not as feature packed as an Astro as far as audio conversion goes but it's much cleaner. You can adjust bass/treble/gain through the menu too. sounds very very good, in my opinion.

If you can have two outputs for sound on your computer then you can do that... when this is plugged in through USB it acts as it's own sound output option. i don't know the correct terms here.
It worked fine with battlefield 3's surround sound features.

I'm still confused. So it's not a sound card?

If it's not a sound card, how do my USB ports magically supply a sound signal? Like, if I plug this device into my USB port on the back of my computer, will it produce sound?

it will produce sound if you plug it into a usb port on your computer. it's plugged into mine right now... lol

awesome thanks, just read a few reviews and it seems that the e17 is a great product (even compared to the e10). Will likely have it by next wknd!

[xeno]Julios wrote:I'm still confused. So it's not a sound card?

If it's not a sound card, how do my USB ports magically supply a sound signal? Like, if I plug this device into my USB port on the back of my computer, will it produce sound?

It is a sound card (i.e. it has a DAC chip inside).

Fiio E17 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier

E17 is kind of high-grade and multi-functional amplifier for headphones. It has many excellent functions with small shape and being portable. High performance design of amplifier is to ensure the quality of sound. Multi-input ports design makes it easy to operate. It has many ports such as PC USB or S/PDIF digital single or AUX analog signal input. With OLED screen, the interface of E17 is so intuitive and key operation is comfortable.

This means you can use it as a DAC+headphone amp with digital sources such as USB or S/PDIF or as a headphone amp only with the AUX analog input.

Will the DAC work with something like an iPod? As I understand it, the DAC on an iPod or iPhone is pretty shitty. Can you go from Apple-connector-to-USB to the USB input?

obsidian wrote:Will the DAC work with something like an iPod? As I understand it, the DAC on an iPod or iPhone is pretty shitty. Can you go from Apple-connector-to-USB to the USB input?

Yes, you can do it a something like the Wadia 170i Transport iPod Dock. Digital transport docks are usually expensive, though, so it may be worth it if you have a better standalone DAC than the E17.

I meant with the FiiO or similar portable DAC/amp, the point being portability with the iPod. The Wadia isn't exactly pocket friendly.

obsidian wrote:I meant with the FiiO or similar portable DAC/amp, the point being portability with the iPod. The Wadia isn't exactly pocket friendly.

No, the best you can do is use a good line-out-dock wire which bypasses the iPod's headphone amp. You still use its DAC, but this way your headphone amp gets a cleaner signal. They come with audiophile-grade capacitors, you can get a decent one for around $50 on eBay (hand made). I've used one with my Sansa Fuze to connect to my Graham Slee Voyager and I find that it's a very worthwhile investment if that's what you want.

The pair is still a brick, though, so usually you may as well use a laptop's USB port instead.

ToxicBug wrote:The pair is still a brick, though, so usually you may as well use a laptop's USB port instead.

img

That's nuts

Do you listen to headphones that much?!

And then you play heavily compressed mp3 files with it...? I don't get it.

FLAC master race.

Does an iPod play that?

Uh, good question. Idk really.

mrd wrote:

ToxicBug wrote:The pair is still a brick, though, so usually you may as well use a laptop's USB port instead.

img

That's nuts

Do you listen to headphones that much?!

Nope, not since I got my speaker setup. I only use that amp with an my Pico USB DAC in the office now. In fact. I sold the Westone 4 earphones that you see in the pic and only kept my Ultrasone Edition 8.



As far as music sound quality goes, I use 24 bit 192 KHz FLAC when possible, 16 bit FLAC otherwise, and 320 kbps MP3 in the worst case. I wouldn't listen to music off Youtube or something, if that's what your're referring to. The Sansa Fuze plays FLAC, I'm not up-to-date with iPods, but I think they play a proprietary Apple lossless format.

Honestly, most music is available in 320 kbps MP3. It's not that bad, but of course FLAC sounds better, especially 24 bit.

ToxicBug wrote:

obsidian wrote:Will the DAC work with something like an iPod? As I understand it, the DAC on an iPod or iPhone is pretty shitty. Can you go from Apple-connector-to-USB to the USB input?

Yes, you can do it a something like the Wadia 170i Transport iPod Dock. Digital transport docks are usually expensive, though, so it may be worth it if you have a better standalone DAC than the E17.

you can get a specialized cable from FiiO that goes into the docking port of the ipod and into the aux port of the amp. works very well.

Apple will play ALAC, which like FLAC is lossless.


Thanks andyman, that's what I needed to know.

obsidian wrote:Thanks andyman, that's what I needed to know.

It's exactly what I told you

Just make sure that you don't buy something like this:



FiiO L3 Line Out Dock (LOD) Cable For iPod and iPhone

and instead go for a hand-made AudioMinor product like this one (I bought my Sansa Fuze LOD from this guy, it sounds great):



IPOD LINE-OUT-DOCK (LOD) FOR HEADPHONE AMP,Pure Copper!

The low-quality capacitors in the FiiO basically mean that it sounds about the same as the headphone out. With the AudioMinor LOD, you'll notice a big difference.