Fiio amps?

[xnothingpoetic]

Got my amp the other day and I am very satisfied with the sound. It only enhances what I want (bass/tame treble slightly)- and doesn't distort it in any way. Great synergy with the er4s!

I also installed a small toggle switch and super glued the Sansa Clip's clip to the fiio, and made a custom ~2" IC. A very small and compact portable rig which sounds great.

[japc]

Nice. Could you post a picture of the mod?

[xnothingpoetic]

Sorry, I don't have a camera here.

But I'll see if someone will take a picture for me at our meet this Saturday.

[i_don't_know]

If I wanted to turn off the bass boost, how would I do it? Can it be done without taking the amp apart?


This applies to both the E3 and E5.

[dfkt]

You can't turn it off with the E3. With the E5 it's a touch of a button.

[i_don't_know]

Yeah, that settles it. I NEED to get the E5. I hope it won't impair SQ or clarity at all. Can't have it ruining the sound of my HA-RX700's!

[GnaM]

Just got the E3. Definitely kicks the sound up a notch, particularly in terms of bass, particularly if like me you've got low-bass headphones like HD 280's. For the ultra-low price I think it's worth it.

However, it still leaves something to be desired compared to my home rig (which is not very sophisticated at all, just an old cheap Sony stereo with no amp) so I'm already jonesing for a more serious entry level amp like caffeine or PAv2.

I would say the E3 is definitely worth it if you know you won't be able to afford or won't want a pricier amp for some time, or if you really can't stand the increased size of other amps. On the other hand, if you think you might consider a pricier amp in the near future and you've got a bit of money saved up, I think you might be best off just skipping the Fiio and going straight for a $60-100 model.

Then again, I haven't tried any other amps, so I can't say how much better the sound is on more expensive amps compared to the price.

[Seidhepriest]

It is noticeably "dumber" than a $25 CMoy amp. High frequency detail is lacking, not much space. So yes, better skip the FiiO E3 and go for something better, even the cheapest CMoy amp.

The E3 looks more like an "earbud amp", designed to boost the part of frequency response that bundled earbuds aren't that good with.

[TheBigJim]

Hello everyone,
Im a bit new, been looking at all this for a while now. I have recently got a Clip 4gb, the sound is awesome and im very happy with it. However i have noticed that the maximum volume is a bit lower than i would like. I just wish it had about three more steps increasing it. Would adding this E3 amp bring the sound up that little bit more? Im using Senheiser PX-100 headphones with it. Would a Penguinamp caffiene be a better bet? I really just want to increase the volume a small amount.

Any help would be great> Anyone else notice the volume is a little low on the Sansa Clip 4gb?

[Seidhepriest]

The FiiO E3 doesn't have a volume control. It won't boost the loudness, likely just add some volume (power, punchiness, etc.). It does a ~+3dB boost under 1000 Hz, boosting the lower midrange.

A CMoy amp will also improve sound clarity, the E3 can make things somewhat "square", less fluid, and it's not as good as a CMoy with the upper midrange/high frequencies.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Seidhepriest

The FiiO E3 doesn't have a volume control. It won't boost the loudness, likely just add some volume (power, punchiness, etc.). It does a ~+3dB boost under 1000 Hz, boosting the lower midrange.

It boosts frequencies below 500Hz (not 1000Hz) by +3dB, and it boosts the overall source volume by about +7 to +8 dB (i.e. twice as loud for most human ears).

[Seidhepriest]

FiiO E3 Headphone Amplifier Review

- there's the review with the frequency response graph... Shows a +3 boost at 50 Hz or so, +1 at 500, but then test results can differ...

Maybe those were just the headphones around here, but it couldn't boost the loudness for the K-240S by much. Sure it gave them a bit of a kick in the low area, but then everything else lagged severely. The OVC HC1000 can't get much loudness boost out of the E3 between them and the T2 either, they just start distorting at loudness 34-36, the excessive power of the bass boost makes them suffer...

[dfkt]

I wrote that review.

I took the middle of the lower shelf (500Hz) for what the E3 does. It's a matter of interpretation, indeed. The 100-1000Hz range shows a rather wide Q factor.

I don't know about the K240S, but I noticed a volume boost with my HD650 as well, maybe not as much as with efficient IEMs, but still noticeable with wimpy sources like a Sansa Clip.

I measured the 7-8dB boost with no phone attached, directly into a sound card, so that's a bit of a "theoretical" result. Anyways, doesn't matter if 16 or 300 Ohm phones, they all got a volume boost from my FiiO, audible with my ears. Interesting that you got such different results regarding the volume boost.

[Seidhepriest]

The K-240S did get boosted to a mildly listenable level from the T2/E3, but it still wasn't enough for them to isolate from traffic noise.

HC1000 do get a boost, but there're a couple problems here...

First, the E3 tends to inject a lot of power into bass, so the poor 30mm diaphragms distort at slightly more than the loudness/power input the T2 can provide by itself. So the T2 needs a bit of a "bass drop" EQ to make the HC1000 work with the FiiO E3. And T2's EQ isn't that great, it adds another bit of artificiality.

Second, it really sounds "squarish" - there's not enough fluidity in the upper midrange and treble, everything tends towards "static" sines. A switch to a cheap CMoy amp brought more fluidity to the sound and brought out the space (which is mostly provided by precise high-frequency drawing). So it looks like the E3 "undersamples" - its transistor setup is not fine enough for the higher frequencies. And of course by comparison to the Minibox-D with its 40-KHz "audio" bandwidth, beautifully defined space and details, the E3 is just a plastic box.

In summary, what you get is what you pay for... An amp with a built-in bass boost (might be helpful for some setups, won't be that great for when bass isn't lacking) and not very precise harmonic drawing.

[Seidhepriest]

Oh, and yes, it's an old sound editing habit to refer to the affected range by the Q width...

The K-240 result is not that surprising, as the K-240 like a lot of power evenly distributed over the whole frequency range.

Denon AH-D1000 did get a boost, but it's not that significant... it certainly isn't 7-8 dB, more of a 2-4 dB boost, and most improvements are in a more effortless soundstage and dynamics. At the cost of that "squarishness" in sound and prodding the lower midrange & bass over everything else. Most of that volume boost seems to go into the "punchiness" somehow, not into a clarity across the whole range, as with a CMoy amp...