FiiO E7 USB DAC and Portable Headphone Amplifier

Received new FiiO E7 today from Micca in Fairfax, Va (hi ex-neighbor - used to live in Arlington.)

Did much reading on this forum and other reviews and truly appreciate the candid and (sometimes) brutal thoughts of recent purchasers.  After just a few hours experience, can only share my first impressions - all of which are positive.

Unpacked, reviewed instruction sheet, plugged in USB connector to a Sony notebook running W7.  The Sony found the E7 and loaded its driver, all on its own.  Then, put in classical CD and connected my recentlly acquired Senn HD 650's.  Results:  Wow Wow and Wow!  Maybe a $1000 amp could sound better, but to my older (74) ears, the sound was the best I've ever heard through earphones. 

The E7 is very intuitive and just needed the pictorial on which hole to plug each device into to get it up and working.  Was a little confused at first - each time I powered up, it immediately came on then powered down.  Then, needed to read the instruction sheet:  just touch the switch to turn on; touch and hold for a second or two to turn it off!  So easy a caveman could do it (if they read the instructions, that is!)

Played around with the bass setting and have found setting #1 and #2 sound best with CD's - #1 for Pop and #2 for classical.  The HD 650's had great presence and I'm hearing sounds that never came out of my modest AV setup with some older Infinity speakers.  Also, tried direct connection to a Sirius Stiletto.  The Stiiletto drives the 650's good - with the E7 it drives the 650's noticeably better!

Only complaint and it's minor:  when unwrapping (and it was packed beautifully by Micca, noticed a few scratches on the plastic cover over the display.  Nothing I can't live with, but am wondering what it will look like after several road trips.  But, bought the E7 to listen to, not to look at so no big deal.  At first thought perhaps the plastic was a temporary protector but it appears to be glued in place and not readily removable.  

Another not-quite-sure finding:  Does the E7 charge via USB when the computer - but not the E7 - is turned on?   I turned off the E7 to have some lounch and when I checked it out an hour later, the charge had not increased.  Right now, am charging with the E7 turned on and will 'discover' whether this was a solution or not.

An earlier post of some time ago was apparently never answered:  how does the E7 work with the Senn HD 650's?  My answer:  Great!   If I'm ever in a high-end store will try out my 650's with a $1K  amp to see what improvement $900 more can make.  In the meantime, I'm quite happy.,

My thanks again to the posters in this forum whose comments led me to order and receive the E7.   And,  to Jack of Micca who often contributes to this forum and shipped it packed so well.  BTW Jack, do not believe the E7 package had been opened since leaving the factory, so the scratches were probably done with a chopstick!

Regards to all and Thank You.

Tom T

North Augusta, SC

Correction (the day after):  My dumb error - a kind person sent me a private message suggesting check whether or not a protective film is on the display.  Took me a minute or two to confirm that there IS a protective film in place; thus NO scratch.  My apologies for not recognizing the film and thanks for the kind info.  Will leave the film in place until a proper screen protector is available. 

What can I say about this device. It is simply fantastic and for the price you can't beat it I say. I currently use this with my Sennheiser IE8's, Bose IE2's and in my car connected to my stereo and it makes all the difference in the world with all 3 of these devices. I haven't figured out how to use it to bypass my sound card in my computer but I will soon. I know for sure its better than my Xi-Fi card from creative and that alone is a very high end card for a computer. I notice when using the Fiio with all my devices my music sounds fuller, more detailed, crisp in all aspects, highs, mids,lows, bass.

Things that I didn't notice before are clearly apparent now and the clarity of your music is unbelievable. I've been showing friends and coworkers how this sounds with my Bose IE2's and they are blown away with the clarity and sound stage. The Bose IE2's are a great improvement from the last gene but man with the Fiio and my Sansa Fuze it really makes them enjoyable to listen to even though I have a pair of Sennheiser IE8's (which are still far superior to the Bose) I still enjoy listening to my Bose IE2's with the Fiio, go figure ;)

One nice feature on the Fiio is the bass equalizer. Very simple 0 to 3, I only take it up to 1 though as it seems to interfere with the mids with too much bass but 1 is perfect. 0 sounds great too but its more analytical. I prefer some spice in my music opposed to a more straightforward boring sound. As I said earlier you can plug this into your computer to bypass your sound card which is another great feature and gives your more versatility and overall value. I like how the device isn't overly complicated and pretty much idiot proof.

If you are mainly using this with your mp3 player you definitely want to make sure you don't use the 3.5 jack for you headphones to connect this baby to your mp3 as that will cause the amps in the Fiio and the mp3 player to conflict. You'll have to max the volume on the Fiio while also suffering sound quality lose due to the 2 amps conflicting. Get a Line out Dock (LOD) for your device unless your mp3 has that extra port connection for the amplifier then you're set. Fiio sells (LOD)'s for Sansa, Ipod (Eww lol) and Sony Walkman. Basically the (LOD) connects to where your would normally connect your charger/music loader cable to your Sansa/Ipod and the other end connects to the amplifier; while you plug your headphones to the 2 available 3.5 jacks on the Fiio (that's another great feature).

Basically connecting your mp3 to the (LOD) completely bypasses the amplifier in your mp3 player and instead exclusively uses the amp on the Fiio. So the mp3 player is only transmitting the music to the amp, I think that will also extend the batter life of your mp3 player so you don't have to charge it as often another plus :). And as the amp on the mp3 is completely being bypassed, even if your using an mp3 player with crappy sound quality (Ipod) you will still get spectacular sound due to the Fiio.

The Fiio goes all the way up to 60 max volume and has a memory feature for the volume control. The device also has a sleep timer on it which is quite helpful in extending batter life between charges. I heard the battery can last up to 80 hours on each charge, haven't tested that yet. Finally but not least there is a key lock feature and a USB on off charge feature.

Overall I would highly recommend this to the beginner audiophile or to someone who just enjoys music and wants a cheap alternative to the higher priced amps out there. Fiio has a great reputation for sound quality and overall durability from their products, even though its made in China lol. I got mine from amazon from Micca and I've heard of them going as low as the mid $80 range. So if your looking to immerse yourself in the pure exhilaration of music then get this product, you won't be disappointed. Good luck guys and gals :).

I Love this product!  I currently use it at work and home as a USB DAC for my computer. I aslo use it on the go with my iphone via a Fiio's LOD3 cable.  It sounds great from all my sources!  I currently only use it with my Earsonic SM3's IEM's. But what's so cool is that in the future if I want to get power hungry full size cans for home use all I have to do is get Fiio's E9 desktop amp which has a port for the E7 and i'm all set!

The E7 is completely silent, no hiss whatsover.  It has a smooth non-colored high end sound, I don't even find the need to EQ my source when i'm plugged into the E7.  The bass boost is cool, although I don't use it with my SM3's, but it's nice to know it's there in case I get bass light phones.  The build quality is top notch, works on any computer I connect it to, never had a problem with it.  Battery life is insane.  Great job Fiio!!

I bought this little device a long time ago and have never done a review on it. Surprising. 

Sound quality is quite good, it wont beat dedicated desktop setups, but in reality its a very small difference between them. E7 vs My 2012 Macbook Air is easily noticeable. Even if im not paying attention, the air has a good amount of feedback when playing or just having my earbuds in. Its noticeable on all of my headphones. The fiio sounds completely silent up until 50+ volume on my sensitive IEMs. And at that point your at noise deafening volumes, I accidentally plugged my IEMs in when the volume was at 60, never made that mistake again. Seriously was worried I had destroyed my IEMs and my ears. 

Bass presets are nice, but anything past 2 just sounds artificial, fake and really boomy. At 1 bass is slightly distorted, but only when A/B testing it with it on and off and looking for it. And this is coming from a basshead. Would I buy it again? Yep, simply because even though ive replaced it and the E9 combo from my desktop I can still use it on the go. 

The chassis is good overall too, aluminum body with plastic screen, stainless steel buttons feel good and press firmly with a noticeable click. Also comes with a screen protector, Ive applied it and its held up okay too. 

To those beginners or audiophiles on a budget, this is a very good buy imo. Is there better? Maybe, im not sure. 

The FiiO E7 is a wonderful device. 

It is a combo USB DAC and portable headphone amplifier unit. It has a 1-inch OLED display and a simple but good menu system. The screen is bright and vibrant, and looks very nice.

It has a high-end Wolfson DAC chip, and the audio sounds much cleaner than out of my laptop.

The amp has quite a bit of power behind it: 150mW/channel into 16 ohms. It drives my AKG K240 Studios very well without breaking a sweat. It even has the balls to drive my Pioneer SE-700s to listenable volumes with no distortion. That's extremely impressive; these headphones were designed to be driven from speaker taps.

The only thing about this product I can say is bad is the equalizer. It doesn't have bands, first off: It's only a bass boost. Second, even the 1st boost setting causes heavy distortion, making the whole thing entirely useless. Another thing that's less of a flaw and more of a nit-picky thing, is that you can't <just> charge the unit through a USB port on your computer. If it is plugged in, your computer will send all audio to it even if it is switched off. Not sure why FiiO did this, but they did.

Definitely go for this. FiiO is a great brand. I'm definitely considering some of their other products after this experience.

Well, after almost a month with my E7, I figured It was time to give it a good review. This was my first DAC/AMP (paired with the E9) so I don't have much to compare it to, except an auditioned schiit asgard.

 Build Quality and Appearance (8/10)-

 Appearance isn't an area that generally matters that much to me, but the anodized aluminum ( did I get that right?) finish was a VERY nice touch the OLED screen was bright, but not necessarily good in sunlight.

 The build quality overall is very nice as well. All of the screws are very secure, no rattling there. The buttons are tight and seem nice to the push, very sturdy. the glass on the screen has proven to be very nice, no scratching, or the one time I accidentally dropped it, breaking. However, the headphone out connections look and feel a little loose at times, something I wasn't too happy with. The signal doesn't ever seem to drop though, nor do I hear any crackling/fuzziness, so the issue doesn't seem to be a major issue.

 I didn't know where to put this, but the user friendlyness is definitely lacking. Although the button layouts are pretty simple, the actual interface can be a challenge to navigate.

 The E7 came in a nice box, with a silicone case. There was also a carrying pouch for it, a usb-mini cable, a 3.5 to 3.5 cable, and a silicone band to attach it to your DAP. Couple of nice touches, but pretty standard. The box had a picture of E7 on it, with "USB DAC/ headphone amp" written on it.

 Sound (8/10)

 The sound comparisons were done with the onboard sound card of an iMac -  Grado sr-125is, and also iPod - Sr125is. I then tried both those with the Fiio E7.

 First of all, with the iMac-

 As you could probably guess here, the results were substantial, considering the fact that in this situation it is acting as a DAC and an amp. The E7 basically did it's job. It cleaned up some rough edges, improved some perceived soundstage, cleared up the overall sound, and, well, amplified. The E7 made the mids really shine on my Grados, an already strong point. I couldn't stop listening to anything with an acoustic guitar in it. The sometimes piercing treble was tamed a little bit, but also a little it fuller if that makes sense, not quite as sharp and spiky, but a little bit richer. I also noticed an increase in detail, for example, hearing the guitarists fingers sliding down the strings, or the slow decay of the vibrations. The part I loved about this amp/DAC so much was it's ability to bring out the bass more, an area admittedly lacking in the lower end Grado models. It didn't really add anything to it, just brought it forward a little bit. In my opinion, improving the sound signature greatly.

 From the iPod-

 Paired with the iPod, the E7 only acts as an amp. I did however, notice along the same lines as with the iMac. The sound was cleaner, clearer and larger. It added some depth and detail to my MTPCs.  It doesn't necessarily add much to the sound (a good amp shouldn't really) but kind of makes things more noticeable and makes it a little more spacious.

 There is a couple negatives. if there is flaw in your recording, or in the sound signature of your headphones, it WILL bring it out. If you have an overly bassy pair of headphones, it will make them even bassier. If you have piercing treble, they might become even more piercing. This is only a negative if you have flawed recordings or seriously flawed headphones, In some ways, this is a good thing because if you have mids that you love, it will bring them out even more, etc.

 The bass boost works well. there is no audible distortion really when using the bass boost, but I don't prefer to colour my music too much. I guess if you had severely lacking headphones it could come in handy, but I'm not really a basshead so I didn't pay much attention to that. i will tell you that it definitely works without distortion or serious loss of detail.

 It can only play 16/ 44.1  . That's not massive I guess, but annoying for someone who has a fair collection of 24/96. Buyers beware,if you want 24/96 search elsewhere

 Conclusion (8/10)

 For the very reasonable price, you get neutral amp/dac, that sufficiently drives headphones up to about 250 ohms. There's some cons but for the price/value, it's a great piece of equipment.

Main feature of Fiio E7 - it's multi-purpose usage possibilities. USB DAC and portable headphone amp in one compact and small body.

Specially I'd like to mention following:

• Design. It's really nice and stylish
• Long operation on one charge
• Perfect sound (really like it)
• Good control

I'm actually using E7 in two ways. First, like a portable amp for my iPod Nano, together with Mee A151 and Grado SR125i. But I think I'll use Fiio E6 now for that, it's much more portable, but sound really good (little worth then E7).
Second usage - I'm using it together with my MacBook Pro with perfect player Decibel. When used in hog mode - E7 sounds much better then built-in audio-card, especially with Grados.

Also E7 gives nice bass boost with EQ. It doesn't trash sound like all software EQ does, but gives very nice and soft impact for bass and lower mids. It's especially noticeable on brass.

So cost-wise, this DAC/amp is outstanding.

Few photos (cant's embed them, so just links):

http://cl.ly/0L3z0F283I133Z2n0G1R

http://cl.ly/092P1y2b3p1x2v1P0C1S