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Member Reviews: FiiO E7 USB DAC and Portable Headphone Amplifier

Positive Reviews

TomT

New today - couldn't be more pleased!

Posted
By TomT

Pros: Reasonable - works as advertised - no hassle setup!

Cons: Scratched plastic over display (corrected - see text)

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...
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Negative Reviews

bcasey25raptor

it sounds worse then my onboard

Posted
By bcasey25raptor

Pros: durable, has an amp

Cons: sounds worse then my onboard and ipod.

ok everyone i am probably going to get hate for this but i should have ordered the grado sr60s instead. my conexant hd audio sound on my laptop is obviously onboard. from the opinion and belief of people on head-fi is that onboard is terrible. they recommended i buy the fiio e7. so i got $200 for a graduation present and decided to get a fiio e7. i was certain it would make a difference as everyone has been praising it. so after 8 days it arrives. i am so excited to hear what i have been missing. i quickly plug it in and let it charge a bit. i plug my shure srh840 in and at first (placebo effect) i think they sound phenomenal. then after a few songs i plugged my shure srh840 into my...
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More Reviews

lee730

Amazing Fiio E7

Posted
By lee730

Pros: Music is fuller, crisp, instruments are clearly seperated and represented. Great overall value.

Cons: Non so far.

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...
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sdhobbs

Fiio E7 Review

Posted
By sdhobbs

Pros: Price, quality, sound, versatility,long battery life,small size

Cons: None

  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...
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Deathdeisel

Good for the money and beginners

Posted
By Deathdeisel

Pros: Cheap, good overall quality, durability

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...
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DolbyDan

E7 with AKG K550

Posted
By DolbyDan

Pros: Cheap, good volume, no hiss(32ohm), nice eq & really good upgrade from Laptop

Cons: Could do with a better gain when plugged into MP3, no quick lock

Wanted an improvement over my onboard laptop mess.   No interference, hiss (from 32ohm), very quick connection, good volume.   Bass reproduction on EQ Bass1 is spot on with my AKG K550.  Stereo seperation seems spot on and the general tone is much more appealing through the E7 in comparison to onboard laptop sound.   The bass and quality of sound is the most promonent improvement over laptop on board sound.
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takato14

First dedicated headphone amp; VERY impressed

Posted
By takato14

Pros: Awesome build quality, stylish, small, loud, great battery life, OLED display, dual headphone outputs

Cons: Poor EQ

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...
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Hifianddrumming

Fiio E7 Review

Posted
By Hifianddrumming

Pros: Great Pricepoint, reasonable DAC/AMP

Cons: Sounds a little closed in, only 16/48

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...
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cleg

Perfect multi-purpose device

Posted
By cleg

Pros: quality, price, design, controls, durability

Cons: none

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...
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bjoy04

Fiio E7

Posted
By bjoy04

Pros: Silent, Step up in SQ over my Pioneer VSX-918V

Cons: Price, Volume/Power, Shelf-Battery Life

I'm happy with this for my purposes.  I use a LOD as well, which may account for some SQ improvements.  When I listen to music from my Desktops HD Audio out (Gigabyte UD3R) it is more silent with better clarity coming through this (E7) than my Pioneer VSX-918V(Receiver).  This was a surprise to me.  Of course my receiver can put out much more volume, than this but my headphones (Senn. HD 280) can't take that much power so they sound best through the E7.  Of course the E7 also seems to remove so bass as well; it cleans up the bass as well but reduces it.   **I use a headphone jack from my desktop to the E7, and an optical cable from my desktop to the...
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theeyealtering

Good alternative to laptop sound

Posted
By theeyealtering

Pros: Powerful amp, Well built

Cons: Interface

This little amp has plenty of juice and is a good replacement for dodgy laptop sound. Just don't expect it to outperform more expensive DACs, soundcards and amps because it won't. The interface is a bit irritating and I find myself wishing it had a volume knob, not just buttons. I find it hard to figure out which button is which without looking at it. Generally though, it seems pretty solidly built, so no complaints there, although one of the jacks on mine has always been a bit iffy. Sound is reasonable, a little bit of extra bass and a lot more clarity when compared with my onboard sound. I'd also probably say it sounds better than my Sansa Clip+. Clearly outperformed by a better DAC or...
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Brooko

E7 - first AMP/DAC - good entry level value

Posted
By Brooko

Pros: Clean SQ (dac), good build quality, value, versatility

Cons: Bass boost can be boomy, tends to be cold/analytical, can sound a little 'thin'

This is my first AMP/DAC, so unfortunately I don't have anything to compare it with. I'm also using a mid-range set of Shure IEM's (SE420) and a lower range set of Sennheiser eh250 cans. For a source, I have a Cowon iAudio7, an iPod Touch 4G, and the PC just has a Realtek onboard sound chip. It didn't make a huge difference as an amp - but the dac is quite clean and better than my netbook's integrated audio. To be honest, there isn't a great deal of difference with my main PC's integrated onboard though. The design of the E7 is very simple. It matches up with my iPod Touch 4G really well for size (I also bought the L3 LOD). The controls are very simply and easy to use. The tactile...
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