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Sansa Fuze -> X -> Fiio E5 - Ety ER4S

post #1 of 7
Thread Starter 
I just ordered a Fuze but am concerned that it will not power my er4s. Since I am looking to stay small, and since I will never justify spending more than 1/3 of the cost of the headphones on an amp, I have been looking into the Fiio E5 as a potential amp solution. I have searched the forums and have read several times that there is little to no difference in sound quality between the hp out and a lod on the Fuze. I currently have all of my portable music in 320kbps mp3, but would consider taking the file size hit if it would make a difference. Is it worth my time to make a lod for the Fuze or should I just stick with the hp out?

Thanks
post #2 of 7
in my experience having a LOD on the fuze going to the fiio E5 is a lot better than the hp out to the E5
post #3 of 7
Stick with the headphone out initially...try it out.

If you don't like it, you can always make a custom LOD afterwards and see the results.
post #4 of 7
u gotta think -> how does an lod work.

normally ur player goes from DAC to amp and then to lineout

the idea is to bypass the amp and go straight to lineout.

but this is impossible, because to get line level signal you need some power - and the only place to get it is the amp.

So players with docks still use the internal amp for a line level signal, however the line level signal takes a different electrical singal path in some players, making it cleaner.

I assume the fuze is not one of these player and dock out is the same as HP out at line level.

its all low voltage with portables anyway ...

yeah so go for the 3.5mm
post #5 of 7
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Junesequa View Post
u gotta think -> how does an lod work.

normally ur player goes from DAC to amp and then to lineout

the idea is to bypass the amp and go straight to lineout.

but this is impossible, because to get line level signal you need some power - and the only place to get it is the amp.

So players with docks still use the internal amp for a line level signal, however the line level signal takes a different electrical singal path in some players, making it cleaner.

I assume the fuze is not one of these player and dock out is the same as HP out at line level.

its all low voltage with portables anyway ...

yeah so go for the 3.5mm
You do realize that some DAC are capable of outputting line level signal with out passing the signal to an opamp, right? There are a lot of assumptions that go into your comment
post #6 of 7
I did say 'normally' :P and 'some players'

nope didnt know that. thanks for pointing it out

how would a dac output line level? even for line level there needs to be amplification right?
post #7 of 7
Line level doesn't require amplification. Line level is just a standard established to represent that the output signal is at the best dynamic range possible. If the DAC is outputting the signal at the best dynamic range over a standardized reference voltage, it is at line level. If you look into the idea behind iMod and diyMod, they basically just reroute the line out directly from the Wolfson DAC to the dock connector or mini jack, bypassing all the amp section altogether.

Fuze's SoC (AS3525) is slightly different as the line-out section of the chip has a small integrated amp section which allows for variable output (meaning the line-out can output lower than line level signal). Actually all three of AS3525 outputs (speaker- headphone- and line-out) have independent amp sections. In early Fuze firmware, you can change the line-out level just like the volume control on headphone-out, and this was criticized (and questioned) by users for not being a true line-out (in conventional sense, line-out should be constant). In response, Sandisk disable the variable control on the last of the latest firmware so line-out only outputs constant line-level signal from that onward. One of the funny thing is, the same SoC has been used on other Sansa players (mostly v2 player) as well but with the variable line-out disable as default and users never question the authenticity of the line-out. By enable the variable feature on Fuze, Sandisk actually gets negative publicity. No one would have complained if it was disable from the beginning
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