[Impression] FiiO E7 (warning: lot of pics!!!) - Page 3

I think any assumption that E7 will be vastly better than E5 is problematic. In fact, I once said even T4 is not 4 times better than E5, if you consider the price difference ($100 vs $25). I am not sure how big an improvement can be qualified as 'big', but I do understand that in the audio world the price increment is almost alway exponential where the quality increment is not. For example, when I was planning to pick up my main portable amp 2 years ago, I auditioned the Pico with USB DAC. While it is a nice portable amp DAC, I certainly do not find it to be twice as good as 3MOVE (was almost $500 vs. $260 back then). Thus I bought 3MOVE knowing whatever I missed on Pico will no worth what I am willing to pay for it.

I have seen PCM270x based USB DAC being sold for almost $80 by itself. CMoy with OPA2134 on stripboard used to be sold on eBay for $80 just a few years back. In fact, there is almost no sub-$100 DAC amp just 2 years ago. The truth is, the WM8740 based DAC section on E7 alone can easily be priced over $100 if FiiO want to, not to mention the amp, the case, the screen and half a year of design and labor - but that won't fit their business model on offering bang for buck products. One thing I know for sure, FiiO has no plan to go into the higher-end of the business, and you shouldn't expect that policy to change any time soon.

If you have $100+ budget and don't need a DAC, a mini3 or T3 will be nice.

E7 will serve better than on board soundcard, which is what it is primary designed for and its noticeable benefit. PL-30 doesn't need much amping, but I am sure it will benefit from E7 bass boost.

If you are only going to use it as a pure desktop DAC, uDAC seems to fit your bill. I am also thinking of picking one up to so I am get a line-out to my desktop amp once the local dealer has it in stock. It will be nice to compare its line-out to E7 line-out if E7 has a cradle by then.