Great review, thanks.

Quote:

faheem said:

Great review mark !  Do you by any chance have a uDAC and compare the E7s DAC to the uDACs sound ? I tried searching but couldn't find many comparisons .

Click to expand...

i dont, sorry.  given the uDAC is not what id call call portable anyway its not something id really see as being a direct competitor anyway.
 
Quote:

buffys said:

How does it stand against a Cmoy?

Click to expand...

couldn't tell you, i dont have one
 
 

I wrote a review on uDAC in my blog last week if you are interested. There is a small comparison in the comment reply regarding E7.
Quote:

faheem said:

Great review mark !  Do you by any chance have a uDAC and compare the E7s DAC to the uDACs sound ? I tried searching but couldn't find many comparisons .

Click to expand...

Quote:

mark2410 said:

i dont, sorry.  given the uDAC is not what id call call portable anyway its not something id really see as being a direct competitor anyway.
 

couldn't tell you, i dont have one
 
 

Click to expand...

 That's true  both can't be directly compared as they cater different segments and Icon mobile would be a better comparison as you have done .  I came across a review on another site which found the E7 to be lot better than uDAC in terms of detailing and natural sound and It came to me as a surprise as I absolutely love the uDAC other than some minor flaws and not so neutral sound signature. Hence looking for opinions from people I know and appreciate  
Will try to get hold of an E7 , it looks like a huge step up from the E5,E1 from Fiio.Even more interesting would be the pairing of E7 with E9.

 
Quote:

clieos said:

I wrote a review on uDAC in my blog last week if you are interested. There is a small comparison in the comment reply regarding E7.

Click to expand...

 
Thanks for the link , will check it out right away.
 

It would be nice if they produced line out cable for the E7 tho.
 
-john

Quote:

faheem said:

 That's true  both can't be directly compared as they cater different segments and Icon mobile would be a better comparison as you have done .  I came across a review on another site which found the E7 to be lot better than uDAC in terms of detailing and natural sound and It came to me as a surprise as I absolutely love the uDAC other than some minor flaws and not so neutral sound signature. Hence looking for opinions from people I know and appreciate  
Will try to get hold of an E7 , it looks like a huge step up from the E5,E1 from Fiio.Even more interesting would be the pairing of E7 with E9.

 
 
Thanks for the link , will check it out right away.
 

Click to expand...

id find that hard to believe that the E7 is a lot better than the uDAC.  the E7 is lovely at what it does but what i suspect its more that that reviewer simply preferred the richer sound of the E7, it wouldnt surprise me if the uDAC was like the Icon Mobile and more than a little leaning towards bright.  the Icon Mobile and a bright headphone would just ravage the ears.  you would never dream of pairing say an RE-0 with the Icon Mobile but it goes lovely with the E7.

Awesome thorough review! Thank you, it was a great read.
 
Jack

Hi Mark,i dont received my E7,still waiting, but one of my iem are the denon c751,i agree whit you, they have a huge bass,but in my E5 without the BB,are warm,with great bass,maybe as you say with the E7,but are fun for some songs,
let me ask you,are really a bass monster,whit the E7,whit BB off?
can you post more impressions about E7+C751,Thanks and great review.
 

mark2410 said:

I did test the E7 out with the cool mid’ed C751 but it really didn’t work out.  Not one tiny bit in fact.  The warmer and more bassy sound of the E7 when combined with the huge bass of the Denon just made for a ridiculous bass monster. Which highlighted just how recessed the C751’s mids are.  The Icon tamed that bass and pulled the mids forward balancing them out, the E7 pushed them utterly in the opposite direction. 
 

Click to expand...

well i think the C751 is a bass monster no matter what you do to it.  i do think the Icon is Better at taming that bass and pulling out the C751's mids a bit. 
 
the E7 does inject a little liquidity into the Denons mids which is nice.  still its not a pairing i would naturally recommend but then im not a lover of huge bass.

great review Mark. if my impression is correct, that E7 alone is a IEM AMP, but when connected to a PC, the E7 becomes AMP and DAC. so E7 is simply an external sound card. if that's the fact, how does it compare to an internal sound card like xonar essence st/x in SQ.

Quote:

lie495fc said:

great review Mark. if my impression is correct, that E7 alone is a IEM AMP, but when connected to a PC, the E7 becomes AMP and DAC. so E7 is simply an external sound card. if that's the fact, how does it compare to an internal sound card like xonar essence st/x in SQ.

Click to expand...

no idea as ive never heard one, if i had to guess i doubt it would beat the far more expensive xonar.  what its really aimed more at is getting arround using the hellish on board sound card particularly on laptops where adding internal sound cards isnt really an option

Thanks a lot for that link to a UK retailer for these. One of the reasons I got the RE-Zero instead of 0 is because I thought I wouldn't need to invest in an amp, but the amount of time I spend with my iPod at full volume right now is ridiculous. I'd also like access to an EQ that doesn't suck... damn you, Apple.
Right now I'm using an iMic which provides a much cleaner and more neutral sound compared to my scratchy, buzzing internal card, but it is also woefully underpowered.
 
I think my next purchase will be one of these and an L3 to go with it.
 
Oh, and a great review. One of the better ones I've read; informative exciting and fun-tastic.
 
EDIT:
I can't think of anywhere else to put this, but it seems that FiiO are no longer developing the line-out (model L7) for the E7. It sucks, but I guess I can live with it. I don't think it's trying to sucker people into getting the E9 either; it sounds like the cable just didn't work.
http://www.fiio.com.cn/en/shownews.asp?id=39

Actually as I was told by FiiO, they are still very much in development of L7 for E7, just not ready for market yet. The info on their website is a bit dated.
 
Quote:

joethearachnid said:

EDIT:
I can't think of anywhere else to put this, but it seems that FiiO are no longer developing the line-out (model L7) for the E7. It sucks, but I guess I can live with it. I don't think it's trying to sucker people into getting the E9 either; it sounds like the cable just didn't work.
http://www.fiio.com.cn/en/shownews.asp?id=39

Click to expand...

That's awesome. If the DAC is good enough on its own, maybe I won't have to invest in a Musiland 02 anytime soon. It's not like I have any 192khz music to play anyway...
 
Quote:

clieos said:

Actually as I was told by FiiO, they are still very much in development of L7 for E7, just not ready for market yet. The info on their website is a bit dated.
 

Click to expand...

Great review Mark. Yeah, I've found that those complaints about the E7's lack of power are overblown (perhaps they had dud units?), it was able to power my 250ohm Beyer DT 150 to a comfortable listening level on 35 or so, 40 or more they're already past my loudness threshold.