FiiO E9i Desktop Pre-Amp and Headphone Amplifier Dock for iPod and iPhone

Wait, what, I never even knew this was out yet.  Interesting. :P

Honestly, I think it's better to just get a normal E9 and a LOD to connect it to the iPod with.  This way you'd be able to get the E7 and use it as a DAC in the future if you ever felt the need to.  You shouldn't be plugging it into the computer with the headphone output port though, it'll probably sound pretty awful.  If there's a line-out on the PC you should probably use that.  Otherwise I'd recommend you get something like the E7+E9 combo to use the DAC with.

You probably wouldn't notice any difference with your IEMs but you might with the full-sized headphones.  Not sure how well they respond to amping though.

Interesting device. Could make for a very small, simple, and reasonable bedside rig for iDevice owners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandaz93 

What do you mean by lineout?
 

Line out is when you bypass the built-in amp, basically. 

For e.g. what the E9i seems to do is bypass the iPod's amp, so that volume control is disabled on the iPod and fully dependent on the E9i. The idea is that built-in amps aren't as good as dedicated ones (like the E9i), since it is assumed that there must be a trade-off in quality, for the sake of keeping costs/device size down.

It would probably help but your phones are all pretty easy to power and the e9 has lots of power - considereing you're also using your soundcard you may get at least as much effect from a DAC.

Sorry for going slightly off topic, but I'm pretty much confused on how the USB connection works. So basically I can sync my iPod with a laptop through connection of the Fiio E9i? Or is the USB for another purpose?

On the E9i, the USB seems to be for syncing and line out.

On the regular E9, however, the USB is only used if you have the E7 in the dock.