hello everyone. i ordered a fiio e7 a few weeks ago because i had onboard audio and i was told it would make a difference. well in all honesty i hear no significance between my onboard sound and my new fiio e7. if anything my onboard sounds better and clearer. seriously guys is this some kind of joke? i spend $100 i expected a difference.

guys it sounds worse then my onboard. i thought onboard sucked. what gives?

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bcasey25raptor said:

guys it sounds worse then my onboard. i thought onboard sucked. what gives?

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Spend one week exclusively with the E7, then run a A-B test. If the E7 still doesn't make a difference, sell it.
 

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azncookiecutter said:

Spend one week exclusively with the E7, then run a A-B test. If the E7 still doesn't make a difference, sell it.
 

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ok i will.

Not all onboard sound is created equal. Perhaps yours is one of the better ones. The iPod is a convenient standard to compare against. If a computer's sound is worse than an iPod, then upgrading to an external DAC should bring a clearly noticeable difference. But once you reach at least iPod level sound quality (talking about the DAC only), then further upgrades and improvements become more subtle.
 
Sometimes the USB port that you plug the DAC into can make a difference. Those located on the front of a computer are more susceptible to picking up internal noise than those at the back. But you're using a laptop, so that's probably not the issue in your case.
 
Another thing to look out for is the volume levels. It's important to volume match both components when doing a comparison. Otherwise the one that is playing louder will seem to sound better just based on the volume alone. The volume control scale of the E7 might be different from the onboard sound's volume slider. Meaning, both may show, say 40% volume, but one might still be louder than the other.
 
 

hello all. after listening again and again i realize there is a very slight difference between the fiio e7 vs my onboard. i hear a very small slight increase clarity with the fiio e7. but i can't say for certain if i am actually hearing this or if it's placebo effect. i wish i could do a blind test. personally there is a slight increase in sound quality but i do not feel it warrants the price at all. i will not return it because of the times that i may need to use cheap audio sources. but i still feel rather disappointed.

DAC's in my honest opinion are for those that have a horrible quality sound board.  Or in my case, a noisy headphone jack.  If my headphone jack didn't have this annoying buzz I would be fine with it but had to resort to a usb/dac.  

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ziocomposite said:

DAC's in my honest opinion are for those that have a horrible quality sound board.  Or in my case, a noisy headphone jack.  If my headphone jack didn't have this annoying buzz I would be fine with it but had to resort to a usb/dac.  

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then the people on this forum were very misleading because i was under the impression it would improve sound quality. but what i got was the same performance as before.

I hate it when people say that honestly.  You chose to believe the opinions and nobody put a gun to your head or forced you to buy it.  No one else to blame but yourself.
 
EDIT
 
I hate it when people blame faults on others when truly it is ones self to blame.  Not just with head-fi but with everything else in life.  

Are you sure you are connecting the Fiio E7 to your computer via USB port instead of L2 cable?

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zowki said:

Are you sure you are connecting the Fiio E7 to your computer via USB port instead of L2 cable?

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yes i am connecting via the included usb cord.

zowki said:

Are you sure you are connecting the Fiio E7 to your computer via USB port instead of L2 cable?

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I'm guessing anything is possible with this guy.

ok i just did an aba test between my ipod touch, laptop and fiio e7.
 
my results are as follows
 
the laptop onboard sounds the same as the fiio e7
my ipod touch is overall clearer then the two above. but when louder sounds harsher for some strange reason
overall of the 3 i actually prefer the ipod touch.

Then return it or sell it.  Don't waste your time with a product that you won't enjoy plain and simple.  No frills and straight to the point.  That's what you want to hear.

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ziocomposite said:

Then return it or sell it.  Don't waste your time with a product that you won't enjoy plain and simple.  No frills and straight to the point.  That's what you want to hear.

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started a trade post. willing to trade for grado's. but i am still not 100% sure if i want to get rid of this.