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People with a J3 and Portable amp/DAC

post #1 of 14
10/6/11 at 7:40pm
Thread Starter 

Hey guys, I have a Cowon J3 and am thinking of getting a portable amp/DAC, mainly the E7. I was just wondering how you guys keep them together...doesn't that band that comes with the E7 get in the way of the screen?? I have a Ringke case if that makes any difference~

Thanks in advance~

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post #2 of 14
10/7/11 at 5:40am

I had a silicone band that came with my FiiO E11 that kept them together.

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post #3 of 14
10/7/11 at 6:58am
Thread Starter 

Quote:

Originally Posted by severim View Post

I had a silicone band that came with my FiiO E11 that kept them together.

But doesn't that make it difficult to use the touch screen? I'm assuming you put the band in the middle of the J3 right?
 

hmm also looking at the E11 now...would be great if anyone could give some opinions on the J3+E11 or E7^^


Edited by Kagelou - 10/7/11 at 11:05am
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post #4 of 14
10/7/11 at 12:55pm

The J3 will not benefit with a DAC, unless you will use the DAC with a computer output, and separately use the J3 with the amp portion of the E7. 

 

IMO, the J3 does not need an amp.  I have 3 different portable amps I'm in the process of selling.  With all 3 (and they are nice amps), the J3 sounds more boxed in / compressed WITH the amp that it does by itself.  That is the entire reason I bought the J3, because it sound best by itself. 

 

Put your money towards the best earphones you can buy.

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post #5 of 14
10/7/11 at 2:07pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmhaynes View Post

The J3 will not benefit with a DAC, unless you will use the DAC with a computer output, and separately use the J3 with the amp portion of the E7. 

 

IMO, the J3 does not need an amp.  I have 3 different portable amps I'm in the process of selling.  With all 3 (and they are nice amps), the J3 sounds more boxed in / compressed WITH the amp that it does by itself.  That is the entire reason I bought the J3, because it sound best by itself. 

 

Put your money towards the best earphones you can buy.

I see...well, I guess the J3 IS a good enough player on it's own...Thanks for the advice, I'll put a hold on the amps until I can test them out^^
 

 

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post #6 of 14
10/7/11 at 2:24pm

Get to know the JetEffect & BBE settings in the J3 -- they will give you a very rich, dynamic audio experience.

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post #7 of 14
10/7/11 at 5:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmhaynes View Post

Get to know the JetEffect & BBE settings in the J3 -- they will give you a very rich, dynamic audio experience.


Yea I like playing around with the settings, but still don't really know what ALL of them do...is there a guide or something around that tells what each setting does? o.o

 

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post #8 of 14
10/7/11 at 5:19pm

I use the tesa powerstrip that came with my headstage arrow amp to keep it attached to the J3. It works beautifully, and thankfully, the arrow is almost exactly the same dimensions as the J3.

 

The E7 has a screen though, so if you take that approach your unit would have a screen on the front (J3) and a screen on the back (E7). A little weird but could work.

 

In my experience I found that J3+amp sounds better than just a J3, primarily because I no longer use any eq/sound enhancements on the J3 itself. The more I used them, the more I learned to stay away from them. However, if you are ok with BBE and the EQ on the J3, you might not even need an amp, unless of course your portable phones are hard to drive.

 

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post #9 of 14
10/7/11 at 5:38pm
Thread Starter 

Oh yea, forgot about the E7 screen lol

hm, I think I'll look a bit more deeper into portable amps to decide whether I need one...maybe I'll just save up for a new pair of at-home cans xD

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post #10 of 14
10/7/11 at 5:49pm
Don't buy portable amps for the J3. It doesn't need it and using an amp would mean double amping anyways. Learn to use BBE and MP. Adjust the EQ to compensate for frequency response changes, ie reduce treble when using BBE.
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post #11 of 14
10/7/11 at 6:02pm

J3's HP-out is as good as a line-out, so pairing it with a portable amp is fine.

However, FiiO amps (E5/6/7) are a bad choice because they are a significant downgrade from the J3's built-in amp, not to mention that they do not have a noise floor as low as the J3, so earphones like TF10, SE535, etc., will hiss much more.  You should go ampless or be ready to splurge $200 and up for a darn good amp, or else you are just adding an unnecessary bottleneck to your J3 rig.

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post #12 of 14
10/7/11 at 6:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Max View Post

J3's HP-out is as good as a line-out, so pairing it with a portable amp is fine.

However, FiiO amps (E5/6/7) are a bad choice because they are a significant downgrade from the J3's built-in amp, not to mention that they do not have a noise floor as low as the J3, so earphones like TF10, SE535, etc., will hiss much more.  You should go ampless or be ready to splurge $200 and up for a darn good amp, or else you are just adding an unnecessary bottleneck to your J3 rig.


Oh, then that pretty much makes my decision solid on buying a portable amp. I honestly don't want to spend $200 on my portable set when I could save that up and finally get an awesome home set~

 

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post #13 of 14
10/11/11 at 10:26am

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kagelou View Post

Yea I like playing around with the settings, but still don't really know what ALL of them do...is there a guide or something around that tells what each setting does? o.o

 

 

Here is a review of the Cowon D2, but it gives a very detailed explanation of each of the exact same JetEffect 3 settings on the J3 -- skip down to the "EQ and Sound Options" section.

 

http://anythingbutipod.com/2007/04/cowon-iaudio-d2-review/


Edited by kmhaynes - 10/11/11 at 1:34pm
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post #14 of 14
10/11/11 at 2:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmhaynes View Post

 

 

Here is a review of the Cowon D2, but it gives a very detailed explanation of each of the exact same JetEffect 3 settings on the J3 -- skip down to the "EQ and Sound Options" section.

 

http://anythingbutipod.com/2007/04/cowon-iaudio-d2-review/


ah, exactly what I wanted! Thanks^^

 

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