Fiio e6 or e7?

what is your goal? What is your source?

I shall refer you to Voldemort for his summaries on both amps. Note that he has been banned from HF and we are not permitted to link to his blog.

E6:

FIRST CLASS:

• Seriously small and light
• Very low output impedance
• Some improvements over E5 
• USB battery charging

ECONOMY:

• Falls 25% short of FiiO specs for output power into 16 and 150 ohms
• Lower build quality, poor quality clip, and more plastic compared to cheaper E5
• Single control has 5 functions which is not intuitive and may be confusing
• Alarming levels of ultrasonic/RF leakage of DC-DC charge pump into audio output 
• 50% higher price than E5
• Very marginal clipping performance
• Excessively broad bass EQ results in muddy/bloated sound
• Moderate phase error

BOTTOM LINE: The E6 is not much of a step up from the E5 and in some ways is a step backwards. Overall, they’re fairly similar in most ways. Both are best suited for driving portable low impedance and balanced armature IEM headphones on a budget or when something ultra portable is desired. Both offer a lower output impedance than many portable players and cell phones which is a significant help with balanced armature IEMs. For a tiny $30 headphone amp the E6’s performance is reasonable enough and improves on the E5 in a few areas. But if you’re serious about sound quality, and have headphones around 50 ohms or higher, the FiiO E11 might be worth the extra $35 for mainly portable (but not desktop) use. The E11 can better drive higher impedance less sensitive headphones, has much better clipping behavior, lower distortion on many tests into 150 ohms, much less ultrasonic crud in the output, and much lower noise. For 16-32 ohm headphones, however, both the E6 and E11 have some problems if you’re genuinely concerned about sound quality.

E7:

FIRST CLASS:

• Improves on the sound of many PCs, laptops and portables with weak headphone outputs
• Respectable measurements and overall performance for the price
• Fine volume steps with excellent channel balance
• Apple-like build quality
• Line input and optional desktop amp/dock (E9) for added flexibility
• Useful accessories included
• Very long battery life

ECONOMY:

• Might not have enough output for some high impedance headphones
• Line input has only 4 dB gain
• Display on all the time
• No auto shut off to save battery
• Disables master volume control in Windows
• Line input can clip with some fixed output home gear
• Headphone amplifier IC is the weak link in an otherwise solid signal path

BOTTOM LINE: The FiiO E7 seems like it should cost more from the moment you lay your eyes and hands on it. And that impression remains when evaluating the performance. The E7 is hard to beat for the price unless you have power hungry full size high impedance cans. It’s also makes a respectable battery powered amp. It’s well worth $99.

The e17 will be released in January. If you are needing to power the headphones while sitting at a computer or table the e9 would be fine. You can run 3.5mm line in from an ipod and lod and look at a DAC later for it. If you are needing a portable amp look at the e11 over the e6. I dont feel the e6 has enough power to push much.

If you dont need portable amp then I would look at the e17 when it is released. You can use the usb dac out of your computer. You can upgrade with a e9 later if you need it, but from what I hear the e17 is going to be in the 200 to 300.00 range, but that could change ones they get all the specs worked out and release the dac/amp. You might consider the e10 also id you just need a usb dac.

BTW I skype with Fiio almost every evening if you have any questions you need asked I could ask them.

The E9 will melt your mind - it has a couple of inherent design flaws, but overall it is outstanding bang for your buck, particularly for anyone with cans between 80 and 300 ohms impedance.

She said Jan 2012, but I am on skype now with Sunny from Fiio. If you have skype you can pm me your details and I can have you join the conversation.