Not sure how much weight I'd give a review from me but I'll definitely be comparing them the best I can. 

I don't know how to do a review anymore

Quote:

foxjam said:

Just ordered a D7 today.  I'm hoping it will be a solid upgrade over my Fiio E7.  Pretty excited to get it. 

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The D7 is definitely better than the Fiio E7, and to a lesser extent, is better than the Fiio E10.  I haven't used the E7 in quite awhile, since I never really liked its SQ and I let someone borrow it indefinitely--so I can't compare it directly.  But I definitely liked the Fiio E10 better than the Fiio E7--the E10 had much cleaner and tighter sound to me than the E7, better soundstage, plus it had a more powerful amplifier.  And now I find the iBasso D7 to be even tighter (more controlled/punchier bass) with a more natural soundstage than the E10.  Even though I found the E10's soundstage to be better than the E7's, the E10's soundstage still always seemed tinged with a small reverb-like quality in the mids, which thankfully doesn't exist on the D7.  The D7 is much more transparent than the E7, and doesn't "get in the way" like I found the Fiio E7 to do.
 
Although, the D7's amp is definitely less powerful than the E10's--likely because the D7's DAC is more powerful, requiring a power trade-off.  The D7's SQ is definitely better than the E7/E10's SQ, but it doesn't drive my phones (DT880-250, DT990-250, K702) as easily as the E10.  I forget exactly how much, but the Fiio E7's amp was also weaker than the Fiio E10's amp, so the D7's amp may be similar in power to the E7's amp.  To give a comparison, the E10 on high gain at 40% volume seems roughly equivalent to the D7 on high gain at 70% volume.  However, the D7 still has enough power for all my phones, and I don't have to max it out with any of them--it is at least as powerful as the E7, and maybe slightly more powerful than it.  I don't think I've had to go past 80% volume, and the couple times I reached 80% were due to poorly recorded albums.
 

Quote:

bluishgreen said:

Although, the D7's amp is definitely less powerful than the E10's--likely because the D7's DAC is more powerful, requiring a power trade-off. 

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 Don't they share the same DAC? I thought the E10 uses WM8740 + AD8397 and the D7 uses WM8740 + OPA1611.

D7 has a class A amp and has a much better USB receiver than the E10. The DAC chip is the same.
 
I can see why the E10 could have more output power in its amp because the D7 could concurrently output via:
 
1) Coaxial
2) RCA
3) Line Out
4) Headphone Out

One feature I like about the E7 is the bass boost (especially with the ATH AD700).  I'm hopeful the D7 will have a enough quantity of bass.  I'm a bit of a basshead.  The quality of bass sounds like it'll be spot on with the D7.  Either way I feel pretty confident it will be worthy upgrade to the E7.  

Can someone post a step-by-step procedure, with needed equipment, to use the camera kit for digital out.  Is it ipad only or ipod/iphone also?
 
Thanks

Quote:

amham said:

Can someone post a step-by-step procedure, with needed equipment, to use the camera kit for digital out.  Is it ipad only or ipod/iphone also?
 
Thanks

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Doesn't work for ipod and iphone.

Quote:

foxjam said:

One feature I like about the E7 is the bass boost (especially with the ATH AD700).  I'm hopeful the D7 will have a enough quantity of bass.  I'm a bit of a basshead.  The quality of bass sounds like it'll be spot on with the D7.  Either way I feel pretty confident it will be worthy upgrade to the E7.  

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Use a player with a decent EQ like Foobar (Windows) or Clementine (Linux). Remember to do subtractive EQ - lower the bands you don't wan't boosted and keep the bass at 0, that way it won't distort as you turn up the volume
 

 

Quote:

blockhead said:

 Don't they share the same DAC? I thought the E10 uses WM8740 + AD8397 and the D7 uses WM8740 + OPA1611.

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I just meant the DAC/USB side of things as a whole, not specifically the chip, although I was really just "thinking out loud" at the time, and was only speculating since the D7 handles up to 192kHz vs. the E10's only going to 96kHz.  I haven't actually researched it too much since the D7 is still more than loud enough for me--it was more a curiosity that the D7 was quieter than the E10, but not enough to be a problem.  It could also just be that, since the D7's amp quality is better, it requires more processing for the amp quality vs quantity (but that's just more speculation).
 

 
Quote:

uelover said:

D7 has a class A amp and has a much better USB receiver than the E10. The DAC chip is the same.
 
I can see why the E10 could have more output power in its amp because the D7 could concurrently output via:
 
1) Coaxial
2) RCA
3) Line Out
4) Headphone Out

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The multiple concurrent outputs is a good point that I hadn't thought of too.
 

 
Quote:

foxjam said:

One feature I like about the E7 is the bass boost (especially with the ATH AD700).  I'm hopeful the D7 will have a enough quantity of bass.  I'm a bit of a basshead.  The quality of bass sounds like it'll be spot on with the D7.  Either way I feel pretty confident it will be worthy upgrade to the E7.  

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I'm probably not the best person for this, since I'm not a basshead nor ever use bass boosts on amps, but I don't think the bass is really more than the E7 or E10 with their bass boosts turned off.  I would say that the D7's bass is definitely punchier and more precise/controlled than the E7's (and to a lesser degree, vs the E10's, but still noticeable) but I don't think the D7 is going to give you more "quantity" of bass, as in emphasis of lower tones vs mid/higher tones.  The D7 doesn't have a bass boost, so it isn't really targeting that market--its strength lies in its overall transparency, especially for a sub-US$200 DAC/amp unit.  You are really looking at an upgrade in quality here, not quantity.
 
I like to describe the difference between bass philosophies as wanting to _feel_ the bass vs. wanting to _hear_ the bass.  I'm in the latter camp 90% of the time, but when listening to electronic music, I like to switch back-and-forth sometimes, which for me means switching to my DT990's that I jokingly refer to as my "bass boost" or "graphic equalizer".  For me, this aspect is better served by the headphone than the amp, since I don't want the amp to touch the sound, other than simply amplify it.
 

 

Quote:

Use a player with a decent EQ like Foobar (Windows) or Clementine (Linux). Remember to do subtractive EQ - lower the bands you don't wan't boosted and keep the bass at 0, that way it won't distort as you turn up the volume

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I tried Foobar for a while but wasn't really liking the interface that much and I don't think I have skills for a custom skin but maybe I should try and put some more time into it.  
 
 
 

I like to describe the difference between bass philosophies as wanting to _feel_ the bass vs. wanting to _hear_ the bass.  I'm in the latter camp 90% of the time, but when listening to electronic music, I like to switch back-and-forth sometimes which for me means switching to my DT990's

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True.  For me it really depends on the genre.  I guess I'd say I'm sort of a bass head about 30% of the time and even then I'm really only looking for the real low notes.  On lower quality recordings the bass boost really seems to degrade the quality even more so I guess it isn't that important but a well implemented bass boost would be nice.  That said for the price and the quality I didn't really expect it on the D7.  The more I think about it the more of a non-issue it become.  

Quote:

foxjam said:

 
I tried Foobar for a while but wasn't really liking the interface that much and I don't think I have skills for a custom skin but maybe I should try and put some more time into it.  

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Clementine and JRMC have very nice interfaces as well as equalizers  Clementine is free, but I still haven't found a way to make ASIO or WASAPI work for it. 
 

Which of the following IEMs match up well sonically with the D7?  The JH16, ES5 or UERM?  I am currently using the UE TF10 with an HRT Headstreamer.
 
I just purchased both of these within the past two weeks as my first experience with IEMs.  I wanted to get an idea of the sound and feel of IEM's before jumping in with both feet.  I listen to a wide variety of music - jazz, vocals and classic rock are my top go to choices.
 
I've been a long time audiophile but never really went down the headphone path before.  I'm setting this up now on my general use home PC so I have something nice to listen to while I am at the computer.  I'll be playing FLAC files.

Quote:

jfrocke said:

Which of the following IEMs match up well sonically with the D7?  The JH16, ES5 or UERM?

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I would say any of them.