FiiO E17 "ALPEN" - First Impression + Final Thought - Page 358

Thanks for fast response!

I won't use the FiiO's with USB, but with S/PDIF only... for the moment anyway. Power supply for the E17 will come only from the E09k's DC source. I'm still waiting for my beyers to arrive...

So the E17 ONLY charges if the USB Charge is set to ON, in both cases, docked and undocked to the E09k. When I turn the E09k off, the docked E17 does also. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

Now, how is it if USB Charge is off and the battery goes empty while it's docked. Does the E17 turn off, or does it get power from the E09k?

What I actually want to ask: How can I use the E17 with the E09k WITHOUT making use of its battery? Maybe I should remove it? I want to conserve the battery life and just make it 1-2 times per month empty. Like said. I'll use it only at home with tie E09k.

It was purple, but after I changed the USB Charge setting, I noticed that it can turned to blue.

With USB Chg off on the E17. IT will not accept power. However because it is docked, it's power usage and battery life has been seen to be slightly longer. This is seen as because some power is being provided to handle some functions that the E17 may have otherwise needed to provide power for.

 

When the E17 finally runs out of batteries. The settings will all reset turning USB Chg back to on and thus it will charge again. 

I see...so the "healtiest" solution for the battery would be, to let the USB Charge ON?

 

Couldn't I just remove the battery from the E17, so it gets its power supply only from the E09k?

 

Healthiest way:

 

 

 

 

Or....you could just let it drain out and turn it back on and let it charge that way. According to experts that isn't as good as full depletions are not as good

 

But hey. Do you buy a car and keep it in a garage for the rest of its life? 

 

No. You use that thing. Whatever suits your life style. If you do remember or would like to make your E07K or other device as happy as possible. Follow the general directions I made(only for li ion). I use them as it's not that hard to do but some just don't remember. And that's fine. 

 

 

I tried resetting E17 but its not working. When I open 'System Information' and look at USB settings I could see FIIO E17 detected but when I open sound preferences I could not see E17 listed

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm not sure if my E17 is faulty or my mac is faulty. I could not try with any other PC as I have only Macbook with me. I can try only tomorrow when I go to office

Check in Audio Midi Setup if the option is there then.

 

Very unusual... Macs are one of the easiest systems to get working with USB DACs like the E17. Out of curiosity, what happens when you hold down the Option/Alt key while clicking on the sound icon (speaker with sound waves coming out) in the upper right hand of the desktop (assuming standard OS layout)? Here's a pic of mine...

 

 

 

BTW - you need to change your pics to JPG for the forum to be able to display them natively without people needing them to download the images (PNG in your case).

 

Dale

 

Even in Audio midi setup, I could not see E17 listed. I could see only Microphone and built-in speakers as option

 

I'm getting only 'Internal Speakers' as option. Even I'm wondering what happened. 2 days back it was working fine. I didn't do anything apart from the fact that I changed in Audio Midi setup fro 44 KHz to 96 KHZ for E17 device. It was working fine after that. But from yesterday its not working

 

Do you have a mini-TOSLink optical cable so you can try SPDIF connection to your E17? If you can connect via optical SPDIF to your MacBook, that will tell you if the DAC in the E17 is functional. Alas even if it does work via optical SPDIF, your  E17 may indeed have had a hardware failure that affects only the input via USB. Have you tried the AUX input on the E17? That won't tell you anything about the DAC, but it will at least verify if the amp function of the E17 is still working.

 

Regardless, it does unfortunately sound like your E17 might have encountered a hardware failure, but until you test it on another PC or Mac, you won't know for certain. Another thing to try, although it's sort of a last ditch effort, is to disconnect your E17 from all devices and turn it on, letting the battery completely drain. Once it turns off, plug it back into your MacBook with the E17 powered off so that it does a recharge. Once it's been charging for a few hours you can turn the E17 on and see if draining the battery has corrected anything. It likely won't make a difference, but I've seen strange things with small electronics. Good luck!

 

Dale 

 

What if you are not a Panda?

Few questions before I pick one of these up. I would appreciate any answers to help me understand what it is I'm buying here.

 

• I'll be using an iPhone 5 and Macbook Pro. Will I be able to use the DAC and amp on both? I read somewhere that the DAC will not work with the iPhone 5 because the lightning plug is digital. Will adding a 30 pin adapter, which is said to convert back to analog, work?
• Do I even need a DAC with either of these devices? Should I just get a portable amp instead? All of my music files are ALAC, and I don't think I have anything above 16/44. Do these devices have a good enough DAC?
• I'll be using it to power a PRO700MKII and HD558 for now, but am looking at getting an HE500 and D7000 (and if I can find one) in the future. I'd like to be able to power all of these, but realistically I would probably just use the PRO700MKII as a portable can and the rest as at home or on vacation headphones. In other words, I can get the E09K for the at home or vacation headphones.

My instructions are cross genomic.
You cant natively use the E17 as a DAC with ipods or iphones anyway. Only the iPad BUT WITH an external power source. This is not very portable so just think no. Iphone 5 can not use e17 dac. Only macbook can.

It is up to you. The dac in the macbook pro is quite good. But of course with more expensive units, some want to get "better" sound.

Look for people that have said that E17 can drive those headphones you want

Well I tried the E17 on its own with my new HD800's (via iPod Touch) and it works great...put the gain setting to 12 and volume to around 30, with about 35 as high as my ears can take it. So a great solution for when I'm away on trips as well as bedroom listening.
 

Well, that's a bummer. What do you think about the iPhone's DAC? Should I look at getting a portable amp/dac that will support this or is the DAC good enough in the iPhone 5?