How is the Fiio e11 + some other questions

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinlai31 

I have a beyer dynamics DT880 Pro headphones (250 ohms) , with my zune HD as my main MP3 player, as well as an iPhone 3GS. neither my zune or iphone is powerful enough to power my headphones, so naturally i started to look for a portable amp. i was looking at the Fiio e11 and read some pretty good reviews on it on this forum. But i also want to look at some other sub 100 dollar amp, so im open to suggestions. 

 

other questions:
 

Is the 6.35 jack better than the 3.5 jack? i can screw on a 6.3mm jack onto the 3mm jack on my DT880. and if it is, i would like a amp that takes a 6.35mm jack. 

 

Is the dock better in terms of music quality than the jacks? because if it is, i might sell my zune sine it doesnt have any dock-jack converter, and have the dock from my iPhone connect to the USB.

I read that the music quality is higher on the zune than the ipod, but from what i can hear, the difference is slight. will a amp make the difference more noticeable?

 

The bass is really lacking on my headphones, would an amp boost the bass? i listen mainly rap, with the occasional classical, metal, and rock, if that information pertains to any of my questions.

 

Your iPhone will power it to a loud enough volume. It just won't sound as great as a desktop setup. Jacks don't make a different, at least they shouldn't.  The amp will make a difference mostly in volume. It probably won't help the bass. Rap/Metal/Rock, you picked the wrong headphones. And also, when it comes to an iPod, it's not so much an issue of amp as it is of DAC, iPod DACs are not famous for their quality, since the DT880 are pretty revealing, all you'll hear is the mediocre DAC. Maybe go with a FiiO E7? It has a decent DAC section.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinlai31 

i was looking at the Fiio e11 and read some pretty good reviews on it on this forum. But i also want to look at some other sub 100 dollar amp, so im open to suggestions.

The E11 is a good option in that price range, unless you want to build a DIY amplifier (e.g. the O2).

There is no inherent practically significant difference between the quality of the two jacks, but some amplifiers may have a different output on each when having both. The E9 is a known example of this, it has higher output impedance on the 1/8" connector.

Maybe, but do not expect much difference unless the amplifier you choose has a bass boost function. The DT880 was never meant to be bass heavy, it has a neutral bass response.

I use the e11 on Ultrasone Pro 900s. 

For the price, it's a great little unit, surprisingly very little noise, and a good signal boost for headphones.

It has 3 levels of bass EQ, and does a nice job of adding bass without distorting the midrange.

Recently, I purchased a $300 desktop amplifier, and it was very noisy compared to the e11, so returned it and will be getting a different one. In other words, this little $60 did better than a $300 desktop in terms of noise.

I have no problems recommending this unit for the price. 

I also drive Klipsch S4 earbuds with the e11.

As far as quality of output, the dock connector is a lot better than the built in amp of the iPhone. You can get Fiio dock connector to 1/8" cables for around $6 on Amazon.

As mentioned above, the E11 does have it, for example.

The e11 has 2 levels of bass boost, plus a gain switch -- which brings out the mids more.