FiiO " Flagship " portable amp Mont Blanc/E12 discussing thread, the pre order unit arrives. - Page 89

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Originally Posted by kskwerl 

Can anyone suggest a good portable dac to pair with this>?

CLAS db

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greed 

CLAS db

on a 160 dollar amp, no way jose

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Originally Posted by bareyb 

Wouldn't it be AWESOME if FiiO wold take the guts of this new E12 and stuff them into the E17? Add a midrange control and you'd have the most versatile, powerful, AMP/DAC on the planet. THAT would be heaven for me and the ONLY thing that could get my E17 away from me. 

e18 or e19 would be like what you wanted...the only problem, e18 in summer, e19 winter.

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Originally Posted by akash neagi 


How different is the sound quality? ??

Just going on what I remember about the E17, the sound quality wasn't much better than the E11. In fact, I preferred the E11 to the E17, and others here do as well. The E12 is a much more refined and neutral sounding amp compared to both the E11 and E17. After hearing the E12, the E11 and E17 both sound too dark and muddy. It is a clear step up sonically. I'm not saying that the E12 is by any means a clear and detailed sounding amp compared to more expensive, higher tier amps.. but it is a good value and IMO a best bang for buck product.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sko0byDoo 

 

e18 or e19 would be like what you wanted...the only problem, e18 in summer, e19 winter.

Are you saying that the E18 may possibly be released by summer time and the next version by winter time?  Is that a random guess?  Where did you get that information from?  I think at best the E18 would be released by the end of this year and the notional "E19" wouldn't make sense at this point at all.  The only thing that could possibly be improved on at that point is sound quality, as I'm sure there'd be room to grow.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greed 

Just going on what I remember about the E17, the sound quality wasn't much better than the E11. In fact, I preferred the E11 to the E17, and others here do as well. The E12 is a much more refined and neutral sounding amp compared to both the E11 and E17. After hearing the E12, the E11 and E17 both sound too dark and muddy. It is a clear step up sonically. I'm not saying that the E12 is by any means a clear and detailed sounding amp compared to more expensive, higher tier amps.. but it is a good value and IMO a best bang for buck product.

The E17 has the most amount of presence in treble compared to any other amp and/or DAC I've ever plugged any of my headphones into.  It's pushing the point of being overly "bright" but it just has some pleasant qualities to it that forego that.  And plus, more prominently and in direct relation to that accentuation of treble is the overall harmonic balance, noticeably shifted due to odd-harmonic distortion.  The effect essentially colors the sound but in the opposite direction.  It makes it sound less lively due to the facts that the mids/fundamental frequencies lose their presence.

Saying comparatively that the E17 & E11 sound dark I think would be too drastic of a comparison between any two solid state amps.  The E12 may in fact be more "neutral" somehow, as people say; I don't know; I haven't actually heard the thing.  But so far, every impression somebody gives of it seems to reaffirm the idea that I have that it actually has more distortion than the other two amps (which wouldn't make sense but it's possible).  

The "darker" a solid state amp sounds relative to another the better it usually sounds (for related reasons to the above stated) and the more accurate/neutral it means it is, that is, unless something was intentionally done to it to make it sound that way, 

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Originally Posted by Typhoon859 

Are you saying that the E18 may possibly be released by summer time and the next version by winter time?  Is that a random guess?  Where did you get that information from?  I think at best the E18 would be released by the end of this year and the notional "E19" wouldn't make sense at this point at all.  The only thing that could possibly be improved on at that point is sound quality, as I'm sure there'd be room to grow.  

 

The E17 has the most amount of presence in treble compared to any other amp and/or DAC I've ever plugged any of my headphones into.  It's pushing the point of being overly "bright" but it just has some pleasant qualities to it that forego that.  And plus, more prominently and in direct relation to that accentuation of treble is the overall harmonic balance, noticeably shifted due to odd-harmonic distortion.  The effect essentially colors the sound but in the opposite direction.  It makes it sound less lively due to the facts that the mids/fundamental frequencies lose their presence.

 

Saying comparatively that the E17 & E11 sound dark I think would be too drastic of a comparison between any two solid state amps.  The E12 may in fact be more "neutral" somehow, as people say; I don't know; I haven't actually heard the thing.  But so far, every impression somebody gives of it seems to reaffirm the idea that I have that it actually has more distortion than the other two amps (which wouldn't make sense but it's possible).  

 

The "darker" a solid state amp sounds relative to another the better it usually sounds (for related reasons to the above stated) and the more accurate/neutral it means it is, that is, unless something was intentionally done to it to make it sound that way, 

First of all, good DAC's won't color your music at all. If you've heard a "bright" DAC chances are is isn't highly regarded. As for your other points, I agree with some.. but I don't agree with your assumption that the "darker" a solid state amp is the better it usually sounds? How does that make any sense, when typically the ultimate goal of all audio companies is to design products that are balanced, and/or as close to flat as possible. With your logic products like the Matrix M-Stage etc would be the end for most people if "darker" sounding amps are somehow better. I understand that branding some "dark" is over dramatic, but if you go back and read what I wrote I said in comparison to the E12. That doesn't mean the E11 and E17 are dark, it means they sound dark when compared to the E12. Not the same thing. Your theory on distortion is unique to say the least.

 Such a newb question, I'm embarrassed to ask: Whats the best way to hook up this Digizoid2 to my E12? Right now I have it going laptop->E12->digizoid->headphones. I'm so exhausted from work I can't think.

Nevermind, switched it to use the digizoid as a preamp. I think it works better. This little thing has some punch to it definitely. Not as overwhelming as I thought it'd be on my Sig Pros though. Definitely a nice addition to the E12 for certain genres.

Basically its trial and error, whatever works the best and sounds right is what I usually do.

Typically the more powerful amp goes last so that you don't get a clipped signal in case you have a much more powerful amp before a less powerful one. An amp has a certain amount of voltage it can take in before it will start to distort heavily and clip.

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Originally Posted by TooPoor 

 Such a newb question, I'm embarrassed to ask: Whats the best way to hook up this Digizoid2 to my E12? Right now I have it going laptop->E12->digizoid->headphones. I'm so exhausted from work I can't think.

Out from your source via LOD (critical you don't use headphone out) into your E-12, then into ZO and then into phones.  Gotta keep ZO on high gain and I leave it on RED bass contour and use the E-12 for volume control.

try his and when you are done smiling, report back.