FiiO " Flagship " portable amp Mont Blanc/E12 discussing thread, the pre order unit arrives. - Page 51

Thanks. It's been a long day at work. My brain is frazzled.

The moment I pulled the E12 out and inspected it with my iPod. I knew something was amiss. The strapping bands were not in any way shape or form to strap an iPod and the input was not very ergonomic with the L9 for Apple devices. 

Arcam rPAC

Objective 2

 

Are the only ones.

 

The rPAC's headphone out is disapointing. But the DAC is fine. IT's main selling point is it's small size. IT's incredible build quality, easy controls, and that it only needs USB cable to power it. IT's a bit pricey none the less.

 

The Objective 2 I do not have with me at the moment, A custom variant one will be comming to me shortly. I have had an O2 previously but sold it.

Too big for you? That's cool. But I wasn't "simply" or just stating an opinion, I was trying to make objective, quantifiable points too.

I pointed out it's size compared to other devices (like an android phone) and the fact that it does go into pockets with the not-too-slim iPod Video (thicker than the "classic" sold now) strapped on. I qualified that by saying it makes quite a bulge (that not everyone will be happy to see), and I'll now add that what I was getting at is some will find it uncomfortable in a pants pocket. Thinking that pants pockets aren't the only way people carry things, that the amp is handy (even more than the iPad that follows me almost everywhere, I concluded with an opinion that the E12 is more portable.

Again, not trying to change your mind, just saying for anybody reading that though it doesn't "disappear" from notice like an E6 or an iPod Nano/shuffle, the Mont Blanc is just as portable as many things people take with them.

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Craigster75,
It's pretty small, let me see if it states in the manual how many dB... Hmm, didn't see a quantity, but I did notice the manual (may be a pre-production manual error) states that the High Gain setting is a 17dB boost, while the actual amp indicates a 10dB high gain. Let me see if it's on the E12 welcome page... Ok, Feiao will have to be the one to give an exact figure, but I would personally guess around 2 or 3 dB. I wish I was better at telling which frequencies are affected, but it's really like subwoofer frequencies, so guessing again I would say affecting 80 Hz and down. Even with the boost off though, and please bear with me as I get VERY subjective here, I have more fun listening with the Mont Blanc + iPod than just straight out of the iPod.

Moar questions?

P.S what music do you like?
Edited by Evshrug - 1/21/13 at 9:58pm

Have you considered a match between E12 and Audinst AMP-HP? Quite the same pricing and very good feedback from what I remember. Not known a lot thought.

I love the way the bass boost is implemented! I do leave it "ON," and I don't hear any grain or clipping except on really poorly mixed songs. Some basshead-type people might want something more extreme, but I think if the boost was any stronger it would lead to problems.

Thanks for the response.  I listen to almost everything, but I like to boost bass when listening to music like Pitbull, Rihanna, David Guetta, Eminem, Karmin, Kat Graham, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliot.

 

What is the best way to connect the E12 to the Iphone 5 if I upgrade? Lightning to 30-pin adapter, or is there a direct Lightning to E12 connector available?

If you have the 5 in a case, then best used the 30 pin lightning connector cable not adapter.

I don't believe there is an all in one lod yet. If there is that's great.

I only know three of those artists, lol. I don't know if you have the track, and I don't LIKE the track, but Kanye West's "Gold Digger" is my go-to test for distortion (clipping?) and generally the mid-bass falling apart or holding together. With bass boost "ON," there is a little body and fullness added to the bottom end, but the sound holds together smoothly with ease. I pulled up Eminem's "Lose Yourself," just for you, though I like this song much more than the previous one, and with the boost, the bass drum that kicks in at 0:52 really does kick pretty well, yet it's easy to hear Marson's lyrics without any verbage close to "picking them out." The song "Without Me" already seems to have a good bit of bass on the flat mode, turning "on" bass boost brings that bass forward a bit. This is all with Q701 headphones and Mont Blanc set on 0 dB gain. I used to have V-MODA LP's, but there's plenty of bass in this current setup for me.

I took some more pictures for size comparison. People that use money clips instead of wallets need-not apply, but if you've ever had your phone and wallet in the same pocket – Hey that gives me an idea... Yup, my wallet is just as thick as Mont Blanc – then the amp + PMP ought to feel about the same. Here's the Mont Blanc next to my mom's phone & my iPod to show scale:



Top is Mont Blanc


The Mont Blanc is clearly better constructed. Solid piece of aluminum next to the creaky plastic phone that seems like the pieces are more loosely put together by comparison, while the FiiO only has 2 hairline seams around the volume pot/input/output side and the opposite (bottom?) side with only 2screws visible down there. The majority of the enclosure is one piece of aluminum that looks like a tube, with no seams longwise along the body, so it feels solid like the new iPhone 5 (or a unibody MacBook Pro, I guess).

I don't think there is a lightning LOD yet, but if I can beg my gf to share her white iPhone 5 with me for a minute (or she's sleeping), I'll let you guys know my impressions double-amped connecting the Mont Blanc to the iPhone's headphone jack, compared to the L11 LOD for my iPod video (5th gen). I can probably write my review of the Mont Blanc this week, I'll probably pull impressions I've shared from this thread and add anything i think of like comparing to the iPod headphone out. A "crazy comparison" to my desktop amps & the E5 will come in my journal thread, I call it "crazy" because they're all for different purposes so it will be a fun opinion review rather than a practical, objective review.
Edited by Evshrug - 1/22/13 at 7:38am

My battery just ran out for the first time, lol. I didn't detect a performance drop leading up to the moment the amp auto-shutdown. I got a few hours of listening in today in addition to a few more since it arrived last Thursday. With the charging cable plugged into the AC wall-wart that came with my iPad 2, I turned the E12 to high gain just to see if I heard anything... And with nothing connected to input, I can hear a fluctuating whine that gets louder as I turn up the volume. On low gain, I only very quietly hear it with the volume knob turned up all the way (seems risky to have the volume turned up that high! I'd become deaf if music was playing!), so at regular listening volumes I don't hear any added noise. While charging, the first two songs were noticably less smooth than off battery power and had some pretty noticeable grain added, but the current song sounds ok. Maybe because the battery has just a bit of juice so the sound isn't running directly off wall power?

I like the dimming charge light. Looks like the amp is "breathing" while charging.

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Carlos Mota,
You probably won't be able to get your hands on a Mont Blanc for a month or two, they are NOT released yet. Ten head-Fi'ers, ten Facebook fans, and a sprinkling of longtime FiiO reviewers just got pre-production samples, as in JUST got them. This thread is probably the only place to find impressions on the amp's quality, except for Gavinfabi's recent review on page 38 and blog post. Boweii & I did unboxing videos that are posted on YouTube.

I got my E12 in the mail yesterday and spent the evening listening to my LCD-2.  At first I wasn't super impressed, the sound seemed a little thin and bland.  After an hour of listening, things really seemed to fill out.  I really like the bass boost implementation, and think it made the low end rich and full without bleeding into the miss.  Subtle, but perfect for my listening preferences.  On a few occasions I noticed the highs sound a little tinny, but not on my usual test tracks so it may have been the recording rather than the amp.  I listened on 0 gain and didn't need to turn the amp to 50% for "too loud for my taste" volume.  With my Westone UM3Xs there was no problem with the noise floor and they really seemed to sing.  Seemed like a nice step up from my E17.  The feel of this amp  (fit & finish) is fantastic as well.  Without qualifiers this seems to be an impressive little amp, but when you take cost into account I am blown away!  Thanks FiiO, I can't wait to get to know the E12 a little bit better.

You are welcome to start by reading this thread.

After looking at pics on the previous page, I would say the E12 is a reasonable size for the battery life and quality and is certainly still small enough to be truly portable.  Looking at other high quality "portable" amps like the Fostex HP-P1 and upcoming Centrance M8, while they have more features and DAC, they are 3X the size and 5X the price.

See page 38 in thread. In my post at bottom is link.

I have an iPhone 5 and both the Apple 30 pin lightning adapter and 30 pin lightning cable. The adapter doesn't work with a case on the iPhone 5 as the pin doesn't fully insert into the phone.

So I use the 30 pin lightning cable, my silver 30 pin lod into the E12. All works fine. But it's a little messy. Just wish there was a lod cable all in one.