First impressions of the X7 and E1...
I had a nice big bit written, but I lost the last 40 minutes I spent writing a "short" impression from my iPhone because I had my K712 plugged into it and that drained the battery really fast, there's a reason for that but I'll get to it later.
The X7 immediately impressed.
SBX, combined with a nice DAC, amp, and headphones, really makes for a great recipie for the console gaming I did tonight, an example of something greater than the sum of it's parts. I played CoD: Ghosts while streaming to Twitch. I'm retyping here, but here are some of the most salient "First Impression, subject to change" points:
•I often pointed out when I was picking out enemies by sound alone, well before we saw the opponent (and I blasted 'em).
•Even though I was like 3 months rusty from competitive FPS, I dominated because my awareness was so good. I actually showed the streamers how I tracked opponents through walls and anticipated when we would see them.
•HD700 and K712 seemed equally at home for power input, I easily prefer this Solid State amp (doesn't hurt that it has EQ controls) over my AV receiver and FiiO E12 portable amp...
•... even when I realized at one point that I had left both headphones plugged in! While wearing the HD700, I unplugged the K712 an heard no audible click or sudden increase in volume/sound quality, meaning it handled these two headphones without a sweat!
•The HD700 has a 1/4" larger headphone plug, and the K712 has the more common 1/8" headphone plug, there were native jacks for each, meaning I didn't need any adapters...
•... nor did I need the clutter of many interconnect cables, the headphone stand conveniently held the unused headphone, and the black of the X7 trapezoid was much cleaner than my wider silver Schiit Bifrost DAC and DIY black-and-wood tube amp with exposed tube sitting socket-flush with the top of my amp. Very much less "busy" setup.
•The smartphone app is awesome! Change settings on-the-fly while audio is playing live, a short pause after a change and abruptly you hear the contrast of the new setting applied (perfect for focusing on what changed). I might even learn to be able to sonically identify pitch by Hz number, just by listening while making changes to the EQ (works while gaming with consoles!).
•Think Astro's game/chat balance knob (which robs power from the maximum overall volume) in the Mixamp is cool? How about the Mixer panel in the X7 Control app, where you can adjust and simultaneously enable like 7 inputs and control their volume, all at once!
•My iPhone's sound effects played over Bluetooth and my headphones at the same time as the game, I suspect you can play as many sources simultaneously as you can hook up.
•Would SBX surround processing transmit to the potential two Bluetooth headphones? Forgeddabout the Astro Mixamp 5.8 or A50!!!
•I couldn't get the X7's microphone working with the PS4 via either USB connection or pairing with Bluetooth (connection timed out, apparently a common PS4 problem), but later on I noticed that by default the mic-in and beamforming mic were muted in the Mixer panel, so I'll be revisiting that.
At this time, I cannot recommend the E1, at least till I see if I can find a way to overcome it's flaws.
•I couldn't get the E1's mic to pick up my voice for the stream viewers; when I unplugged my Blue Snowball Microphone and connected the E1's via it's included TRRS cable to the PS4 controller, they all asked where I went and said they couldn't hear me.
•Audio Worked, but sounded terrible through the PS4's controller, which I chalked up to the controller being a bad transport, except...
•...after I was done streaming, I took the E1 with me for a sandwich and bed. I had my K712 plugged in and my iPhone playing higher-bitrate classical music, through the E1 (with stock TRRS cable interconnect and default E1 processor settings) the music sounded weak, noisy/grainy, wool over details, poor soundstage and separation, with low impact (at least it's not fatiguing!). It's bad enough for me to wonder if it's defective. This was with stock settings before tweaking/updating firmware on a PC, and with the very flimsy E1 stock interconnect cable. E1 <<< plugging the K712 straight into the iPhone 5S. The iPhone had more detail, less grain to notes and between notes, an actual sense of the K712's characteristic soundstage and separation, better impact, and it could play louder.
I kept playing the K712 + iPhone combo while writing the post the first time, the current draw from my K712 drained my iPhone's battery very quickly, thus why I'm retyping this impression post (drat, another 40 minutes to type this far!). Which leads me to why the sound of the E1 out-of-the-box is a shame... The E1, on paper, is a nifty and useful device. With harder to drive headphones, the E1 buffers the phone, and prevents headphones from making a big current draw and draining the battery of a DAP.
