Hi all,
Thought I'd post some initial impressions, which should be taken with a pinch of salt because the testing was done in a high noise environment at Comex. I was listening to flacs with poweramp on my LG G3, which was connected to the E5 through a microusb to usb cable. I had to download Creative's SoundCentral app in order for it to work. I was quite impressed with what I heard. I listened to it with ATH-M50s and also my Fitear F111s, and compared this setup with the sound from my DX90. The E5 is only slightly larger than the DX90 in size, yet it is incredibly light, lighter than the DX90. It would be very suitable not just for desktop use, but portable use as well.
ATH-M50s
note* my m50s are a couple of years old, and when I bought them I was still very much a newbie. My hearing preferences have since changed and developed, and I don't like them very much anymore (they have too much bass for my tastes). However, they are my only current set of headphones, and so I wanted to hear how they sounded when paired with the E5. I actually spent more time listening with my f111s than with these.
Here goes:
I found the m50 pairing to be quite bass heavy. Overall, separation, clarity and soundstage are fairly similar to what I hear out of the DX90. Because the E5 demo unit is new, I noted tolerable harshness in the treble regions, but what struck me was the bass, which was a little too overwhelming for me. And mids that sounded slightly recessed as well. Which is presumably why I switched over to test with my f111s, and not paying more attention to this combination.
Fitear F111s
note* I absolutely love how it pairs with the DX90, and I think this combination is hard to beat. However, the E5 out of my LG G3 came pretty close. For iem users, rejoice! There is a gain switch on the E5. The low gain setting was made for phones with lower resistance, and the recommended threshold is anywhere from 32ohms to 300ohms. The high gain setting is for phones from 300ohms to 600ohms. The Creative representative I spoke to told me about how they tested with high impedance phones during its development but not orthos, so he's not sure if they will drive LCDs/Dogs/Hifiman cans sufficiently. Someone with these cans and free this weekend please do give them a try and post some comments.
On to the meat:
Similarly to the m50s, the f111 pairing sounded close to what I get out of the DX90 on low gain. The sound is comparable to the DX90 in terms of separation, clarity and soundstage (although to my ears it sounded marginally larger). The comparison may not be fair because I believe my DX90 is completely burnt in with at least 350-400 hours on it, while the E5 is a new set. Overall I'd say that the sound is pretty neutral, and slightly clinical/analytical.
Bass is slightly stronger/more authoritative on the E5, but slightly less defined, and not as resolving. Definitely felt more subbass presence. The bass difference was the most discernible to me.
Vocals were a tad dry for my tastes, lots of detail and clarity but less... emotion? I would use clinical/analytical here as a descriptor. It reminded me vaguely of my experience listening to the Hidition NT6 universal demos. Sometimes mids felt overwhelmed by the bass response, although I didn't think there was any bleed. I'd imagine that the dual Sabre DACs in the DX90 are already quite analytical, but it appears that this Cirrus Logic DAC betters it. Can't remember if my new DX90 sounded this way though.
Treble was pretty impressive as well, no spikes or peakiness but again, slightly harsh. In a tolerable way. Might be a newness issue, where burn in will remove the treble sheen. Cymbal timbre sounded a little more artificial as compared with the DX90, but good speed and transient response.
In a nutshell, I was impressed, and am seriously considering getting one. It is almost impossible to find a high end DAC/amp combo at this price. Getting separate dacs/amps in any configuration would easily cost twice the amount. Also, it is chock full of features and I personally think that it is a great value for money product.
Hope these brief impressions are helpful. This is my first lengthy contribution to headfi, and I'm still learning so please do feel free to disagree or corroborate what I have heard by sharing impressions. Thanks!
