[VALIENTE]

I assume:
Fiio E9 + E7 + M50 = Excellent Sound Quality for a Budget Audiophile! 

 

[ClassicThunder]

Owning all of the things you mention I disagree. Using a E7 over plugging directly into my Zune is a noticeable but marginal improvement, and I can't notice an improvement using the E9 over the E7. The M50s are great for the money but there not really Audiophile and for amping they are pretty easy to drive and don't scale very well. 
 
Quote:

I assume:
Fiio E9 + E7 + M50 = Excellent Sound Quality for a Budget Audiophile! 

 

[jronan2]

I'm in the exact same boat as the OP. I'd say 30-40% of my music is from quality CD's. One of my main genre's for listening is hip hop. And anyone who follows hop hop knows that a lot of good music coming out nowadays are on mixtapes of remixes that cannot be found on mainstream CD's, so the quality isnt going to be there. I have the m50's and thinking of the e9/e7 combo but a little hesitent right now. I was eventually going to get something useful with the e9 like dt 990/600 because i also game on 360 and these would be great to compliment my ad700's on there. I just don't know if its worth getting a set up like this if at least half of my music will not be lossless form.  Or maybe just stick with an LOD and e7 for my macbook and ipod touch. Any advice?

 

[ClassicThunder]

There is actually a thread about this and it sparked WW3.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/531639/after-listening-to-flac-alac-i-can-t-go-back

 
Anyways for me at least I can't tell the difference between 320kbs MP3s and FLAC files. In fact I can't tell the difference between 256kbs MP3s and FLAC files 40% of the time. Point being any mp3 you actually buy is going to be of high enough quality where telling the difference between it and a FLAC is going to take a conscious effort. 
 
 
Quote:

I'm in the exact same boat as the OP. I'd say 30-40% of my music is from quality CD's. One of my main genre's for listening is hip hop. And anyone who follows hop hop knows that a lot of good music coming out nowadays are on mixtapes of remixes that cannot be found on mainstream CD's, so the quality isnt going to be there. I have the m50's and thinking of the e9/e7 combo but a little hesitent right now. I was eventually going to get something useful with the e9 like dt 990/600 because i also game on 360 and these would be great to compliment my ad700's on there. I just don't know if its worth getting a set up like this if at least half of my music will not be lossless form.  Or maybe just stick with an LOD and e7 for my macbook and ipod touch. Any advice?

 

[MS3boostin]

Hello 1st post here. Great forum with lots of info, loving it so far.
 
This thread is actually exactly what I was gonna ask with regards to my new M50's so I'm glad that's been taken care of.
 
Like the OP, I too am interested in looking at amps/DACs for my new found side hobby.
 
I would assume the most cost efficient and appreciable leap for a budding audiophile such as myself and the OP would be something as to the following:
 
Start with good source such as 320kbs MP3 or FLAC ----> ATH-M50....very simple and certainly cost effective.
 
I next would be interested in portable amp such as the NuForce Icon Mobile $80, Fiio e7 $90, all the way to the premium side of portable amps like the Arrow 12HE.
 
Now you might say overkill for just M50's but the point of my progression is to be prepared for amping my next full size headphone which will more than likely require a quality chain. Killing two birds with one stone if you will.
 
Hear in lies my question to you folks. After reading and reading numerous threads and articles about amps and DACs I am still confused on how adding each of these components, individually, starts to produce better sound quality. For example, people say get the e7 first, which I assume is a portable amp, which would then provide more power to control the drivers allowing increased volume and SPL and also hopefully a higher SQ. But then later on you have the option to introduce a DAC (the desktop based e9 I gather) which converts the digital signal (MP3s) to an electrical current which in turn powers your drivers. Am I to understand that iPhones, computer sound cards etc. have DACs already (being of poor quality) so introducing a purpose built DAC will improve sound quality in an appreciable way?
 
So yeah, right now I am looking at portable amps to start with that will be able to power the M50's, a possible future set of IEMs like the Westone 3, and then finally something along the lines of the D2000. After that I would probably move on to a higher quality desktop amp.
 
Purchase flow chart maybe being ATH-M50 ---> e7 ---> high quality IEM ---> e9 ----> D2000 or any other headphone I choose in the $350ish price range that will make an appreciable difference over the M50 ----> dedicated desktop amp ---> who knows what hopefully I'm content by now.
 
I listen to a lot of different music but focus mainly on hip hop, dubstep and rock so thats why I was throwing out the D2000 for the future as of right now.
 
Well anyways thanks for reading and hopefully this will help other noobs that might be wondering these things.

 

[Mercer]

Quote:

Hear in lies my question to you folks. After reading and reading numerous threads and articles about amps and DACs I am still confused on how adding each of these components, individually, starts to produce better sound quality. For example, people say get the e7 first, which I assume is a portable amp, which would then provide more power to control the drivers allowing increased volume and SPL and also hopefully a higher SQ. But then later on you have the option to introduce a DAC (the desktop based e9 I gather) which converts the digital signal (MP3s) to an electrical current which in turn powers your drivers. Am I to understand that iPhones, computer sound cards etc. have DACs already (being of poor quality) so introducing a purpose built DAC will improve sound quality in an appreciable way?

The purpose of a DAC is to bypass the onboard, or soundcard DAC within your computer. Onboard sound can contain unwanted electrical jitter, leaving hissing or popping in the "silence" of your tracks. A DAC's function is to convert digital signal to analog, which an amplifier can then process
The purpose of an amp is to provide the necessary power/voltage swings necessary for a headphone to perform at its fullest designed ability.

The e7 is a portable amp/dac combo, and bypasses it's own amp feature when docked into the e9 amp.

If your headphones are neither particularly sensitive nor are particularly high impedance, the amp within the e7 should be sufficient to met it's power needs.

That's what I've gathered in my short time here, at least... please correct me if I'm wrong!

 

 

[ThumperSD]

May someone tell me what LOD is?
 
Im also thinking of getting a portable amp for my M50. I am going to be getting a Musiland 02 DAC/amp for my desktop but I want an amp to power my ipod. Is e9 the best budget choice? They seem so mainstream. Not sure if that is good or not. I do NOT want the e9 as I am already getting the Musiland DAC which should be better.

 

[ClassicThunder]

The E9 is not a portable amp. I assume you mean the E7 with is a AMP/DAC combo. If you are going to use it only as an amp then o the E7 isn't the best budget choice, there are many portable amp for a similar or even lower price with more power that are just as transparent. 
 
Anyways the M50 doesn't need an amp out of a Zune HD, I used to do it all the time, and since the M50s don't scale well, I doubt an amp will improve the sound enough for you to notice.
 
Quote:

May someone tell me what LOD is?
 
Im also thinking of getting a portable amp for my M50. I am going to be getting a Musiland 02 DAC/amp for my desktop but I want an amp to power my ipod. Is e9 the best budget choice? They seem so mainstream. Not sure if that is good or not. I do NOT want the e9 as I am already getting the Musiland DAC which should be better.

 

[juman231]

Quote:

May someone tell me what LOD is?
 
Im also thinking of getting a portable amp for my M50. I am going to be getting a Musiland 02 DAC/amp for my desktop but I want an amp to power my ipod. Is e9 the best budget choice? They seem so mainstream. Not sure if that is good or not. I do NOT want the e9 as I am already getting the Musiland DAC which should be better.

Uhh I see no one answered your first question yet. LOD is an acronym for Line Out Dock. What this does is to sit between your mp3 player and an external amplifier whether portable or desktop. With the LOD, the analog signal bypasses the amplifier section of the mp3 player, and instead goes right to the amplifier section of the amplifier connected outside through the LOD. LOD makes unamplified signal available to be amped with the amplifier of user's choice. This is preferable to using just the mp3 player without the amp, because dedicated external amplifier obviously does superior job than the tiny one in your mp3 player. It has more voltage/current and SQ improvement. Usually with higher-end headphones, they require stronger voltage and/or current to drive them, so this set up(in portable setup, at least, since you can't add a DAC to it...) eventually becomes a necessity.
 
Also note that LOD is not same as the headphone out (where you stick your in mini 3.5mm to the mp3 players) This is different from the regular headphone out, because in headphone out, the signal is already passed through the amplifier section of the mp3 player and so is already amped. Using the headphone out to connect to the external amplifier would lower the sound quality, at least in technical sense, since you would be amping the signal twice. Almost like voice -->microphone-->speaker 1-->microphone on speaker 1 -->final result through speaker 2. Imagine how bloated your voice would sound if you did this.   

 

[ThumperSD]

Thanks for answering my questions. I need an amp that I can use with both my external DAC and my ipod. Since replacing my Xonar DX with the DAC, my M50 has been producing less bass. I want my bass back.

 

[juman231]

You probably lost some of the bass if you're only using the DAC to connect straight to your headphones, since there is no amplifier anymore. From listening from your computer and ipod, which source do you feel gives you less bass? (im betting computer.) Is it by a lot? Is the amount you get from ipod enough for you?  
 
If the difference isn't that big, that goes on to say that you don't need that strong of an amplifier, as the amp on the ipod isn't that strong either, but provides enough power for your taste. In this case, you can probably just buy a cheap amp like fiio e5. It's probably still stronger than the amp in ipod. But if neither provides the bass that you want, then you want some stronger amps.
 
The choices would split here, on whether you want an amp that will drive only the m50, or whether you have any future plans to listen with headphones that are harder to drive. If only m50, you can settle for one with ok power. If you see yourself listening to other headphones that may be harder to drive, then the wise thing to do would be to buy an amp that will be able to power them all.
 
Either way, one that comes into mind for your portable setup is fiio's new portable amp called e11, which is due on march. Cheap, but powerful for a portable amp. Fiio's products have been raved on by some head-fi members as a very good bang for the buck equipments. If not portable, you can by fiio e9, which is VERY powerful. sorry I'm only giving you fiio recommendations, but those are the only ones I can think of right now. I've been looking for dac/amp combo's so I don't know much about good standalone amplifiers.

 

[Oggranak]

I stopped trying to tell the difference long ago. Hell, I don't even notice the difference between 128 and FLAC if I don't try. Nevertheless I try to aim for 256kbps just to be sure, but the point is, don't go to the extra trouble of getting FLAC for M50s. Don't go to the extra trouble of getting FLAC for anything, actually. Only a tiny handful of music could benefit from the difference anyway, and it would only make the difference for an even tinier handful of audiophiles.

Ideally for an amp you want something that will bring out that recessed midrange that plagues the M50s.

 

[KyungMin]

Quote:

fiio e7 for now,  Add a e9 when you start to adventure into mid-fi and at that point, you should have enough experience to get into the more exotic and know which direction in term of sound signature you want to go with etc.
 

+1 for the E7/E9

 

[ThumperSD]

Quote:

You probably lost some of the bass if you're only using the DAC to connect straight to your headphones, since there is no amplifier anymore. From listening from your computer and ipod, which source do you feel gives you less bass? (im betting computer.) Is it by a lot? Is the amount you get from ipod enough for you?  
 
If the difference isn't that big, that goes on to say that you don't need that strong of an amplifier, as the amp on the ipod isn't that strong either, but provides enough power for your taste. In this case, you can probably just buy a cheap amp like fiio e5. It's probably still stronger than the amp in ipod. But if neither provides the bass that you want, then you want some stronger amps.
 
The choices would split here, on whether you want an amp that will drive only the m50, or whether you have any future plans to listen with headphones that are harder to drive. If only m50, you can settle for one with ok power. If you see yourself listening to other headphones that may be harder to drive, then the wise thing to do would be to buy an amp that will be able to power them all.
 
Either way, one that comes into mind for your portable setup is fiio's new portable amp called e11, which is due on march. Cheap, but powerful for a portable amp. Fiio's products have been raved on by some head-fi members as a very good bang for the buck equipments. If not portable, you can by fiio e9, which is VERY powerful. sorry I'm only giving you fiio recommendations, but those are the only ones I can think of right now. I've been looking for dac/amp combo's so I don't know much about good standalone amplifiers.

My DAC has a built in amp and the bass is still weak. The bass is about the same on both the DAC connected to computer and ipod. My Xonar DX had slightly more bass. I heard that the fiio e5 wont really do much for the M50 and I will need something better to notice an improvement. I'll look into the e9 but I do want something I can use with my ipod as well as at home on my computer.

 

[juman231]

From what i've been reading, ath-m50's sound won't improve that much from an amp anyway, because most portable players can drive decently up to its potential...you might see improvements in sound quality using the e9 with high impedence headphones like hd650, but with the m50, not really. it's no surprise e5 didn't do much for your m50 when a lot stronger amps don't do much to it in the first place.