[ClieOS]

Does this pair well with x5?

 
Pairing is okay except that the internal amp section of X5 is better, so there won't really be any improvement there. A better option is to wait for the upcoming E11K.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

Something strange I find about the E11 is that it sounds better than the E10 but only when I plug it into a decent source. I paid £34 for the E11 and £61 for the E10. The E11 through the line out of the E10 sounds a little better than the headphone output of the E10. The E11 is also louder and I find the E11 to boost the bass more cleanly. The E11 sounds great through the line out of many things. E.g, my FiiO X3 and also the line out of the FiiO D03K DAC.
 
I have dropped my E11 so many times now and it is covered in dents but is still working fine.

 

[Shawn71]

Something strange I find about the E11 is that it sounds better than the E10 but only when I plug it into a decent source. I paid £34 for the E11 and £61 for the E10. The E11 through the line out of the E10 sounds a little better than the headphone output of the E10. The E11 is also louder and I find the E11 to boost the bass more cleanly. The E11 sounds great through the line out of many things. E.g, my FiiO X3 and also the line out of the FiiO D03K DAC.

I have dropped my E11 so many times now and it is covered in dents but is still working fine.

Yeah this is one hell of a budget amp with bells and whistles,especially the anywhere available user replaceable Nokia bl-5b battery......

Wondering what the change in E11K will be?face lift & internals? besides the battery....

 

[ClieOS]

Wondering what the change in E11K will be?face lift & internals? besides the battery....

 
Noticeably SQ improvement. You will still find the AD8397 inside but the topology is quite different from the original E11. The battery is however non-removable this time.
 

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

How will you put the E11K in your pocket if the both the input and output are on the opposite side to the volume control? You will end up having to put the volume knob at the bottom of your pocket where you wont be able to use it without taking it out. There may be a reason but I simply can't understand the reason why a portable headphone amplifier would have the headphone socket on the opposite side to the volume dial.
 
In my opinion, it would be better if the gain and bass boost switches swapped places with the input and output.
 
It would be fine as a desktop amp like it is though.

 

[ClieOS]

I guess it does take some getting used to, though it is not the first of its kind.
 

 

 

[RoMee]

I wonder why FiiO chose this design, they should know people who buy this thing will want to stack it, why would they design it to be so awkward? 
 
They should had made it flat and move the knob to the side like an A&K Dap

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

It also looks to me like is only has on or off for the bass boost. Not off, 1 and 2 on the normal E11. I do believe that the sound will be an improvement though. It looks to be much better built too.
 
How much does it weigh? I think my E11 is 64g or something like that.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

WHEN WAS THE E11K ANNOUNCED??? Maybe it'll solve the clipping issue with low impedance loads at high volume, and give out a little more power. And apparently this topping nx1 amp right here is better than an e11 for 20$ less from what owners of both have told me. It has a cleaner sound, full metal construction, and more stable on lower and higher impedance loads. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HFMNR4M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1405805489&sr=8-1&pi=SL75 I'm thinking the E11K might just give it a run for its money! If I remember correctly, the nx1 was designed to beat the e11 in every aspect, and topping is releasing the nx2 soon I think. If that's basically an improved nx1, and not an entirely new amp, I think there might just be a showdown of the next-Gen budget amps. Topping NX2 VS FiiO E11K. That's something I'd want to see. The only thing the e11 has a one up on the nx1 is the bass boost. Again, haven't heard the nx1 to compare though. I'm very happy with my E11. Just wanting to see an E11K VS NX2 showdown. See which is a better budget amp. I'm gonna stay tuned into this thread now for news on E11K...

 

[bowei006]

I started a thread on the E11K if any of you want more information
http://www.head-fi.org/t/727341/new-fiio-e11k-portable-amplifier-info-news-thread-early-impressions
 
Early Impressions of a VERY early pre-production sample are there. These impressions will be half a year old by the time the final unit comes out. So please take it with little mind. 
 
 
Also unboxing video and more pictures. We all like pictures right?

 

[ClieOS]

WHEN WAS THE E11K ANNOUNCED??? Maybe it'll solve the clipping issue with low impedance loads at high volume, and give out a little more power. And apparently this topping nx1 amp right here is better than an e11 for 20$ less from what owners of both have told me. It has a cleaner sound, full metal construction, and more stable on lower and higher impedance loads. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HFMNR4M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1405805489&sr=8-1&pi=SL75 I'm thinking the E11K might just give it a run for its money! If I remember correctly, the nx1 was designed to beat the e11 in every aspect, and topping is releasing the nx2 soon I think. If that's basically an improved nx1, and not an entirely new amp, I think there might just be a showdown of the next-Gen budget amps. Topping NX2 VS FiiO E11K. That's something I'd want to see. The only thing the e11 has a one up on the nx1 is the bass boost. Again, haven't heard the nx1 to compare though. I'm very happy with my E11. Just wanting to see an E11K VS NX2 showdown. See which is a better budget amp. I'm gonna stay tuned into this thread now for news on E11K...

 
It has not been officially announced yet, but it will be soon. Right now, FiiO doesn't want to announce upcoming product too soon, before they are just about ready to hit the market. So by the time they are announced, they will almost hit the market (if not already so).
 
My E11 doesn't have any of the clipping issue you described. In fact, it doesn't make any sense that it will clip low impedance load (*clipping is a result of the amp running out of voltage swing, which shouldn't be the case for low impedance load as they tends to be very easy to drive, voltage wise. High impedance load is typically where you'll find clipping happens). As for NX1, well, everyone has his / her opinion. I never used one so I won't be commenting too much on it for now. But it is hard to believe based on the fairly simple internal circuit I have seen over the internet, Anyway, I do have plan to pick one up soon so maybe I'll find out for myself.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

It has not been officially announced yet, but it will be soon. Right now, FiiO doesn't want to announce upcoming product too soon, before they are just about ready to hit the market. So by the time they are announced, they will almost hit the market (if not already so).

My E11 doesn't have any of the clipping issue you described. In fact, it doesn't make any sense that it will clip low impedance load (*clipping is a result of the amp running out of voltage swing, which shouldn't be the case for low impedance load as they tends to be very easy to drive, voltage wise). As for NX1, well, everyone has his / her opinion. I never used one so I won't be commenting too much on it for now. But it is hard to believe based on the fairly simple internal circuit I have seen over the internet, Anyway, I do have plan to pick one up soon so maybe I'll find out for myself.

cool. I hook up a 32 ohm headphone, put on bass boost +2, and it clips at 6/8 volume. Its not my headphones either. They go louder than this on my 100 watt vintage stereo amp thing. Anyways, if you go look at that one "Guy's" review, he even states it shows signs of instability on low impedance loads. I experienced it myself, and made sure it wasn't the cans themselves by hooking it into an amp I know can distort my cans... Its the E11 clipping into low impedance loads. Do you by chance have any closed back bassy cans that are about 32 ohms, and have around a 50mm driver? That's my test conditions. Jvc HA-M55X (broke when I took them apart a while back. Claimed warranty with WalMart, and bought a farcry 2, 3, and blood dragon with the gift card. ) but anyways, try using a can with a large driver that can take some power, low impedance rating, turn on bass boost, and turn it up... I am sort of a basshead at points.

 

[ClieOS]

cool.

I hook up a 32 ohm headphone, put on bass boost +2, and it clips at 6/8 volume. Its not my headphones either. They go louder than this on my 100 watt vintage stereo amp thing. Anyways, if you go look at that one "Guy's" review, he even states it shows signs of instability on low impedance loads. I experienced it myself, and made sure it wasn't the cans themselves by hooking it into an amp I know can distort my cans... Its the E11 clipping into low impedance loads. Do you by chance have any closed back bassy cans that are about 32 ohms, and have around a 50mm driver? That's my test conditions. Jvc HA-M55X (broke when I took them apart a while back. Claimed warranty with WalMart, and bought a farcry 2, 3, and blood dragon with the gift card.

) but anyways, try using a can with a large driver that can take some power, low impedance rating, turn on bass boost, and turn it up... I am sort of a basshead at points.

 
If the input signal is very high (i.e. line-level, 2Vrms), then clipping can happen with bass boost as the signal (or at least the bass region) is over-amplified out of the amp voltage swing range. This is not uncommon, consider most portable amps are not designed to handle very large input signal (*mind you, iDevice only pump out around 0.55~1V and they are the most common of portable source). Your vintage stereo amp on the other hand is made for desktop gear, so it is meant to handle large signal, and most of them has very high output impedance on the headphone-out to cut down signal in order to 'appear' better, often in the hundreds of ohm. That's like adding a 100+ohm resistor in serial with your headphone and in no way make the receiver a better amp. You can practically make any amp 'behaves' better by adding more impedance between the amp and your headphone, but it doesn't actually make the amp better in performance. It is just mostly an illusion to cover the amp's shortcoming.
 
I don't think what you are describing is clipping (unless it is the situation above). Maybe it is some kind of distortion that I have not heard of, but clipping is referring to a specific kind of distortion that is, as I have mentioned, about voltage swing and the amp's amplification limit. The few large headphones that I own, which I had tried on the E10 showed no sign of distortion. I don't own an E11 anymore so I can't test it again.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

   
 Maybe it is some kind of distortion that I have not heard of, but clipping is referring to a specific kind of distortion that is, as I have mentioned, about voltage swing and the amp's amplification limit. The few large headphones that I own, which I had tried on the E10 showed no sign of distortion. I don't own an E11 anymore so I can't test it again.

I have both the E10 and the E11 and I don't find either of them to distort with both of my 32 ohm headphones. Even when I have both the amps on high gain. I just plug the E11 into the line out of the E10 and it sound really good then. I also have the FiiO X3 and the line out of that I find to be very loud with the E11. However, there is still no distortion at all even when I have both the X3 and E11 on high gain. The E11's bass boost has more depth to it than the X3 so that is why I sometimes use them together. I never use the E11 to boost the volume of things because that is when I end up getting distortion because of double amping the signal. I have used the E11 through that line out of about 4 different thinks now. The line out on the back of my big Pioneer amplifier, line out of the FiiO D03K, E10 and the X3. The E11 always sounds really good to me as long as it is plugged into something that sounds reasonable.

 

[Fungus]

Has anybody noticed that the background hiss gets unbearably loud when the equalizer is set to level 3?  
 
I've also noticed that the background hiss is actually slightly louder on low gain than it is on high which is really strange, should be the other way round. 
 
The placement of the headphone input jack is so bad, should have switched position with the output.  
 
Sound wise, A+. Sold all my other expensive amp and dac but the fiio e11 is a keeper. 
 
I learnt the hard way...spending more doesn't mean better sound. Don't fall prey to placebo effects.