[deadbone]

Has anyone else noticed the E10 cutting off the first several milliseconds of audio when it starts playing? This makes tracks that begin right at the zero mark sound off, but it only seems to occur if a new audio stream is being opened ... cueing a track directly. If such a track comes up sequentially in a playlist while the DAC is already outputting audio, it plays correctly.
 
I believe this problem occurred on my Linux PC as well as my Mac, so I question whether it's a driver/software issue or a flaw of the E10 itself.

 

[MickeyVee]

I haven't noticed it on my MacBook Air or Mac Mini.. just tested to make sure.  If it's a few milliseconds, is that really a problem?
 

 

[deadbone]

Yes, it is a problem...aside from being annoying. I do audio editing and it renders the E10 somewhat useless for that because the beginning of any audio I play gets chopped off. It's subtle, but there.
 
Here's a file I made to illustrate the problem. It's the first couple seconds of the song "White Sky" by Vampire Weekend, then a moment of silence, then the beginning looped again.
 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4480311/white_sky_test.mp3
 
When I play the file, the first beat comes in soft, after the attack...does not sound correct. It sounds like a very quick crescendo occurs, as though the DAC is ramping up to full volume. The second loop plays correctly with the full waveform being played.
 
Can anyone else reproduce this?

 

[LimeANite]

Quote:

Yes, it is a problem...aside from being annoying. I do audio editing and it renders the E10 somewhat useless for that because the beginning of any audio I play gets chopped off. It's subtle, but there.
 
Here's a file I made to illustrate the problem. It's the first couple seconds of the song "White Sky" by Vampire Weekend, then a moment of silence, then the beginning looped again.
 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4480311/white_sky_test.mp3
 
When I play the file, the first beat comes in soft, after the attack...does not sound correct. It sounds like a very quick crescendo occurs, as though the DAC is ramping up to full volume. The second loop plays correctly with the full waveform being played.
 
Can anyone else reproduce this?

Listened to your test track about a half dozen times and it all sounded the same to me.  No difference between the beginning of the file and the repeat.  This was on a Windows PC though.
 

 

[dL.]

Quote:

Yes, it is a problem...aside from being annoying. I do audio editing and it renders the E10 somewhat useless for that because the beginning of any audio I play gets chopped off. It's subtle, but there.
 
Here's a file I made to illustrate the problem. It's the first couple seconds of the song "White Sky" by Vampire Weekend, then a moment of silence, then the beginning looped again.
 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4480311/white_sky_test.mp3
 
When I play the file, the first beat comes in soft, after the attack...does not sound correct. It sounds like a very quick crescendo occurs, as though the DAC is ramping up to full volume. The second loop plays correctly with the full waveform being played.
 
Can anyone else reproduce this?

This reminds me of the problem I was describing on the previous page about the sound effects of the Mac cutting off at the beginning.
 
dL
 

 

[erted]

Hi everyone!
 
I'm looking to get the Fiio E10 but I have a question: will it actually improve things? Currently, I'm using the Creative Aurvana Live! headphones, driven form my integrated sound card (the motherboard in quite old, and the integrated sound card is quite poor). I like the way the CAL! sounds, but since I mainly listen to rock/metal the mids (guitar track) is IMO pushed too far into the background, thus reducing the level of detail, and making it as if the drums and vocals are overwhelming (to my ears!). I also like to listen to music at quite high volumes, and the CAL! tends to distort the highs, causing hissing (which I really HATE).
 
Is the Fiio E10 a good investment? 
 
I'm planning on getting some higher grade headphones in the (distant) future, should I get the E10 then?
 
Thanks.

 

[obazavil]

Do you people have used the coaxial out?
 
Since my laptop doesn't have optical out, I'm thinking of using the E10 coaxial out for 5.1 doby encoded output (using it as pass-through).
 
Has anyone used the E10 to feed a receiver with 5.1 encoded signal?
 
I read E10 uses the Tenor TE7022L USB receiver, so it should, in theory, have NON-PCM (Dolby Digital/dts) Pass Through support...

 

[hamburgerladdy]

The older your integrated sound card is, the better it will likely sound.
 
For me it's an excellent laptop sound card for the price.
 
Very little hiss.
 
The separation of tracks is very good, but it has a darker presentation which may not be everyone's cup of tea.
 
If it's a desktop, an upgrade of the sound card for a better SNR with the CALs works too.
 
You may also consider equalizing your system.
 
Quote:

Hi everyone!
 
I'm looking to get the Fiio E10 but I have a question: will it actually improve things? Currently, I'm using the Creative Aurvana Live! headphones, driven form my integrated sound card (the motherboard in quite old, and the integrated sound card is quite poor). I like the way the CAL! sounds, but since I mainly listen to rock/metal the mids (guitar track) is IMO pushed too far into the background, thus reducing the level of detail, and making it as if the drums and vocals are overwhelming (to my ears!). I also like to listen to music at quite high volumes, and the CAL! tends to distort the highs, causing hissing (which I really HATE).
 
Is the Fiio E10 a good investment? 
 
I'm planning on getting some higher grade headphones in the (distant) future, should I get the E10 then?
 
Thanks.

 

 

[Splungeworthy]

Re: cutting off the beginnings of songs: Yes I've noticed this! I thought it was JRiver's fault-but maybe it's the E10?  Why would this occur? It's especially noticeable on Rush tracks like "Tom Sawyer"-the beginning is cut off ever so slightly but it is definitely there, and kind of ruins the song.

 

[erted]

So should I get it? How big of an improvement is it?
I have a 5 year old PC, the motherboard is Intel's DP965LT.
 
I've considered buying a new sound card (Asus Xonar DG), but the thing is I have 2 PCs as I'm attending an university, which requires me to stay away from home during the week, and the PC I have at home is around 10 years old and doesn't even support modern sound cards, thus a transportable amp is desired.
 
I've worked with the EQ a bit, and it's a bit better, mainly I've managed to push the guitar track a bit more into the foreground. 
 
Quote:

The older your integrated sound card is, the better it will likely sound.
 
For me it's an excellent laptop sound card for the price.
 
Very little hiss.
 
The separation of tracks is very good, but it has a darker presentation which may not be everyone's cup of tea.
 
If it's a desktop, an upgrade of the sound card for a better SNR with the CALs works too.
 
You may also consider equalizing your system.
 


 

 

 

[Splungeworthy]

Quote:

Has anyone else noticed the E10 cutting off the first several milliseconds of audio when it starts playing? This makes tracks that begin right at the zero mark sound off, but it only seems to occur if a new audio stream is being opened ... cueing a track directly. If such a track comes up sequentially in a playlist while the DAC is already outputting audio, it plays correctly.
 
I believe this problem occurred on my Linux PC as well as my Mac, so I question whether it's a driver/software issue or a flaw of the E10 itself.

OK, so I listened to "Tom Sawyer" twice.  Once through the headphone out of my laptop, and once through the headphone out of the E10.  Media player is JRiver with WASAPI event mode.  Through the laptop out the song plays perfectly from the beginning.  Through the E10 the first couple of milliseconds is cut off.  Very frustrating-could there be a compatibility problem between the E10 and JRiver?  I tried every output mode JRiver supports and it doesn't change anything.  Using Win7, E10 is the default music device, and output is set at 16/44.1 (changing that does nothing for this problem).  Problem does not occur with foobar or WMP.   Help!
 

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

So should I get it? How big of an improvement is it?
I have a 5 year old PC, the motherboard is Intel's DP965LT.
 
I've considered buying a new sound card (Asus Xonar DG), but the thing is I have 2 PCs as I'm attending an university, which requires me to stay away from home during the week, and the PC I have at home is around 10 years old and doesn't even support modern sound cards, thus a transportable amp is desired.
 
I've worked with the EQ a bit, and it's a bit better, mainly I've managed to push the guitar track a bit more into the foreground.

I'd say yes, the improvement probably won't be huge, but it should be more than noticeable.  Though, I would suggesting waiting 'till February when Fiio will be releasing a new batch with improved headphone jacks.
 

 

[deadbone]

Quote:

This reminds me of the problem I was describing on the previous page about the sound effects of the Mac cutting off at the beginning.
 
dL
 

I just tried what you described and you're right; we are experiencing the same issue. The "Funk" sound effect's beginning is truncated...the "Frog" sound above it is so short that it barely plays by the time the E10 starts outputting sound. Any new audio stream seems to be silenced at its beginning. Try this: play a song or any sound in the background, and try playing an audio file that is normally truncated. Works fine, since the sound gets "embedded" into the stream that is already playing.
 
I have contacted FiiO to see what they say about the issue.

 

[LimeANite]

I'm still not able to repeat it using Tom Sawyer.  I'm using Foobar2K with WASAPI, switching back and forth between headphone-out and the E10.  Could be a problem specific to JRiver, or perhaps my ears aren't quite good enough to catch it.

 

[deadbone]

I received a response from FiiO, for those interested:
---
 
[size=12pt]​[/size]Thank you for your mail and support to FiiO!

 Yes, you are right , our E10 will cut off the music about 0.7mS to solve the phase shift distortion of the WM8740 with the TE7022 USB receiver.

 and it can not solve by any firmware or fixed it by hardware. but our E17 have not such problem because the  structure is different, the digital signal

 will go through wm8804 so we don't need to reset the WM8740 each time when there are new signal to make sure it work perfect. 

If you have any other question, please feel free to contact us!




--------------------------------------
Time:01/17/2012 07:28:36
To:market@fiio.com.cn
Cc:
Subject:E10 cutting off beginning of audio stream
Hello, I placed an order for an E10 in September and received it from
MP4Nation at the end of November. I am very pleased with the quality
of the DAC except for one issue: the beginning of any new audio stream
that opens and is outputted to the E10 is cut off. The amount of the
waveform that is cut off is small, but the E10 is definitely not
outputting streams entirely correctly. I use my computer for audio
editing and this problem is particularly frustrating for this
application. I have a PC with Linux and a Macintosh, both using the
default USB audio drivers, and have experienced the problem on both
computers. I asked about the problem on Head-Fi (
http://www.head-fi.org/t/575084/impression-fiio-e10/705#post_8059306 )
to see if it was just my setup or if other E10's exhibit this behavior
and several other owners have confirmed the issue.

Is this a problem that can be fixed with a software or firmware update
for the device, or is it a flaw of its design and unchangeable? If it
is not fixable for the E10, is a future FiiO DAC going to address the
problem? Since I purchased the E10 for audio editing and it is
currently not suitable for this, I would be interested in returning
the product if possible.

Thank you for assisting me.
 
 
---
It's a shame that a company would produce such an otherwise excellent product with a flaw like this.