Mid-March delivery now. Which has, oh by the way, come and rapidly will be gone...

^^ This is one of the main reasons the E17 appeals to me. Use it as a DAC/Amp on my Windows PC's and standalone with ipod. So far there have been good reviews of the E17 but not much to read from owner's on this forum. What's the story?

Save this space

I have been researching possible upgrades to my Maverick D1 and Schiit Lyr combo in my main system. I really like the D1 because of how versatile it is as a preamp/DAC especially with the tube output stage. Not so much the D1 amp which is why I have the Lyr. I have a phono stage and need a DAC...

Congratulations on the Luxman! That Onkyo DAC-1000 looks nice also but no analog-in. I'm kinda sorta in the market for a new DAC/Amp/Pre-amp myself and I'm curious why no one here mentioned the Benchmark DAC1 PRE because it seems to have the features you were looking for? 

The D1 and HD650 are okay but much better with a more powerful standalone amp. I prefer tube amps myself. The D1 tube pre-out goes into my main system and to my ears sounds much better than the D1 SS stage. I never use the D1 SS-out stage. But again, I prefer the tube sound in general. 

Get the Beats and ignore the haters

I am anxiously awaiting this!   Quote:  

Three weeks ago Fiio quoted Feb2012 release in another thread. What is your source for the earlier release date? I hope it's true.   That's super impressive LEAN JIT design and manufacturing if they haven't finalized specs <60 days from release.   Quote:  

probably not much with this setup.   "my question is simply whether i will notice a significant sound quailty increase in my heaphones, i own Sennheiser HD428 32ohm, i play 320 kbps rips all music (now whether or not those rips are true or an unconverted 128 rip idk) and i play these on my...

OK!

The title of the thread is:  will continue to review as many as I can. Fiio E17 is reported to be out in ~90 days.    The OP may also want to consider the Ibasso D7 Sidewinder that is reported to be out in <14 days.   FWIW I'd like to see him review the Tomahawk next.   Happy?

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Get the Fiio E17.

Get the Fiio E17.

You should get a Fiio E17.

I don't think you necessarily need a $2000 amp to bring the best out of the HD650. My $450 Lyr works just fine. 

Have you run across the fiio e7 amp/dac or e11 amp? These are well regarded units and they are reasonably priced. You'll want a fairly powerful amp to drive the HD650 with any authority.

Nice review. What you describe with the HD650 reminds me of my impressions of it with the Lyr only the Continental is portable for your home/office workstation. Very nice.

The E17 looks very nice and the specs sound great. I just about pulled the trigger on an E11, then the E7/E9 combo. I'll wait for the E17. Main use will be connected standalone to ipod and occasionally for office workstation to bypass on board sound card. The E7/E17 form factor is a big plus for...

Ah, it figures I didn't catch this. I was considering the E7 then opted for the E11 because of the more powerful amp. I guess I'll exchange the E11 for the E7 now. Then eventually replace the Audinst HUD MX-1 in my home office system with the E9.

I just ordered the E11 to use with my v-moda m80 as portable amp with ipod and USB to my office workstation. The naked ipod doesn't drive the m80 enough for my tastes. I hope I didn't make a mistake. Most reviews are kinda meh. For the money it seems like a no-brainer when compared to other amps...

^^ x2

PS Audio power re-generators FTW.

I actually think of the M903 more as a DAC/pre-amp than an amp. I'm thinking about it as an upgrade from my Mav D1. It wouldn't be too hard for the M903 to be a improvement over the D1 amp. Has anyone compared the M903 amp section to the Schiit Lyr?