Thanks for the answers and apologies for any earlier conflict or misunderstandings. And second, I finally seem to have got it working correctly. I used it only as an amp for the TV for a while and the sound signature was completely different from the laptop, way more open as opposed to a warm...

Sorry, but this "advice" just assumes a lot and doesn't try seriously at all. And not just about the quality but moreover for some reason about the material which has not the slightest thing to do with this, since what I wrote implied the same material. It affects the whole range of material, it...

Would others say that the ODAC+O2 has great "presence" in the mids? The nearest and best comparison I have is an old but good TV, and it offers much greater presence of mids, to make singing and instruments really come to the fore, without it sounding false but rather more natural. Sounds have a...

Alright, when making sure I had all extensions turned off, I might have accidentally ticked on bass extension. I removed it, and it sounds much more "open" now, not as muffled as I first thought. I also used my onboard audio output for a while, and though it sounds weaker and with more jittering...

I now have an ODAC+O2 from Epiphany Acoustics and while it sounds kind of attractive, I don't find it that impressive and I even have my doubts about its objectivity. It's not particularly clear or crisp, it stays kind of in the background and in effect it's like there's layer on top which is...

So Ive just ordered an ODAC+O2 from epiphany acoustics to get it over with... Although I was constantly adjusting my limit, I think about 200€ is still reasonable to have a definitive device for a loooong time and not having to read, test, build and search anymore... I saw it coming, but it had...

I've seen there are many cheap DIY devices on ebay which promise comparable results to O2 or Magni etc, but I guess there are no definite and safe recommendations either.   But I wonder what would most likely retain the quality of an "official" (btw. I think it's open source, so why not just...

Quote:   I'm confident I'll hear the difference. I hear the difference as it is. I think most testers stop with the FiiOs at clarity, and anything below a certain limit is a budget tip anyway. But other than clarity they have very narrow width and tight or virtually no distribution. The...

Quote: Doesn't matter, imho. I just want good sound for USB (and maybe some pure amp uses). I have a 50 ohms Sennheiser HD 595. Among other things I've tried Fiio E10 and Fiio E17. The E10 would be a good budget device, but I don't know why it gets so great ratings. It does a solid job but...

With a budget of up to 150€, I was thinking that instead of getting a good external amp/dac combo for that price, I might get one of the objective devices in combination with a cheaper but servicable companion for about the same price. What should I rather get, an O2 or ODAC, and can you think...

Well, but I didn't ask THAT. Ok. I just know there's no problem there. My last Google research brought up 16-150 Ohms. The package says 33.  

I'll probably send the Fiio E10 back in the next few days, because the X-Fi HD seems to use my headphones better, but is not without some reservations. Whenever I've used one of the devices for a longer while, going to the other one always results in a refreshing sound experience. It's like they...

It has low output impedance and it sounds perfectly fine. Nothing sounds wrong, I'm merely evaluating the quality of certain characteristics, although the overall impression is perfectly good. Saying it might be slightly more noisy or less accurate than the E10 doesn't mean it's audibly noisy...

The recommendation of the E10 in this thread seems to be based on the sole assumption that the X-Fi HD doesn't have a headphone amp whereas the E10 does. Well, the main feature of the X-Fi HD over the normal X-Fi is that it has a Phono-amp with "studio quality" headphone output. Now what? I have...