[Justin Lam]

Hi guys, first post on head-fi!
 
I don't consider myself an audiophile, but I do enjoy listening to my music at a level of high quality. I've been running with the Sennheiser HD 595's and a Fiio E7 for about a year now, but I recently gave the 595's to my cousin and bought myself the Q 701's.
 
I've read a lot of reviews about the Q 701 before purchasing them, and it seems that most people use a full size amp to drive their Q 701's. I've been thinking about getting the Fiio E9 to go with my E7 but I can't really make the decision. Right now it sounds great with just the E7. 
 
My question would be, if I went ahead and got the E9, what difference would it make in the sound I am hearing?

 

[ACDOAN]

Quote:

Hi guys, first post on head-fi!
 
I don't consider myself an audiophile, but I do enjoy listening to my music at a level of high quality. I've been running with the Sennheiser HD 595's and a Fiio E7 for about a year now, but I recently gave the 595's to my cousin and bought myself the Q 701's.
 
I've read a lot of reviews about the Q 701 before purchasing them, and it seems that most people use a full size amp to drive their Q 701's. I've been thinking about getting the Fiio E9 to go with my E7 but I can't really make the decision. Right now it sounds great with just the E7. 
 
My question would be, if I went ahead and got the E9, what difference would it make in the sound I am hearing?

I am glad that you like the E7. While I own 2 of the E7 and the E9, I do not like the E7 as an amp. Yesterday, I swapped the E7 to my old faithful Pioneer Elite A35R using the JVC HARX 700 and it's as day and night. For those who claim amp s just an amp, please take my opinion with a grain of salt since I do not want an endless debate but while the E7 is not only thin sounding and artificial warm with EQ1, the Pioneer A35r voice of DK is fuller and realistic and actually can hear her breathing in some of the tracks on the " Love Scenes" CD. The piano sound is crucial when listening to Diana Krall, the Pioneer A 35r  has a fuller note  while the E7 is cold and bright.. 
 
I take my Pioneer Elite A35r headphone jack over the E7/E9 combo in a heart beat. The E7/E9 combo is pretty decent but i have to say the A35r is definitely one step above. 
 
Vann's has the A35r on line for $199.99 if anyone want to give it a shot.
 

 

[Justin Lam]

Quote:

I am glad that you like the E7. While I own 2 of the E7 and the E9, I do not like the E7 as an amp. Yesterday, I swapped the E7 to my old faithful Pioneer Elite A35R using the JVC HARX 700 and it's as day and night. For those who claim amp s just an amp, please take my opinion with a grain of salt since I do not want an endless debate but while the E7 is not only thin sounding and artificial warm with EQ1, the Pioneer A35r voice of DK is fuller and realistic and actually can hear her breathing in some of the tracks on the " Love Scenes" CD. The piano sound is crucial when listening to Diana Krall, the Pioneer A 35r  has a fuller note  while the E7 is cold and bright.. 
 
I take my Pioneer Elite A35r headphone jack over the E7/E9 combo in a heart beat. The E7/E9 combo is pretty decent but i have to say the A35r is definitely one step above. 
 
Vann's has the A35r on line for $199.99 if anyone want to give it a shot.
 

I probably should have mentioned that I am still a lowly college student. The only way I was able to afford the Q 701 was because it was $250 on Amazon, and I just happened to get a $200 gift card for my birthday. Right now I don't have the money to afford most of the amps that are discussed here. The E9 is definitely at the upper limit of my budget right now at around $100. I was just wondering if I should bite the hook and shell out for it since I already have the E7 to go with it?

 

[ACDOAN]

 Hey, you are the future of what this country is made of. One day you will look back at and laugh at you are saying right now. The sky is the limit, brother.
 
As I said the E7 as an amp, It 's pretty decent but as the combo E7/E9 is pretty solid USB/DAC/AMP from the cost to performance ratio. If I were you and if you need a USB/DAC/AMP, I would go for the E9 for now since you already own the E7.
 
 
 
 

 

[Justin Lam]

Quote:

 Hey, you are the future of what this country is made of. One day you will look back at and laugh at you are saying right now. The sky is the limit, brother.
 
As I said the E7 as an amp, It 's pretty decent but as the combo E7/E9 is pretty solid USB/DAC/AMP from the cost to performance ratio. If I were you and if you need a USB/DAC/AMP, I would go for the E9 for now since you already own the E7.
 
 
 
lol, thanks for the input!

 

 

[mikeaj]

The AKG K701 / K702 / Q701 need more current than the majority of headphones, for equivalent listening volumes.  Thus they've developed a reputation of being hard to drive or picky about amplification, and needing a desktop amplifier.  The part about needing a desktop amplifier is not really true, as it just depends on the characteristics of the amplifier, not how large it is or from where the power comes from.  Plenty of portable or battery-power devices can do it justice.
 
Most people would say the E7 is a little bit underpowered from driving the Q701, but if you don't listen at a loud level or listen to music that's heavily dynamic range compressed (most releases these days, where loud parts are squished into all being the same amount of loud), then that's not an issue for you.  If you're satisfied with the volume and don't hear any distortion, it's okay.  You can do a little better, but the E7 is not bad.
 
For reference, the E7 can output a fairly clean 1.6V or so into the roughly 62 ohms of the Q701, for approximately 104 dB SPL peak volume from a sine wave...at least according to independent tests of the E7 and of the Q701.  The E9 is a bit cleaner according to bench tests but not significantly so.  The main real advantage would just be being able to crank up the volume louder.
 
The other "advantages" would be (1) the higher output level and big knob encouraging you to listen somewhere in the middle of the rotation, which may be louder than where you currently listen, and louder almost always is perceived as better, and (2) it being a desktop amp, so of course it's "supposed" to sound better, so you would be inclined to think it sounds better.  Same goes for most desktop amps.

 

[clarkb]

I started out with the E7 and my K702 and ended up getting the E9 as well.
I must say that at the same relative listening volume the lower frequencies are more audible with the E9. I'm happy with it, but I'm longing to try the Objective2 with the K702 to compare.
In short, the difference is subtle but noticeable.

 

[Rasmus]

Hey everyone. I got a question about the fiio e11. 
i'm planning to buy the Q701's and i already got the fiio e11. Do you think that it will be able to power the Q's, just to produce a decent sound?  

 

[SigmaAcoustics]

I think the amp is weak for these headphones