Aaron1006
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2010
- Posts
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As of now I have a E9+E7 combo and it served me fine until I got my Heir Audio 3.A's. These things are pretty darned sensitive and don't pair too well with the E9. There is an audible (and annoying!) hiss and the well known high output impedance doesn't work too well with them, also the volume control has to be so low that it's almost at that point of channel imbalance with the E9 and since they are so sensitive I don't exactly have the best volume control. Obviously none of these problems are there using either of my full-sized phones. Now when I detach the E7 and use it by itself , SQ wise it is fine with the 3.A's, but the convenience factor of a nice desktop amp is gone. I have to have a separate cable running from my laptop to the E7's USB input and any time I want to change the volume I have to actually pick it up to adjust the volume. Needless to say the E7 doesn't do too well by itself with the HE400's and T50RP's, well definitely not as good as the E9 that is. So whenever I want to switch I have to go through the process of switching between just the E7 and the E7/E9 which is more of a pain than I want to deal with multiple times a day.
If you made it through that first paragraph then you understand my FWP's and that I need something that can work for HE400's, T50RP's and Heir Audio 3.A customs. Now for the other requirements...
-preferably a DAC/amp combo box but willing to listen to any practical, and cheap options.
-under $200
-must have either a 3.5mm line out, RCA, or coax
-desktop style design (i.e. no E17)
-must be compatible w/ all of my phones' (now when I say compatible I'm not looking for a match made in heaven, more like no problems such as hissing with the CIEM's or not enough power for the orthos)
-full replacement for E7/E9 (I don't want a new amp specifically for one of the problems, I want a solution for both!)
Thus far my leading candidate is a Fiio E10, but according to Voldemort (lol) it hisses with his Super Fi Pros so I'm worried it might hiss with mine. Also been reading that it doesn't really give modded T50RP's enough juice to give them justice. So I'm not too sure about this.
I've also considered an O2 which sounds ideal to me really, but it isn't exactly the best desktop design and has no DAC as of now and even when the ODAC does come it is quite a bit out of my price range.
I don't really know what else to even look at which is why I'm posting this topic! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S to those of you reading this that may be unfamiliar with the power requirements of the HE400's (since they're fairly new) they are no where near as high as previous Hifiman models and are designed to be much more sensitive, however they do still need a bit of power as do the T50RP's.
If you made it through that first paragraph then you understand my FWP's and that I need something that can work for HE400's, T50RP's and Heir Audio 3.A customs. Now for the other requirements...
-preferably a DAC/amp combo box but willing to listen to any practical, and cheap options.
-under $200
-must have either a 3.5mm line out, RCA, or coax
-desktop style design (i.e. no E17)
-must be compatible w/ all of my phones' (now when I say compatible I'm not looking for a match made in heaven, more like no problems such as hissing with the CIEM's or not enough power for the orthos)
-full replacement for E7/E9 (I don't want a new amp specifically for one of the problems, I want a solution for both!)
Thus far my leading candidate is a Fiio E10, but according to Voldemort (lol) it hisses with his Super Fi Pros so I'm worried it might hiss with mine. Also been reading that it doesn't really give modded T50RP's enough juice to give them justice. So I'm not too sure about this.
I've also considered an O2 which sounds ideal to me really, but it isn't exactly the best desktop design and has no DAC as of now and even when the ODAC does come it is quite a bit out of my price range.
I don't really know what else to even look at which is why I'm posting this topic! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S to those of you reading this that may be unfamiliar with the power requirements of the HE400's (since they're fairly new) they are no where near as high as previous Hifiman models and are designed to be much more sensitive, however they do still need a bit of power as do the T50RP's.
