Can Fiio E9 drive Hifiman HE-5LE?

[bassophile]

Without any clipping or distortion and to acceptable (even loud) levels on the high gain setting?

 

[bassophile]

bump

 

[DemonicLemming]

Without personal experience, I can't say for sure; but I would lean towards, "Very doubtful".  Sort of like sticking a supercharger on a Prius.

 

[Delicious]

Quote:

Without personal experience, I can't say for sure; but I would lean towards, "Very doubtful".  Sort of like sticking a supercharger on a Prius.

Sorry but how did you get to that answer. The fiio e9 can output loads of power and it would definitely drive the he5le's very well.
 

 

[DemonicLemming]

People are seeing the best results driving the 5LEs on speaker taps.  The E9 seems to be listed to 300mW @ 16 ohms on the high gain setting.  Both the 5LE and HE-6 cans are known to need a lot of power to really sound as good as they should; the E9 might produce sound, but unlikely at a level high enough for enjoyable listening, let alone adequate enough to justify the price of 5LEs.
 
Quote:

Sorry but how did you get to that answer. The fiio e9 can output loads of power and it would definitely drive the he5le's very well.
 

 

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

People are seeing the best results driving the 5LEs on speaker taps.  The E9 seems to be listed to 300mW @ 16 ohms on the high gain setting.  Both the 5LE and HE-6 cans are known to need a lot of power to really sound as good as they should; the E9 might produce sound, but unlikely at a level high enough for enjoyable listening, let alone adequate enough to justify the price of 5LEs.

Actually, it's 1W @ 16Ohms.  The E9 is capable of driving the HE-5LE, though you won't be getting its absolute sonic potential.  I'd say, you'll get roughly 75 to 80 percent of its full sonic potential.  It should still sound pretty decent, though I recommend the E9 be used more with dynamic headphones instead.
 
 

 

[dinkoy]

Yeah its pretty capable on mine.

 

[DemonicLemming]

My mistake; Fiio's Google results show the specifications for a different amplifier for the E9.
 
I still can't admit to seeing the reasoning of using HE-5LE cans on an E9, though.
 
Quote:

Actually, it's 1W @ 16Ohms.  The E9 is capable of driving the HE-5LE, though you won't be getting its absolute sonic potential.  I'd say, you'll get roughly 75 to 80 percent of its full sonic potential.  It should still sound pretty decent, though I recommend the E9 be used more with dynamic headphones instead.
 
 

 

 

[Delicious]

The fiio e9 can drive pretty much anything and all this stuff about needing a speaker amp for orthos is a bunch of rubbish.
I have heard the he-6's and he-5le's through very expensive amps (apache, b22, wa5, wa6se) and found none of them are much of an improvement over a fiio e9.
I didn't even need to turn the volume any way near full to get them very loud.

 

[DemonicLemming]

You didn't find much of an improvement with HE-6s running on a Beta22 or a WA5, over the same headphones running on a Fiio E9?
 
I think I'm just going to push my chair in and take off before I say something I shouldn't.  All I'll end with is that I used my HE-4s with both my Little Dot and my Zero, and neither were even moderately adequate to properly drive the orthos.  They could get loud, but it was like listening to 1" dome tweeters shoved under a blanket.
 
Quote:

The fiio e9 can drive pretty much anything and all this stuff about needing a speaker amp for orthos is a bunch of rubbish.
I have heard the he-6's and he-5le's through very expensive amps (apache, b22, wa5, wa6se) and found none of them are much of an improvement over a fiio e9.
I didn't even need to turn the volume any way near full to get them very loud.

 

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

The fiio e9 can drive pretty much anything and all this stuff about needing a speaker amp for orthos is a bunch of rubbish.
I have heard the he-6's and he-5le's through very expensive amps (apache, b22, wa5, wa6se) and found none of them are much of an improvement over a fiio e9.
I didn't even need to turn the volume any way near full to get them very loud.

I'm going to disagree with you there.  If you ever get a chance, try out Hifiman's line through a speaker amp and then through any quality headphone amp.  I can almost garauntee that you will hear a difference that is more than noticable.
 

 

[estreeter]

If I was going to spend that much money on a pair of headphones, I would budget more than $140 for an amp. There is a big difference between being able to drive a pair of headphones and being able to drive them to their optimum. I remain a huge fan of the E9 as one of the best bang-for-buck components in head-fi (alongside the KSC75 and the SR60), and I agree that it has power that would shock a lot of the more cynical here, but a single watt just doesnt compare to speaker amps which routinely output 40W+ per channel into 8 ohms.
 
You know you want it:
 
http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/5457

 

[cactus_farmer]

what about the LCD2 - can the E9 drive that capably?
 
By 'capably' I mean can it comfortably get to a good listening level without the volume knob being maxed out? Same thing with the Hifiman headphones - what 'o'clock must the volume knob be turned to to get a good listening level?
 
Nevermind about how subjectively there might be additional improvements to the sound for the moment...

 

[Digital-Pride]

I believe Mike at Headfonia has driven the HE-6 succesfully(meaning no clipping or distortion) with the E9.  The HE-6 is a much harder headphone to drive than the LCD-2, so you should be in good shape.

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

If I was going to spend that much money on a pair of headphones, I would budget more than $140 for an amp. 

x2.
 
Duh.