Creative needs to stop using digital volume control tied to the operating system and I'll explain why.
With high sensitivity headphones you end up with an extremely narrow range of volume to work with. For example, 0/100 is mute and 5/100 may be loud. That means you have 5 different levels of loudness which is far too little. I had this exact problem with the E3 and you just can't live with such coarse adjustment. It's also dangerous because if something does reset the volume to 100/100 then it will destroy your IEMs and your hearing. This is why volume control on the E5 should never be tied to the operating system.
I'm sure they've made the same mistake with the G5.
Digital volume control tied to the OS is fine. Plenty other companies do it without any problem. The issue is gain. Even if you have analog volume pot, you will still face the same loudness issue (and probably additional imbalance issue on lower volume range) if the gain is too high. So instead of taking away digital volume control, they should refine it and make better gain range selection that are suitable for both low, mid and high sensitivity headphone.
Originally Posted by ClieOS /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Digital volume control tied to the OS is fine. Plenty other companies do it without any problem. The issue is gain. Even if you have analog volume pot, you will still face the same loudness issue (and probably additional imbalance issue on lower volume range) if the gain is too high. So instead of taking away digital volume control, they should refine it and make better gain range selection that are suitable for both low, mid and high sensitivity headphone.
If the two aren't linked then with high sensitivity IEMs I can adjust OS volume down while leaving the potentiometer on the amp alone. This solves the high sensitivity IEM issue. Secondly, there are digital potentiometers that aren't tied to the OS. For example, the Fiio E17/E17K uses one of these.
They also aren't taking away digital volume control. You can still use that via the OS but the pot on the amp does not control OS volume. That's a better solution.
It's a shame that Creative really doesn't understand the market. I feel like they are going to have to go through 2-5 more generations of product just to fix what they could of done at the start if they'd bothered to get feedback on their design. Volume control tied to the OS is a big no no. Others like Fiio know that.
If the two aren't linked then with high sensitivity IEMs I can adjust OS volume down while leaving the potentiometer on the amp alone. This solves the high sensitivity IEM issue. Secondly, there are digital potentiometers that aren't tied to the OS. For example, the Fiio E17/E17K uses one of these.
They also aren't taking away digital volume control. You can still use that via the OS but the pot on the amp does not control OS volume. That's a better solution.
It's a shame that Creative really doesn't understand the market. I feel like they are going to have to go through 2-5 more generations of product just to fix what they could of done at the start if they'd bothered to get feedback on their design. Volume control tied to the OS is a big no no. Others like Fiio know that.
E17/E17K isn't digital volume control at all. They are chip based analog volume control with a digital interface. I still think a better gain setting is the way to go - you are only thinking about PC usage, but with a better gain setting, it will better suit not just for PC but also for smartphone and weak source that can use a higher gain.
On the other hand, as I have told the Creative product manager on trade show not long ago - stop trying to make one device that can do everything just decently but instead trying to make one device that can do one thing brilliantly. If it is up to me, I won't even bother with gaming feature or as PC soundcard but just market E5 purely as a smartphone accessories, which it is what it should have been.
E17/E17K isn't digital volume control at all. They are chip based analog volume control with a digital interface. I still think a better gain setting is the way to go - you are only thinking about PC usage, but with a better gain setting, it will better suit not just for PC but also for smartphone and weak source that can use a higher gain.
On the other hand, as I have told the Creative product manager on trade show not long ago - stop trying to make one device that can do everything just decently but instead trying to make one device that can do one thing brilliantly. If it is up to me, I won't even bother with gaming feature or as PC soundcard but just market E5 purely as a smartphone accessories, which it is what it should have been.
What most posters here completely misunderstand is that the device is not tied to the windows master volume at all. Nada. The E5 is tied to the E5 Soundblaster Control panel software. That software is tied to the windows master control.
So if you have a volume control ( gain actually) issue, first line of action ought to be to disable your on board (or PCI) sound card in the BIOS of your box. That is the only way to make sure that your PC does not interact or amps the USB device....
What most posters here completely misunderstand is that the device is not tied to the windows master volume at all. Nada. The E5 is tied to the E5 Soundblaster Control panel software. That software is tied to the windows master control.
So if you have a volume control ( gain actually) issue, first line of action ought to be to disable your on board (or PCI) sound card in the BIOS of your box. That is the only way to make sure that your PC does not interact or amps the USB device....
My issue is that the volume control is tied to software whether that is an application or OS doesn't matter. Meaning that some random bug doesn't reset the volume and destroy my hearing and IEMs. Creative doesn't have a good history of writing software that isn't buggy either.
My issue is that the volume control is tied to software whether that is an application or OS doesn't matter. Meaning that some random bug doesn't reset the volume and destroy my hearing and IEMs. Creative doesn't have a good history of writing software that isn't buggy either.
I wonder - do you actually own an E5 to speak from experience or you just assume from what others have said? I am not saying some of the point you made ain't valid, but as what seems to be the biggest critic of E5, you don't seem like you actually use an E5 in person sometime. For example, I use E5 on my Windows 8.1 all the time with some fairly sensitive IEM and I can comfortably keep Windows volume at around 20%~30% (depends on the IEM used) without fearing of any hearing damage even with long listening hours. So if you are only assuming E5 will blast your eardrum out because of E3 (which I do agree have a poor digital volume implementation), I think you are mistaken here.
About 20-30% sounds about right. Even my old analogue Yamaha C-85 Pre-Amp drives all my gear in that range.
At 50% the power amp will blow out the windows though and I would not want to listen at that level using any HP.
I am thinking they did not get it all that wrong....
E17/E17K isn't digital volume control at all. They are chip based analog volume control with a digital interface. I still think a better gain setting is the way to go - you are only thinking about PC usage, but with a better gain setting, it will better suit not just for PC but also for smartphone and weak source that can use a higher gain.
On the other hand, as I have told the Creative product manager on trade show not long ago - stop trying to make one device that can do everything just decently but instead trying to make one device that can do one thing brilliantly. If it is up to me, I won't even bother with gaming feature or as PC soundcard but just market E5 purely as a smartphone accessories, which it is what it should have been.
I do agree. Its a pretty nifty device, but it tries too hard to do too many things and is thus limited in how much it can achieve. A jack of all trades if there ever was one.
The E5 is the ideal office sound setup: plugged into my laptop, pumping metal in the Oppo PM3s or Flare R2Pro IEMs via Foobar2000 while connected to my G4 over Bluetooth. Phone call? Music stops, all loud and clear both ways. I also find myself using it to power my headphones while jogging, with the phone again connected over BT. The aptX work a treat and I actually found my G4 comparing well with playing straight from a Fiio X3 II.
Received my drop of the E5 a few days ago and I have some initial comments/observations/questions.
Firstly, I was disappointed upon opening the box to find it was missing the stand, the straps, and more valuable, the 2 months free Tidal coupon. I have contacted Massdrop about this and will see how they respond.
Functionality of the E5 is inhibited as I attempt to use an iOS source both via Bluetooth and connected through a Lightning cable.
I have found the Bluetooth connectivity very delicate as the link between the devices randomly fails frequently. I don't know the root cause so what I did to remedy was turn off the E5, soft reset the iOS device, then link again via BT.
As turbobb mentioned earlier, functionality of the software is inhibited when connected to an iOS device via BT.
Being perturbed by these issues I chose to direct connect via the Lightning cable. Although stability is better and the software is enabled for customizing the SQ, I have, on 2 occasions, had the connection to fail as it did with the BT connection.
A last comment is I find the Audio Player included in the Sound Blaster Central app to be very poorly designed if you are working with a large library of streaming saved albums.
Jury is still out on the SQ of the DAC. I'm now waiting on a decent set of over-the-ears to arrive. I'm currently on low gain using a variety of fairly low impedance, mid quality IEMs.
Anyone who has the E5 that may know why I'm getting a multitude of disconnects I would truly appreciate a remedy.
@VinegarBoy: I wish I could help, but I found both the E5's Bluetooth and USB connections very stable with my iPhone 5S. As far as the music player, my strategy is to browse via the iPhone's stock music app or streaming service and use Creative's app solely for changing the E5's settings. There's really no reason you need to use the music player built into Creative's app. I find sound quality to be an improvement over my iPhone 5S, but if pure SQ is what you're after there are better options out there like the Cayin C5DAC or Shanling H3, which are both more conventional dac/amps. Then there are the less conventional battery-free options like the Calyx PaT or Cozoy Aegis. I reviewed all of those, and they all sound better than the iPhone's stock sound. Depending on what you're after, I'm sure at least a couple of them would impress you more SQ-wise than the E5's stock sound. The E5's strength is its tweak-ability. I mean, there are like a million different settings in there you can tweak.
This DEFINITELY should not have been the case with your purchase from Massdrop. You should have received a sealed product. Please send me a PM and we'll get this sorted out for you (even if you've resolved with Massdrop please contact me as I'd like to get more info from you on this and the connectivity issues you are having).
This DEFINITELY should not have been the case with your purchase from Massdrop. You should have received a sealed product. Please send me a PM and we'll get this sorted out for you (even if you've resolved with Massdrop please contact me as I'd like to get more info from you on this and the connectivity issues you are having).
Is it no longer possible to charge your phone with the E5 using the current firmware? I thought this solution would be great to play 24-bit files on my iPhone 6+ in the car. But alas, it means if I'm using navigation or already low on battery I have no way to charge my iPhone.
I completely understand not using the E5 to charge your phone when it's running off battery operation, but if my E5 is charging, why in the hell can't I charge my iPhone with it? Sure, I can use BT to the E5, but that means my 24-bit music is now not an option on an iPhone. Pretty disappointing.
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