Listened the E3 at the dealership for 3 hours today and placed the order right after listening sessions.
Oh boy! These sound good! Very good! But the downside is this thing loves power. A lot of power. As anticipated, my AK kann alpha does not work well on E3 even on high gain. The sound will distort above I will say 80db. Which is another headache for my portable setup. But it still works well on chord mojo. Not as good as Hugo 2, but no distortion, still quite detailed and engaging as a portable setup.
It works perfectly on desktop setup.
For E3 on Hugo 2, It's very good. A noticeable step up from chord mojo.
The sound is even more detailed, slightly edged out Stellia. and the soundstage opens up, almost like an open headphone, which is quite remarkable at this price point.
Compare to Lric at the same price point at the dealer, I won't say E3 blow Lric out of water, but sound better than Lric in almost every way.
Even on Chord Hugo 2, my comfortable listening volume is blue (which is around 85%). I believe Nomax said is true. E3 really needs 1.5W to reach its full potential. Certainly need to hook an portable amp on the dap or source. Fortunately I don't travel recent days so I am ok with my current setup.
After today's listen, E3 will definitely replaced my old Celestee. Still looking for a powerful flagship DAP to replace my kann alpha. It has to give E3 1.5W power and sound as good AK SP3000. I really wish to have just one dap do everything rather than hook portable dap and amp together.