[ClieOS]

Quote:

 
....[size=10pt][size=10pt]Considering their OEM capability, their brand strength as a Chinese company is possibly the more incredible and ground-breaking achievement. I'll leave it up to whoever their major stakeholders are to have the influence to sway that kind of decision one way or another. But I was wondering if that information is readily made aware. This sort of forum stuff is pretty obscure, after all.[/size][/size]

 
I don't think you actually understand the way to run a business. If it is 4 years ago when FiiO was still really small, making the O2 will be a piece of cake and they can easily get away from all the publicity surround the O2.. But being as big as they are now, the company need to think about long term development instead of choosing to make an amp designed by an person who pisses off half of the community (so to speak, regardless of right or wrong on all parties). May be the O2 is really great, but FiiO doesn't want people to think that they are choosing side or making a statement. In fact, James was interested in the O2 until he saw how much heated discussion is on it (and the related discussion on mini3 and cmoy). If some one or a company want to ask FiiO to OEM the O2, I am pretty sure it is all possible as long as the quantity is large enough to fill the order. But putting FiiO name onto the O2 is a different matter. It is essentially a business decision to avoid the whole thing all together.
 
 

 

[Reticuli2]

[size=10pt][size=10pt]Interesting. Well I suppose that depends on whether one considers "half the community" to be a substantial portion of the total amp-buying market. I suspect it is much smaller than we think. Meaning, I don't think the majority of headphone and headphone amp users are an active part of the head-fi community. I think our community is a minority phenomenon and most of the buying public of these sorts of products don't bother participating and/or particularly care about heated debates on the subject. They just want a great product at a great price. Once they find sufficient information that sways a purchase choice based on that, they purchase. They don't join a forum. They don't post a review. Etc. This assumes there are not rumors of child laborers or endangered beavers being used to make whatever they're buying. That sort of thing can quickly diminish demand, but the entirety of inside geek-out debates tend not figure into it outside of very small niche sub-markets. Headphones and headphone amps certainly used to be a very tiny, little known niche market, but things seemed to have changed, even for the amp side recently.  (exhibit A: Fiio of China as an electronics power brand in the West)  But the simple information of Product A outperforms Product B, and Product A is equal to or less than the price of Product B, tends to be all the information consumers need. Even the most sophisticated professional market research, like say Mintel Oxygen, is information lite (as opposed to rich) compared to insider and hobbyist knowledge bases. But when conclusions out of the hobbyist realm distill into the general buyer market in such black and white terms of "this is the item to get", as I suspect might happen with the O2, just a small piece of useful geek analysis can drastically shift buyers' choice.  The internet has really changed things in favor of buyers staying informed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all or even most of the buyers are community hobbyists.[/size][/size]

 

[Hosoi]

Well there goes my 74.50$

Damn i'm in this hobby for 2 months and already spent 225$...

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

Well there goes my 74.50$

Damn i'm in this hobby for 2 months and already spent 225$...

That's why "sorry about your wallet" is part of the standard greeting.

 

[xxhaxx]

Stop testing the water and dive right in 

 

[mikeaj]

Sorry if I missed this, but did FiiO release more specs for the E10 other than what's on the webpage? For example, output power into something other than 32 ohms? (well whatever they're doing, it's not just taking +5V and ground from USB, since 150mW into 32 ohms implies like 6.2V peak-to-peak output at least)

re: FiiO producing O2? Other projects already in the pipeline aside and controversy aside, I'm not sure if this makes too much sense. A large part of the O2 design is the power supply and power management scheme, around the 9V NiMH batteries. I'm sure FiiO would rather use a single slimmer battery and some kind of DC-DC conversion scheme like maybe the E11, for the form factor and other reasons. And altering the design is not allowed under the license, at least without permission. The rest of the design is just a pretty boring (but boring works, and works well, when done right) two-stage output amp.

Now if FiiO decides to produce their own amp with dual NJM4556 outputs and a NJM2068 gain stage (or using any components), similar supply rails, designed properly, at a low price, and with comparable performance, I don't care what they call the thing. Since FiiO actually uses an AP and believes in proper design, I'm sure they could make it happen.

edit: further thoughts...

I forgot to mention that the location of the power cord input, headphones jack, gain switch, LED, and volume control all on the front for the current O2, isn't that appealing. So consumers and FiiO would rather have a different design, just for that positioning to be different: headphones and volume control on the front, others on the back, and so on.

The other thing is that O2 supporters don't care so much about the name but for high performance (low measured distortion, etc.) and relatively low cost. Many detractors have a beef with the name and particularly the designer's name, which is a big problem, as mentioned before.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

[size=10pt][size=10pt]The internet has really changed things in favor of buyers staying informed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all or even most of the buyers are community hobbyists.[/size][/size]

True, but how many amp buyer will buy amp blind without reading any thing on internet? Don't forget, Head-fi is THE reason why FiiO is so successful these days. They have never tried to be a serious amp manufacturer before someone bought an E3 from dealextreme and decided to make a thread about it.
 
 
Quote:

Sorry if I missed this, but did FiiO release more specs for the E10 other than what's on the webpage? For example, output power into something other than 32 ohms? (well whatever they're doing, it's not just taking +5V and ground from USB, since 150mW into 32 ohms implies like 6.2V peak-to-peak output at least)

 

 

 
That's all the spec for now.

 

[punks15]

i've tried it the other day only for a short time though. nice full bodied mid and bass. very fun and musical also enough juice to drive lcd 2.
 
Quote:

That's why "sorry about your wallet" is part of the standard greeting.

ah good for you, i've spent $600 in 3 months
 
 

 

[HK-47]

Quote:

True, but how many amp buyer will buy amp blind without reading any thing on internet? Don't forget, Head-fi is THE reason why FiiO is so successful these days. They have never tried to be a serious amp manufacturer before someone bought an E3 from dealextreme and decided to make a thread about it.
 
 
 

 
That's all the spec for now.

Oh, it comes in a metal case like the E11? Nice!
 

 

[JamesFiiO]

Quote:

[size=10pt][size=10pt]Interesting. Well I suppose that depends on whether one considers "half the community" to be a substantial portion of the total amp-buying market. I suspect it is much smaller than we think. Meaning, I don't think the majority of headphone and headphone amp users are an active part of the head-fi community. I think our community is a minority phenomenon and most of the buying public of these sorts of products don't bother participating and/or particularly care about heated debates on the subject. They just want a great product at a great price. Once they find sufficient information that sways a purchase choice based on that, they purchase. They don't join a forum. They don't post a review. Etc. This assumes there are not rumors of child laborers or endangered beavers being used to make whatever they're buying. That sort of thing can quickly diminish demand, but the entirety of inside geek-out debates tend not figure into it outside of very small niche sub-markets. Headphones and headphone amps certainly used to be a very tiny, little known niche market, but things seemed to have changed, even for the amp side recently.  (exhibit A: Fiio of China as an electronics power brand in the West)  But the simple information of Product A outperforms Product B, and Product A is equal to or less than the price of Product B, tends to be all the information consumers need. Even the most sophisticated professional market research, like say Mintel Oxygen, is information lite (as opposed to rich) compared to insider and hobbyist knowledge bases. But when conclusions out of the hobbyist realm distill into the general buyer market in such black and white terms of "this is the item to get", as I suspect might happen with the O2, just a small piece of useful geek analysis can drastically shift buyers' choice.  The internet has really changed things in favor of buyers staying informed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all or even most of the buyers are community hobbyists.[/size][/size]

Thanks for all the information and suggestion, but I am very sorry, it is not suitable for me or for FiiO to comment O2, I hope everyone can understand that we don't want be involved in this project. and We do want to do anything if we can help anyone who want to DIY a amp for fun.
 
But it should be a pure, simple way, and not to compare to any products.   
 

 

[kite7]

Is there any chance the E10 will be available on the first week of October?

 

[JamesFiiO]

We will have a short holiday from 1th to 5th for our National Day. I guess there have not enough time for us .

 

[putente]

Quote:

feiao, when do you think this E10 will be available in Europe (UK/Ireland/Spain)? And also, any ideia on the final suggested retail price for Europe?
 
 
Thanks.
 

 
feiao, any update on this? 

 

[Reticuli2]

What is the maximum input on this?  4V like the E11?  I'm thinking about picking between the E10 and the E6 for the Emu 0204 that is 2.07V output, or something.  I already have an E7, so the E6 would subtract the digital volume control precision balance (I assume) but not require me to lower the Windows volume.  E10 have those same cons, but would be a step up in performance, correct?

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

What is the maximum input on this?  4V like the E11?  I'm thinking about picking between the E10 and the E6 for the Emu 0204 that is 2.07V output, or something.  I already have an E7, so the E6 would subtract the digital volume control precision balance (I assume) but not require me to lower the Windows volume.  E10 have those same cons, but would be a step up in performance, correct?

You do realize (1) E6 is also digital volume controlled and (2) E10 is a pure USB DAC with no analog input?