[accurate_dB]

Anyone know how this compares with the Koss surround sound amp SSR1?

http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^ac^SSR1^Y

 

[xnothingpoetic]

Can anyone confirm this?:
FiiO E3 usage warning!

If so, I will mod some caps on it, but I don't know where to put them? (just on the output?)And while I'm in there, I might as well put a power switch on it. Might seem like a waste of time for such a cheap amp, and one that might not even be worth the effort- but w/e.

 

[Keithpgdrb]

whats an armature?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnothingpoetic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can anyone confirm this?: FiiO E3 usage warning! If so, I will mod some caps on it, but I don't know where to put them? (just on the output?)And while I'm in there, I might as well put a power switch on it. Might seem like a waste of time for such a cheap amp, and one that might not even be worth the effort- but w/e.

 

[Kpalsm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keithpgdrb /img/forum/go_quote.gif whats an armature?

In IEMs, there are two different types of "drivers", which produce the actual sound. The cheaper one is a normal speaker called a dynamic driver, which just looks like a small speaker. Then there are armatures which are weird looking little things and I really have no idea how they work, I imagine they're just little electromagnets moving some sort of diaphragm in a more efficient manner than a normal driver, but they're found in higher end IEMs, often more than one to each phone (one or two for bass, one for treble, maybe a seperate midrange). I think there's an IEM with four of them in each side, don't remember it now...it was just reviewed on Anything But iPod

 

[direcow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnothingpoetic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can anyone confirm this?: FiiO E3 usage warning! If so, I will mod some caps on it, but I don't know where to put them? (just on the output?)And while I'm in there, I might as well put a power switch on it. Might seem like a waste of time for such a cheap amp, and one that might not even be worth the effort- but w/e.

Didn't seem to damage my freqshows, as I had mentioned in that thread.

 

[japc]

Bizarre s**t.

 

[mape00]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnothingpoetic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can anyone confirm this?: FiiO E3 usage warning! If so, I will mod some caps on it, but I don't know where to put them? (just on the output?)And while I'm in there, I might as well put a power switch on it. Might seem like a waste of time for such a cheap amp, and one that might not even be worth the effort- but w/e.

Uhm, the chip in the FiiO is a National Semiconductor LM4917. It's especially made for audio applications. So I don't buy this "China prototype" trashtalk. The reason the FiiO's cheap is because it's mass-produced and they don't have ridiculously high profit margins.

As for caps, this is from the LM4917 data sheet:

"ELIMINATING THE OUTPUT COUPLING CAPACITOR

The LM4917 features a low noise inverting charge pump that
generates an internal negative supply voltage. This allows
the outputs of the LM4917 to be biased about GND instead
of a nominal DC voltage, like traditional headphone amplifiers.
Because there is no DC component, the large DC
blocking capacitors (typically 220μF) are not necessary. The
coupling capacitors are replaced by two, small ceramic
charge pump capacitors, saving board space and cost.

Eliminating the output coupling capacitors also improves low
frequency response. The headphone impedance and the
output capacitor form a high pass filter that not only blocks
the DC component of the output, but also attenuates low
frequencies, impacting the bass response. Because the
LM4917 does not require the output coupling capacitors, the
low frequency response of the device is not degraded by
external components.

In addition to eliminating the output coupling capacitors, the
ground referenced output nearly doubles the available dynamic
range of the LM4917 when compared to a traditional
headphone amplifier operating from the same supply voltage."

I.e., no need to worry, unless you don't trust National Semiconductor.

I've has no problems whatsoever with two pairs of ER-4S and one iM716. Maybe the poor uncle connected the FiiO to the line-out or maxed out the volume in an effort to "burn in" the headphones? Or maybe he's making a living out of building cmoys and recently saw his profits go down. Who knows?

I doubt that a proper working FiiO would damage your headphones. Considering all the people on head-fi who bought it and no other reports except this "uncle", who for all I know could well be an imbecille who just turned up the volume too loud, or used a defective unit.

 

[xnothingpoetic]

mape; thanks for posting the info on LM4917.

But not to get into the China trash talk, but what if the chips are counterfeits of the real thing to reduce cost further? Then that info would be irevelent. Counterfeit chips aren't unheard of, and China is huge on counterfeit items. But I hope Fiio isn't like the other Chinese companies.

But it makes me feel better that you have used the ETY's with no problem (yet!).

 

[dfkt]

I've been using the E3 mainly with armature IEMs (UE11, SE530, q-Jays, etc). There's nothing wrong with any of them as of now.

I don't see how the driver type could make any difference for the amp.

 

[mape00]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnothingpoetic /img/forum/go_quote.gif But not to get into the China trash talk, but what if the chips are counterfeits of the real thing to reduce cost further? Then that info would be irevelent. Counterfeit chips aren't unheard of, and China is huge on counterfeit items. But I hope Fiio isn't like the other Chinese companies.

I doubt it because the original chip is like $0.90. There's much more money in designer bags, golf clubs, sennheiser headphones, console mod-chips, etc. etc.

Everything is possible, though. In my home town here in Sweden, there was a famous 'businessman' in the 1940's called 'lump-Emil' who is said to have bought large quantities of rags and discarded clothes and sold them at half the price. He seems like the kind of guy who would have counterfeited LM4917's.

 

[psyllium]

I remember reading a review somewhere that when inserting your headphone cable into the E3, you can get a nasty DC spike ... just a thought, but could this be causing the burnout of particular IEMs with it? In which case, if the IEMs are inserted into the amp a certain way they will die straight away, as opposed to after x number of hours. I suppose this is a problem with not having a dedicated on/off switch.

 

[geob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kpalsm /img/forum/go_quote.gif In IEMs, there are two different types of "drivers", which produce the actual sound. The cheaper one is a normal speaker called a dynamic driver, which just looks like a small speaker. Then there are armatures which are weird looking little things and I really have no idea how they work, I imagine they're just little electromagnets moving some sort of diaphragm in a more efficient manner than a normal driver, but they're found in higher end IEMs, often more than one to each phone (one or two for bass, one for treble, maybe a seperate midrange). I think there's an IEM with four of them in each side, don't remember it now...it was just reviewed on Anything But iPod

An Internet Search produced the following :

"The SE310 earphone itself is based on what Shure calls a "Balanced Armature Speaker". In this implementation the speaker consists of a diaphragm which is driven by a small drive pin. This design lowers the mass of the driver, and therefore allows it to respond faster to the transient responses in the signal and have extended high frequency response. By their nature, balanced armature speakers are typically smaller in size, have higher output and wider frequency response compared to traditional dynamic speakers."

An amplifier doesn't care how you produce the air pressure wave that is a sound.
All it worries about is the impedance it sees on its output.
In the case of an E3 that needs to be in the 16 to 300 ohm range.

So a UE11 at 18 ohms is right on the lower limit. The lower the impedance the higher the current.

 

[TehNomad]

I just got my Fiio in the mail today. Here are some initial impressions using it with my 5.5gen iPod and Yuin PK3s.

The most noticeable thing is that you can crank up the volume really loud. Without the Fiio, the highest volume possible with the iPod isn't quite ear-shattering, but with the Fiio you can achieve the same volume at around 1/2 to 3/4 of the bar.

The second thing I noticed was the increased clarity, especially with vocals. I'm not sure if this is the result of the increased volume or not, but I can hear small things I didn't notice before in the music.

I'm not sure I really heard a huge increase in bass. I think the bass has a little more impact and the bass guitar has much more clarity, but it's not deeper or stronger as far as I can tell.

Worth it? I would say so, for $8.15. I'm going to appreciate the volume increase when I walk around in school, and there is a small, but appreciable improvement in the sound I perceive, whether it is real or from the volume increase.

 

[akki007]

Just ordered one myself to use with my PK1s and iPod Touch. I don't really want to use an amp to be honest but the PK1s demand that I do!

Will post my findings when the PK1s, FiiO and interconnect arrive in the post!

 

[TehNomad]

Oh, I have a question. I have a cassette adapter for my car, so would it be harmful to my car stereo if I hooked up a Fiio to it?