[Koolpep]

Ok, my advice:

The fiio E7 is a great little DAC/amp, I have the E7 and the E7K myself.

However, using the Schiit Asgard with my Sennheiser HD 598 was a small revelation. The difference was not really mid blowing, but there was a certain fullness and richness to the sound that was there, but not so pronounced out of my MacBook Pro 13 inch without amping. I never had any Grados so I don't know how they respond to amping, so can't help there. Some amps do expand the soundstage, change the sound to slightly warmer or colder. In theory an amp should just amplify and not change the sound at all.

Again, especially the MacPro (made for audio/visual professionals)has great great sound components build in, so an entry level amp/DAC like the fiio might not make a huge difference. Also, for some, the tiny increases in audio reproduction can't be heard, for some they make all the difference.

It also depends on your source music and the quality not only of the bitrate/encoding but also of the mixing of the song. There are a few factors that make a difference.

I propose as the next step to check with a few grado users if they experienced a huge change when amped and which amp complements the grado the most. Second step, just try it out, maybe at a meet up or at some physical resellers if you have any. Other than that you might want to take advantage of the time you have to return things back if you are not satisfied. Schiit for example offers a no questions asked return policy.

Hope that helps,
K

 

[abuziyan]

Thanks, K. That's good advice. I will be looking to step it up with either something from Schiit or the HifiMan tube headphone amp/DAC. I never realized just how decent my MacPro's set up was

 

[Koolpep]

Yep, it seems to be able to drive your particular headphone quite well. Put some 600 ohm beyerdynamics on it and it won't be able to drive them properly. but that is to be expected. so it's very decent indeed...

Cheers,
K

 

[Jerryberry]

hi there I have a few qs regarding this amp dac.

1.can anyone tell me what the battery life is in the real world.
2.I'm coming from the e11 which had its optical out give me problems.. I do hope the jacks on the Andes last much longer !.
3. Does anyone know if the andes would work great on either the amperior or m100s ? in terms of great heard hitting bass ?
4. is it better than the e11 ?

 

[BillsonChang007]

I can use the E07K 3-4 days without charging, which is about 12 hours? The E11 will sound better though

 

[Jerryberry]

I thought the e07k had a much better amp than the e11 ? plus there is digital control of up to 10db in the andes whereas the e11 just has two levels of bass boost ? Plus the headphone jack of the e11 doesnt give me confidence as it is now giving me problems. The eo7 also has also better output power of 220 mW@32 than 180mW@32 for e11

 

[NimnuL]

I can use the E07K 3-4 days without charging, which is about 12 hours? The E11 will sound better though

 
E07K easily go beyond 20h without charging. Checked. 
 

1. adjustment: gain +12dB, volume 35 - battery life: 20,5h
2. adjustment:

   gain +6dB,

   volume35 - czas pracy: 22,5h
3. adjustment:

   gain 0dB,

   volume35 - czas pracy: 23h

 
Pictures and my review (in Polish)
http://twojepc.pl/artykuly.php?id=Recenzja-Test-FiiO-E07K-Andes&jedna_strona=1
 
Side note: it's impossible to use this FiiO and bypass the build in battery - you can use it as an USB DAC with two settings: battery charging on/off.
 
Charging time: 3h and 10 minutes while Andes is off and ~6h while it's on. 
OLED display doesn't affect the battery life in significant way.

 

[BillsonChang007]

  I thought the e07k had a much better amp than the e11 ? plus there is digital control of up to 10db in the andes whereas the e11 just has two levels of bass boost ? Plus the headphone jack of the e11 doesnt give me confidence as it is now giving me problems. The eo7 also has also better output power of 220 mW@32 than 180mW@32 for e11

More power does not result in better SQ in most cases. While you may be able to get more bass on the E07K, the quality is sometimes, not guranteed. On my Grado SR60i, the bass starts to loose control with anything above 4dB. Additionally, you can always boost more bass with EQ. 
 
I think you are better off with E12 for a potential upgradde xD
 
Billson

 

[Jerryberry]

A noob qs but when using the eo7k as a DAC or rather any DAC with an android phone, would you still be able to control the eq, treble and bass settings (of the fiio device) and use say poweramp on android as per normal ?

 

[Jerryberry]

  More power does not result in better SQ in most cases. While you may be able to get more bass on the E07K, the quality is sometimes, not guranteed. On my Grado SR60i, the bass starts to loose control with anything above 4dB. Additionally, you can always boost more bass with EQ.
 
I think you are better off with E12 for a potential upgradde xD
 
Billson

I considered the e12 and e18 but they are a little on the large side for me as a portable. I was thinkin of getting the e07k now as a replacement for my now faulty e11 to go with my android and sansa clip + and then get the upcoming x5 next year

 

[James1776]

I have a sole complaint....as every phone seems to have the same USB OTG micro out, why cannot the Fiio have the same connection in??? Why not provide details as to what that little input is in the devices documentation?

 

[bowei006]

  I have a sole complaint....as every phone seems to have the same USB OTG micro out, why cannot the Fiio have the same connection in??? Why not provide details as to what that little input is in the devices documentation?

E18 is it.
 
Power specs, power draw, support with various Android devices, space constraints are some reasons for not adding USB OTG on every single device.

 

[James1776]

That does not make sense...Every single phone gets the music out to the Fiio using a USB OTG micro. The FIIO has to have a data input and charging input and does in the form of a mini B USB....Why not make that input a USB OTG Micro so as to be completely compatible with the phones they exist to operate with?? The phones manage to charge with that input. They manage to get data in and out using it....Why does Fiio use a weird connection?

 

[bowei006]

  That does not make sense...Every single phone gets the music out to the Fiio using a USB OTG micro. The FIIO has to have a data input and charging input and does in the form of a mini B USB....Why not make that input a USB OTG Micro so as to be completely compatible with the phones they exist to operate with?? The phones manage to charge with that input. They manage to get data in and out using it....Why does Fiio use a weird connection?

A phone has the ability to maybe use a FiiO device as a DAC through USB OTG.
 
The ANDES and others do not exist to operate with an Android phone. You guys 'found' a subfunction of it that is not advertised. 
 
Mini B USB is the format they, and most portable electronics people use.
 
There may be problems using USB OTG with a desktop computer.

 

[James1776]

How many folk actually use the Fiio with a PC? There are far better options for PC music, like a Dragonfly (down to $99 on special last weekend). I see the Fiio as a very good option for portable music. As most portable music comes from a phone and they all seem to use a USB OTG Micro outlet, a cable to go to another USB OTG Micro input seems to make more sense than the swap to the current USB mini B....I needed to cobble together a USB OTG micro to female full sized USB to Male full sized USB cable with the USB mini B for the Fiio. Finding short, quality cables to do that was a mess of trial and error. The cables that come with the Fiio are too long for portable use. I found a vastly better, and smaller, cable from Lindy.com that works and does not make up a cable bundle larger than the combined phone/fiio.
 
Put simply, Fiio makes a very nice DAC/Headphone amp but its execution is spoiled by the cable issue (IMHO)