[Mgear]

I've had my FiiO E10 for a while now and It's genuinely fantastic, but I'm looking to upgrade to something with more oomph to hopefully power better headphones down the line (hopefully LCD-2s and such), if I was to get a little dot mark 2 or 3, could I use the FiiO E10 DAC and the preamp? And if so, how would it work?
 
I have around £130 ($100-200) for the amplifier, so the little dots fit in that quite snugly however from looking at pictures it only has phono L+R, input and outputs, and the FiiO has 3.5mm output and I believe a coaxial out which I think skips both the amplifier and DAC, but again I'm not sure at all.
 
Thanks for any advice, I'd love to use the FiiOs DAC over my onboard soundcard rather than just sell it.
All the best.

 

[Radioking59]

To use the E10 as a DAC all you would need is a RCA to mini cable. Plug the cable into the line out on the back to the E10 and the inputs on the amp and you're good to go.

 

[Mgear]

Quote:

To use the E10 as a DAC all you would need is a RCA to mini cable. Plug the cable into the line out on the back to the E10 and the inputs on the amp and you're good to go.

Do you mean an RCA to 3.5mm on the front or RCA to the coaxial on the back? I assume the coaxial skips the amplifier part of the E10 but utilizes the DAC?
Can you possibly link me a picture of what I need? Just so I can be 100% certain, cheers!

 

[Radioking59]

This type of cable:

 
the mini jack into the output labeled line out.

 
the other side to the RCA inputs on the amp.

 
You will be bypassing the amp section of the E10 and it will be functioning as a DAC only.
 
 

 

[Mgear]

Thankyou very much radio king, you've been a great help, cheers!

 

[Mgear]

I was thinking, could I not plug the 3.5mm into the front of the FiiO E10 and use it as a DAC + Pre-amp? Not quite sure though if that would work or be an advantage.

 

[ClieOS]

Do you mean an RCA to 3.5mm on the front or RCA to the coaxial on the back? I assume the coaxial skips the amplifier part of the E10 but utilizes the DAC?
Can you possibly link me a picture of what I need? Just so I can be 100% certain, cheers!

The coax on the back is for SPDIF digital connection so you can connect E10 to another DAC. In that configuration, E10 is only acting as an USB-to-SPDIF converter. Useful if you have a DAC that doesn't have an USB input that you can use with PC.

I was thinking, could I not plug the 3.5mm into the front of the FiiO E10 and use it as a DAC + Pre-amp? Not quite sure though if that would work or be an advantage though.

You can, but that will be counted as double amping.

 

[Mgear]

I see, thankyou very much ClieOS, I can assume double amping is bad?

 

[ClieOS]

I see, thankyou very much ClieOS, I can assume double amping is bad?

Double amping isn't ideal as it will lower the SNR of the signal, but it is not necessary audible. Line-out signal is always preferred.