[RoadKam]

Got my AKG K702s just now. I'm listening to Norah Jones' Feels Like Home mp3s in FLAC. Difference between Bose on-ear headphones and K702's out of the box: night and day! They're SO much more open, with none of the blairing in midrange that the Bose has. Bass seems 'effortless' I guess is the best description. It pervades the soundscape instead of sounding right in the middle of my head. Where with the Bose instruments that only sound in one ear are
 
With E17: at 0db gain and 60 volume, base is subtle and strong, mids are clear and moderate, highs are bright but not screeching. At 6db gain and 48 volume to get the same intensity, base is a bit fuller, midrange seems a bit more effortless, highs are a bit more present. At 12db gain and 35 volume, base is strong, mid is clear, high is bright. But everything seems to be a bit more 'mixed together' than at 6db... I think this is described as less seperation. I put 12db and full volume on the E17 and cranked the volume of my laptop up. It was uncomfortably loud... WITH NO DISTORTION. Not any. Zip. The duet between Norah Jones and Dolly Parton was clear without buzz, the bass wasn't fuzzy, and I could hear the symbols clear and bright. I'm sitting in the trucking company's lounge (they're working on my truck right now) and a guy about 12 feet away could clearly hear every word of the song.
 
I listened to my Beatles '1' mp3s... I can listen to them without wincing with these headphones. (Bad quality rip of old-technology recording, vocals blared uncomfortably with no E17 and with the Bose On-Ear headphones.) I'm listening to other mp3s I've collected over many years, and I can now easily tell which were ripped well. The Norah Jones Feels Like Home mp3s sound very good in 320 format - the FLAC sounds no better. I suspect they took the 320 mp3s and up-converted them to FLAC. If not, then this confirms for me what other people in this thread have said: the rip quality is a lot more important than the bitrate. I'll have to get my CD collection out of storage and re-rip them in FLAC to see if I can tell the difference.
 
So now I'm gonna listen to the Star Wars Blu-rays.   Bottom line: the E17 can drive the K702's very nicely.

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

Got my AKG K702s just now. I'm listening to Norah Jones' Feels Like Home mp3s in FLAC. Difference between Bose on-ear headphones and K702's out of the box: night and day! They're SO much more open, with none of the blairing in midrange that the Bose has. Bass seems 'effortless' I guess is the best description. It pervades the soundscape instead of sounding right in the middle of my head. Where with the Bose instruments that only sound in one ear are
 
With E17: at 0db gain and 60 volume, base is subtle and strong, mids are clear and moderate, highs are bright but not screeching. At 6db gain and 48 volume to get the same intensity, base is a bit fuller, midrange seems a bit more effortless, highs are a bit more present. At 12db gain and 35 volume, base is strong, mid is clear, high is bright. But everything seems to be a bit more 'mixed together' than at 6db... I think this is described as less seperation. I put 12db and full volume on the E17 and cranked the volume of my laptop up. It was uncomfortably loud... WITH NO DISTORTION. Not any. Zip. The duet between Norah Jones and Dolly Parton was clear without buzz, the bass wasn't fuzzy, and I could hear the symbols clear and bright. I'm sitting in the trucking company's lounge (they're working on my truck right now) and a guy about 12 feet away could clearly hear every word of the song.
 
I listened to my Beatles '1' mp3s... I can listen to them without wincing with these headphones. (Bad quality rip of old-technology recording, vocals blared uncomfortably with no E17 and with the Bose On-Ear headphones.) I'm listening to other mp3s I've collected over many years, and I can now easily tell which were ripped well. The Norah Jones Feels Like Home mp3s sound very good in 320 format - the FLAC sounds no better. I suspect they took the 320 mp3s and up-converted them to FLAC. If not, then this confirms for me what other people in this thread have said: the rip quality is a lot more important than the bitrate. I'll have to get my CD collection out of storage and re-rip them in FLAC to see if I can tell the difference.
 
So now I'm gonna listen to the Star Wars Blu-rays.   Bottom line: the E17 can drive the K702's very nicely.

...mp3's in FLAC?? what?
 
..12dB and full volume...wow. depending on the driveabilyt of those AKG's that looks loud.. protect your ears man
 
and we went over this once in this thread(like anyone remembers or is going to read it haha) but it's best to leave volume at max and use volume control of E17. don't lower volume on itunes or your music program and leave windows volume to 100% 
 
 

 

[RoadKam]

Quote:

...mp3's in FLAC?? what?
 
..12dB and full volume...wow. depending on the driveabilyt of those AKG's that looks loud.. protect your ears man
 
and we went over this once in this thread(like anyone remembers or is going to read it haha) but it's best to leave volume at max and use volume control of E17. don't lower volume on itunes or your music program and leave windows volume to 100% 
 
 

FLAC versions of songs that I think collectively as 'mp3s.' I think some of the 'FLAC' that I downloaded were mp3s that were re-encoded as FLAC.
 
Yep, it was loud. It was a one-time only test to see how hard I could drive the K702s without distortion. I think my ears would break before I would get distortion. I've protected my ears all my life (I was going to be a drummer in highschool, but I decided not to because I didn't want to affect my hearing.) I won't be cranking up the decibels now that I've tested them.
 
It's at 100% now... I had it down while I was getting a feel for the volume levels with E17 and new headphones.
 
 

 

[SoundDreamer]

Smooth & Amazing Sound!
 
Yesterday, I received my E17. This morning, I've been testing several tracks. I didn't know how good the soundcard in my laptop was until I started listening to the E17. After only a handful of tracks, the one that stuck out the most is a flac track that I have (16/44.1) of Earth, Wind & Fire titled "In The Stone", originally burned from a CD with a DR of "13". This is the track that separates the E17 from my laptop's soundcard. To make it short, everything is smoother and sweeter via the E17. I can hear things via the E17 that I didn't hear on first listen directly through the laptop's headphone jack. Separation is great with more air around instruments. Although, I was expecting a night and day difference between the two, I was surprised that the soundcard in my laptop is not too bad but can be improved upon. Enter the E17. BTW, I love the display and like how it runs cool to the touch.
 

 

[RoadKam]

Quote:

Smooth & Amazing Sound!
 
Yesterday, I received my E17. This morning, I've been testing several tracks. I didn't know how good the soundcard in my laptop was until I started listening to the E17. After only a handful of tracks, the one that stuck out the most is a flac track that I have (16/44.1) of Earth, Wind & Fire titled "In The Stone", originally burned from a CD with a DR of "13". This is the track that separates the E17 from my laptop's soundcard. To make it short, everything is smoother and sweeter via the E17. I can hear things via the E17 that I didn't hear on first listen directly through the laptop's headphone jack. Separation is great with more air around instruments. Although, I was expecting a night and day difference between the two, I was surprised that the soundcard in my laptop is not too bad but can be improved upon. Enter the E17. BTW, I love the display and like how it runs cool to the touch.
 

Yayyy! Glad you're happy with the E17. My own experience mirrors yours... I have a pretty good sound card in my Sony VAIO 3D laptop, but going digital out to the E17 makes it sound a bit better. (My new headphones improve the sound a LOT more than my E17 does, but then again the E17 improves the sound with these headphones more than with the Bose On-Ear headphones I was using... so for about $400.00 I got about a 300% improvement on sound.
 
 

 

[SoundDreamer]

Quote:

 
and we went over this once in this thread(like anyone remembers or is going to read it haha) but it's best to leave volume at max and use volume control of E17. don't lower volume on itunes or your music program and leave windows volume to 100% 

I'm running "Vista" and noticed that after I set the Fiio E17 as the default player, Windows automatically sets it to full volume, or 100%. Just an FYI for those wondering.
 

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

FLAC versions of songs that I think collectively as 'mp3s.' I think some of the 'FLAC' that I downloaded were mp3s that were re-encoded as FLAC.
 
Yep, it was loud. It was a one-time only test to see how hard I could drive the K702s without distortion. I think my ears would break before I would get distortion. I've protected my ears all my life (I was going to be a drummer in highschool, but I decided not to because I didn't want to affect my hearing.) I won't be cranking up the decibels now that I've tested them.
 
It's at 100% now... I had it down while I was getting a feel for the volume levels with E17 and new headphones.
 
 

 
^i get the feeling of that on some of my songs too. sometimes it's mastering sometimes its the encoding. usually 90% of the time i can tell. however there are some that are...meh
 
i know hwat you mean about one time test. my headphones are easier to drive than K702 probably so i won't even go near max. plus i believe it's dangerous to a headphone to go tht high if it's a new pair. all new headphones i have ever tried had some harshness or highs that couldn't really reach and flat boomy not as well controlled bass

 


Quote:

Smooth & Amazing Sound!
 
Yesterday, I received my E17. This morning, I've been testing several tracks. I didn't know how good the soundcard in my laptop was until I started listening to the E17. After only a handful of tracks, the one that stuck out the most is a flac track that I have (16/44.1) of Earth, Wind & Fire titled "In The Stone", originally burned from a CD with a DR of "13". This is the track that separates the E17 from my laptop's soundcard. To make it short, everything is smoother and sweeter via the E17. I can hear things via the E17 that I didn't hear on first listen directly through the laptop's headphone jack. Separation is great with more air around instruments. Although, I was expecting a night and day difference between the two, I was surprised that the soundcard in my laptop is not too bad but can be improved upon. Enter the E17. BTW, I love the display and like how it runs cool to the touch.
 

as you have been here a while too. are you overal happy? the bolded stuff seems positive. how does this meet your expectations?
 
no im not getting into old habits. i just wanted to know what SoundDreamer thought as he's been here with us a while too
 
 

 

[SoundDreamer]

Quote:

Yayyy! Glad you're happy with the E17. My own experience mirrors yours... I have a pretty good sound card in my Sony VAIO 3D laptop, but going digital out to the E17 makes it sound a bit better. (My new headphones improve the sound a LOT more than my E17 does, but then again the E17 improves the sound with these headphones more than with the Bose On-Ear headphones I was using... so for about $400.00 I got about a 300% improvement on sound.
 
 

 
I concur again. 

 
The E17 gives me better sound quality with the amplification I need for my headphones.
 
I wonder if the brand of Laptop has anything to do with how good the soundcard is. Maybe, sound card is two words? LOL Anyway, I have a Toshiba from exactly two years ago.
 
 

 

[SoundDreamer]

Quote:

as you have been here a while too. are you overal happy? the bolded stuff seems positive. how does this meet your expectations?
 

Yes, it does. Thanks for asking! It's a keeper. Their are two players I'm still considering. The first one is the iBasso D7. At some point, I still may get it. The other one, which isn't out yet, is the Audioquest "Dragonfly". I'm psyched about the "Dragonfly" because the whole thing plugs directly into a usb port. No cable needed.
 

 

[SniperCzar]

For those of you with laptops who are afraid of losing adapters (micca only gives you a cable with a single mini on it, you still have to use an adapter to get mini to mini), this took me forever to find in the flood of cables on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Optical-Audio-TosLink-Cable/dp/B001ZU4KBE/

Also I'm starting to wonder if I can't hack up a large case like this one and wire myself a custom double dock on the inside and control panel to the outside. Does anyone know if I can use the dock connector to alter the digital volume control on the E17 without using the buttons on the E17 itself? Or will I have to drill holes for controls in the hard case?
http://www.amazon.com/Durable-Hard-Shell-Generations-Apple-Classic/dp/B004Y7CS6Y/

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

For those of you with laptops who are afraid of losing adapters (micca only gives you a cable with a single mini on it, you still have to use an adapter to get mini to mini), this took me forever to find in the flood of cables on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Optical-Audio-TosLink-Cable/dp/B001ZU4KBE/

Also I'm starting to wonder if I can't hack up a large case like this one and wire myself a custom double dock on the inside and control panel to the outside. Does anyone know if I can use the dock connector to alter the digital volume control on the E17 without using the buttons on the E17 itself? Or will I have to drill holes for controls in the hard case?
http://www.amazon.com/Durable-Hard-Shell-Generations-Apple-Classic/dp/B004Y7CS6Y/

 
i prefer this. monoprice fancy cable with two adapters on it
 
 
http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E1-White-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B002UBREZQ
 
basically you will be dual amping...triple amping actually as teh E17 has a pre amp and then a driving amp..but it shouldn't matter too much.

 

[SniperCzar]

Quote:

 
basically you will be dual amping...triple amping actually as teh E17 has a pre amp and then a driving amp..but it shouldn't matter too much.

That's not exactly what I'm wondering. I just want to be able to adjust the E17's existing volume controls without having to take it apart and solder extra leads on the volume up and volume down buttons. Is there some way to control it through the dock like an iPod or is just connector just for line-level audio I/O?

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

That's not exactly what I'm wondering. I just want to be able to adjust the E17's existing volume controls without having to take it apart and solder extra leads on the volume up and volume down buttons. Is there some way to control it through the dock like an iPod or is just connector just for line-level audio I/O?

you want the ipod to be able to control volume? i've never heard of that being done.. i guess ...it might work. but the volume control on ipod controls it's own internal amp. an LOD bypasses the internal amp and headphone jack circuitry

 

[RoadKam]

Quote:

For those of you with laptops who are afraid of losing adapters (micca only gives you a cable with a single mini on it, you still have to use an adapter to get mini to mini), this took me forever to find in the flood of cables on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Optical-Audio-TosLink-Cable/dp/B001ZU4KBE/

...

I found the adapter that Micca shipped with the cable to be tight enough not to be easily dislodged... mini to mini users likely won't be taking the adapter off very often. ($.02)

 

[SniperCzar]

Yeah it's pretty tight fitting with the one that comes from Micca, but for those of you who ordered elsewhere you might have trouble. My Belkin optical cable is loose enough gravity can pull the mini TOSLINK off.