[shigzeo]

That chipset is a favourite of mine, though I'm not really partial to DAC chips. You are right, there are cheaper DACs that sometimes sound/perform better than more expensive ones. This new amp looks incredible.

 

[JamesFiiO]

Quote:

Your expectations must be in-lines with current source, if you already have good source (Dell XPS with creative sound card for example) then E17 may not be huge gain.
I order on Jan 12 and received on Aug 2, followed this thread all along and my expectations peaked more than ALPEN itself. when I go it, I was disappointed upfront and with few more days was able notice the difference and appreciate E17 better. E17 is much more clean and clear than my Dell XPS.

Total agree, sometimes we feel disappoint just because we expect too much for something, there are not magic. but we believe E17 have better Sound quality than other portable dac/amp in the same price range.

 

[visanj]

 
Can anyone please tell me how is E17 when compared to Clip+,HiFiMan HM-602, 801, Cowon etc? 
 
Any idea?

 

[hyogen]

Used the E17 this morning in my car--aux in/FM transmitter ($2 on ebay) + e17 + ipod 5.5g.    I had to change the gain to 6db, but very good still  
 
My expectations exceeded by quite a bit   Very satisfied with the E17
 
Mutually agreed to cancel the transaction with the seller for the Little Dot MK3 for now....there was a shipping snafu and seller was busy.  Getting my money back--dont' think I'll be looking for anything else for quite a long long time. 

 

[hyogen]

Quote:

 
Can anyone please tell me how is E17 when compared to Clip+,HiFiMan HM-602, 801, Cowon etc? 
 
Any idea?

I haven't tried Cowon, but it should be at least as clean as that--maybe better since Cowon has BBE which *can* make the sound unnatural sounding...  Cowons have Wolfson DACs in them too--  In the future I'll probably be looking at getting a Cowon as my source
 
Clip+ isn't supposed to have stellar stellar SQ.  It is supposedly very good for its price.  It has an integrated DAC
 
Not sure about Hifiman, but those are both really expensive...and the 801 has dual dacs?  you can just use that as a USB DAC, so you might as well get the E11, which is just as good if not better than the E17 as an amp. 
 
 
Here is something I just posted in a Galaxy S (wolfson) thread:
 
 
Quote:

I have the iPod 5.5gen now that has a better Wolfson DAC than the Nexus S (galaxy s1) + Voodoo.  In fact, as much as I'm SUPER impressed with the Fiio E17 amp/dac, I could ALMOST do without it (especially if i didn't care about the USB dac) and the iPod.     The Nexus S (with voodoo) was JUST THAT good to my ears.  I miss the awesome touch interface, Poweramp player with all its amazing features including crossfading, and being able to download songs right onto the phone over wifi. 
 
The E17 does drive my headphones better though, and is cleaaan even with the 12db gain and I'm sure that also has to do with the iPod as well.  I never tried the Nexus S + E17.  5db gain on the nexus S was amazing though.....again VOODOO is responsible for that <3
 
***********I've tried a few different Galaxy S1 phones.... Fascinate, Vibrant, Epic (sprint slider phone) and Nexus S.......   Nexus S has the best amp.   Quite a bit louder than the others (Epic is pretty loud also).
 
THE only reason why I sold it was to try the Ipod and because it didn't have expandable memory (16gb).  Now that I have the E17, I could easily see myself buying a Vibrant which has 8gb or 16gb built in + my 32gb microSD.
 
It sounds like I'm discounting how much I like the E17, but I really am not--it has truly exceeded my expectations and I'm 100% satisfied.  It's more the old iPod interface that I don't like using so much.

 

 

[Terja]

Feiao - thanks to Fiio for a great product, lots of bells and whistles for something with a very small form factor - not to mention it sounds great. I am having a slight problem with my E17 when paired with the E9. Whenever I switch it off it resets the gain to 6dB. Since I prefer using 0dB I have to change it each time I want to use it again. Is there anything I can do to fix this (press some magic buttons or combination of magic buttons

... )? Or does the problem lie with the E9 because the E17 works fine by itself? Thanks for any suggestions.

 
Quote:

Total agree, sometimes we feel disappoint just because we expect too much for something, there are not magic. but we believe E17 have better Sound quality than other portable dac/amp in the same price range.

 

 

[visanj]

@hyogen, thanks for your inputs. I really wanted Nexus S but its not available here and hence I went for Galaxy S2
 
I'm waiting with my fingers crossed....can't help myself....I have also ordered USB OTG cable for my Galaxy S2 with a small hope that Android will introduce USB Audio host mode in ICS....
 
I'm still dreaming for this.....Galaxy S2 + PowerAmp/Winamp + FIIO E17 + Brainwavz M2    

 

[yawny]

I got mine in today and am trying to get it running as an amp for my PC but can't seem to get any output. I can get the "sound check" noise to come through, but iTunes won't play through it, almost like it's only playing through the primary audio devices (my speakers) and nothing else.
 
Also, when i plug a toslink into my card and the E17, it still displays 48/16. 
 
I'm usually pretty good with troubleshooting and such, but i'm stumped and i haven't been on the thread enough lately to know where to dig back to.
 

 

[yawny]

Okay, got it to output through my card's optical out, but it still won't give me anything higher than 48/16 through the optical out on my Striker 7.1.
 
I know the card can output 192/32 and i'm not sure what to do. I even allowed it in the playback device settings.
 
The Xear 3D interface that seems to run the card only shows 44.1 and 48k as options, but i'm not sure if that means anything.

 

[hyogen]

Quote:

@hyogen, thanks for your inputs. I really wanted Nexus S but its not available here and hence I went for Galaxy S2
 
I'm waiting with my fingers crossed....can't help myself....I have also ordered USB OTG cable for my Galaxy S2 with a small hope that Android will introduce USB Audio host mode in ICS....
 
I'm still dreaming for this.....Galaxy S2 + PowerAmp/Winamp + FIIO E17 + Brainwavz M2    

so i'm sure you know the Galaxy S2 doesn't have the Wolfson chip in it.  My wife has the Galaxy S2 (sold the Razr already for those who know the story..haha).  It's pretty good--definitely not as bad as my current Huawei phone...
 
I'm not sure if you can do the Cyanogen Mod.... either CM7 maybe CM9?  With those you can do USB audio   You probably already knew this also  
 
I'm quite confident you'll like PowerAmp FAR more than any other media player on android  

 

[hyogen]

Can anyone comment on how adding bass boost on the E17 changes the EQ?   So far I feel like it's really tight and really doesn't "encroach" on the mids at all....even at max bass...  is this because the E17 is so good and I have really neutral cans?

 

[yawny]

Quote:

Can anyone comment on how adding bass boost on the E17 changes the EQ?   So far I feel like it's really tight and really doesn't "encroach" on the mids at all....even at max bass...  is this because the E17 is so good and I have really neutral cans?

Though my HD650, which aren't a bass-heavy 'phone at all, it gives a nice pure bass boost, but to my ears adds a little to the mids. Makes it a lot warmer-sounding, but doesn't muddy it by blasting the mids along with the bass.

 

[panzerfan]

I need to sadly report that T989 Galaxy S2 using Cyanogenmod7 didn't do it. Using the 3.5mm out is rather... 'unsatisfactory' btw, since the Yamaha DAC will snap crackle and pop... I am fairly certain that if you're not bothered by that, you may actually live with straight out of Yamaha DAC just fine... 
 
as for everyone else, we need a USB Audio out, end of story.
 
I really, really love this little guy though, using Westone 4R with this. +2 on bass was just right for my taste. 

 

[djsquared]

Quote:

Can anyone comment on how adding bass boost on the E17 changes the EQ?   So far I feel like it's really tight and really doesn't "encroach" on the mids at all....even at max bass...  is this because the E17 is so good and I have really neutral cans?

Man, I can concur with you on this. The bass boost is really a nice feature that does a good job of isolating and enhancing the bass without encroaching on the mids too much. Maybe, like Yawny reported, the bass boost warms up the sound a tad, but to my V-MODA M-80s, I really can hear only good things happening. Someone here described the sound as "liquid," and that is absolutely my experience. The E17 only makes the music sound better. Definitely a big win for Fiio I was listening to an old reggae album that I've heard a hundred times before, and suddenly heard a bongo I didn't even know existed in the mix. My first reaction was annoyance that my neighbor was on his drums, but then I realized it was coming from my cans! Talk about gorgeous soundstaging! 

 

 

[Muleskinner]

Well I got mine today. So far I'm pretty impressed. I have to admit I built myself up too high in anticipation, but the device is very very good. I'm enjoying it so far, although I'm still waiting for my LOD to come in, for some reason it was shipped seperately from my e17.