FiiO E17 "ALPEN" - First Impression + Final Thought
Jan 19, 2013 at 6:39 PM Post #5,356 of 6,777
Thanks for fast response!
Quote:
 
Depends on whether the "USB Charge" setting is set to "OFF" or "ON".
You will see this indicated on the E17 display, i.e. lightning bolt disappears when charge is off.
 
Even if USB Charge is set to ON, you will not charge the E17 when the E09K is off.

I won't use the FiiO's with USB, but with S/PDIF only... for the moment anyway. Power supply for the E17 will come only from the E09k's DC source. I'm still waiting for my beyers to arrive...
So the E17 ONLY charges if the USB Charge is set to ON, in both cases, docked and undocked to the E09k. When I turn the E09k off, the docked E17 does also. Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Now, how is it if USB Charge is off and the battery goes empty while it's docked. Does the E17 turn off, or does it get power from the E09k?
What I actually want to ask: How can I use the E17 with the E09k WITHOUT making use of its battery? Maybe I should remove it? I want to conserve the battery life and just make it 1-2 times per month empty. Like said. I'll use it only at home with tie E09k.
Quote:
Is the light on the E17 blue, red or purple blend?

It was purple, but after I changed the USB Charge setting, I noticed that it can turned to blue.
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 6:43 PM Post #5,357 of 6,777
With USB Chg off on the E17. IT will not accept power. However because it is docked, it's power usage and battery life has been seen to be slightly longer. This is seen as because some power is being provided to handle some functions that the E17 may have otherwise needed to provide power for.
 
When the E17 finally runs out of batteries. The settings will all reset turning USB Chg back to on and thus it will charge again. 
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 7:22 PM Post #5,359 of 6,777
Quote:
I see...so the "healtiest" solution for the battery would be, to let the USB Charge ON?
 
Couldn't I just remove the battery from the E17, so it gets its power supply only from the E09k?

 
Healthiest way:
 
 
Quote: Me
Correct Panda Battery Procedure:
When the device is in use, do not use USB charge. Turn it off. When the E17/E07K is on it's final bar of battery, turn USB charge(or the USB cable) on and charge it to full. And then unplug or turn off USB charge and use until you are on your last bar of battery left. When you see the bars reduce to one, it would be best to start charging(sometimes you are out, and you can't, that's understandable, a few times won't hurt). Li-ion batteries like the one's found the in the FiiO E17 Alpen's don't react well to a full cycle of charge and FULLY de charge until the battery is dead. This has been proven to be actually bad to the life of li-ioin batteries. HOWEVER., you should do a full cycle where you fully charge up the device and use it all the way until the device automatically turns off ONCE every month or two as that has been shown to actually be good for the battery WHETHER you use it constantly or not. Do not fear my friend, even if USB charge is turned off when the device "dies" it will still charge after it runs out of power naturally as the E17/E07K's firmware will reset!
 
Li-ION batteris on general will last effectively 1000 complete charges before battery drops below about ~70% of the original storage. This is still acceptable by most consumers standards.
 
20 hours full battery life * 1000 effective uses =20,000 hours / 24 hours a day = 833 days theoretically before the E07K under theoretical conditions will decrease to 70% of its original storage life and this is with a full depletion and then charge cycle. And that is 24 hour usage as well.
 
FiiO currently reports that they will send replacement parts for a very low price. The battery is not that hard to user replace(but not under warranty). 
 
Partial charges for Li-ION's are better but of course constantly doing partial ones has also been reported to have an effect on the device as well which is why I recommend to charge before all power is gone and to charge till full.
 
The last point to make is that you can't use a device if you keep on babying it. Using a device and enjoying it is part of that batteries intent and life cycle. Honeslty, ANYTHING you do to it will have an effect on battery life. The majority of the time, it is a minute effect to something like an audio device. (This advice does not hold for Power Wheels, those buggers need proper battery handling). Enjoy the device, theoretically it will hold up well for many years.
 
 
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/battery_performance_as_a_function_of_cycling
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
 
Disclaimer: I am not an expert on batteries. I am self taught. Please correct me if something is wrong. But use sources and not just something your papa or person told you to always do.
 

 
 
Or....you could just let it drain out and turn it back on and let it charge that way. According to experts that isn't as good as full depletions are not as good
 
But hey. Do you buy a car and keep it in a garage for the rest of its life? 
 
No. You use that thing. Whatever suits your life style. If you do remember or would like to make your E07K or other device as happy as possible. Follow the general directions I made(only for li ion). I use them as it's not that hard to do but some just don't remember. And that's fine. 
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 9:23 PM Post #5,360 of 6,777
Quote:
 
Before beating your head against the wall trying to figure out why, try doing a hardware reset of the E17 by pushing the reset switch with a small paperclip or something like a SIM card ejection tool from an iPhone. The hardware reset of the E17 may solve your issue quickly. If not, have you tried the E17 on another computer via USB? What about via SPDIF (coaxial or TOSlink)? I'm hopeful that the hardware reset will correct the issue, but otherwise you may be contacting your dealer about a repair. Let's hope not!
 
Dale

 
 
I tried resetting E17 but its not working. When I open 'System Information' and look at USB settings I could see FIIO E17 detected but when I open sound preferences I could not see E17 listed
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
I'm not sure if my E17 is faulty or my mac is faulty. I could not try with any other PC as I have only Macbook with me. I can try only tomorrow when I go to office
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 9:28 PM Post #5,361 of 6,777
Quote:
 
 
I tried resetting E17 but its not working. When I open 'System Information' and look at USB settings I could see FIIO E17 detected but when I open sound preferences I could not see E17 listed
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
I'm not sure if my E17 is faulty or my mac is faulty. I could not try with any other PC as I have only Macbook with me. I can try only tomorrow when I go to office

Check in Audio Midi Setup if the option is there then.
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 9:40 PM Post #5,362 of 6,777
Quote:
 
I tried resetting E17 but its not working. When I open 'System Information' and look at USB settings I could see FIIO E17 detected but when I open sound preferences I could not see E17 listed
 
 
I'm not sure if my E17 is faulty or my mac is faulty. I could not try with any other PC as I have only Macbook with me. I can try only tomorrow when I go to office

 
Very unusual... Macs are one of the easiest systems to get working with USB DACs like the E17. Out of curiosity, what happens when you hold down the Option/Alt key while clicking on the sound icon (speaker with sound waves coming out) in the upper right hand of the desktop (assuming standard OS layout)? Here's a pic of mine...
 
 

 
BTW - you need to change your pics to JPG for the forum to be able to display them natively without people needing them to download the images (PNG in your case).
 
Dale
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 10:53 PM Post #5,364 of 6,777
Quote:
 
Very unusual... Macs are one of the easiest systems to get working with USB DACs like the E17. Out of curiosity, what happens when you hold down the Option/Alt key while clicking on the sound icon (speaker with sound waves coming out) in the upper right hand of the desktop (assuming standard OS layout)? Here's a pic of mine...
 
 

 
BTW - you need to change your pics to JPG for the forum to be able to display them natively without people needing them to download the images (PNG in your case).
 
Dale

 
I'm getting only 'Internal Speakers' as option. Even I'm wondering what happened. 2 days back it was working fine. I didn't do anything apart from the fact that I changed in Audio Midi setup fro 44 KHz to 96 KHZ for E17 device. It was working fine after that. But from yesterday its not working
 
Jan 19, 2013 at 11:30 PM Post #5,365 of 6,777
Quote:
 
I'm getting only 'Internal Speakers' as option. Even I'm wondering what happened. 2 days back it was working fine. I didn't do anything apart from the fact that I changed in Audio Midi setup fro 44 KHz to 96 KHZ for E17 device. It was working fine after that. But from yesterday its not working

 
Do you have a mini-TOSLink optical cable so you can try SPDIF connection to your E17? If you can connect via optical SPDIF to your MacBook, that will tell you if the DAC in the E17 is functional. Alas even if it does work via optical SPDIF, your  E17 may indeed have had a hardware failure that affects only the input via USB. Have you tried the AUX input on the E17? That won't tell you anything about the DAC, but it will at least verify if the amp function of the E17 is still working.
 
Regardless, it does unfortunately sound like your E17 might have encountered a hardware failure, but until you test it on another PC or Mac, you won't know for certain. Another thing to try, although it's sort of a last ditch effort, is to disconnect your E17 from all devices and turn it on, letting the battery completely drain. Once it turns off, plug it back into your MacBook with the E17 powered off so that it does a recharge. Once it's been charging for a few hours you can turn the E17 on and see if draining the battery has corrected anything. It likely won't make a difference, but I've seen strange things with small electronics. Good luck!
 
Dale 
 
Jan 20, 2013 at 10:32 AM Post #5,366 of 6,777
Quote:
Healthiest way:
 
Or....you could just let it drain out and turn it back on and let it charge that way. According to experts that isn't as good as full depletions are not as good
 
But hey. Do you buy a car and keep it in a garage for the rest of its life? 
 
No. You use that thing. Whatever suits your life style. If you do remember or would like to make your E07K or other device as happy as possible. Follow the general directions I made(only for li ion). I use them as it's not that hard to do but some just don't remember. And that's fine. 

 
What if you are not a Panda?
 
Jan 20, 2013 at 11:22 AM Post #5,367 of 6,777
Few questions before I pick one of these up. I would appreciate any answers to help me understand what it is I'm buying here.
 
  1. I'll be using an iPhone 5 and Macbook Pro. Will I be able to use the DAC and amp on both? I read somewhere that the DAC will not work with the iPhone 5 because the lightning plug is digital. Will adding a 30 pin adapter, which is said to convert back to analog, work?
  2. Do I even need a DAC with either of these devices? Should I just get a portable amp instead? All of my music files are ALAC, and I don't think I have anything above 16/44. Do these devices have a good enough DAC?
  3. I'll be using it to power a PRO700MKII and HD558 for now, but am looking at getting an HE500 and D7000 (and if I can find one) in the future. I'd like to be able to power all of these, but realistically I would probably just use the PRO700MKII as a portable can and the rest as at home or on vacation headphones. In other words, I can get the E09K for the at home or vacation headphones.
 
Jan 20, 2013 at 11:31 AM Post #5,368 of 6,777
What if you are not a Panda?

My instructions are cross genomic.

Few questions before I pick one of these up. I would appreciate any answers to help me understand what it is I'm buying here.

  • I'll be using an iPhone 5 and Macbook Pro. Will I be able to use the DAC and amp on both? I read somewhere that the DAC will not work with the iPhone 5 because the lightning plug is digital. Will adding a 30 pin adapter, which is said to convert back to analog, work?
  • Do I even need a DAC with either of these devices? Should I just get a portable amp instead? All of my music files are ALAC, and I don't think I have anything above 16/44. Do these devices have a good enough DAC?
  • I'll be using it to power a PRO700MKII and HD558 for now, but am looking at getting an HE500 and D7000 (and if I can find one) in the future. I'd like to be able to power all of these, but realistically I would probably just use the PRO700MKII as a portable can and the rest as at home or on vacation headphones. In other words, I can get the E09K for the at home or vacation headphones.

You cant natively use the E17 as a DAC with ipods or iphones anyway. Only the iPad BUT WITH an external power source. This is not very portable so just think no. Iphone 5 can not use e17 dac. Only macbook can.

It is up to you. The dac in the macbook pro is quite good. But of course with more expensive units, some want to get "better" sound.

Look for people that have said that E17 can drive those headphones you want
 
Jan 20, 2013 at 11:49 AM Post #5,369 of 6,777
Well I tried the E17 on its own with my new HD800's (via iPod Touch) and it works great...put the gain setting to 12 and volume to around 30, with about 35 as high as my ears can take it. So a great solution for when I'm away on trips as well as bedroom listening.
 
 
Jan 20, 2013 at 11:49 AM Post #5,370 of 6,777
Quote:
You cant natively use the E17 as a DAC with ipods or iphones anyway. Only the iPad BUT WITH an external power source. This is not very portable so just think no. Iphone 5 can not use e17 dac. Only macbook can.

It is up to you. The dac in the macbook pro is quite good. But of course with more expensive units, some want to get "better" sound.

Look for people that have said that E17 can drive those headphones you want


Well, that's a bummer. What do you think about the iPhone's DAC? Should I look at getting a portable amp/dac that will support this or is the DAC good enough in the iPhone 5?
 

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