[TigreNegrito]

I've read this thread and some others front to back a couple times now and I don't see any mention of a crossover in the E7/E9/E17.  Is that not something Fiio is looking at or even offers on any of their other products? I enjoy the crossover effect on my Headroom amps and have seen some others, though not portable, that share this feature. Looking to adequately drive some Q701's which I just acquired, and the only thing I've plugged into so far that can do it was a $1200 HK home stereo amp.  While I'm not necessarily looking for something portable, I do appreciate a smaller footprint like the E9 and the idea of tweaking the EQ settings via E7 or future E17 is nice.  If it also had crossover, that'd be cherry on top!

 

[ClieOS]

...If it also had crossover, that'd be cherry on top!

It is called crossfeed. Crossover is another thing all together.

 

[TigreNegrito]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, ClieOS.  And is THAT available in Fiio products?
 

 

[tme110]

I think expecting crossfeed in budget, portable combined amp/DAC is asking waaaayyyyyyy too much.  Fiio makes nice products and I have several myself but they can't have everything. I have a few amps in the $1000-2000+ range and none of them have it either.

 

[FuzzyD]

Headroom manages it in their Bithead and Airhead. You're right though that crossfeed is rare, unfortunately. Practical Devices also uses it and they aren't terribly expensive.

 

[TigreNegrito]

Precisely, FuzzyD!  All those relatively inexpensive portable amps/DAC's have it on-board, which is why I was curious if Fiio was going to attempt the same kind of thing, or if the feature was so ubiquitous that they didn't even bother to mention it.  I assumed it was a relatively easy feature to incorporate, but after reading a few of the crossfeed threads, I see that it is more of a proprietary thing.
 
I'm guessing that it would be something incorporated into the DAC portion and not the amp side of things, because my Bithead has a switch to turn the crossfeed on or off, but not the amp.  If I ended up getting just a better amp, I couldn't use the Bithead to add the crossfeed to the signal without a lot of distortion (via the doubly-amped signal).  I'm guessing at this last statement, but it seems reasonable based on what I've read here so far.
 
So that kinda takes the Bithead out of the equation and leaves me with a void to fill via some other DAC.  I was hoping there was something out there like the Fiio that offered a two part solution to my situation: the necessity for an amp to drive the 701's at home (regardless of source) and the portability of a decent DAC/Amp for my IEM's while on the road.  Maybe that's too much to ask and I just need to stick with the Bithead for my IEM's and get a separate unit altogether for the 701's.
 
What I didn't know until I started looking over this site a couple months ago was that the sampling rate for the Bithead maxes out at CD quality.  I have 1000's and 1000's of discs I now have to rip to a hard drive again, because the vast majority of them were ripped at a lower mp3 setting years ago. But I don't want to limit myself to not being able to appreciate the details of higher-end sources that I'm just starting to learn about here.  All of that in a nutshell basically puts me in the market for a newer/updated Amp/DAC unit.  Initially, I thought the E9 + E7/17 combo would achieve both needs, but it sounds like I have to do some more market research to find the best deal.
 
To that end, thanks for all the help and guidance available here!
 
 

 

[kingpage]

Crossfeed is never implemented in the DAC portion, unless you want to wreck accuracy. It's always somewhere in the amp section.

 

[ClieOS]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, ClieOS.  And is THAT available in Fiio products?

No that I know of.

Headroom manages it in their Bithead and Airhead. You're right though that crossfeed is rare, unfortunately. Practical Devices also uses it and they aren't terribly expensive.

I have the BitHead as well as a Practical Devices XM3, plus a Meier Audio 3MOVE which also has crossfeed. It really isn't about who can put a crossfeed in but how well the crossfeed is implemented (there are quite a few different designs) The crossfeed in BitHead is great, but those in XM3 and 3MOVE don't really do much (despite the fact that 3MOVE sound a lot better than BitHead). So the answer isn't really as simple as just adding a crossfeed citcuit into an amp.

The easy way out is just to use a crossfeed filter / software in the PC to get the same effect. If the software is good, the result should be comparable to a hardware crossfeed since it is done in the digital domain and shouldn't affect the SQ much.

 

[TigreNegrito]

I stumbled across that concept just recently as well, ClieOS.  Since I'm basically starting from scratch here, what PC-based software program allows that kind of tweaking?  I see lots of folks referencing Foobar, but haven't really heard mention of anything else.  I'd kinda like that in place before I start re-ripping everything to a big external drive so that it can download the album cover/track lists, etc (I think that's called meta-data?) as I'm converting to lossless.
 
FYI, I've been shutting off the crossfeed about 50% of the time lately.  I don't know if it has something to do with the 'burn-in' on these AKG's or not.  I couldn't stand not having it on during the first 100 hrs or so - felt like my the top of my head was being pushed off by high treble notes and the crossfeed effectively nulled that.  Now, however, the lower ends are becoming more pronounced and the overall sound more balanced.  It also depends on what I'm listening to at the time, and that changes frequently.  I never shut it off with my IEM's, though.
 
Thanks for clearing up my misconception re: location of crossfeed, Kingpage!

 

[ClieOS]

I don't really use any EQ software so I am not sure which to recommend you. There are a few software EQ discussion in the computer-as-source forum but I don't remember the name of those thread anymore.

 

[TigreNegrito]

Thanks for the directions... I'll go look it up!

 

[JamesFiiO]

 

[JamesFiiO]

 

[Anathallo]

*Sits at computer, credit card in hand, waiting for release*
 
 
 

 

[kicker]

i have question when E15 will come out ? 
 
and who is more powerful the E15 VS E9\E17 ?