Fiio E17 to drive Sennheiser HD650?
Sep 24, 2012 at 10:33 PM Post #32 of 49
I've been trying ipod/e17/hd650 tonight and I have to agree. It sounds somewhat underpowered. That's a shame as I was hoping to use the aforementioned as a decent portable rig with the hd650.
 
So I guess the question is, what will it take to be portable and get good SQ from the hd650?
 
Sep 24, 2012 at 10:45 PM Post #33 of 49
Sep 25, 2012 at 12:36 AM Post #35 of 49
Quote:
matttcg said:
 
Wow!! On sale for $50? Can anyone who's heard this with the hd650 chime in? 
Click to expand...

 
I know this will hurt some people's feelings, but the Airhead drives the HD-580/600/650 with ease. No $1000 amp required for the HD-650 to sound good
biggrin.gif

 
I had the HD-650 twice last year and was surprised how easily it was driven with the Airhead. My K601 will clip and give me the blinking red light when i'm going over-voltage. I have to crank it to past 90% though.
The HD-650 and Q701 have no such issues at all. For the Q701 to give me the red blink of death it has to be cranked to nearly max and only with specific music.
 
I will say i'm pretty impressed with how well the Airhead is with the HD-580. No extra warmth or bass bloat.
 
You know why I have the Headroom Micro Amp? I compared my HD-650 with the Asgard, E9 and Airhead just for my amusement. I liked it the most from the Airhead. What the heck? Figured the Micro might be even better and similar to the Airhead.
I should note that the HD-600 sounded the best with the Asgard..go figure..too bad I hate the Asgard with any AKG headphone.
 
BTW I've also read that some people even prefer say a CMOY with the HD-600 over their desktop amps! This makes sense to me now.
 
I hope the E17 has a completely different signature than the E10. The E10 was a complete fail for me with the HD-598, HD-600 and DJ100. Made them quite muffled sounding, even when used as a DAC.
 
NOTE: when I first got my Airhead it did a terrible job of driving a K701. I then realized I was dumb and had to open the flap to use "High Gain". Be 100% sure to do this with the HD-650 if needed! Crossfeed might not be good for the HD-650 since it may add a little warmth. I don't use it.
 
Airhead to Sansa Clip+ is pretty impressive with the Q701. I'll even go as far as claiming it's soundstage is larger than that with the ODAC and Micro Amp.
 
I've found the Airhead fairly transparent. No weird colorations IMO. Some claimed it's warm or bassy and I think that's nuts. If it was I'd hate it with the HD-600. It's mids remind me of the E5. Maybe if there's any coloration it's mids might be similar to the E5.
 
Sep 25, 2012 at 2:17 PM Post #37 of 49
I'm seriously looking at picking up an airhead. Any reason not to if I'm driving the hd650 with a portable? 
 
Sep 25, 2012 at 2:33 PM Post #38 of 49
Quote:
matttcg said:
I'm seriously looking at picking up an airhead. Any reason not to if I'm driving the hd650 with a portable? 
Click to expand...

 
It's rather bulky and hard to put in a pocket due to the angled jacks. Not a big deal.
In another thread people claimed it was ugly. I mean it's an amp.. I don't care as long as it's not yellow or shaped like a space ship.
 
Feb 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM Post #43 of 49
Hey everyone i am new here so please be nice. I do not own the E12 but in less than a week I will, , but after many hours of reading many sites and reviews it seems like the E12 should do a pretty decent job of driving the HD650. Of course really no one is probably using their 650 to its full potential because i don't have several thousand dollars to invest in to use them to their full potential.
Whatever is used the E17 seems to be a winner by most reviews with most headphones. That's why I have ordered them for myself.
 
Jul 11, 2013 at 12:02 PM Post #44 of 49
Quote:
matttcg said:
The e17 will drive them but not well. I just listened to it on high gain and it was just okay. It got a lot better with an e09+odac...much better. And then there is another level with amps in the Schitt series as well as others. 
Click to expand...


I'll be testing this starting tonight.  I'm trying to build a better portable setup (currently TF10's off an Iphone 4S), so I have an E1 coming and I'm going to try driving my HD650's with it.  I'll be replacing the Schiit Bifrost/Valhalla portion of my home rig.  Partly just to see what it's like, and also because I hate being tied down to just one spot in the house when listening to my HD650's.
 
We'll see what happens...
 
Jul 12, 2013 at 7:46 AM Post #45 of 49
Quote:
serenitty said:
I'll be testing this starting tonight.  I'm trying to build a better portable setup (currently TF10's off an Iphone 4S), so I have an E1 coming and I'm going to try driving my HD650's with it.  I'll be replacing the Schiit Bifrost/Valhalla portion of my home rig.  Partly just to see what it's like, and also because I hate being tied down to just one spot in the house when listening to my HD650's.
 
We'll see what happens...
Click to expand...

 
The first test of the E17 with the HD650's was pretty interesting.  My normal rig is a laptop with Foobar2000 and a mixture of MP3, FLAC's, and 96/24 FLAC's from HD Tracks.  I usually run a Schiit Bifrost with a Valhalla for the amp.  I got my E17 yesterday and after it finished its first charge I gave it a try. 
 
My first impression, after I normalized for volume (9o'clock on my Valhalla, 30 on the E17 with gain on 6 (default)), was that the cans sounded thin compared to what I was used to.  The mids and highs were there, but the bass really wasn't doing much.  Some of the bass lines in Rodrigo y gabriela and the tron soundtrack just weren't "right".  I played around with the bass boost EQ on the E17 and things livened right up.  +4 was pretty much a match for what was used to on the valhalla, +6 and above started to make my HD650's hit harder in the bass than I've ever heard before.  The sound was much more like my home speaker system in terms of bass, without losing that headphone mid and high clarity that my tower speakers just can't reproduce. 
 
I was pretty happy, my spanish guitar tracks were still fast and precise, the Daft Punk hit harder than I'm used to, Billy Joel's banjo on Traveling Man was just as precise and clean as with the Schiit Dac/amp combo.  And Misery and Prince's Cream still had that resonance that makes those songs sound so amazing on headphones.
 
I'll have to try some more listening this weekend.  I haven't dug into my classical yet some Moonlight Sonata and 1812 overture will be an interesting test.
 
Caveat-  Despite a long time love of music, I really don't know if I can call myself an audiophile the way it's used around here.  I'm learning the vocabulary, but I still don't know how to use the words to actually describe what I'm hearing.  Also, I don't have a "Golden Ear".  I'll never be in a discussion on cables, I'm just not that sensitive.  So where I hear an amp that sounds "close enough" to my Bifrost/Valhalla, I'm sure there are many here who could point out all the stuff I'm missing. 
 
Thanks,
Dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top