[hendersondayton]

I am new to the Audio Quality world.
 
I enjoy music, and if I had to guess, I would say, 6 hours of my day is spent listening to music via headphone at my office.
 
I was in the Market for headphones. I have an older pair of Koss UR-15c and wanted to upgrade. Bought a pair of Bose AE2.
 
I also purchased a Fiio E7 DAC Headphone Amplifier.
 
I have read a lot of reviews and watched a lot of videos and chose this as it fit in my budget.
 
The listening experience was better but perhaps I am doing something wrong because a few songs I tested it out on still sounded really fizzy or fuzzy in the bass/drum area. I am not sure if that was the quality of the MP3 I downloaded (ITunes).
 
I have read that the E7 "requires" some burn in time. Is this true? Will this help?
 
Is it just a poor quality MP3?
 
Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to jump straight to the "this was a waste of money" conclusion as I did hear a significant difference in quality over the laptop sound without it. I just was not sure what the deal was with a few of the songs I tested.
 
Thanks!

 

[Darkblade48]

What quality of MP3 are you using for testing?
 
You may want to try better recordings/rips of the songs where you are hearing the fuzziness.

 

[hendersondayton]

[size=11pt]Here are the details (from itunes) of the song I am listening to "Shine" by collective soul..[/size]
 
[size=11pt]Bit Rate: 256 kbps[/size]
[size=11pt]Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz[/size]
[size=11pt]Profile: Low Complexity[/size]
[size=11pt]Channels: Stereo[/size]
 
[size=11pt]I cannot say i really know what all that means but there it is. [/size]
 
[size=11.0pt]In addition, the same song sounds amazing on the IPhone. No “fuzzy” sounds on the hard bass and drum sections.[/size]

 

[skamp]

I am not sure if that was the quality of the MP3 I downloaded (ITunes).

Your AACs (not MP3s) are probably fine.

I have read that the E7 "requires" some burn in time. Is this true? Will this help?

Non-sense.

Check the bass boost setting on the E7.

 

[hendersondayton]

Quote:

Your AACs (not MP3s) are probably fine.
Non-sense.
Check the bass boost setting on the E7.

 
Are you referring to the EQ Setting?
 
If so the Fuzzy sound is still heard at "0" but as it goes up the fuzzy gets worse.
 
It is worth noting here that I listened to this same song on my IPhone 4 with the L3 cable from Fiio and even on level 3 it was awesome! no fuzz at all. I guess i cannot listen to the laptop.

 

[skamp]

Then check any EQ / DSP settings on your laptop's end.

 

[hendersondayton]

Quote:

Then check any EQ / DSP settings on your laptop's end.

 
Forgive my complete ignorance here but I am not really sure where that would be done other than in the Sound Hardware section in Control Panel.
 
 
 

 
As you can see, the checked one is the USB Audio DAC.
 
If I click PROPERTIES, you can see the two images below:
 
Enhancements Tab:
 

 
and Advanced Tab:
 

 
I have left it all default. Not sure what to change here.

 

[skamp]

Check your player settings too.

 

[hendersondayton]

OK. That helped. Not as bad. I had the Equalizer on ITunes set to "BASS BOOST"...which basically was boosting the amplifier...
 
Messing with the Equalizer Settings.....i have no idea what I am doing here...but this equalizer is changing it pretty drastically. I should learn what this thing does.
 
Thanks!
 

 

[hendersondayton]

OMG!! I am blown away! Pairing the right Genre of music with the right Equalizer settings makes an amazing difference! I cannot tell you how cool this is. Last night I was upset about the quality of sound....now....having fixed the issue (thanks to Head-Fi users), I am like a kid in an audiophile candy store.

 

[skamp]

I can't live without a 10-band equalizer

 

[hendersondayton]

I have yet to find any add-ins to the standard ITunes equalizer. Additional presets I mean.
 
I don't know anything about the equalizer beyond what Apple put in the help files.
 
I was hoping to find somewhere, someones data as to there suggestions for equalizer settings.

 

[Darkblade48]

You could take a look at this thread for headphone equalization (just something to get your started)
 
http://www.head-fi.org/a/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial

 

[CedricE]

I have this exact problem with my Fiio E7 amp. When I use it with my iphone through the iphone doc the sound is amazing and the bass very clean. When I plug it in through the usb port on my computer, the bass gets fuzzy and not as clean. The equalizer on itunes is off so that can't be the problem. In the third picture that hendersondayton showed earlier in this thread, I have the sample rate and bit depth set to the highest possible for my amp.
If anybody can help me I would really appreciate it!
 
Thanks,
Cedric

 

[chinook9]

Hendersondayton, you didn't ask the question, but I will volunteer to someone new to the "audio quality" world that one of the best improvements you can make will be to try to get flac files. If you really want to get blown away, go to HDtracks and get a couple of sample tracks.  No matter how good your sound system is it can be no better than the source material.