[ryan00davis]

i recently bought the e7 since it is one of the few things that's cheaper here in the UK (here for a couple months for work) than back home in the states. I have been pretty happy with the sound when using as a DAC/amp, but one of the headphone out ports and the line in port are broken and only work if you jiggle them in a specific way. so anyway, i need to return it, and I am contemplating getting a new one or spending a bit more and getting the ibasso d2+ boa. From what I understand, they have an identical dac, so it's just a question of which is a better amp. I like the sound of the e7, but it's my first amp and first dac, so i dont really have anything to compare to. I haven't heard a whole lot about quality issues from fiio, so im hoping it's not a common trend.
 
Right now im using my klipsch s4i headphones, but im probably going to get some grado sr80i cans when i get back to the states, or possibly the ath-m50 (from what i've read, i think i will like the sound of the grados better, but if im going to use them at work, the leaking sound may be an issue). also contemplating the jh5 pro IEMs, but that's less likely.
 
my source will primarily be the computer, but will also be my ipod classic through a LOD, and work is getting me an iphone, so that too. 
 
I will be listening mostly to indie rock, other forms of rock, movies, podcasts and tv. music will be a combination of lossless and some mp3
 
random assortment of bands i like some songs of:
beatles, the clash, dave matthews band, death cab, the expendables, final fantasy (violin music), green day, hootie and the blowfish, jack johnson, john mayer, matt and kim, mgmt, minus the bear, the mountain goats, nirvana, the pixies, radiohead, rolling stones, simon and garfunkel, smashing pumpkins, snow patrol, social distortion, steve miller band, sublime, talking heads, tegan and sara, vampire weekend, van morrison, the weakerthans, yeah yeah yeahs. 
 
any thoughts and opinions are welcome. if you have experience with one or both, even better.
 
Thanks,
-Ryan

 

[Lex]

I've been rocking the D2+ for a good few month now. I have used it to drive an assortment of IEMs, buds and cans with very pleasing results. It's currently set up as per my sig.
 

 

[ryan00davis]

is the D2+ very pocketable? it seems like the switches might be a bit awkward feeling in a pocket. 

 

[Lex]

Quote:

is the D2+ very pocketable? it seems like the switches might be a bit awkward feeling in a pocket. 

well, that depends on the size of your pockets!
 
coat pocket etc, it´s fine but the corners are a bit pointy for stuffing into your 501s

 

[ryan00davis]

I dont suppose you've actually heard the E7?
 
as far as I can tell, my summary of benifits are as such:
 
portability: e7 is probably better. rounded corners, better battery life (but both are acceptable battery life)
Cost: ibasso = $170 + $22 (shipping) = $192; e7 = 56 gbp (free shipping amazon prime) = $90
DAC: same
Amp: ?
looks: D2 is looks better, E7 doesn't look bad, but really, how much does this matter?
 
So i guess the question is, is the amp on the d2+ worth $100 more than the amp on the e7?
keep in mind that im not on extremely high end headphones, i'll be buying some better ones, but i dont think sr80i counts as extremely high end either.
 
Maybe the question should be, would i be better off with the sr80i and the d2+ or the sr225i and the e7?

 

[Lex]

I haven't heard the E7 but from what I have read on Head-Fi both the D2+ and the E7 are bargains at their price points. Comparisons for the two tend to lean towards the iBasso but at more than 2x the price that isn't too surprising.
 
It can be hard (fun) work sometimes trying to make blind (deaf?) decisions about something as subjective as audio quality. I just went through the same thing looking for an ultra-portable setup, finally ordering a Clip+ & PK3 combo yesterday.
 
Have fun making your choice! 

 

[beeman458]

ryan00davis wrote:
 
any thoughts and opinions are welcome. if you have experience with one or both, even better.
 
Thanks,
-Ryan
 
 
I'm currently running IE8's from a Sansa Clip/FiiO E-7 combination.
 
My comparison is a HD650 rig so not a fair comparison.  My initial impressions of the E-7 as the IE8's burn-in, I wouldn't kick the E-7 out of bed.  Much, much, much better than trying to listen with just the Sansa Clip.  I'm listening to Led Zepplin as I write and sound quality is good enough to live with as I have no overall complaints on the sound quality.  The Sansa Clip > E-7 > IE8 combo is engaging, wide sound stage, good bass, smooth, extended highs, it's a keeper.
 
I have given consideration to the recently released iBasso D12.  But, I'm thinking I want an all-in-one DAP as opposed to an added on DAC/Amp combo like the E-7 or the D12.  In truth, as I write, based on my above, if you're already onto the E-7, I see no reason to change but if you're wanting better, there's too many choices out there for me to give any kind of a rational answer.
 
I think I just talked myself into keeping the E-7 and not upgrading.  But I do want more memory (The Sansa Clip has only 2 gig of memory and no Micro SDHC slot) which puts me back to square one, what all-in-one DAP should a hang my IE8's from?
 
Okay, I guess I'm no help.
 
Hmmmmmmmmm!
 

 

[ryan00davis]

Well, I'm someone who likes to have all or most of my music with me, so that kind of sticks me with an ipod classic. I have a (i think) 2 gb sansa clip that i was using for on the bike just because it was small, good sound quality and had fm for when i wanted NPR, but before long, i ended up back at my ipod classic again as i didn't like having to pre-determine what I wanted to listen to. 
 
But back to the amp choice, I sent back my original e7 and ordered a new one, and this time the aux in jack works fine but both headphone jacks are broken. I've done some searching and cant find any issues with broken headphone jacks from fiio, but i've now seen 4 out the the 6 jacks not working properly across 2 E7s. I'm thinking that the problem might be that the plug on my s4i headphones is a bit on the long side as it is designed to work with the pesky iphone jack, but i've had no problem with it on any other headphone jack (ipod, dell laptop, macbook pro, lenovo laptop, htc incredible, and probably more), I may try it later with the aux in cable im using on the rental car as I dont have any other headphones with me.  I've sent an email to fiio asking them to pre-test an amp and send it as a replacement as I dont think it's fair to amazon to make them keep paying for shipping as I go through a bunch of them looking for one that works.
 
at this point, if their (fiio) customer service isn't going to be helpful, then that is enough to make the decision for me and i'll send it back and upgrade to the d2+ (or keep looking at other options like a dedicated dac and more portable amp). But hopefully they will come back and be apologetic and helpful, we will see.

 

[Radioking59]

I too have experienced a faulty headphone jack on my E7.  The E7 I have now, which replaced one that had a different problem, has one bad jack.  It works fine if its untouched, but if its in my pocket and the headphone jack moves at all it cuts out. If I wiggle it back and forth on purpose its unlistenable.  The other jack doesn't cut out no matter how much pressure I put on it.

 

[JRG1990]

The jacks on mine seem fine so far, maybe it's just a problem with the newer builds.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Considering the Fiio E9 is about to be released which mates with the E7 (both cost $200 together), I'd go with the E7, as you get a DAC/AMP AND have money to spare for the upcoming E9 desktop amp...

 

[beeman458]

FWIW, I have the "newer" E-7 and (knock on wood) it's not caused me a lick of trouble.  I do have a set of earphones that doesn't play and get along well with the plug of the E-7, but that's a personal thing as when I stopped using that set of IEM's, problem went away.  Currently I'm connecting a set of Sennheiser IE8's to the E-7 and the synergy between the two is magical.
 
Don't know no nothing about the iBasso line other than if they weren't so PayPal dependent and just accepted straight up credit card purchases, I'd have bought a couple of their amps.
 
In the case of the E-7 vs D2+ Boa, the E-7 has fifty percent more output than the D2+ Boa.  Where this is a benefit is listening volume and distortion at higher listening levels.  At 100mW, the E-7 is at only sixty-six percent of it's maximum output where as the D2+ Boa, is at a hundred percent of output capability.  Now, if you were to go with a iBasso D4 Mamba, that pony has an output capacity of 230mW and is $50.00 USD more than the D2+ Boa.
 
For, price, look and features, I'm very happy with the E-7.  But if iBasso were to take straight up credit card purchases, I'd definitely be in the market for either an iBasso D12 Anaconda or a D4 Momba.  Although the D2+ Boa is much less than either the D12 or the D4, my opinion, it is also woefully underpowered and this point is well worth considering when making this type of purchase.

 

[ryan00davis]

Hmmm, haven't really looked at the lack of power, if I do decide to pick one up, i'll have to do more homework on how much power the sr80i and m50 require, I cant imagine anything lacks enough power to drive IEMs.
 
In the response from fiio, they stated that they did change the headphone jack due to some issues, didn't give any details on when or how to tell if you have the newer one or not. He also mentioned that it was due to an issue with LOD cables putting too much pressure on it, so maybe they only fixed the aux in port. They have left it at checking with their sales agent to see if they can get someone to check that one works before shipping it to me.
 
I linked him to this forum just to point out that there is at least one other person with the issue, and he mentioned that they ship 100X as many amp/dac units as most other suppliers, which is how they keep the cost down, so they will be more prone to quality issues.
 
Anyway, hopefully they can find a way to get me a working unit, as I dont think I want to try my luck again at returning it and buying another one from amazon.  I'll update this thread in case anybody is curious as to how it turns out (always good to know about the customer service of the companies you're purchasing things from).

 

[beeman458]

I cant imagine anything lacks enough power to drive IEMs.
 
One word, distortion.
 
The closer you get to max output, the more distortion you're going get.  In other words, you're now amplifying noise as opposed to music.
 
i'll have to do more homework on how much power the sr80i and m50 require, I cant imagine anything lacks enough power to drive IEMs.
 
It's not about how much power an IEM needs, it's about the amount of distortion one's going have at a given output and how much dynamic range an amp has when momentary demands are put on the amp.  These are all points one should consider when asking questions regarding this type of purchase.
 

 

[Lex]

Quote:

FWIW, I have the "newer" E-7 and (knock on wood) it's not caused me a lick of trouble.  I do have a set of earphones that doesn't play and get along well with the plug of the E-7, but that's a personal thing as when I stopped using that set of IEM's, problem went away.  Currently I'm connecting a set of Sennheiser IE8's to the E-7 and the synergy between the two is magical.
 
Don't know no nothing about the iBasso line other than if they weren't so PayPal dependent and just accepted straight up credit card purchases, I'd have bought a couple of their amps.
 
In the case of the E-7 vs D2+ Boa, the E-7 has fifty percent more output than the D2+ Boa.  Where this is a benefit is listening volume and distortion at higher listening levels.  At 100mW, the E-7 is at only sixty-six percent of it's maximum output where as the D2+ Boa, is at a hundred percent of output capability.  Now, if you were to go with a iBasso D4 Mamba, that pony has an output capacity of 230mW and is $50.00 USD more than the D2+ Boa.
 
For, price, look and features, I'm very happy with the E-7.  But if iBasso were to take straight up credit card purchases, I'd definitely be in the market for either an iBasso D12 Anaconda or a D4 Momba.  Although the D2+ Boa is much less than either the D12 or the D4, my opinion, it is also woefully underpowered and this point is well worth considering when making this type of purchase.

 
 
Having made a point of seeking out and auditioning an E7 this week I can say that more power does not equal improved SQ.
 
 
None of the 'phones listed in the OP would be "woefully underpowered" by the D2+