[Riku540]

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Ok great, has anyone had any experience with using the Goldring NS1000's with the E9? I know that they can be quite "picky" about amps....?

 
Honestly I doubt many if any have tried this combo as active noise canceling headphones aren't too popular around here. That and the fact that the E9 is still only a few months old. It has more than twice the amount of power needed to power the NS1000 with noise canceling on and will accentuate the good qualities of your headphone.

 

[Siyfion]

 
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Ok great, has anyone had any experience with using the Goldring NS1000's with the E9? I know that they can be quite "picky" about amps....?

 
Honestly I doubt many if any have tried this combo as active noise canceling headphones aren't too popular around here. That and the fact that the E9 is still only a few months old. It has more than twice the amount of power needed to power the NS1000 with noise canceling on and will accentuate the good qualities of your headphone.

To be honest I want something to drive them with ANR off. I like the fact they have ANR because when I go on plane/train journeys they help with the constant background noise.

 

[Riku540]

The only reason I mentioned it is because according to the specifications the impedance is three times the amount on than it is off. The point being you don't have to worry about shortcomings in power.

 

[Siyfion]

Well I'm not sure if I dare take the plunge for the E9 just yet, I might let someone else have a go at trying it first and in the meantime, get the E5 (it's so cheap, why not!?).

 

[Willieboy]

Great review Mark.  Love your pics. Thanks for taking the time to do such a thorough job.

 

[mark2410]

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Great review Mark.  Love your pics. Thanks for taking the time to do such a thorough job.

glad you like it

 

[Siyfion]

Ok, I've got another question; people have mentioned that the FiiO E9 amp is pretty "neutral" in the way it amplifies the signal. I'm currently considering getting a pair of Audio Technica ATH AD700's, or maybe some Sennheiser HD600/650 if my budget will allow it.
 
So my question is this; most people seem to say that the AD700's don't need an amp to sound great, but the HD600/650's do, if I were to buy a FiiO E9 and use it with whichever I end up getting, will it make the AD700's sound worse than being un-amped? Will it make them sound better, even a little bit?

 

[Lan647]

There will probably be a slight positive difference, but I would say go for an E7 if you choose the AD700.

 

[Siyfion]

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There will probably be a slight positive difference, but I would say go for an E7 if you choose the AD700.

I'm not really a big fan of using these portable amps for a very "desktop" purpose, if I'm going to have something driving my headphones on my desk, it has to look like it's meant to be there (like the E9 does!).

 

[Riku540]

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So my question is this; most people seem to say that the AD700's don't need an amp to sound great, but the HD600/650's do, if I were to buy a FiiO E9 and use it with whichever I end up getting, will it make the AD700's sound worse than being un-amped? Will it make them sound better, even a little bit?

 
What could possibly make amping sound worse than unamped, besides double amping? Proper, quality amping will always sound better... weather it's significant or marginal.
 
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I'm not really a big fan of using these portable amps for a very "desktop" purpose, if I'm going to have something driving my headphones on my desk, it has to look like it's meant to be there (like the E9 does!).

 
He is more than likely suggesting the E7 for the DAC feature, and probably missed that you have a decent soundcard for a source due to the page change.

 

[Jack C]

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Hi guys, this is my first post here so be gentle with me! I've taken a look through a good chunk of this thread and I can't seem to find anyone asking/answering my question:
 
I'm a desktop PC user and I have a fairly decent sound card (Xonar) and a set of Goldring NS1000's, currently I am using the soundcard's built in amp, am I right in thinking that I would only need an E9 and that there would be no benefit to getting an E7 as well?
 
Has anyone had any experience with this kind of setup?

 
The Xonar is a good quality sound card, but the final audio quality depends on how noisy your overall system is. I would recommend that you do an RMAA analysis of your Xonar to see if its noise level is fairly low already.  Try this step-by-step guide:
 
http://audio.rightmark.org/downloads/Xonar_D2_RMAA605_TestGuide_V12.pdf
 
If your test shows that your sound card's noise floor is at least 100dB or so, then I would say the E9 is all you need to get started. The E7 is a 16-bit device and would not be able to deliver you any better noise floor than the theoretical maximum of about 96dB. Of course the E7 has many other qualities which may prompt you to get one in the future, but to get started the E9 is all you need if your Xonar output is already of fairly good quality.
 
One warning is that sometimes, computer noise is sporadic rather than constant. That is, it happens in spurts. I had a scenario where turning on the WiFi on a notebook would cause the audio to drop out maybe once a minute. The sound was otherwise just fine but it got to be very annoying.
 
Jack
 

 

[Siyfion]

Thanks guys that all helps a lot; the main reason why I want to stick with a sound card rather than an external DAC is because I want to use the Dolby Headphone feature when I'm gaming. While I understand that there are separate devices (JVC SU-DH1) that allow this, I doubt the DAC in a SU-DH1 would be as good as in my Xonar.

 

[tehort]

I got curious now, I see the E9 and the Xonar Essence STX share the same amplifier chip:
 

Xonar Essence STX
Built-in Headphone Amp
A high-quality TI TPA6120A2 headphone amp supports headphones up to 600 ohms of impedance with lower than 0.001% distortion. This allows users to drive their headphones as intended without additional amplification.

 
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Fiio E9
Main power amplifier use the TI corporation‘s, it with 5uVrms noise,low distortion 0.00014% THD + N;high switching rate, 1300V/uS current-feedback model IC:TPA6120

 
 
So, could I suppose they both offer the same driving ability and quality for headphones? With the advantage of the Fiio being transportable, and the Essence having the edge in the gaming effects section?
If so, the Essence is quite an audiophile card right? 

 

[Lan647]

No comparisons yet? How does the E7/E9 combo hold up against the Icon HDP, headroom micro amp or Matrix m-stage??

 

[juman231]

I'm also curious about how e7/e9 would compare with audio-gd nfb-12 since they're priced the same and are dac/amp combo.