[Riku540]

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Just to clarify, do you mean to say that a better headphone will let me better see the difference in the quality of digital to analog conversion different DACs (whether it be one in my J3 or an external DAC like e7) will render? And so if I do get a better headphone, would the difference be great enough to be considered significant?

 
A better headphone means greater potential. While across the board the sound should be better weather it be your mp3 player or from a DAC/amp, the improvement will one crippled by the mp3 player's lack of a properly amplified signal and limited power output.
 
Think of a headphone upgrade as a car upgrade from a standard car to a sports car. It has the potential to perform much better than a regular car, but not if you fill it with regular gas. For the sports car to properly perform and operate as intended, you need premium gas.

 

[ukkisavosta]

 
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FWIW, I think the E9 has great connectivity: it has a 3.5 mm line in jack, RCA line out jacks and a 3.5 mm pre-out jack, as well as a USB port for E7 docking. I use the E9's pre-outs to drive my active monitors when I'm not listening to headphones, and it works great as a DAC/pre-amp (Edit: with the E7 docked, of course). Whenever I unplug the headphones, the output is switched to the pre-out jack and vice versa. Very convenient.

This might be unrelated to the e9 topic, but just out of pure curiosity, can you explain to me why you do that? I thought, according to my newbie knowledge base, that you'd use the amp to "amplify" the analog signal so the hard-to-drive headphones/speakers play the music better? What is the benefit of using a pre-output?  And if it's pre-output, that means the signals are not amplified, right? so no amplification is done in E9's part? Is this the same as using E7 only? 

There are several benefits to using the E7/E9 as a pre-amp for active speakers (compared to driving them directly from the sound card or onboard audio jack): the D/A conversion is performed by the E7, and the volume is controlled by the E9 pot/pre-stage. This means that there is no double amping, so I can turn the active speakers' volume pots all the way up, and the signal is only attenuated with the E9 pre-stage. I think this is the cleanest possible signal that can be provided to active speakers.

 

[juman231]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what would be the difference, then, between using only E7 and using the E7/E9 combo to connect to the speakers?

 

[Oddworld]

Dear users debating about this: The E9 has more than enough power for the K701 / K702. Trust me, I own them. 

 

[Allforheather]

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Please excuse my ignorance, but what would be the difference, then, between using only E7 and using the E7/E9 combo to connect to the speakers?

because the e7 doesn't provide a dedicate line out for your active speaker, meaning you have to pass the internal amp section if you only use the e7, which will downgrade the SQ.
when using the e9 with the e7, you can use the rca out or line out on the e9 to connect to the speaker which bypass the internal amp of the e7 giving a clean signal from the e7 dac chip.

 

[juman231]

Ahh! Thank you so much for explaining! that helped a lot for my understanding!

 

[Allforheather]

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Ahh! Thank you so much for explaining! that helped a lot for my understanding!

If you don't need the e9, you could also wait for the new line out kit  . 

 

[ldtboyl]

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Dear users debating about this: The E9 has more than enough power for the K701 / K702. Trust me, I own them. 

I'm also planning to get E9 and 702, what other amps have you compared it to?

 

[ukkisavosta]

 
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Originally Posted by Allforheather /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
when using the e9 with the e7, you can use the rca out or line out on the e9 to connect to the speaker which bypass the internal amp of the e7 giving a clean signal from the e7 dac chip.

Correct, but the speakers need to be connected specifically to the pre-out jack to allow for volume control with the E9. If you connect the active speakers to the rca line out jacks, you will get a line level signal to the active speakers, meaning that you would then need to control the volume with the active speakers' own pots.
 
This also applies to the E7 line out kit: you only get a line level signal from the E7, with the LOD, meaning that the E7 volume controls are bypassed.

 

[juman231]

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Originally Posted by Allforheather /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
when using the e9 with the e7, you can use the rca out or line out on the e9 to connect to the speaker which bypass the internal amp of the e7 giving a clean signal from the e7 dac chip.

Correct, but the speakers need to be connected specifically to the pre-out jack to allow for volume control with the E9. If you connect the active speakers to the rca line out jacks, you will get a line level signal to the active speakers, meaning that you would then need to control the volume with the active speakers' own pots.
 
This also applies to the E7 line out kit: you only get a line level signal from the E7, with the LOD, meaning that the E7 volume controls are bypassed.

So I guess it would be preferable to use the RCA line out to bypass the amplification of the E9 and send the E7 converted signal to another amp if one wants to pair it with the E7. Although, now with the line out dock  L7 Fiio is making, this setup won't be necessary.A question though. The pre-out's signal is different from the line-out signal because it's adjustable with the E9's volume pot, while both signals are unamplified? How does this work? So when using the E9's pot to change the speaker's volume, what is it that happens to the pre-output signal that makes the E9's volume pot to change the speaker's volume without being amplified? Is it just unamplified, but stronger signal? Then what is the difference between using the headphone out and the pre-out? 
 
Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm on my to understand how hi-fi works and you guys are helping me a lot!

 

[ukkisavosta]

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Correct, but the speakers need to be connected specifically to the pre-out jack to allow for volume control with the E9. If you connect the active speakers to the rca line out jacks, you will get a line level signal to the active speakers, meaning that you would then need to control the volume with the active speakers' own pots.  
This also applies to the E7 line out kit: you only get a line level signal from the E7, with the LOD, meaning that the E7 volume controls are bypassed.

So I guess it would be preferable to use the RCA line out to bypass the amplification of the E9 and send the E7 converted signal to another amp if one wants to pair it with the E7. Although, now with the line out dock  L7 Fiio is making, this setup won't be necessary.A question though. The pre-out's signal is different from the line-out signal because it's adjustable with the E9's volume pot, while both signals are unamplified? How does this work? So when using the E9's pot to change the speaker's volume, what is it that happens to the pre-output signal that makes the E9's volume pot to change the speaker's volume without being amplified? Is it just unamplified, but stronger signal? Then what is the difference between using the headphone out and the pre-out? 
 
Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm on my to understand how hi-fi works and you guys are helping me a lot!

 
See here for info on pre-amping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamplifier
 
I'm not sure I quite understand your first question, but if you specifically want a line level signal from the E7, that would be the correct way to proceed. I have a cheap Muse tube amp, and this is how I connect it with the E7/E9, because the Muse has a volume pot as well. This also works if you have an integrated amp and only want to use the E7 as a source for the integrated amp.
 
If you were to use passive speakers with the E7/E9, you would basically need a power amp and passive speakers: you would then connect the E9's pre-amp jack to the power amp's input and use the E7/E9 as a high quality source and pre-amp. This would give you the best SQ. You could also use this connection if you have an integrated amp with pre-in jacks. You would then bypass the integrated amp's pre-amp and only use the power amp section to drive the speakers.
 

 

 

[jronan2]

 Any gamers out there: Has anyone tried hooking up the e9/e7 to the astro mixamp? Even though I think it might be double amplification, has anyone tried to drive like DT880, DT990's, or anything that might be hard to drivewith this set up? I heard people have done this before, and confirmation?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Yes, I did that since day one. Since the E9 is transparent, it doesn't negatively impact SQ when paired with the Mixamp (not noticeable anyways).
 
I did it for my K701 and DT990/600 with great effect.

 

[jronan2]

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Yes, I did that since day one. Since the E9 is transparent, it doesn't negatively impact SQ when paired with the Mixamp (not noticeable anyways).
 
I did it for my K701 and DT990/600 with great effect.

What wire do you need and how does the wire configuration go exactly? Also, which headphones perfromed the best? I would figure the K701 for the soundstage but i was thinking of getting the DT990/600 or the 250 ohm for gaming/music. I don't know which one would be the best for the e9 because it's a good choice for hip hop music.

 

[diamonddust]

Hi everyone,
 
I've noticed that while docked my Fiio E7 display "USB IN" while in the pictures in the first post I see "DOCK" instead.
 
ciao
Davide