[TrollDragon]

In my experience, a crackling noise when turning a volume knob (my E12 does this also, although it didn't when I 1st got it) is usually due to dirt. You'd have to remove the knob AND open up the amp to gain access to the volume pot to clean it. This is a very common occurrence, it's happened with various pre-amps I've owned.

How does one go about cleaning a sealed Alps Pot?

 

[subver]

Yeah I can confirm it happens on my E12, too, only when adjusting the volume during playback, though. It doesn't do it when nothing's playing on your source, as far as I can tell. I'm only talking about moving the volume knob, though.

As for your headphone out, I'm stumped. Is that the only cable you've fiddled with?

Yeah that's all I've tested, my DT 770 250ohms.. I just tried that again, along with some lovely Apple earbuds and of course I couldn't get it to happen again, so I will have to just keep an eye on it, and when it happens I will try another pair of headphones, too.
 
Glad I'm not the only one with the crackly volume knob - but yeah no big deal really as it's only while I'm turning it up and down. I just wasn't sure if it would eventually get worse over time or start crackling when not being rotated.
 
Thanks!

 

[Change is Good]

Did you guys not read my post about turning the knob up and down for about a minute, to rid the dust build up and stop the crackling?

 

[rped]

There are 3 versions of the  E12 mother board marked 00, 01 and 02 all have different date markings as well. So including the DIY version that makes 4

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

Yeah I can confirm it happens on my E12, too, only when adjusting the volume during playback, though. It doesn't do it when nothing's playing on your source, as far as I can tell. I'm only talking about moving the volume knob, though.

As for your headphone out, I'm stumped. Is that the only cable you've fiddled with?

that happens on the E11 too.

 

[x RELIC x]

Did you guys not read my post about turning the knob up and down for about a minute, to rid the dust build up and stop the crackling?

Just did this and it solved the crackling for me. Thanks!

 

[Hijodelbrx]

Me too! Thx! Now to see if this trick'll work with my preamp!

 

[JamesFiiO]

some news share with you guys. we are considering to make a E12IEM version for IEM user. cause the output power of E12 is too high and the hiss is a little bigger too. so we will develop a E12IEM



which is based on E12DIY, and we will use MUSES02+LME49600.

 

[AngryRaccoon]

I did not liked this amp.(dx90+a2000x)
First the good:
It is powerful. Like really freaking powerful.
SQ it self is quite exceptional, extracting lots of stuff from the record, it's clean and strong too.

Now the bad:
Sound stage sucks. The quiet, supporting sounds on a track are wide and far while main stuff is in ur face and loud often burring everything else under it. It would't be that bad if there was any kind of warmth to it, but there is none, making it sound artificial and narrow.

It might be a very legit n cheap way to boost ur Cowon, but as far as using it with more of an a Hi-Fi rigs ...i don't know. For me cold sound and narrow in-ur-face stage is simply shot in a balls for Hi-Fi sound.

 

[leogodoy]

I always thought of the soundstage as a function of the headphone, not the amp. Do you feel the soundstage is narrowed when comparing to the same headphone unamped?

 

[StanD]

I always thought of the soundstage as a function of the headphone, not the amp. Do you feel the soundstage is narrowed when comparing to the same headphone unamped?

Some people believe that this is also a function of the amp. I don't. An amp has a spec called separation which can affect soundstage, however, it has to be very bad to impact this. The E12 is not in that category.

 

[AngryRaccoon]

No, it's not just headphones. U have a certain stage ur HF capable of, we can call it real stage and then there is a... let's call it virtual stage- an illusion of space created with mixing and mastering when record was made or by capturing sound right on stage(like some orchestra records), also stuff like reverberations, dynamic range of different sounds n so on, so when it comes to virtual stage it's up to ur hardware to produce and present it to ur HF so they can present it to u then with their real stage and other characteristics. And cos it's basically just an electric signal created with instructions that is digital code, that is a digital audio file, the quality and representation of what actually was recorded(mixed n mastered) depends on ur DAC, AMP(digital filters, codecs n so on) and the way and materials it's all wired with, the better this stuff is, the better ur player is. Cowon d2 is worse then Fiio X3 cos it's different DAC, AMP and so on... And due to recorded sound not being real sound, but clever trick to reproduce what ones was real by turning it to an electric signal that causin all this vibrations in certain frequencies each piece of hardware has it's own representation of it, again due to each piece of hardware and software being different and cos virtual scene is more of an illusion, hardware(stuff like audio capacitors in ur amp affecting ur stage more noticeably) has a pretty significant effect on the way it presented.  
 
 
I tested and compared extensively. "Onnin" n "Offin" AMP for month like a crazy person before i come to my conclusion bout E12. DX90 it self has quite wide stage and sound is quite balanced in warmth department. 
Again, e12 does produce a very clean n hq sound. Just that there is no warmth(warmer sound usually sound better to a human ear, it's sure is so for me) to it and stage appears too forward and narrow, with is not good for almost 1000$(1700$ where i live) rig. 
 And i can't tell how it is with other players n headphones, but a heard and saw similar complaints bout E12. In this tread too.

 

[AngryRaccoon]

  Some people believe that this is also a function of the amp. I don't. An amp has a spec called separation which can affect soundstage, however, it has to be very bad to impact this. The E12 is not in that category.

It's quite weird to say that stereo sound does not being affected by hardware it is being processed thru. Felling of stage consist of many things that affect creating an illusion of separation and positioning of instruments n vocals in a 2 channel audio, HP are far from being all of them. It's not just HP having soundstage, it is also the way stage is presented ater being decoded and amplified.   

 

[TrollDragon]

 Read those aloud three times fast... 

 

 

[AngryRaccoon]

.. I've just found out that i made stupidest mistake ever.... I've been using it with headphone out... And that is dumb)) Reviewing it all over again. It probably will not have such a negative impact on a sound with "Line Out"