As I understand it, the Fulla was never designed to be a portable amp/DAC. It was designed to work with computers only. With computers, the setup of the Fulla is clean and simple: the supplied cable into a USB slot on your computer, your headphones connected to the headphone jack, and you're in business. It was the clever members of Head-Fi on this thread who figured out that with a little bit of ingenuity, the Fulla could work in a portable rig and sound every bit as good as it does with a computer. I, for,one, am thankful to those that figured it out. I replicated one of the earlier setups, and using my Audeze EL-8 closed back,phones with my iPad Air2 loaded with full resolution AIFF files, the sound is fantastic. I am very willing to forego looks and ergonomics to get phenomenal sound on the go and on the cheap.
Good Schiit
Yep...my understanding as well. It is a laptop / desktop solution and by most accounts a very good one from a sound perspective -- what we've come to expect from Schiit.
As I said, I have the Modi / Magni set up and am very happy with the sound and the value. Most likely, I'll be buying an OTL amp this year and I expect the Valhalla 2 to be a top contender from a value perspective.
It is Alive!
And yes, it
was clever to Rube Goldberg the Fulla to make it workable in a pinch for 'Portable' applications. I guess if you're only going to have one inexpensive amp/dac, then this might make sense; buy the low cost, high-value solution and then 'upgrade' it with the additional USB power source and connectors.
But still, this 'portable' setup ends up costing about $120 when it's all said and done. Given that and the ergonomical nightmare, I see the simple, truly portable solutions like the iBasso (good sounding per many HeadFi-ers) as a much better alternative and find myself scratching my head at Franken-Fulla.
Portability
I guess everybody's different in what they'll consider portable. When I think of portable, though, I'd ideally like the stuff to take up minimal space (
say...fit in a pocket), have as few connectors as possible, and play my music with high quality sound. The Fulla only accomplishes one of these for me.
But then again, I don't take my full size headphones on the go like you do with your EL-8s -- too bulky for me. If I use headphones on a walk (rarely), they're usually low profile like my M80s or WS55s. Typically, when I'm on the go, it's just my phone and IEMs. That may change as I've been getting some higher quality IEMs. However, as I think through that, I'm still on the fence between getting a nice portable dac/amp to connect to my phone or just buying a mid-level DAP (X5 or DX90).
Lastly, for transportable applications like work or traveling, I've got my laptop/tablet in my backpack and the Explorer works perfectly for me -- very high value at $149.
Future Schiit
Actually, this thread has kinda crystallized it for me, if Fulla 2 came out as truly portable (read: internal battery) dac/amp for $120 or under I'd snap that up in a second.
Either that, or...maybe Schiit could release a DAP. Now that would be interesting!