[ben_r_]

  Can anyone comment on using the HE-500 with the Fiio E17/E09K combo? 
 
I already have the E17; if adding the E09K would be sufficient *for now*, it would be great to hold me over until I can get something more appropriate for the 500s.

If youre in the US you could sell that combo for almost enough to get an Emotiva mini-X a-100 which is the tried and true best bang for the buck amp for the HE-500.

 

[inertianinja]

 
If youre in the US you could sell that combo for almost enough to get an Emotiva mini-X a-100 which is the tried and true best bang for the buck amp for the HE-500.

 
I'm not so sure whether I'd go with the Emotiva. I have heard a lot about the Lyr/Bifrost combo from many different sources, and I have only barely started going through this thread. Im hoping the E17/E9K will be okay until I can make a choice. It would be nice to use as a charging station for the E17 as well.

 

[inertianinja]

It'll do, power wise. I still have that combo lying around, not a big fan but if it's to tide you over until you get a different dac/amp then it mqkes sense, especially if you already have the 17. Look for a used one, you xan get them for very little money. Enjoy the 500!

 
I actually found a used E09K for 80 bucks on Amazon. "Like New" with a return policy.
 
This can be my dedicated setup for my ATH-M50 after I upgrade down the road.

 

[ben_r_]

   
I'm not so sure whether I'd go with the Emotiva. I have heard a lot about the Lyr/Bifrost combo from many different sources, and I have only barely started going through this thread. Im hoping the E17/E9K will be okay until I can make a choice. It would be nice to use as a charging station for the E17 as well.

Well while youre searching be sure to check out this thread: LINK

 

[inertianinja]

 
Well while youre searching be sure to check out this thread: LINK

 
Another 500 pages to read, great
At least this hobby is one that makes reading more enjoyable. If we were talking about video games, all this reading would be a pain in the ass.

 

[Xenophon]

   
I actually found a used E09K for 80 bucks on Amazon. "Like New" with a return policy.
 
This can be my dedicated setup for my ATH-M50 after I upgrade down the road.

Might not be a good combo with the ATH as that one has a 38 ohm impedance and is a dynamic headphone, not a planar like the 500 which are relatively insensitive to impedance mismatch.  Output impedance of the E09K is about 10 Ohm, the difference should be at least x8.  But I've never heard the ATH so can't really tell.

 

[antikryst]

Can anyone comment on using the HE-500 with the Fiio E17/E09K combo? 
 
I already have the E17; if adding the E09K would be sufficient *for now*, it would be great to hold me over until I can get something more appropriate for the 500s.

Don't do it. The e09k isn't enough by a mile!

I had the e17 and planned on getting the he500 (have it now) ... So naturally I looked at the e09k. The e17 alone wasn't enough. Tried the e09k too. Still not enough. Not enough volume with just the e17. The e09k can get you there in volume but it's not clear at all. I figured if I was getting the e09k I'm better off not upgrading my cans as my current srh940 plus e17 was better than the he500 with e09k. It was lacking that bad.

Needed something cheap.. So I settled with the magni. Night and day difference with the e09k in body and bass.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[inertianinja]

  Might not be a good combo with the ATH as that one has a 38 ohm impedance and is a dynamic headphone, not a planar like the 500 which are relatively insensitive to impedance mismatch.  Output impedance of the E09K is about 10 Ohm, the difference should be at least x8.  But I've never heard the ATH so can't really tell.

 
Is there anywhere I can read some more about that? I have actually never used headphones where I needed to worry about impedence matching before.
 

Don't do it. The e09k isn't enough by a mile!

I had the e17 and planned on getting the he500 (have it now) ... So naturally I looked at the e09k. The e17 alone wasn't enough. Tried the e09k too. Still not enough. Not enough volume with just the e17. The e09k can get you there in volume but it's not clear at all. I figured if I was getting the e09k I'm better off not upgrading my cans as my current srh940 plus e17 was better than the he500 with e09k. It was lacking that bad.

Needed something cheap.. So I settled with the magni. Night and day difference with the e09k in body and bass.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 
It was $80, I already did it. I got enough responses that it could be OK that I figured I'd give it a shot. So long as it's not doing damage to the 500s, I can always try it and return it.

 

[Xenophon]

He already had the E17 so the E09k will do as a temporary solution. Sure there's better to be had but that also goes for the Emotiva that was mentioned. No use throwing more money away, better to research at leasure imo. Everyone's jumping on the speaker amp train with the hifimans and I agree that bang/buck they offer a good solution but it's not like if you can just hook the cans to anything. If the speaker amp is not inherently quiet and uses high gain you'll be stuck with hiss. Or with unusable volume unless you hook up resistors. Or blow the driver or your eardrums with very sensitive cans like the ath. About the impedance, just use the search function. In general, what you want is an amp with high input impedance, as low an output impedance as possible. Especially with tube amps that last factor can be hard.

Take your time, read up and don't let anyone rush you is my advice.

 

[hifimanrookie]

He already had the E17 so the E09k will do as a temporary solution. Sure there's better to be had but that also goes for the Emotiva that was mentioned. No use throwing more money away, better to research at leasure imo. Everyone's jumping on the speaker amp train with the hifimans and I agree that bang/buck they offer a good solution but it's not like if you can just hook the cans to anything. If the speaker amp is not inherently quiet and uses high gain you'll be stuck with hiss. Or with unusable volume unless you hook up resistors. Or blow the driver or your eardrums with very sensitive cans like the ath. About the impedance, just use the search function. In general, what you want is an amp with high input impedance, as low an output impedance as possible. Especially with tube amps that last factor can be hard.

Take your time, read up and don't let anyone rush you is my advice.

My friend, u took the words right out of my mouth...
Do ur homework, dont believe any hype no matter how believable, BUT if u hear something thats almost to good to be believed but comes from someone that normally is right, check it out, but let ur prejudice be under control.

Dont do as many others do and follow the ones who scream the loudest who try to burn any new thing down (or ridicule) if its not in their interest, sometimes even if they never ever saw one for real, let alone hear or actually feel it.

I almost never ever go for safe (but do take calculated risks) or what others say (but i do consider it as useful information), as I ALWAYS do my homework, like a deadly professional hitman, stalking/checking the steps of his unknowing victim for weeks or sometimes months. I dont trust anyone completely no matter who they are or what they say except my eyes, ears, noose, touch, my brain and most of all my intuition. Until now they didnt fail me (much)

My words maybe sound a bit hard to believe, i know, but believe me if i say: go for ur own feelings. Block all those..'if they say so then it must be true' feeling, use it as useful info to make ur own decision in what u need and want..trust me thats harder then u think, as we are influenced every second of the day

A certain ugly weird speaking little dude once said: feel the force luke. Let the power guide u.

Now u do the same, using the power of having ur own will and not being crashed by all shiit and emoti(al) stuff poured all over u. That stuff can be no doubt good for the money, but is it RIGHT FOR U is the big question here...

now Go on ur long and sometimes hard journey my discipel, and dont forget, in the end u will see that all the hardships will be worth it..now go on my son..i wish u well...

 

[antikryst]

 Might not be a good combo with the ATH as that one has a 38 ohm impedance and is a dynamic headphone, not a planar like the 500 which are relatively insensitive to impedance mismatch.  Output impedance of the E09K is about 10 Ohm, the difference should be at least x8.  But I've never heard the ATH so can't really tell.

 
Is there anywhere I can read some more about that? I have actually never used headphones where I needed to worry about impedence matching before.
 

Don't do it. The e09k isn't enough by a mile!

I had the e17 and planned on getting the he500 (have it now) ... So naturally I looked at the e09k. The e17 alone wasn't enough. Tried the e09k too. Still not enough. Not enough volume with just the e17. The e09k can get you there in volume but it's not clear at all. I figured if I was getting the e09k I'm better off not upgrading my cans as my current srh940 plus e17 was better than the he500 with e09k. It was lacking that bad.

Needed something cheap.. So I settled with the magni. Night and day difference with the e09k in body and bass.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 
It was $80, I already did it. I got enough responses that it could be OK that I figured I'd give it a shot. So long as it's not doing damage to the 500s, I can always try it and return it.

You will be in for a wonderful surprise then once you give your hifiman 1 watt of power. :-D

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[inertianinja]

You will be in for a wonderful surprise then once you give your hifiman 1 watt of power. :-D

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

On some level, that makes it even better.

 

[hifimanrookie]

You will be in for a wonderful surprise then once you give your hifiman 1 watt of power. :-D

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Dont forget to say: quality power, so not power coming from a 40usd rubbish amp that distords like crazy struggling to give u that 1w.

 

[Ultramus]

It's funny, I consume a lot of information in research but in general I trust my ears above all else 

 Granted I wasn't able to hear the 1.32 but I wasn't going to drop the coin on the Master 7. Moving on though, if you are willing to drop the money on it, the Mjolnir is pretty freaking great with the HE-500s. Like HiFimanrookie mentioned, you want quality power and less gain than more gain and lower power. As much as I liked the ef2a as a budget dac/amp it just has WAY too much gain. The e09k will probably be decent for now, just know that the 500s scale up when you upgrade the rest of your chain, I think that's why I love these headphones so much, they seem to just get better and better as I spend more money(funny how that works). 

 

[StanD]

Dont forget to say: quality power, so not power coming from a 40usd rubbish amp that distords like crazy struggling to give u that 1w.

Where are you going to find a $40 headphone amp that delivers 1W? Especially at 38 Ohms. Unless you're are taking about a Lepai distortion unit.