[LimeANite]

You could maybe try turning the computer volume slider down as a quick fix.

 

[Bee inthe Attic]

I've noticed some channel imbalance as well at low volumes.
 
-you can set your computer volume to its lowest setting and raise the e10 volume a bit-
-adjust the computer balance
-buy a balance volume control (I bought this one to use my cans with the line out on my tv, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0K8VY/ref=oh_o06_s00_i00_details)

 

[LimeANite]

Just to expand on the channel imbalance issue, I'm pretty sure most amps have this problem at very low volumes.

 

[3dbATinf]

Ah, thanks for the replies about the channel balance issue. Glad to know I am not the only one experiencing it.
 
Bee inthe Attic's suggestion about reducing the signal amplitude before it is sent to the E10 seems like it might be okay. I tried reducing it by 15dB (mplayer option '-af volumne=-15') and I can turn the knob up past 1 to remove the channel imbalance issue without the volume getting too high for me. I was worried about higher quantization noise by doing that but I guess it is a small tradeoff to make for the few pieces where/when I listen to them that low.
 
If I get a chance I will give one of those balance volume control devices a try.
 
Thanks!
 
 

 

[Splungeworthy]

Quote:

Same here, and I wasn't able to pick it out even listening for it in the examples that other people gave.  I don't have any live albums with seamless track transition either though, and I think that's really the only situation where most people would notice the break.  According to Fiio, it's 0.7 milliseconds (there are 1000 milliseconds in one second, so it's less than 1/1000th of a second).
 
And while mine does have the jack problem, it's not an issue unless I move it around.  Since it lives on my desk and has an extension cable permanently plugged in, it never moves and I never lose channels or hear static.

Maybe it has something to do with my files(192kb WMA and MP3), but you definitely can hear the beginning of "Tom Sawyer" (and many others, though not all tracks) being cut off when directly accessed.  I also think there may not be good synergy with JRiver. Anyway, even with all of these quirks (don't get me started on the noisy volume wheel), the E10 is extremely sweet sounding.  I hope the E17 sounds as good.
 
 

 

[FuzzyD]

The volume dial causes noise too?

 

[dorino]

Quote:

Maybe it has something to do with my files(192kb WMA and MP3), but you definitely can hear the beginning of "Tom Sawyer" (and many others, though not all tracks) being cut off when directly accessed.  I also think there may not be good synergy with JRiver. Anyway, even with all of these quirks (don't get me started on the noisy volume wheel), the E10 is extremely sweet sounding.  I hope the E17 sounds as good.
 
 

I'm going to out on a limb and say when they said 0.7 milliseconds they meant 0.7 seconds.

 

[LimeANite]

Quote:

I'm going to out on a limb and say when they said 0.7 milliseconds they meant 0.7 seconds.

I'd like to think that my hearing is good enough to detect a 0.7 second silence at the beginning of a track.  It's actually a pretty significant amount of time.  0.7 ms would just be a little blip in between tracks on a seamless live album, which is more like what people were describing.  Heck, even 7 ms wouldn't register much.
 
That said, I have yet to hear it myself despite spending about 30 minutes looking for it last night, so I can't say for certain.

 

[Wepeel6]

Quote:

Has anyone else noticed the E10 cutting off the first several milliseconds of audio when it starts playing? This makes tracks that begin right at the zero mark sound off, but it only seems to occur if a new audio stream is being opened ... cueing a track directly. If such a track comes up sequentially in a playlist while the DAC is already outputting audio, it plays correctly.
 
I believe this problem occurred on my Linux PC as well as my Mac, so I question whether it's a driver/software issue or a flaw of the E10 itself.

I have that too, I made a post about it earlier. It's like the first half second is unamplified.

 

[Bee inthe Attic]

I may have jumped the gun here......
 
the audible pause/bleep between seamless tracks could be due to my music players, instead of the e10.
VLC (the player I was using) doesn't offer gapless playback, and the same problem was there with my Play music player.
 
Itunes, which I never use, seems to fix the problem.
Thought I'd clear this up on my end.

 

[deadbone]

To clarify why this problem only seems to occur on some setups and with some players and not others...because according to what FiiO said, the 0.7ms cut-off is actually designed into the device via some tricky engineering to get the USB receiver chip to talk with the DAC chip.
 
The cut-off is only noticeable if the first 0.7ms of audio contain sound information rather than silence, which isn't the case for most tracks. Furthermore, audio players that support gapless playback don't open a new audio stream for every track but prebuffer the next track in their playlist so that they basically send one continuous bitstream to the E10--only the first song played would be affected. Still, things like system alert sounds, certain songs, non-gapless players can be subject to the issue. That aside, the WM8740 chip the E10 uses is a great-sounding DAC and the E10 is an aesthetically well-designed device; I wish the functional quality was of the same level.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

To clarify why this problem only seems to occur on some setups and with some players and not others...because according to what FiiO said, the 0.7ms cut-off is actually designed into the device via some tricky engineering to get the USB receiver chip to talk with the DAC chip.

Here lies an interesting note - E10 is not the only USB DAC out there with the TE7022 + WM8740 chipsets. How do others solve the same phase issue? Do they implement the same way as E10, use a more advanced setup like E17, or simple allow the phase error to occur (which might not be that noticeable on hearing)? Hmm...
 

 

[JamesFiiO]

I am very sorry about that, but it is the only solution we can find because we are not the designer of TE7022 or WM8740. The reason why E17 will have not such problem, it is because the TE7022 output SPDIF signal to WM8804 first, and them WM8804 output the IIS to WM8740.
 
of course, this small bugs can be solved at the same way but it will add the cost. in fact, the first user who report such bugs is use E10 to music edit but not for listening.
 
 
BTW, We will try to do our best to make a perfect products, but please give us time to do that, and thanks for report any bugs or mistake, we will fix it if we can. And I hope you can understand that sometimes it is just small bugs or sometimes it is just few case in 10 thousand users.
 
we had sold out more than 500,000 units in last year. of course, it is not a reason to make any mistake , so you can contact our sales agents or contact us directly if our products is not suitable for you can we are apologize to any of our user that feel disappoint .
 
 
 

 

[Splungeworthy]

When will the new batch of E10's be available?  The ones with the improved headphone sockets?

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

When will the new batch of E10's be available?  The ones with the improved headphone sockets?

Sometime in February.