[Artie17]

Hey there, 
 
I just got the Fiio E7 to use at work with my Ultrasone Pro 900's out of my Macbook Pro and have a few quick questions:
 
1. Once I plug it into my laptop, will it work as an amp and a DAC or just as a DAC ?
 
2. Should I turn my laptop volume all the way up and then use the volume control on the E7 to control the volume?
 
3. Does it matter whether I use a Fiio L3 or the L9 to connect it to an iPod?
 
4. Also, when connected to an iPod/iPhone with the L9/L3, does E7 act as an amp or also as a DAC ?
 
 
Thanks for the help!

 

[JamesFiiO]

Quote:

Hey there, 
 
I just got the Fiio E7 to use at work with my Ultrasone Pro 900's out of my Macbook Pro and have a few quick questions:
 
1. Once I plug it into my laptop, will it work as an amp and a DAC or just as a DAC ?
 
Re: E7 will work as DAC+AMP, but if you connect the L7 to the dock of E7, it will work only as a DAC .
 
2. Should I turn my laptop volume all the way up and then use the volume control on the E7 to control the volume?
 
Re: Yes, it can help you get best SQ
 
3. Does it matter whether I use a Fiio L3 or the L9 to connect it to an iPod?
 
Re: Not.
 
4. Also, when connected to an iPod/iPhone with the L9/L3, does E7 act as an amp or also as a DAC ?
 
Re: amp only.
 
Good luck and enjoy your E7, share with other about your experience.
 
 
Thanks for the help!

 

 

[holden4th]

I can answer the first two questions.
 
The E7 is a DAC/amp and will work as such via the USB from your laptop.
 
If you make it your preferred audio device using a direct digital stream with your media player software then you can bypass the PCs onboard soundcard and therefore make the Windows volume control obsolete. To do this you need to select it as the audio device in Control Panel/Sound/Playback (I'm assuming you have Vista or W7) and use either ASIO, WASAPI or kernel streaming as your audio output options
 
Your choice of media player is important here. The three usually recommended are Foobar 2000, Winamp Pro and J River Media Center 16. Foobar is free but you need to know how to configure it. If you are confident about downloading and installing plugins for either Foobar or Winamp then you could try those two. I now use J River Media Center which will cost you about $50 (after a fully functional 30 day trial). This software already has all three as part of the package and I use the kernel streaming mode - it's just awesome. If this all works then all you have to do is use the E7s volume control.
 
I don't think that the L3 (or the L9) will act as a DAC. What I think it does it bypass the amp within the iPod. From what I've read it will certainly give you much better SQ from the iPod. As Fiio are a progressive company then maybe the L9 is your best bet but I can't be sure here.
 
Hope this helps and I'm sure that members far more experienced than me will add their own sage advice.

 

[Artie17]

Thanks guys!
 
Thanks for answering all my questions. I use Foobar at home, but mostly listen to music through Spotify at work. I might upgrade to the premium version so I can listen to 320 mp3's instead of the 160's they have in the regular version.