[Peeperkorn]

Hello,

I saw on Head-Direct.com the special offer to get a RE2 with a Fiio E5. I consider buying this bundle. The RE2 alone would cost me 10$ less.

Now my question: Do you recommend the Fiio with this earphone? Source is a Cowon iAudio 7. Would it improve the sound quality noticable? Or would as the only "benefit" occure hiss?

Same question for Sennheiser MX 760. For this one I thought the "bass-boost" of the Fiio could be a possibilty to make these earbuds even richer?!

Does the occurrence of hiss depend on the audio source (the Cowon player) or on the earphones?

Kind regards,
Jakob


P.s.: Living in Germany I have no experience with Head-Direct.com. One - perhaps stupid - question: Is it also possible to pay without PayPal?

 

[ackers07]

I bought this combo and I can say the RE2's lack any bass at all so the Fiio helps a lot with bass boost. On my Sansa Clip, if I turn the volume to the max and adjust the Fiio volume accordingly I get no hiss at all. However, turning the volume to max on the Fiio and adjusting the volume on the Clip produces hiss.

 

[ljokerl]

The E5+RE2 combo is definitely good value, but whether the Fiio is of benefit to them is a matter of personal preference. I don't find the bass of the RE2's particularly lacking except at the very bottom, but the Fiio won't be of much help down there. Overall, the bass boost on the E5 does work; just a matter of preference if its worth the extra gadget to you.

The RE2's are pretty forgiving of a dirty signal, so putting the Fiio in your chain won't really give noticeable hiss if you keep the volume down on the E5.

Also, IIRC you can pay head-direct via Paypal or Google Checkout

 

[Peeperkorn]

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences!
But when you turn the volume to the maximum - won´t the mp3 player run out of power too soon? I thought I could probably lengthen the runtime of the player...

ljokerl: As I can see the only Sennheiser you own is the PX100, probably comparably with my MX 760. Does the Fiio improve the sound of the Sennheiser? Is there a big hiss-problem?
Has the bass-boost of the Fiio the same effect on the output sound as EQ configurations? - for example the "Mach3 bass" on your Cowon player?

 

[ljokerl]

The PX100 sounds nothing like the MX760, but it's one of those phones that scale up well with amping. Fiio is on the lower end of the amp foodchain, so the benefits are minimal. Just tried the RE2's with/without E5 out of the Cowon. The bass boost of the E5 is certainly more noticeable than my usual level 3 Mach3Bass. The E5 also subdues somewhat the combined coldness/brightness of the D2/RE2 combo at the cost of a little bit of detail.

I'd say that if you can afford the extra $10, get the E5 just to sample the differences.

Edit: Swapped the E5 for my T4 just for the hell of it. I don't think I've ever tried the RE2's amped other than with my E5/E3. Pretty good. That overbright treble of the RE2's is gone completely. I think this combination puts them a few notches above my current favorite PL50's.

 

[Peeperkorn]

Ok, I think I will try it.

But still I´m sceptical about the necessity of turning up the volume to its maximum to avoid hiss. That will shorten the battery life enormous, won´t it?

By the way: Do you think, the RE2 handles classical music well?

 

[ljokerl]

Well, you can't turn the volume up on the Fiio because you will hear hiss past 1/4 volume, so you'll have to use your player. And yeah, they work well for classical.

 

[Peeperkorn]

 

[Peeperkorn]

Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding - I was referring to the player.

 

[ljokerl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peeperkorn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh, that was a misunderstanding - I talked of the player.

Yes, I know what you meant. I was saying that you have to use the player as your volume control because you can't put the Fiio's volume up above about 1/4-1/3 way because it starts hissing. Therefore, you have to crank up the player to get your desired volume.

 

[Peeperkorn]

Ok, and that means the battery life of the player is short...

 

[ljokerl]

Not necessarily. I keep the player at bout 50% regardless of whether an amp is connected or not. This works fine with the Fiio at 25%. Depends on headphones, too.

 

[Peeperkorn]

Thank you very much for your patient answering!
You helped me a lot! - I ordered the RE2 together with the Fiio E5.

 

[stillcd]

The Fiio E5 has hiss? I've been using a Fiio e5 with my ipod and senn hd555s and I always keep the volume to max on the fiio e5 and control the volume with my ipod, and I never have any hiss at all... Not even a little. I've heard that the e3 had some hiss (never have used one personally) but I was under the impression that the hiss issue was fixed with the e5.

 

[ljokerl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stillcd /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Fiio E5 has hiss? I've been using a Fiio e5 with my ipod and senn hd555s and I always keep the volume to max on the fiio e5 and control the volume with my ipod, and I never have any hiss at all... Not even a little. I've heard that the e3 had some hiss (never have used one personally) but I was under the impression that the hiss issue was fixed with the e5.

The HD555 have much higher impedance and lower sensitivity than most IEMs. They will easily kill off bucketloads of hiss.