[Marlowe]

 
My initial impression of the F2 was that there was an extra level of clarity over both my mobo sound and receiver in comparison.  The more I listen though, the extra detail was just due to lower output from the F2 on the lower end.  The onboard card on my mobo doesn't have a great amp, and uses the Realtek ALC898 codec.  I prefer the onboard sound to that of the F2 due to it being much fuller down low, while still maintaining detail on the high end.  If I had to make a choice between the two, I would still choose the F2 as it has a higher volume threshold.  There are times when I would like a little more volume compared to what my onboard can provide.
 
 

I am not nearly as educated a listener as most here, and I believe that there is a certain degree of subjectivity to this, but I am using a Dell laptop with Realtec audio and I find it rather bizarre that anyone would prefer the onboard sound to the Fulla 2. While the onboard sound is not that bad on its own (it sounds better than my smartphone that I use extensively for mobile listening), a quick A-B comparison between it and the Fulla 2 is pretty much night and day. Most significantly, the Realtek just sounds muddy next to the Fulla 2, which gives far greater separation to the instruments. Bass is much more prominent and tighter on the Fulla 2 and drums have more impact as well. I'm using Fidelio X2s.

 

[Mahoogan]

   
I bought my Fulla 2 2nd hand and I'm still waiting on the shipping so cant directly talk it, but I think I can explain your experience.. 
The HD598, being low impedance & having High impedance spike at the low end just sounds different while being plugged to high output impedance source, Note that I say different and not better or worse.
 
I bought some time ago a HIFImeDIY Sabre 9018 to connect my monitors, but I also played with it powering my HD598 and SRH440, and the the first thing I noticed was a sudden lack of "umph" in the low end with the 598's, but really after I used the 598's more and more on the sabre 9018 I realized, the "bass" when connected to the on-board audio (in my case a VIA 2021) is not "nice bass" its just muddy pile of noise, a result of high output impedance that is usual with on-board sound, and the same with receivers without dedicated headphone amp, where they just run the speaker output through some resistors so your headphones will not explode.. while on the HifimeDIY 9018 the output impedance is decently low at 0.5Ohm, and as a result the 598's sound as they should, bass light and detailed, so in reality the somewhat muddy bass is just a result of high output impedance, and what might gave them the "fuller sound" you experienced. but that's not the fulla's fault, that's just how they were designed to sound, without much bass. 

This could very well be the case.  I haven't been able to find many details on what the headphone amp section of the AVR-X2000 consists of, or specifics on the DAC's it contains.  I'm sure I would notice a difference more in FLAC music vs. the sources I was listing.  I did listen to some songs I had in FLAC but couldn't determine where it was muddier necessarily on the receiver, but not all recordings are created equal.
 
The majority of my testing were action sequences in movies, and certain parts of games with dialog followed by shooting with various guns.  The gunshots were certainly less satisfying on the F2, which I'm sure are compressed audio.  That's why I ordered the DT990, so I at least can start hearing some different sound signatures without breaking the bank.  I figure if I form some opinions between these two, it might help steer my next level purchase.  I've read so much with so many conflicting opinions on gear, that I just need to get some different exposure myself.

 

[Mahoogan]

  I am not nearly as educated a listener as most here, and I believe that there is a certain degree of subjectivity to this, but I am using a Dell laptop with Realtec audio and I find it rather bizarre that anyone would prefer the onboard sound to the Fulla 2. While the onboard sound is not that bad on its own (it sounds better than my smartphone that I use extensively for mobile listening), a quick A-B comparison between it and the Fulla 2 is pretty much night and day. Most significantly, the Realtek just sounds muddy next to the Fulla 2, which gives far greater separation to the instruments. Bass is much more prominent and tighter on the Fulla 2 and drums have more impact as well. I'm using Fidelio X2s.

I won't argue there's subjectivity involved in most things audio.  I guess is that my onboard audio just isn't as bad as I expected.  It's a high-end Asus motherboard.  I did comparisons between my onboard audio with an Asus Xonar DX I have from another build and found them to sound extremely close.  So much so, it wasn't worth me using that PCI card and losing the auto source selection that my onboard audio gives.  That way I don't have to manually change from HDMI audio out to my reciever if I plug something into the headphone jack on my PC.  Although I generally just use my AV receiver since it's within arms reach.  I was really only using my onboard for comparison purposes, and the receiver for my general use.

 

[Jammin72]

Hey Jason,
 
After reading the preamble to this device and after listening to it I gotta say... Great Job Man!!!
 
It delivers detail and punch way above it's fighting class and kinda kicks everyone in the gut when it comes to the concept that more is more.  I love it that you guys get off being in the industry and still get what it is to blow minds at the same time.  It takes big balls to produce something as competent as this while still competing in the larger $$ market. I dig it it.  It's like you're willing to embrace everyone's trip at the same time no matter where they fall on the spectrum.
 
It's the audiophile conundrum, one day we may all get to relax and not worry what the nth degree of detail might get us and just enjoy the music.

 

[K 240 DF]

I bought some time ago a HIFImeDIY Sabre 9018 to connect my monitors, but I also played with it powering my HD598 and SRH440, and the the first thing I noticed was a sudden lack of "umph" in the low end with the 598's, but really after I used the 598's more and more on the sabre 9018 I realized, the "bass" when connected to the on-board audio (in my case a VIA 2021) is not "nice bass" its just muddy pile of noise, a result of high output impedance that is usual with on-board sound, and the same with receivers without dedicated headphone amp, where they just run the speaker output through some resistors so your headphones will not explode.. while on the HifimeDIY 9018 the output impedance is decently low at 0.5Ohm, and as a result the 598's sound as they should, bass light and detailed, so in reality the somewhat muddy bass is just a result of high output impedance, and what might gave them the "fuller sound" you experienced. but that's not the fulla's fault, that's just how they were designed to sound, without much bass. 

 
Very interesting.
In the past I tried so many different DACs vs my onboard card MacBook Pro for e.g. Hifimediy Sabre etc.. and in most case they could't run my K702 better than my MacBook Pro.
There could be many problems and explanations to solve the problem. One of this problem is maybe mine:
 
I got a special opinion. For me it is the Connection-Bridge. In fact the on Board card is mostly not better, but it has one most under-apreciated advantage: there is no connection bridge need. IN most case the extern DAC is better for sure but because of the bridge between the sound from the motherbaord comes more coherent. Coherence is something i miss while watching movies or music concerts etc. when its transporting to a extern DAC.
So, extern DACs are mostly better, but they don't win in this special cases. And this case for me is much more interesting the music-coherence than any separate bass or treble or something else.
For e.g. a studio mastering is working in the same way, he takes the tracks each separated but at the end he took one reverb-effect-track and mix this one to all the other separated tracks. This is therefore to give us the feeling that the recording artist are sitting in ONE ROOM, that they are "Connected".
 
I see that most of you would say to my opinion "hey, he is an idiot", but for me there is no need to stay at my motherboard, I try since years to go away from it, but where is the EXIT? Every additional DAC does not make things better in that for me important case.
Maybe my motherboard puts so much muddy in the sound, that a imagining coherence. And many people would say "asynchronous USB will fix this problem", for me it does not. I am not sure, there are too many people out there who has definitely the problem, that in some case the MacBook Pro sounds way better than some extern DACs when they use to have something better than a cheap PC etc.
 
Now - with the Fulla 2 - I start the next experiment.
 
Sorry for my bad english - hope that u get what I wanted to say...

 

[beto222]

Please ignore,  should have just "quoyed"

 

[beto222]

  Hi Guys,
 
ordered my Fulla 2 this night 

 
Got a question: I would like to listen to music and movies with my family and I wish Fulla 2 supports headphone out with three or four!(4) K712, K702, K702 etc. Does this work well?
We already have two Headphones at my MacBook Pro.
 
Thx for support

You will spend more, but you should be able to just cascade as many Fulla 2 as you want.
If I'm not mistaken the line level output and the headphone out can both work at the same time.
Use the first F2 as DAC and amp, then use the fixed line output to feed the analog input (front) on the second Fulla 2.
If you want more, just use Y cable out of the first Fulla to feed the others.
Everyone can have his/her own Pot and listen at their preferred level.
I don't work for Schiit, but the above should work just fine.

 

[U-3C]

  Here's my impressions thus far on the Fulla 2, compared to my onboard sound and Denon AVR-X2000 HP port with HD598's.  I've done all my testing with Blu-Ray movies and PC games, since that is my primary usage.  I ordered a set of DT990's to try with the F2, but based on responses in this thread i'm not hopeful.  I'll update if I'm pleasantly surprised.
 
My initial impression of the F2 was that there was an extra level of clarity over both my mobo sound and receiver in comparison.  The more I listen though, the extra detail was just due to lower output from the F2 on the lower end.  The onboard card on my mobo doesn't have a great amp, and uses the Realtek ALC898 codec.  I prefer the onboard sound to that of the F2 due to it being much fuller down low, while still maintaining detail on the high end.  If I had to make a choice between the two, I would still choose the F2 as it has a higher volume threshold.  There are times when I would like a little more volume compared to what my onboard can provide.
 
Plugged into the receiver is a similar situation to the above.  The sound is fuller than the F2, and I have plenty of volume headroom.  So the receiver wins hands down here for my use.  I don't know what the impedance of the HP port on my receiver is, but I assumed it wasn't really intended for frequent HP use.  I would have bet money that the F2 was going to come on top of this comparison, but that wasn't the case.
 
So where does that leave me with the Fulla?  I'm torn to be honest.  It doesn't sound as good as my other options in the physical space it would be used at home, so I won't use it there.  I would consider it as a mobile option for travel and work, but the USB ports are so tight I don't want to use it unless i'm plugging it in and leaving it in place.  Like tight enough it feels like I might snap the end of the cable off while plugging in.  I've seen where there is potentially a way to adjust those myself, but i'm not keen on doing that.  I think the F2 will be a great option for some people, just not me.  I'd have to put extra feet on the bottom of this thing to balance it also.  It is incredibly annoying to have it rocking back and forth.
 
I've heard all the great things about Shiit as a company and this is my first purchase from them.  I can say I was impressed by their representation early in the thread regarding their recognition of the iOS issues and its resolution.  On the flip side, their more recent representation in this thread is horrendous in my opinion.  

 
Honestly not surprised. If you have a good onboard audio, and nothing gets in the way by causing interference, I'm not surprised if you like it more than a budget dac/amp (or a non budget one). Sometimes the onboard audio's drivers might also alter the sound intentionally. This is the case with mine and it screwed the sound up terribly. After installing custom drivers, my onboard audio is better then my dedicated solutions by far. Yes, many onboard audio is schiit. But it's 2017, and it's not hard to implement very decent, transparent audio on motherboards even many years back. It's based on the manufacturer's will to implement good audio.
 
If your onboard doesn't get loud enough, try to hoot the line out of your onboard (if it has one) to the analogue in of the Fulla. It should bring up the volume and keep the sound (assuming the Fulla doesn't colour the sound. I assume it doesn't based on impressions but I don't own the product myself). If you don't find a use, return it. A hundred dollars is still a lot of money. Judging my what I read, you don't need it, and even a partial refund is better than keeping a product that you know you don't enjoy (and is strugging to find a reason to keep).
 
As mentioned, it could be an impedance mismatch. In that case, it's up to you. Many onboard audio nowadays have much lower impedance than many dedicated amps out there. And of course, many people intentionally buy amps with very high output impedance because they like how it sounds (well...actually, this is one of the main reasons I see people claim that you need a good amp to "wake up" xyz headphones). Headphones are designed to have an inherent sound. Dac/amps won't change much. And when they do, it's well within the realms of what you can achieve via software.
 
If your audio solution is clean, does not distort/cause audible noise, there shouldn't be a real need to spend money to purchase a hardware solution.
 

  I won't argue there's subjectivity involved in most things audio.  I guess is that my onboard audio just isn't as bad as I expected.  It's a high-end Asus motherboard.  I did comparisons between my onboard audio with an Asus Xonar DX I have from another build and found them to sound extremely close.  So much so, it wasn't worth me using that PCI card and losing the auto source selection that my onboard audio gives.  That way I don't have to manually change from HDMI audio out to my reciever if I plug something into the headphone jack on my PC.  Although I generally just use my AV receiver since it's within arms reach.  I was really only using my onboard for comparison purposes, and the receiver for my general use.

 
Yes, red boards nowadays pretty much implement completely transparent audio. Unless you notice interference, your audio does not get loud enough or you need certain features, the onboard should suffice. Usually the common onboard audio solution for these boards have an output impedance of about 2 ohms, unless they have a special op amp. Then it's dependent on the amp. It's definitely low enough for your onboard. The DT990 has a high input impedance, so you might head a difference. But in this case, make sure you actually want the headphone, and not that you are trying to justify the purchase of a dedicated dac/amp by purchasing a specific headphone that will need special hardware to drive it properly (in this case, potentially not enough voltage to get things loud enough).

 

[NeonJaguars]

Anyone know if you can somehow plug this into an Xbox One and get audio out of it?

 

[SomeTechNoob]

I don't think the Xbone support USB audio devices.  But I don't have one, so I could be completely wrong.

 

[NeonJaguars]

Ok. Thanks anyway.

 

[JohnnyOps]

  If your audio solution is clean, does not distort/cause audible noise, there shouldn't be a real need to spend money to purchase a hardware solution.

 
Ah, but you forget the pure joy of a solid hunk of metal with a massive analog volume knob, and the knowledge that you aren't spending a lot of effort to ensure your audio solution is otherwise clean.  Frankly for me the $100 for Fulla 2 + a 8 year old thinkpad running xubuntu is way cheaper, better and less stomach acid than getting a new laptop and figuring out if it has a clean audio implementation.  Plus I can leave the solution on my desk at work without much fear of it running away - the laptop sells for $80 on ebay.  I like to think about the "total cost of solution".  And that's leaving aside all the folks who use cans that an onboard solution couldn't drive.
 
And at the end of the day, it's all about the music, innit?  

 

[U-3C]

Ah, but you forget the pure joy of a solid hunk of metal with a massive analog volume knob, and the knowledge that you aren't spending a lot of effort to ensure your audio solution is otherwise clean.  Frankly for me the $100 for Fulla 2 + a 8 year old thinkpad running xubuntu is way cheaper, better and less stomach acid than getting a new laptop and figuring out if it has a clean audio implementation.  Plus I can leave the solution on my desk at work without much fear of it running away - the laptop sells for $80 on ebay.  I like to think about the "total cost of solution".  And that's leaving aside all the folks who use cans that an onboard solution couldn't drive.

And at the end of the day, it's all about the music, innit?  

But I did not forget. ^_^

$100 is a lot to many, especially compared to $0. I didn't spend a lot to ensure that my audio quality is good. I already have my onboard, then spent 100 dollars on a dac/amp with a volume knob , which proved to myself sadly that the 100 dollars is wasted as I got a worse experience compared to my onboard. This DAC/amp is not the Fulla 2 by the way.

In the end of the day, it is about the music...that you can afford, and I've listened to DAC/amps costing I've thousands, as well as own a few products that I sadly should not have bought. I always go back to my onboard, and for those people out there that believe a few hundred dollars isn't worth the extra refinement on audio because their onboard is indeed already very transparent, don't let others impose their opinions on you. They might have terrible on-board audio. If you think you wasted the money and prefer to have a refund, do it, and don't spend it to make other people online happy when it clearly does not benefit you the same way.

 

[JohnnyOps]

 If you think you wasted the money and prefer to have a refund, do it, and don't spend it to make other people online happy when it clearly does not benefit you the same way.

 
Hallelujah!
 
This hobby can be a glorious waste of $$.  Listen to what you enjoy, don't pay for things that don't make a difference.  I'm in my mid-40's, my ability to hear high frequencies is sadly not what it used to be (too many hardcore shows in the late 80's and subpop shows in the 90's), and it will get worse.  And most of my listening is in an office where I can't wear open-back phones and where something really nice might get stolen.  So I wear reasonable mid-fi closed-back phones, and then get the amplification that I can.  I'm all for lowering your TCO, or for raising the ratio of [enjoyment]/[total cost of ownership].  But for me, since my company locks down our computers tighter than, well, just let's say really tight.  So I need another machine on my desk.  And free + $100 is a LOT less than any new machine.  So there we are.

 

[TheGame21x]

Any Fulla 2 owners have any experience with the CEntrance DACport HD? Someone please convince me that I don't need yet another portable DAC/Amp combo for my laptop.