[adtrance]

You might like having a bass switch on the E10k.

 

[money4me247]

honestly, the vmoda m100 didnt rly scale up very much for me w budget entry external components. (tho i kno there r ppl out there who disagree) if i were u i wld just save the money for smtg nicer down the road. (like a nicer pair of headphones). i wld agree spending too much money now for an amp/dac is silly when ur using mid-fi closed portable headphones.

 

[Mosstrekker192]

honestly, the vmoda m100 didnt rly scale up very much for me w budget entry external components. (tho i kno there r ppl out there who disagree) if i were u i wld just save the money for smtg nicer down the road. (like a nicer pair of headphones). i wld agree spending too much money now for an amp/dac is silly when ur using mid-fi closed portable headphones.

I don't plan on buying a new pair really anytime soon, I've had the V-Moda's for about exactly a year now. You consider the E10k and Fulla to be budget entry though? I wouldn't mind going higher than $75 (like those), but that combo you mentioned doesn't really appeal to me. Like I said, I'm interested in something compact. And again, what did you mean by b-stock?

 

[PurpleAngel]

 
I'm not big on that stacked desktop set up, my desk is pretty small, and while I could manage, that just seems excessive. I'm not sure what you mean by "b-stock" though. I was really looking for something more compact, so the E10K and Fulla are my main choices still, but again, I'm curious how they differ.

 
"b-stock" something that is in less then perfect condition, fully functional, but maybe has a scratch or ding on it, any slight imperfection that would keep it from selling at normal price.
 
I guess there is not really a big difference between the E10k and Fulla,
The E10K comes with more features, like line-output and coaxial digital output, which is maybe features you have no need of.

 

[money4me247]

  I don't plan on buying a new pair really anytime soon, I've had the V-Moda's for about exactly a year now. You consider the E10k and Fulla to be budget entry though? I wouldn't mind going higher than $75 (like those), but that combo you mentioned doesn't really appeal to me. Like I said, I'm interested in something compact. And again, what did you mean by b-stock?

or returned items or refurbished items. can be found a lot cheaper.
 
mmm... do you need portability? ya, those two are among as budget as you can go on the price scale for a good combo unit I think.

 

[Mosstrekker192]

   
"b-stock" something that is in less then perfect condition, fully functional, but maybe has a scratch or ding on it, any slight imperfection that would keep it from selling at normal price.
 
I guess there is not really a big difference between the E10k and Fulla,
The E10K comes with more features, like line-output and coaxial digital output, which is maybe features you have no need of.

If the E10K has more features, why is it cheaper (although barely) than the Fulla?
 
Quote:

  or returned items or refurbished items. can be found a lot cheaper.
 
mmm... do you need portability? ya, those two are among as budget as you can go on the price scale for a good combo unit I think.

I don't intend to bring my amp/dac around with me, my smartphone's sound is good enough. "Portability" for me would just be something that doesn't take up that much space. You're the only one so far ITT who's said the E10K and Fulla are budget entry and won't bring out what I need in my V-Moda's

 

[money4me247]

I don't intend to bring my amp/dac around with me, my smartphone's sound is good enough. "Portability" for me would just be something that doesn't take up that much space. You're the only one so far ITT who's said the E10K and Fulla are budget entry and won't bring out what I need in my V-Moda's

mmm... i meant that the vmoda m100 does not scale up very much with additional external components (regardless of price point). I dont think more expensive dacs/amps will make that big of a difference on the m100 either from my personal experience. The headphones are the limiting factor. So yes you shld stick to budget entry inexpensive stuff if you want to test as additional gear wasnt worth it or necessary for me when I owned the M100s.

ymmv. I am definitely not recommending you buy an expensive dac/amp. I am recommending either saving the money, buying inexpensive dac/amp to test, or upgrading your headphones. If getting a portable amp/dac, maybe smtg w a bass boost featre so at least it does smtg that you can justify buying it for.

hope that clears things up

edit: a lot of ppl dont volume match when they test additional gear, so adding an amp will increase the loudness & our brains interpret louder as higher sound quality. an amps job is only to provide power to underpowered headphones. the m100s are adequately powered by everything. It is an unnecessary piece of equipment for your headphones imo. for the dac, dacs generally can only tweak sound by like 5-10%. I dont think the M100 is really resolving enough for that 5-10% to be worth it. ymmv of course & other ppl r free to disagree. this is from my personal experience & personal testing. i can see a bass boost switch being fun though when you are portable & cannot EQ.

 

[PurpleAngel]

1. [img]http://cdn.head-fi.org/f/f5/100x100px-LS-f5f5cb53_avatar-120-3.jpg[/img]

Mosstrekker192

If the E10K has more features, why is it cheaper (although barely) than the Fulla?
 
The price difference could be from a number of different reasons.
Hopefully the price difference is because the Fulla is a slightly better DAC and amplifier, then the E10K.

 

[Beyakusenn]

Originally Posted by Mosstrekker192 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
If the E10K has more features, why is it cheaper (although barely) than the Fulla?

I think that with most headphones the difference in sound quality will be barely noticeable. The only reason I can think of is: Fiio has a more efficient production and can therefore produce the E10K at lower costs. I'm just guessing though.
 

  I don't intend to bring my amp/dac around with me, my smartphone's sound is good enough. "Portability" for me would just be something that doesn't take up that much space. You're the only one so far ITT who's said the E10K and Fulla are budget entry and won't bring out what I need in my V-Moda's

If the sound of your smartphone is good enough for you, I think the profit with a DAC (or amp) will be minimal for you. With an impedance of 32 ohm and a sensitivity of 103 dB, the M-100 doesn't really need an amp. The best way to improve sound quality would be getting a better headphone, but I'm not sure where you could find one with similar bass quantity+quality for your budget.
 
If you want to keep the M-100 anyway, and you want an improvement in sound (however small it may be), the E10K is a very good choice.

 

[money4me247]

 
If the E10K has more features, why is it cheaper (although barely) than the Fulla?

Fiio is a larger company based in China where manufacturing costs are dirty cheap, so they can sell at a lower price point for similar profit margins. Schiit is a small American company that gets most of its parts from the USA and builds their stuff here.
 
Think along something along the lines of an Apple iPod vs Creative Zen. The Creative Zen offered more features and was slightly cheaper, but the iPod had nicer build quality, manufacturing, and seemed more prestigious. Honestly, I am sure the sound quality & performance at that price level will be very comparable with the differences hardly noticeable on your M100s so I doubt you can go wrong with either one. Just pick whichever one you like better or has what you are looking for.

 

[GREQ]

To me, it's pretty simple: If you are a gamer or want digital features like dolby/dts decoding, dolby headphone or SBX, then get a soundcard. Or, if you want just the highest quality stereo music, then get an external DAC/amp.

Gamer here.
With just stereo headphones (not 5.1 real or emulated etc) Soundcards are simply pointless for gaming, since all the positional cues given even in FPS games are handled by the game, not the soundcard.
With a stereo headphone, an external AMP/DAC performs just as a soundcard would (if not better).
 
I've been gaming like this for years and fully regret all my past soundcard purchases. Such a waste of money. 
Already carried my amp/dac from my old system to my new system. Best part is that it only takes as long as plugging in a couple of cables to install.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Thank you for saying that - I'm not a gamer, so although what you say is what I always believed, I couldn't really say it because other gamers I know seem to think the soundcard processing features are important. *shrugs*

 

[GREQ]

Yeah, it's getting pretty ridiculous how many times people recommend soundcards for gamers with stereo headphones, which are also often the most highly recommended for gaming. 
 
The surround stuff on soundcards is great with TRUE 5.1/7.1 headphones or loudspeakers for games and movies, but otherwise they're just eating up electricity and computer resources. 

 

[money4me247]

  Yeah, it's getting pretty ridiculous how many times people recommend soundcards for gamers with stereo headphones, which are also often the most highly recommended for gaming. 
 
The surround stuff on soundcards is great with TRUE 5.1/7.1 headphones or loudspeakers for games and movies, but otherwise they're just eating up electricity and computer resources. 

mmm i think some software can convert it via digital audio processing like the razer surround sound stuff. never had that much luck with it though

 

[RRod]

  Yeah, it's getting pretty ridiculous how many times people recommend soundcards for gamers with stereo headphones, which are also often the most highly recommended for gaming. 
 
The surround stuff on soundcards is great with TRUE 5.1/7.1 headphones or loudspeakers for games and movies, but otherwise they're just eating up electricity and computer resources. 

 
Even the multichannel -> headphone virtualization is doable in software sans soundcard. For instance, I use the built-in HRTF function of MPlayer for listening to movies, and it generally sounds great. The soundcard is useful if you happen to like the way its virtualization sounds for 5.1/7.1 sources better than what you can get from your software.