[younes berrada]

i just bought a fiio e10k and i dont see any difference in audio quality beetween him and the 3.5 of my lenovo laptop , the e10k is original the authencity number is original , i have set this device as default device and these stuff but i didnt notice any fdiference at all .0% difference , i have an HD 25-ii btw

 

[Johnlist]

Buy better DAC and you will notice bro

 

[MoWe]

How good are your files?
 
What software do you use to play your music?
 
What kind of music are you listening to?

 

[DeLuX]

Maybe, just maybe, you have been oversold here in the forums about the difference a dac would make... Of course you should hear a difference BUT it's not night and day. To realy notice the differences try listening to your fiio for a couple of days then switch back to your on board audio and you should here a difference. Allso listening through a decent speaker setup will probably yield greater differences. Oh and Allso +1 on the buy a better dac

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

I went from an Asus sonar DG ($27) powering my T50rps, to a Schiit Uber stack. Modi and mangi 2 Ubers. Running through optical. When I first started listening to them I was under welmed. $300 and I hardly notice it. Even with a pair of orthrodynamics.

But now my goodness, I understand why they are so good, flipping back to my sound card, I notice a huge difference. That stack and those t50rps add up yes, but value per dollar to me, is more then gold. Just took a while for me to pick up on it


Now that being said.

1: files. A low end mp3, will sound like a low end mp3. Period.

2: USB: Jason himself from schiit audio said usb is messy, which is why they sell Wyrd. Especially in a laptop outputs are messy. No 100% saying that's the problem, but it could be a factor (maybe)

3: RF signals. The cord to your cans can act as an antenna. (Litterally what ipod use to drive the fm radio). It's rare, but some users report interference.

4: Cans, those are decent cans, so the DAC should make a bit of difference.



Or you haven't found the difference yet, I know that sounds funny, but once you hear the difference you'll notice it. Its like you finally notice the one tiny dust bubble under your screen protector, now you can't unsee it.

 

[HotIce]

Maybe this is more a Dedicated Source Components post.
In any case, I would expect more difference in the higher headroom external amplifiers might have, WRT the PC ones. More than the DAC itself.

 

[younes berrada]

aright thanks guys for the answers

 

[money4me247]

basically often times the sonic differences from adding a dac will be quite small and not a night-and-day difference when first listening. takes a while of listening with the new gear and then swapping back down to notice. even then, the differences may not be worth it.

things that have a bigger impact on sound quality wld be headphones/speakers and the music files (go up to 320kbps if possible at least). if your headphones are not very good, very minimal improvements as that wld be the limiting factor over the dac/amp.

 

[HotIce]

There was the old saying that what mattered most was what translated music waves from different domains (mechanical, electrical).
Hence microphones, pickup cartridges (for old turntables), and speakers.

 

[AdamTR]

fio dac are garbage for the same price you could've got a Focusrite Scarlett Solo audio interface, mind you this is a pro audio gear and you'll get as extra mic preamps  + speakers out + headphone amp & the dac is very good for it's price!

 

[HotIce]

I would not call the WM8740 garbage exactly. Especially when compared with the rather scarce, but mediocre, DAC performance figures published by the product you are mentioning.

 

[RivalDealer]

I bought a fairly cheap DAC, bit more expensive than your fiio but not much more and I didn't notice anything drastic at all, very subtle. I then bought an expensive DAC thinking I could just return it if I wasn't impressed.
 
I was really impressed with the difference that a quality DAC made, this change wasn't subtle at all, and with quality recordings the difference blew me away. It was like when I bought my first pair of high end headphones.
 
Remember you already have a DAC in your laptop. Probably not a great DAC but you have replaced it with another 'not great' DAC.
 
Relative to headphones you have gone from freebie earbuds that came with a cheap Samsung phone to some Apple EarPods. Better, but not drastically.
 
 
Edit: just noticed the headphones, you would probably be better off sending the DAC back and saving for some better headphones first for a bigger improvement in sound.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  i just bought a fiio e10k and i dont see any difference in audio quality beetween him and the 3.5 of my lenovo laptop , the e10k is original the authencity number is original , i have set this device as default device and these stuff but i didnt notice any fdiference at all .0% difference , i have an HD 25-ii btw

 

The DAC and amp both matter. If you were using headphones with a load that was too high for the laptop's output that it's distorting, or if it has a very high output impedance, then the amp matters more. Adding an amp at that point will then possibly make a DAC necessary, just to be able to send a clean line out signal to the amp (hence combined DAC-HPamp units like the E10 being popular).

 

As it is I don't think you can even have the laptop distort on those HD25's. Your ears will likely be damaged long before that happens. Laptops have also improved a lot, and they keep getting better generally. My 2004 Compaq sucked compared to my 2008 Vaio, but my 2012 Aspire sounds even better than that one.

 

[mindbomb]

this is basically just diminishing returns. Recommending more expensive gear is like the worst thing you can do, since by definition, that would mean an even smaller performance increase for the money. The performance of the e10k on low gain is ridiculously good iirc. Make sure you don't use the line out and headphone out at the same time - that causes problems I hear.

 

[younes berrada]

whats the name of those two Dac that you said ? the cheap one and the expensive one.