Cheapest I've seen it for a while, seriously thinking about getting it to improve my laptop sound although not sure I need it for the kind of situations it will be used in… decisions!
Reviews:
http://www.headfonia.com/the-upgrade-fiio-e17-alpen/
http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E17-USB-Headphone-Amplifier/produ…
http://lifehacker.com/five-best-digital-to-analog-converters…
http://www.stereophile.com/content/fiio-e17-dac-plus-headpho…
http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-e17/reviews
Referee receives $10 on a new signup with referral link. Referrer receives $10 credit upon the Referee completing a purchase.
i previously wouldve highly recommended fiio, until the solder joints holding the jack in place on my e10 came loose, seeing its out of warranty ive considering cracking it open and giving it a resolder but haven't had the time, not sure i can attest to great build quality but the sound was great until it stopped working
Great Product.
Mainly use mine at work.
Offers a improvement over onboard sound.
Briefly used it with a iRiver h320 but found it a bit too bulky for out and about.
yeah, it is a bit bulky. i haven't really been using it, as i've been using my sansa zip clip with IEMs, or sansa+digizoid zo2 with IEMs/heapdhones…a much more portable set up.
but, for a "less portable" portable setup, i found my old ipod touch+e17 fine. i was using that setup for a while with my DT-770…been meaning to crack it out again (the ipod touch has been relegated to car duties, and i've been too lazy to take it in and out! an excuse to buy a new ipod touch i think! aha).
coincidentally, i just charged up the e17 two days ago to start using it again (had been sitting collecting dust…hopefully the battery hasn't degraded too much!)
good unit, good price. highly recommend.
Why do sites force you to enter details, just to see a deal?
Just add "?mode=guest_open" to the end of the URL (or any of their URL's) so it becomes:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/fiioe17-portable-amp-dac?mode=g…
And wallah! No more username required.
answer of the week.
Thanks! I've edited the link in the post.
Because that's how 'mass buying' sites work, they rely on e-mail subscriptions for advertisements to drive hype.
Looks like a good price.
Beware that shipping may take a while. I ordered my HRT Microstreamer from Massdrop and it took a good 4-5 weeks to arrive after the deal closed.
Still waiting on something that closed 7th of October. Hasn't even been shipped yet so I'm looking at 6+ weeks. Not worth saving anything less than $30 in my opinion.
Hmm… just wondering isn;t a replacement for this like e19 going to be out next year?
There is an upcoming e18 as well which should be out soon
e18 is made for androids
e18 is also 3 times as big as this, less battery life, more expensive and less user features such as screen interface.
Very good price. Have owned the E17 for a while now. Really brings out headphones full potential on portable rigs. Nice and nuetral too, with EQ adjustments for Bass and Treble, gain control etc. Order a LOD cable too if you're going to pair with an apple device. You can't bypass the DAC, but you can the internal amplifier. Gives a much richer sound.
Using mine right now paired with my Audio Technica ATH M50's. Great little device which sounds awesome.
Using the SPDIF input you can also hook it up to game consoles for really nice stereo headphone audio too.
i have an ATHM50 too. Should I get this. I mainly listen to music from a HTC one on VSonic GR07 & wouldn't mind listening to PS3 on the ATHM50 like you.
What's the output impedance on this?
I use this to get sound from my PS3 when I want to use my Computer monitor. Very good, picks up 2.0 LPCM via Optical, can adjust volume, add bass, add treble to your liking.
How do i use this to connect to the computer? Via USB? Just wondering since my onboard sound is fried.
Yes USB.
Edit: also Coaxial, optical and analog line-in
Guys I'm a noob to these amps in general, but I have been using my Audio Technica M50's with my phone for playing mp3s so far.
So I take it that if I put an amp between my phone and M50's the sound quality will be substantially better? (i.e. I'd be able to hear things in the song which I couldn't before?)
Unless your collection is in lossless or even 320kbps/lame, then you probably won't hear a difference.
If you use the digital output from your phone (usb) then the sound signature will change, since you're using a different dac. It's not a night and day difference, usually bass tames down and tightens resulting in better perceived detail (they were there before, just not upfront).
It really depends on your phone and how you are going to connect the amp/dac to your phone.
Thanks krisspy and ory_zm,
I didn't know I could output via the micro usb from my phone, I was talking about connecting to the amp from the headphone jack.
I have an Xperia z1.
So I take it that an amp won't do much for me then seeing as my mp3s are lossy.
I disagree that that by itself is a factor. A DAC did allot to improve my sound quality when I was using with crappy on board sound card with 320kbps MP3s.
I am not familiar with the sound quality of the Xperia Z1. That said, an amplifier may help improve the sound quality still by simply amplifying the signal cleanly. For this to work best you want your volume set to low so that the amp in the phone is not struggling. Chaining sound like that is not the best but you may still improve.
Question: are you currently satisfied with the sound quality coming out of your phone? and what headphones do you use?
PS The HTC One looks to work natively with the Fiio E17 through USB, so you may want to google whether the Xperia also has support for Audio over USB.
Looks like you are in luck with the Xperia Z1 - http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/…
You'll get more volume but that's about it. You can save more by buying the e07.
Amping an amplified signal just means you're amplifying the noise that comes with it.
are you currently satisfied with the sound quality coming out of your phone? and what headphones do you use?
Yeah the sound quality is good, but then I'm thinking whether I'm missing out on better sound quality if I did use an amp!
I'm using the phone with ATH-M50's if bumming around at home, and Pioneer SE-NC31C when on the train.
Thanks again guys, appreciate your help :D
No you will not just get more volume, yes if that is what you are going to do you can save money by just buying an amp.
@Krisspy-
Its a hard call, and honestly for $100 not sure if worth it (especially in commute). I would go with the E17 only if I was going to try and conncet via USB (which members of Head-Fi say should work with the Xperia).
Have you ever heard the M50s properly amped with a good source? that is going to be your absolute best case scenario. If you find it much better and want to achieve that, then go for it. Otherwise if its just meh to you then don't bother :-)
My friend's Xperia Z works with my Microstreamer.
There's a few reasons why you'd get a USB DAC/AMP. Firstly like others have said, your phone may not output enough volume. Sometimes your phone may also have a crappy onboard DAC, and hence you use an external DAC to bypass it via USB.
And sometimes your headphones may be quite picky with the audio source that it's paired with. For example, whilst the sound coming out of my Sony XBA-4 connected to my Samsung S3 was decent, I found it a lot better coming out of my Microstreamer. I didn't really need the extra volume, but it just sounded a lot more rounded and fuller with a bigger stage.
To be honest the M50s run rather well without an amp.
You may want to check whether the E17s will bypass the existing DAC of the Xperia. If it doesnt, then this really won't add much sound quality to your rig.
SOLD!
Hope this deal is still available on Thursday, cant purchase it now :P Been meaning to buy these.
After I ordered it came up saying "Drop Status: 3 days left" so you should be fine.
If only these had an integrated mp3 player, then I would buy. The only ones on the market that use an amp/dac and mp3 are the HiFimans.
Fiio X3
Fiio X3, iBasso DX50 :)
HiFiMan DAP's are way too expensive! All nearing $1k
Those two options are around the $200 - 250 pricepoint and sound nearly as good ;)
hmmm interesting. I probably won't be using those earbuds though so I guess I can sell these on ebay/gumtree. do you know if the sennheiser amperiors can be paired with these?
If we don't need the portability of this unit, what's recommended for use with say, a desktop pc?
Aune T1 - was on massdrop a couple of weeks ago. Loving my rig
That thing is awesome! Exactly what I've been looking for, wish I'd seen the deal on massdrop… :(
Just out of interest, what did the T1 go for in the sale? Can't seem anything by search for whatever reason.
The T1s sold for US$120 + shipping, ended up being ~$165 AUD on my credit card.
I compared the sound to the E17s (which I currently have), the clarity, warmth and soundstage of the T1's absolutely blew my mind.
Highly recommended
Cheers. That is indeed a very good price for what you get. Me jelly. Enjoy!
Also, if you don't want a built in desktop amp/dac combo (rather you prefer separate devices), you can consider the Schiit Magni + Modi, or O2 + Odac, which are both around the $250-$300 price mark for delivery to Australia.
I'm sure there are others out there too, but those are 2 of the highly recommended entry level sets.
O2 + ODAC is acctually 2 devices in one enclosure. Agree that both those recommendations are are good for entry desktop set ups :-)
I have one of with the E9k dock which I use as a static headphone amp for Beyerdynamic s DT-990's. I've been driving it from a USB source, I'm currently experimenting with a Raspyfi build as an audio source via USB.
To be honest I'm not particularly enamoured of this thing - it locks up quite a bit, it will lose the plot and not register as an audio device and I have to pull it from the dock, reset it and sometimes I have to return all of its settings back to what I put them to manually (it defies the "retain settings" configuration sometimes). I find its interface to be not the best, it's consistent with portable systems from the early 2000's (the very early MP3 players) in the menu path and usability.
Sound isn't always as hiss-free and consistent as I'd like either; it's generally fairly clean but the Beyers show up almost everything that goes wrong especially when you have to turn the whole configuration up to maximum volume if the source material is quiet. I tend to use a Digizoid ZO2 for portable audio now, even though it lacks digital input I think it's a better (and much smaller) unit all around and has a very strong bass focus which I do enjoy (driving Atrio M5's).
If anyone's still waiting - apparently they were supposed to be sent last week but they had issues sourcing stock.
I cancelled my order because I don't think it'll be here in time for christmas.
This is from Massdrop, I'm probably not gonna cancel my order since I was within 130 orders but might suck for anyone else that ordered after.
Hey guys,
Unfortunately, there has been an unexpected shortage for the Fiio E17 in the last couple of weeks, and we are currently expecting some delay in the fulfillment of this drop.
As of right now, we have an order of 50 that will be shipped first thing in the morning tomorrow (Saturday) from China. We are expecting these to arrive our warehouse late next week.
We are expecting another order of 80 to be shipped to us late next week. And the remaining order to be shipped to us the following week.
While we are pretty confident that we can have the first 130 orders delivered before Christmas (as long as the shipping address is within the US), but it seems like orders after that are much less likely to be delivered before then.
We are making several calls a day trying to find all the E17 we can get our hands on, if the situation changes, I'll be sure to let the group know.
I hate to be the bearer of the bad news, and I understand this update might be a bit discouraging especially for the late comers of the drop. If you'd prefer to cancel the order, please just email us at [email protected], and we'll be happy to help you out with it.
great little unit, and great price! i think i paid $140 for mine!