FiiO E7 Portable Headphone DAC Amplifier

I've lived with the FiiO E7 for a month now, and can say it's been a good purchase. I pair it with my iPod Classic_6th Gen (and occasionally CowonD2), FiiO L3 Line Out Cable and either my Grado SR60i's or Bose TriPort On-Ear for travelling. At last I can play music at a decent level without being frustrated at being unable to wring more volume from the iPod beyond it's dreary, limitting, maximum. The amp is functional and surprisingly compact. Easy to use, with a very simple interface. I don't use the bass boost function as I'm not a fan of artificially manufacturing bass response and my headphones produce sufficient to satisfy me. Two headphone outputs allowed the wife and I to listen to music on a flight, although I did unplug myself quite quickly when she wanted Texas instead of Opeth. I have sticky back velcro'd it, back-to-back, with the iPod, which enables both to be carried in the provided soft pouch and as they maintain contact much more user friendly than having them seperate (the E7 is just a bit smaller, width and height, than the iPod, if about 50% thicker). A full charge is claimed to last 80 hours, but as I have a habit of keeping things charged, I cannot comment, except to say I used it for a few days on a trip and it was only around half discharged (maybe 20-30 hours use). Does it make the music sound better ? Not sure other than what I perceive to be an improvement may be the headphones being driven properly (maybe more to my liking). I have limitted the volume to 40 (out of a possible 0-60 range) as any louder and the Bose's sound like they might suffer something nasty. 40 is way loud enough for my 32Ohm impedance headphones (and I listen to music pretty loud). There is absolutely no background noise from the E7 with my combo's. I have used it occasionally with the iPod as an Aux source into speakers and again, it works well. So, in summary, the main intent of driving my headphones from my iPod more appropriately is satisfied by some margin.

I was unaware of this product until a review in a current edition of a hi-fi magazine aroused my interest.

Hi-fi enthusiasts have for a long time known of the impact and the significant sound improvements outboard DAC's can have in hi-fi systems. It is also known that the inside environment of a computer is not conducive to top quality music reproduction, even if the audio file is uncompressed. DAC's inside computers are built down to a price, not up to a quality, and for the most part and for the majority of users, this isn't an issue as their music files are compressed and they are content with the sound.

However, even with compressed audio files, higher quality sound reproduction is possible by bypassing the inbuilt DAC of the pc and using an outboard (external) DAC whose electronics, usually of better quality, are not affected anywhere near as much by stray interference from the computers own internal electronics. And this is the raison d'etre of this device.

Out of the box, connection and set up is reasonably straightforward, although you do need to be a little computer savvy to set up your pc to recognise the device and use it in place of the usual headphone output or inbuilt speakers. It is not an automatic plug and play device. Even I got caught out as having completed all the settings and getting test tones through my headphones, there was no sound output when I fired up Windows media player. I checked and double checked the settings, and still no joy. A reboot solved the problem and it worked.

The device is unusual in that it has a dual function: as a DAC for connection via USB, and as a portable headphone amplifier to be used with a music player, be it via 3.5mm jack or Apple type connector.

It should be stressed that this device is primarily intended for headphone use, but there should be no reason why external active speakers designed to accept the headphone output of audio devices should not work.

Tested firstly as a DAC, and with a pair of reasonable, but not expensive AKG K416P on-the-ear closed back design headphones, the sound of my mp3 and wma audio files was cleaner all round. The AKG's can sometimes overwhelm with bass output if not partnered with compatible gear, but through this DAC the bass was more clearly defined and I noticed the treble response was not quite as brittle and the overall result was a much smoother response throughout the audio range. My audio files, in the main part classical music, range from 160 kps to 320 kps and whilst it would be expected that the DAC works best with least compression, even the 160 kps files were improved some. All testing was carried out with no bass equalisation.

So, it works very well as a DAC, and so what is the advantage of also being a headphone amp when your portable device already has a headphone out? Well, apart from the fact it can power two sets of headphones, only really useful if the phones themselves have individual volume controls which enables the listeners to adjust volume most comfortable for them, it does mean that higher quality phones, which can be less sensitive, can be powered with ease.

As supplied, the unit comes with a neoprene type body shell and a good soft case which will accommodate the unit in its neoprene body shell, a rubber strap that is intended to hold your player and this unit together, and a USB cable. The unit charges from the pc's USB port, so if your pc has an unswitched USB port, so much the better.

The only omission from the supplied accessories is a magnifying glass, which you may find you need as the printed instruction leaflet is in such tiny print it is difficult to read if you have less than perfect vision.

As for the unit itself, I can't praise it enough and for a very modest outlay it can improve the sound of your digital music files noticeably. It seems to be very well built and visually looks the part i.e not cheap. Recommended.

I listen to a lot of 'Old Skool' including live recordings from events back in the early 90's when there was none of this digital malarky, so many of these recordings are low quality taken from original DAT tapes.

This little device transforms these recordings back in to life, adding vibrancy, clarity and quality, and pulling out detail I haven't heard since the days of standing on 8ft high 50,000 watt speakers. Plus it increases the maximum volume WAY BEYOND anything my iPod can acheive. Very useful for noisy gyms!

The design is very cool and very minimalist which I like. It simply does what it needs to do and does it well. It's also smaller than I thought it was going to be.

It comes with some very handy accessories (connection cables, soft cloth bag, screen protectors and very usefully, a thick black rubber band for strapping your MP3 player to the back of it. Back to back, they now live together as one.

One very very small gripe is that it only charges via a PC and USB port and takes 5 hours to charge. A mains charger would have been useful but it lasts over 80 hours once charged so you don't have to do it very often.

If you care anything for the sound quality of your music buy this, you absolutely won't regret it!