go for E7 DAC/AMP.

Fiio E7!
Review 1 & Review 2

Since you want to replace your sound card, E7 is the only one that can get the job done, out of all current Fiio's audiophile products that is. Alternatives:
-Fiio D5: Also a sound card, but SQ is less than E7 as it's made for the general consumers, not audiophiles.
-Future Fiio products like the E10 and E17. ETA: E10: October, E17: Feb '12, but sometime b4 this year ends.

No offense, but the thought "won't all on-board sounds bad if paired w/ stock Nokia headset?" still lingers in my head.

EDIT: Edited E17's ETA

This post has been edited by Agnaem: Sep 10 2011, 06:35 PM

I prefer to have a good bass for my earphone/headset on both music and movies

Imagine you blast a small speaker over the limit and you can heard the sound of sand falling on the aluminum plate, something like that. My laptop is currently produce such sound even the master volume (main + player) set at 50% or lower, on external speaker or headphone.

Does your recommendation (especially E7) fix such problem? This is my first time in audiophile world.

This can be a 2 sided problem. It can be the in build DAC and amp or something is not right with the earphones.

Assuming:
-Headset/headphone/external speaker works fine on players@sources other than your laptop
-Almost all types of headset/headphone/external speaker sounds bad w/ ur on-board SC.
-The only crappy thing is the on-board SC
then the answer is yes.

But if the cause of your problem is laptop's crappy power supply@circuit, external DACs @ USB SCs would/could sound bad as well.

Example would be my current laptop. Its on-board is fine, but I can hear electrical noises when using a USB Sound Card w/ it. No such problems w/ my older laptops though. shawn87's problem could be a case of bad laptop's power supply, but thank god a powered usb hub solved his problem.

Solution: Go to Jaben and try some USB DACs w/ your laptop.

EDIT: Sometimes headset w/ TRRS connector might not work w/ some laptop. Happened to me a couple of times. The resulting sound will have distortion regardless of the volume and is probably caused by bad contact.

EDIT2: Thought it might be worth mentioning that a powered usb hub also solves my noise problem w/ the SB Play! The hub I'm using is this one.

This post has been edited by Agnaem: Sep 12 2011, 11:52 PM

Hmm...If that case then I'll try on other laptops that used Realtek onboard soundcard and investigate if this happens only on my laptop.

I can't go to Jaben because I'm living in Kuching. I'll spend some fund to buy E7 and see if this solve the problem I'm having. Thanks for the explanation. It really helps me.

if not need portability, buy E9 + small usb dac, then solder it inside the E9~

i thinking to do like tat.

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Added on September 7, 2011, 7:26 pmafter the mod, the bass more tight and keng now, pity my AKG Q701, need mod so many baru improve sikit bass only ~

try using LT1028ACN8 with browndog adapter X 2 ( 4 x unit 1028), bass is less, treble is higher, don't really like it, so switch back to 1364 x 2.

using LT1361CN8 x 2, sound very similar 1364 only ~

anyway i using Xfi-fataly pro stock, maybe later mod the op-amp got little bit improvement lagi.

This post has been edited by vex: Sep 7 2011, 07:28 PM

Any gamer in the house who is keen to test drive the FiiO D5



This post has been edited by E1 - AKG: Sep 7 2011, 09:32 PM

I want to test both the last 2 units.. (2nd row, on the right)

i got the D3 already ~ but never test yet ~

got extra 1 unit to let go also ~

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Added on September 8, 2011, 12:05 amdoing A/B comparasion for my E9 vs xfi drive, E9 got better sound ~
later i mod my xfi drive to better amp, maybe got improvement for my xfi drive~

This post has been edited by vex: Sep 8 2011, 12:05 AM

how much is that?

Got my E7 today...plug from pc into my headphone....and....WOW!!!!
speech less...sound better than my carpy on board soundcard

This post has been edited by syahbi: Sep 8 2011, 06:28 PM

Welcome to the club!

Bro, so how is the L3 and L5

im curious on one thing, my sis has an ipod 3g, and i thinking on pair with E11 using LOD to my Ortofon, but yet, still wondering which gen of ipod has the better ( or the best ) DAC?

e11 user just receive mine listening to it now through samsung galaxy s2

keep on play it, it will be better and better

thanks love it compare to before this

I have take the pic when I back home and going to post here but fall asleep while listening to Ipod Touch + L3 + Denon Amp at home.



I really impress with the sound quality after using the LOD especially the L3 (ipod). So much different in clarity after using the LOD's. Worth buying.

My Walkman and Ipod back to life now after being abandoned.


This post has been edited by nordingh: Sep 8 2011, 09:43 PM