Hey there folks!
Recently bought a Fiio D03k for the TV at home. Decided to compare it to the TV's line-out. The TV is a 46" 6 series Samsung Smart TV, and I've connected the D03k to the Optical output of the TV. The output are my speakers that I built myself (5-inch full range, in ported towers), powered by an Aune X2 30W amp. The DAC is powered by the TV's own USB output. I use the 5V, 0.5A port.

This is only a short evaluation so I only tested using one song that I am extremely familiar with, Hysteria by Muse.

One thing that's obvious right from the start is the slightly less volume the D03k makes compared to the TV line-out. I mean slight, as in around 2dB difference. Noticeable, but not significantly so.
The stereo width, the imaging, the separation, they are all equal to the line-level output from the TV. Cymbals sound less splashy, but very very little difference, I wouldn't bother expending the brain power to compute the difference in any sort of enjoyment listening. The speakers themselves are lacking in the very high end (starting around 16kHz). I'm sure with smaller and more treble happy speakers, or a tweeter would allow me to pick-up the improvement better in this section. Everything in the middle just sounds the same with either output.

These speakers can do bass however, and they do it rather well now that I got the drivers to seal a bit better. Kick drums sound more extended, but the famous bass riff sounds about the same, maybe because they don't go as low. With the line-out from the TV, the kick-drum sounds more "windy", like its lower registers are cut-off a bit too early. More like a 'doof doof' kind of sound. With the D03k, the kick-drum sounds thumpy, less blunt. The difference isn't much to make me go 'wow', but it's much easier heard than the improvement with treble. At least it got me to do a nod of approval.

That's it. If the speakers have better treble I'm sure there's more to the D03k. Bass is where the D03k does better in resolving, compared to the TV of course.

Well I guess you can generalize that under RM500 would be what most would look for when they want a 'budget' option.

Anything above would fit in the mid-end section. The E06 and A3 would be examples I'd try out for when I want a budget option.

This post has been edited by VagueConcerns: Mar 29 2016, 10:13 PM

I don't know, but even the E06 should be enough to drive 16-32 ohm IEMs louder than what most smartphones and small portable players can do. Plus, I think it has an EQ select function too so you can choose what kind of sound you want, which should work better than the EQ that you would find in say a smartphone.

I'd put my money on A3 (aka E11K) though. MUCH more power, larger battery, analogue volume control.

EDIT: Wait, if you used E7 then E06 should be a downgrade. The E7 is a DAC+Amp. Are you looking for an upgrade to that? The E11k (A3) is pure amp. All I can think of when upgrading from the E7 is the E17, but maybe E1-AKG or others with more knowledge of their entire catalogue can answer better. The E17 is over RM500 though IINM. There's the Q1, but I know nothing about it other than it is cheaper. I'm a fan of analogue volume control though (no worry of dynamic range reduction from digital volume control, because I listen at very low levels), so in a sense I do like that one over the E7. Though it also does seem to have better specs compared to the E7, so maybe the cheaper price is just a very good bonus?

This post has been edited by VagueConcerns: Mar 30 2016, 02:51 AM

Have you tried it on another laptop?
Just making sure that you have tried all options.

Because I looked for that problem on the internet, and there are others who have problems similar to yours. The culprit range from USB bandwidth problem (try putting it in a different port and installing the driver with the DAC connected to the new port), to as simple as a USB cable problem (maybe power was ok, but data was not). Heck, maybe try restarting the laptop with the DAC plugged in too.

You're welcome.
Glad it worked out.

This post has been edited by VagueConcerns: Feb 16 2017, 03:59 PM