I'll be receiving my 2nd FiiO in next week or so (was given a free one by a good friend). For the price, I'll say it is good buy; for the performance, it is just okay. It does boost the bass quite a bit and give an overall warmer sound, but detail does suffered a bit. I won't recommend anyone using it on serious auditioning, but it is a really fun gadget to have around and listen to regardlessly.

This post has been edited by ClieOS: Aug 22 2008, 08:50 PM

If you look at the freq. resp. graph of E3, you'll know why I described it as less detail. You probably won't notice much if you are using a fairly detail headphone and not listening to it on a very serious manner. I can definitely tell the lost of treble on my Triple.fi 10, and it doesn't really work very well with my SE530 (synergy issue here). I'll say E3 works best w/ brighter sounding headphone. Headphone like EP-630 (which is already very warm and dark sounding) won't get much improvement from it.

Just in case any one interested in the freq. resp., I generated one of my own.
Go-vibes USB DAC is the baseline, compare to Practical Devices XM3, Travagans Colors (dogbone), and FiiO E3 of course.


Also want to add that FiiO E5 is currently under development, and will have the below features:
* Independent On/Off switch
* Electronic volume control to eliminate hissing after long usage
* Back clip
* Build-in rechargeable Li-ion battery
* USB charging circuit

New functions include:

* Output power increases 30%
* Better SNR
* Less distortion
* Better resistance to electromagnetic interference

E5 will be roughly the same size as E3, but slimmer.

No release date yet.


This post has been edited by ClieOS: Sep 11 2008, 10:04 AM

More on E5: The release date is scheduled to be before Christmas, still no specific time yet. The demo set is currently being tested, and is claimed to have 'overall improved SQ, especially on soundstage and clarity. Original bass enhancement has been kept, but is optional to accommodate different headphone'

Just want to inform you guys that the E5 will be ready for market within a month or 2.

China local price is around US$16~20 when released, so international price is expected to be slightly higher (adding in the shipping).

Here are some picture of the up-coming E5, which I got as a sample directly from FiiO. The final product would probably be ready for market in few short weeks.

Not released yet, but you will likely to see it before the end of December.

I have an impression on Head-fi, check it out here.

I'll expect it to be around (and hopefully less than) RM100 by the time it reaches Malaysia.

Already pre-ordered two. Don't really care how other look at me since I am already wearing the big stick TF10 on the street.

This post has been edited by ClieOS: Dec 1 2008, 12:37 PM

For all of you who don't have a credit card or paypal, don't worry. Jaben is FiiO dealer at Singapore and they are definitely bringing in the E5.So if you are interested in E5, just pay attention to yuheng or walabies' bulk buy section. I am sure they can score some stock from Jaben once it is available.

I am sure if enough of you are interested, you can bulk order / group buy it with them or at least you can be sure that some of you can get one.
You PC speaker already has an internal power amp so I won't recommend placing another amp in front of it.

Not necessary. If you are using an high impedance, low sensitivity headphone (like Etymotic ER4S or Head-Direct RE) on your DAP that doesn't have a line-out, an small amp on the headphone-out actually will help a lot. It isn't optimum, but it is still better than none.

mp4nation, dealextreme, and maybe later Jaben.

mp4nation is shipping their stock as of now, dealextreme will probably be in another one or two weeks, same as Jaben.

---

Added on December 5, 2008, 12:17 pmIt seems Head-Direct.com also accepts order now

This post has been edited by ClieOS: Dec 5 2008, 12:17 PM

I just updated my impression on E5, you can read it here.

Not using w/ UM2, cause it doesn't really need amp to sound good. Westone's IEM generally doesn't benefit much from amp cause all of them are very efficient.

For US$20 or less, you can't really expect any magic out of it, for sure.

May be you should also consider a better headphone as well. The whole system is only going to be as strong as its weakest link.

At worst? Nothing happens.

High demand headphone will response well with high output amp. If the output isn't good enough, SQ will not be at its best.

Q1: A cmoy. generally cost about US$50 if you buy it from eBay. Less if you build it yourself. There are also a few forum members here that can build one for you.

Q2: Sure.

This post has been edited by ClieOS: Mar 29 2009, 01:14 AM