As my IEM collection seems to be growing I thought it would be a good idea to get a DAC/Amp that actually suits them. I'm happy with my Schiit Modi / Vali stack for my full sized headphones but the Vali is too powerful (no gain switch) and it's noise floor is too high for sensitive IEMs. I've been using an Aune T1 for the last month or so but it has an output impedance of 10 ohms, which is too high for any IEMs that don't have a flat impedance/frequency curve. Besides, I want to listen through my IEMs with a clean un-coloured signal, so tubes are out. That left my Asus Xonar STX sound card, which while sounding clean and having a low gain setting, has an output impedance of 10 ohms like the Aune plus I've had too many accidents with not resetting the volume after I've been using it with my AKG K702s for gaming and nearly driving my ear drums into my brain.
So I started looking through the most likely suspects, the Audioengine D3, Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS, Audioquest Dragonfly 1.2, the LH Labs Geek Out 450 and the FiiO E10K. All of them are USB powered so I can just connect them to a 6ft USB cable and have them sit along side the Schiit stack. The first one I crossed off was the Audioengine D3 due to it's high, 10 ohm output impedance. Next was the Geek Out because LH Labs keep messing with firmware (that removes features) and they can't honestly answer the question of which DAC chip they use - they say ES9018 but people have opened them up (voiding warranty) and found that they used an ES9010 instead. I took a good look at the DacMagic but eventually went for the FiiO E10K because I prefer the layout, didn't want to have to rely on special drivers, already had the FiiO X1 and liked the sound plus the price difference was silly - The FiiO was £61 and the DacMagic was £100.
Time to plug some gear in and see how it sounds...
Fidue A73 - The sound quality is excellent, ridiculously so for £60. The bass is strong and punchy without any need of the bass boost feature, too much bass with it switched on, the A73s are strong in the force. The mids and highs sound just as good as with the bigger amps and the sound stage is impressively expansive, which was a criticism of the previous model. It was also nice to see that the Fidue's 4 pole jack didn't cause any problems, unlike with my other amps.
Havi B3 Pro 1 - These bring an even bigger thumbs up because I can actually use the bass boost due to the Havi's being quite light in that department - they are like the AKG K702 of the IEM world. The sound stage is massive with these and the bass boost doesn't seem to affect it much either.
RHA MA750 - these don't seem to need the bass boost either but with it.... well my ears are still recovering. Playing "Woman" by Joy Williams and each instrument can easily be pinpointed around the sound stage, this pairing really does sound pretty amazing.
All of the above were using gain set to Low and the volume control around 1.5 and 2.5 for the 32 ohm Havis.
Although I've bought this for using with my IEMs I thought I would see how it handles my full sized headphones, so....
AKG K702 - Oh Lordy! Flicked the gain switch to High rolled the volume to 6 (it goes to 8) and Whoa! Turned the volume down to 3 and that's more like it. Although the input impedance of the K702s is only 62 ohms they need a lot of current to drive them "properly". With this in mind I wasn't expecting much, I was expecting them to sound thin and bass light. Nope, they sound really good and when I flick the bass boost on ....
Sennheiser HD650 - The E10K is rated for UP TO 150 ohm headphones by FiiO so I was expecting my 300ohm (they peak at 500ohms) HD650s to sound very weak but no, they didn't, not at all in fact. They may not be driven with the same authority that the Schiit Vali manages but the difference is not huge and I could quite happily use the HD650s and E10K as my main setup if I had to. So I think it's safe to say that you can ignore the 150ohm recommendation.
So, was the E10K a worthwhile purchase? I did wonder, even after I'd ordered it, I had the STX and the Aune after all. Well the answer is a very easy YES. FiiO have done a great job of updating the E10 to the E10K. They changed the DAC chip and the amplifier circuit and components and the result is a more open and clear sound with a bigger sound stage. After trying it out with my small collection of IEMs and headphones I would have no hesitation in recommending it. Does it sound as good as my Schiit Modi & Shiit Vali stack with my full sized headphones? Well no, the bass isn't quite as crisp BUT it's not far behind and the Schiit stack does cost three times as much. The FiiO E10K really is tiny, so is easy to find a home for, needs no external power supply, has an accessible gain switch, works well with IEMs, works well with headphones, has a usable bass boost that doesn't make the music muddy and after an hour of driving my HD650s is still stone cold - what's not to like?
So I started looking through the most likely suspects, the Audioengine D3, Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS, Audioquest Dragonfly 1.2, the LH Labs Geek Out 450 and the FiiO E10K. All of them are USB powered so I can just connect them to a 6ft USB cable and have them sit along side the Schiit stack. The first one I crossed off was the Audioengine D3 due to it's high, 10 ohm output impedance. Next was the Geek Out because LH Labs keep messing with firmware (that removes features) and they can't honestly answer the question of which DAC chip they use - they say ES9018 but people have opened them up (voiding warranty) and found that they used an ES9010 instead. I took a good look at the DacMagic but eventually went for the FiiO E10K because I prefer the layout, didn't want to have to rely on special drivers, already had the FiiO X1 and liked the sound plus the price difference was silly - The FiiO was £61 and the DacMagic was £100.
Time to plug some gear in and see how it sounds...
Fidue A73 - The sound quality is excellent, ridiculously so for £60. The bass is strong and punchy without any need of the bass boost feature, too much bass with it switched on, the A73s are strong in the force. The mids and highs sound just as good as with the bigger amps and the sound stage is impressively expansive, which was a criticism of the previous model. It was also nice to see that the Fidue's 4 pole jack didn't cause any problems, unlike with my other amps.
Havi B3 Pro 1 - These bring an even bigger thumbs up because I can actually use the bass boost due to the Havi's being quite light in that department - they are like the AKG K702 of the IEM world. The sound stage is massive with these and the bass boost doesn't seem to affect it much either.
RHA MA750 - these don't seem to need the bass boost either but with it.... well my ears are still recovering. Playing "Woman" by Joy Williams and each instrument can easily be pinpointed around the sound stage, this pairing really does sound pretty amazing.
All of the above were using gain set to Low and the volume control around 1.5 and 2.5 for the 32 ohm Havis.
Although I've bought this for using with my IEMs I thought I would see how it handles my full sized headphones, so....
AKG K702 - Oh Lordy! Flicked the gain switch to High rolled the volume to 6 (it goes to 8) and Whoa! Turned the volume down to 3 and that's more like it. Although the input impedance of the K702s is only 62 ohms they need a lot of current to drive them "properly". With this in mind I wasn't expecting much, I was expecting them to sound thin and bass light. Nope, they sound really good and when I flick the bass boost on ....
Sennheiser HD650 - The E10K is rated for UP TO 150 ohm headphones by FiiO so I was expecting my 300ohm (they peak at 500ohms) HD650s to sound very weak but no, they didn't, not at all in fact. They may not be driven with the same authority that the Schiit Vali manages but the difference is not huge and I could quite happily use the HD650s and E10K as my main setup if I had to. So I think it's safe to say that you can ignore the 150ohm recommendation.
So, was the E10K a worthwhile purchase? I did wonder, even after I'd ordered it, I had the STX and the Aune after all. Well the answer is a very easy YES. FiiO have done a great job of updating the E10 to the E10K. They changed the DAC chip and the amplifier circuit and components and the result is a more open and clear sound with a bigger sound stage. After trying it out with my small collection of IEMs and headphones I would have no hesitation in recommending it. Does it sound as good as my Schiit Modi & Shiit Vali stack with my full sized headphones? Well no, the bass isn't quite as crisp BUT it's not far behind and the Schiit stack does cost three times as much. The FiiO E10K really is tiny, so is easy to find a home for, needs no external power supply, has an accessible gain switch, works well with IEMs, works well with headphones, has a usable bass boost that doesn't make the music muddy and after an hour of driving my HD650s is still stone cold - what's not to like?
