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[Hilton]

I had been looking at USB DACs and Headphone AMPs with a budget up to AU$500 on and off for a few months and couldn't decide what to get.

There are so many out there and none of them had all the features I wanted until I stumbled across the FiiO E09K/E17 combo.




















Within half an hour of reading a few reviews, particularly one detailed review at head-fi, I had picked up the kit from minidisc.com.au in Chatswood, Sydney that had them in stock at their office!

I know I could have picked up better individual components for that price range but the integrated features and overall feature set are pretty hard to beat for how I intend to use it and at 45 im not sure I would have heard the difference anyway.

How am I using it?
At work with a MS Surface Pro 2 and iPhone 5S dock with JRiver MC19 playing bitperfect via the USB DAC in the E17 (Also using Spotify 320k local/streamed);
plus using E17 on the go;
and on my Home PC and HTPC with FLAC and DSD streaming via JRiver Media Centre 19, or Spotify.

A mixture of tragic 80's Pop, 80's and revival Hair/Glam Metal, Classic Rock, Jazz, Soul/R&B and Dance. (a tiny bit of country)
 
A bit of everything with a penchant for soaring vocals, singing guitars, ballads and intimate Jazz singers.

I bought the combo E09K/E17 and an extra E09K dock to use at work as a desktop AMP and to charge the E17. ( I just love things that dock!)

Im using;

Klipsch Image Ones' in the office.

Klipsch X10i on the go and in the office when the Image Ones start to hurt ye old ears from the firm pressure; and

Original HD600s' at home

The Image Ones' sound great off either the E17 or E09K with 6db boost and no EQ.  A bit punchy on the bass as they are known to be, but the E17 and E09K both do a good job of tightening the bass up a bit and have lots of detail in the highs without being harsh, midrange is nice and full but probably a little laid back which is perfect for in the office.  Both Amps have nice control of complex bass pieces and don't raise a sweat with the Image Ones'.

The X10i don't really need the AMP but they too sound great with 6db boost and no EQ.  Maybe a little tighter and punchier compared to direct from the iPhone 5s.

The HD600s' sound far better with either AMP compared to the logitech Z5500 amp for the desktop, which is running off optical on the Asus Rampage IV Black.
(Don't even think about driving the HD600 straight off the iPhone, they sound thin and horrible!)

The onboard SupremeFX Black on my Asus Rampage IV Black has no problems as far as quality goes driving the HD600 but volume is very low compared to the FiiO AMPs'.

Max volume on the Z5500 AMP is also no where near loud enough for my taste.

The E17 and E09K still both need the 6db gain and the HD600s' go far louder and are much tighter and fuller with either of the FiiOs'
At home Im using the E09K with E17 lo-passthrough with USB @ 96K/24bit which is plenty for most of my stuff. I switch the optical over from the Z5500 for the occassional 192K/24bit.

Most of my HD audio is 96K anyway apart from a few DVD-A converted to FLAC and few SACDs' streamed from DSD 384K Rips and the occasional HDtracks' downloads at 192/24.


With the HD600s' for some music I add 4db bass and -2db treble as they are a bit thin down low and just a touch too bright at times with the FiiOs',
but they are well controlled with excellent imaging and the FiiOs' AMPs have no problems handling the extra 4db boost even at ear smashing levels.

To sum-up, I'm extremely impressed by the build quality, sound quality and flexibility of the FiiO AMPS, with the cool integration with dock and the desktop AMP features I'm so glad I chose the integrated kit!

They work equally well for 3 different types of gear and 3 different use scenarios, you cant ask for much more than that!

$245 for E09K/E17 + $125 for extra E09K Desktop Amp  ($370 total) from www.minidisc.com.au

FiiO E09K

FiiO E17

Going optical from my Asus Rampage IV Black to the E17 docked and the top end is definitely cleaner than using the E09K USB E17 DAC.

A good album for testing brittle top end is Mariah Carey Daydream, particularly One Sweet Day and I Am Free. Much smoother with optical via E17 than E09K USB.

The E17/E09K is perfect for the HD600. As using the E17 on its own doesn't have the power to drive them properly! (E17 as Optical DAC @ 192/24 and E09K as Headphone Amp)

[Hilton]

My work setup - The surface pro 2 connects to the E09K dock via a USB port replicator. (I'll take some pics another time)
This way the E09K is permanently connected to the USB port replicator.
(when the E17 is docked it connects the E17 onboard DAC to the surface for digital audio @ 96/24.)
A 26" monitor is also connected via the port replicator which has VGA/HDMI video.
Mouse and keyboard also connect via Logitech wireless plugged into the port replicator.

I also got a Seagate Wireless plus 1TB drive going as well.
This connects wirelessly to the surface pro and iPhone when out and about and in the car for access to my whole music library including FLAC files and SACDs ISOs.  (will have my movies too when I finish down-converting them to 480p M4Vs so they fit.)
For simplicity when I'm in the office the Seagate just connects via USB to the port replicator so I don't have to fiddle with works wireless proxy.

So when I come into the office I just have power, 1 USB for the port replicator to connect to the Surface, connect the Seagate to the port replicator, and everything else stays put. 
I run JRiver MC19 to get bit perfect playback via the E09K/E17.

I also tested the setup in the car (without the E17/E09k) using surface pro 2 / Seagate wireless drive and Bluetooth streaming with JRiver MC19 running in touch friendly theatre view. My car kit has AVRCP BT integration with satnav and driver info display and steering wheel controls.   Very cool setup. I may have to invest in a Brodit surface pro mount to mount the surface in front of the nav headunit when on longer trips.  Much nicer and faster to navigate than the iPhone.... anyway I digress...

I tested this setup in my local café across from work with the surface pro 2 connected to my pocket sized Telstra 4G wireless router, connected wirelessly to my Seagate wireless drive playing music wirelessly to my iPhone with JRemote on the iPhone connected to my FiiO E17 Amp playing bit perfect FLAC from the Seagate.

[Hilton]

Some more thoughts...

I can highly recommend the FiiO E17 for portable use and as part of a desktop setup with the E09K for DAC duties when at the desk.

The Senn HD600 sound fabulous over Optical SPDIF from the E17 with the E09K doing amplification.

This is a very good combo as you have the slightly warmer E17 to power low impedance IEMs (In ear monitors) and the powerful and clean E09K for full size HP at home.

I use 2 E09Ks, 1 at work and 1 at home and take the E17 portable DAC/AMP back and forth.

Running E09K in the office with Surface Pro 2, USB 3 port replicator, 1TB Seagate USB and USB input on E09K using the DAC in the E17 for decoding 96/24 from JRiver MC19 and E09K powering Klipsch X10i and Image Ones.

At home running Optical 192/24 from the Realtek on my Asus Rampage Black into the E17 docked in the E09K running HD600 with JRiver MC19.

The E17 also works with iPhone 5S and the camera connection kit and passive USB hub to get 48/16 digital.

I plan to use the new JRiver Id as a DLNA server when it arrives so I can go back to using JRemote when Im in the car!

The iPhone also supports 96/24 with Ampliflac App but at the moment I get a low level clicking with that sample rate.  Either a bug with timing on the iPhone or E17 which will hopefully be patched as I can create the same noise in JRiver on the PC using WASAPI event style over USB to the E17 which cleans up at 96/24 with straight WASAPI or ASIO output. (Anyone else seen this with 96/24 on the iPhone?)

Here's my JRiver setup with a small EQ tweak to the HD600 to sweeten them up a bit.  Also have a parametric 3db boost at 40hz to bring up the sub-bass a tad.



Makes for comfortable long term listening at ~80dB and 100dB for short stints.  I have a compensation curve setup with the Image Ones at work to drop the bass in the 100-170hz range to remove a bit upperbass bloom and slight boost at 12-14k to bring in a bit of definition.

[Hilton]

Here's some pics of my current portable setup.

This was the best I could come up with after experimenting with several USB hubs and cables.

I have a 20cm curly cord USB to Mini-USB cable on the way to replace the 40cm one in the pics below.

I found this setup is the most user friendly as I can put the FiiO E17 in my pocket and still handle the iPhone.

Also good for when just lounging around the house as I don't have to fumble to pick up 2 devices and dont have to worry about all the cables, hubs etc dangling.

4 Port USB Hub, USB to mini USB and CCK all glued to the back of a Cygnett iPhone 5S case.



Plugged in...




Faith Hill Cry - DVD-A Rip to 96/24 Flac ready to go in Ampliflac.




Plugged in ready to go... Backside...




Front side..




Close up showing 96kHz / 24 Bit output on AmpliFlac and 96kHz/24bit input on the FiiO E17.




Fleetwood Mac Rumours - Dreams DVD-A rip to 96/24 Flac output from JRiver MC19 streaming to JRemote.




As I've mentioned earlier this all works great except for the clicking with 96/24 material.

Until Apple or FiiO release a patch/update to fix the clicking I just down-sample in AmpliFlac or with JRiver MC19 down to 48/16.