FiiO E10K Headphone Amplifier, Black

I got this after starting down the road of buying my first proper headphones - £100 ones rather than £10 ones. What a difference they made! I'll be honest, if you use cheapo earphones don't bother with this. You won't feel the benefit - go and buy some decent headphones with the money instead because they'll make a much bigger difference. This is for getting the best performance out of good headphones. You can't polish a... you know what. Probably can't say that on an Amazon review.The E10K made such a difference to my enjoyment of music that I for the first time noticed how bad the audio output of my laptop was. Not really enough wattage to drive bigger headphones, slightly lacking finesse and I heard a lot of cross-talk leaking onto the analogue signal from other components within the laptop. This unit really made music sound better from it. If you have a desktop computer, you could consider a dedicated soundcard instead of this as it fulfils the same role but is internal. Whatever floats your boat.I got the E10K after reading some audiophile fluff about DACs being a really good investment to bring out the quality of headphones, and the difference was pretty clear once I plugged in. Much more richness, bass quality, no background noise. A lot more OOMPH to the bass compared to before, but also more clarity elsewhere on the spectrum. Oh, I mostly listen to heavy metal and heavy, rich electronic/industrial music rather than light and airy stuff. Just for context.It comes in a swanky little foam-lined presentation box which I shall probably never use. Nice, but who cares, it's only a box!Setup is trivial; it's plug-and-play. I use this with Equalizer APO software to 'tune' things a little but that's personal preference. Sounds good without.The hi / lo gain switch on the back remains permanently in the low position. I guess if you had some really massive headphones with high impedance you might need the high setting, but mine are medium sized Grado SR80es and ATH-M50xs and sound plenty loud enough on the low setting with the volume dial around 3The bass boost swtich is really nice, and I leave it on almost all the time. It adds a nice fullness to the low end which isn't overpowering or sludgey. It sounds just right. Occasionally I might turn it off if listening to spoken word with a poor quality source, as voice will sound crisper and easier to understand without low-end noise being amplified.The unit seems durable with its metal housing and very positive, firm switches and dial. Feels old-fashioned, no squish or slop in them at all. It seems well sealed against dirt and comes with little rubber feet you can stick on to help it stay in place on a desk. Nice touch especially as it's quite light and can get tugged by the weight of long cables easily.

Surprisingly small this diminutive headphone output/amplifier/DAC does the job it sets out to - and extremely well.In the box you get the E10K, a USB cable of about 1m, and six stick-on feet to stop the little box sliding around your desk.Plug in to a free USB port and check your sound preferences, in all probability the system will have changed over to it for output, if not, select it. On my Mac I plugged it in after I'd started the computer and it was automatically selected. On another boot with it still plugged in I had to manually select.The volume control is also a on-off switch. Twist and the blue LED glows. No pops, no clicks, no hiss or static so far for me. I'm using mid-range Sennheiser headphones. I did have to up the output volume using the Mac's volume control and then adjust using the E10k's dial.Once you are up and running you need to chose your listening or watching software. For music I'm using iTunes. I found that bringing-up the Equaliser window was the easiest way to get great sound. Untick it and try without any modifications to see what your music sounds like first and then make subtle changes. For example I found that turning off the pre-processor (Equaliser) worked best for piano music. For more complex pop or rock I turned it on and set different presets to match the sound I favoured.The sound is very clear and free of any added interference. You really get to hear what the recording studio put on the original, faults and all. Over the years on-board PC sound has been steadily improving and for me the difference here for me was not astoundingly obvious but more subtle. Certainly sound is less cluttered and muddy. It's crystal clear and instruments are well separated. It turns out the bass switch is no gimmick but quite a useful addition because not all headphones are built the same and having it here just means more adjustment. For example I'm finding it useful turned-on when I have the equaliser off.The quality of build is very good indeed, the case all-metal with nice high-spec sockets and volume dial. The USB cable is a bit generic but I am not sure if a higher-quality one is needed given the audio DAC being onboard? I may try one at some point. So far, no problems.All in all this is a superb little device for those of us who crave better quality but for family reasons have to wear headphones for most of our digital-music listening. I can't think of anything to criticise for the price-point. Yes, my old free-standing hi-fi and speakers give a better sound stage and more power and definition but that's a whole different listening environment. What's more you can carry this around with you, plug into a Windows machine or a Mac, and get the same quality sound whichever. Others have mentioned "latency" which just means a gap between the sound as played by the computer and you hearing it. There is certainly a gap here of about 1-second, so the E10k is probably not a good add-on for recording-engineers. For us mere mortals the gap means nothing in normal use because it isn't actually out-of-sync with anything except other attached devices.

I bought this to use with an iMac and a MacBook Air. I am in my sixties and my hearing is not what it once was so I needed more volume. I can't really give a review of the audio quality as such due to this but what I do hear does not seem to be coloured compared to the Macs output, but it is a lot louder, very loud in fact as you get above 5.Using it with a Mac is simplicity itself, connect it and turn on, select Fiio USB DAC -E10 from either the volume icon or go to System Preferences/Sound. Simple as that, no drivers needed, and no settings to fiddle with.I use Logic Pro X and various music software, Kontakt, Miroslav Philharmonik 2 etc. You will need to choose the Fiio from the preferences in these apps, but only once. The reason I chose the Fiio over an audio interface is simple, I have no need to monitor the input of external instruments, all instruments are from plugins etc. Another winner for me is that it is so tiny, a boon where studio space is very tight as in my case.A few reviews state that the micro USB is loose and comes out. Mine came with a very good quality cable which fits very snuggly once inserted, I doubt that it is likely to come out. As yet I have heard no drop outs or crackles as some have experienced, though they do all seem to be from Windows users, this might just be coincidence though.Should I experience any problems with the Fiio in the future I will amend this review. Right now I am very happy with the units.