frag1k January 28, 2013 at 08:01

Overview of the external amplifier / DAC FiiO E10 OLYMPUS

FiiO E17, the same media combine that I examined in one of the previous reviews, completely satisfied my needs for high-quality sound, moreover, some of its characteristics were even unnecessary for me, for example, a battery. Based on that review, in the portable segment, I decided to give preference to a separate player (which I still choose) instead of a bunch of phone + FiiO E17. The latter was sold, and in its place came the stationary DAC and headphone amplifier FiiO E10 OLYMPUS which I will discuss in this review. Features FiiO E10:

Output power: 150 mW (32 ohms)
Supported headphone impedance: 16 ohms - 300 ohms
Frequency range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Output Frequency and Bit Resolution: 96 kHz / 24 bit (Maximum)
Power: USB only
Dimensions: 79 x 49 x 21 mm
Weight: 82g

Packaging and equipment

FiiO E10 comes in a small box made of aluminum. Inside of which we find the device itself, located on a velvet pedestal. Pulling out the amplifier and the pedestal itself, we find out the remaining equipment: a USB cable, an instruction manual and eight rubber legs that stick to the bottom of the device, thereby protecting it from scratches and giving it stability. As you can see, the equipment is minimal, but it is enough for the normal operation of the device.

Appearance and controls

The body of the gadget consists entirely of black anodized aluminum, and its dimensions are comparable to a matchbox. Above, in simple screen printing, the company name and model of the device are applied. By the way, all the inscriptions in this device are made by screen printing, but after six months of operation there is not the slightest hint of their erasure. On the front side there is a volume control ring, a device operation indicator, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a bass boost mode switch. On the back there is a USB input, line-in and S-PDIF output. Bottom - on-off (low / high) gain switch. Great design! Black aluminum case, compact size and good build quality, what else is needed for complete happiness?

Inside, element base

The device is disassembled by unscrewing four screws on the back of the device. We remove the cover and pull out the board, after removing the volume control wheel. Fully disassembled device: The device is based on the WM8740 DAC in conjunction with the TE7022 (USB audio streaming controller) and a couple of operational amplifiers AD8397 + AD8692. Top side of the board (do not pay attention to the huge LED - this is a modification that I will discuss later): High-quality soldering, the flux is washed off, but not perfect. In general, everything is fine inside.

Sound

Now, after the acquisition of FiiO E10, as well as headphones Creative Aurvana Live! I finally finished experimenting with sound at the workplace (the place where I teach lessons, write reviews and repair equipment), at least for the next few years.

What am I, unfortunately (or fortunately?) Not an audiophile, can I say about the sound of the FiiO E10? - At least I can say that it is better than most sound cards built into computers or laptops. The music has become more detailed and rich, and the sound is cleaner. Now there is no that incomprehensible porridge, you hear distinct sounds of any instrument.

In terms of sound - just a delight, because for the money the best option, as for me, can not be found.

Operation and Modifications

Positive aspects

Due to the compactness of the device, it takes an absolute minimum of working space. I made it even more cunning and placed the device in an upright position outside the table, which gives me convenient access to the volume control and makes the gadget completely invisible. Thanks to the presence of an additional linear output, in addition to the headphones, you can connect active external speakers to the device, bypassing the volume control. A very useful feature, it’s not a royal thing to manually switch external speakers to headphones, and the built-in volume control when using an external active speaker is useless to us. Separately, I want to note that the device does not require the installation of any drivers, just connect it to the computer and use it, it is tested on the operating systems Ubuntu 12.10, Windows 7/8 and MAC OS X 10.8.2.

Negative aspects

The only disadvantage of the FiiO E10 in terms of operation is poor shielding of the analog part. Those. if my phone is within a radius of half a meter to the amplifier I hear quite unpleasant pickups and this is annoying.

Modifications

Of the many modifications presented on the forums, I made only one - this is the replacement of the LED, because in the stock version, the blue, “vyrviglazny” LED that illuminates a good half of the ceiling was installed again. But as usual, the LED needed in size was not there, and instead of a 3-mm one, I had to put in a 5-mm one.
I didn’t even think about the color - a warm tube color, orange, that is.
Before:

After: Speaking of other modifications, this is mainly the replacement of electrolytes with better output ones, as well as their shunting with polypropylene capacitors in order to increase the amount of bass and surround sound. You can familiarize yourself with this modification at this link. Some craftsmen are perverted even more and

make hardware Crossfeed , the essence of which is mixing the signal of the right channel into the left and vice versa for a more natural sounding of music when listening to headphones.

But I assure you, and without these modifications, the amplifier sounds excellent, of course, given its cost.

About Creative Aurvana Live! Headphones

Photo from the official website of the manufacturer.
As promised, a little about the headphones. Headphones Creative Aurvana Live! - This is an OEM model manufactured by the Japanese company Foster and they are sold respectively under different brands. One of them is Denon, to be more precise, the AH-D1000 / 1001 model, costing 220-230 dollars. In the case of the latter, you overpay only for the brand, well, or for the frosted cups, which are so lacking in CAL! - Modding is just around the corner, yeah.

I selected headphones for the genres I was listening to, mostly alternative rock and a bit of heavy metal. CAL! these parameters fit just fine, natural sound combined with good assertive and deep bass will give you the opportunity to hear your favorite songs in a new way.

In conclusion, I will say that in terms of price / quality ratio, and their cost is $ 70, the headphones simply have no analogues in this price category and I am 100% satisfied with the purchase.

Cost

At the moment, FiiO products are well represented both in the Ukrainian market and in Russia, so I will not leave any links, I can only say that the average price for this device is in the region of 70-90 dollars.

Summary

FiiO E10 - a combined DAC / headphone amplifier that successfully combines stylish design, minimal dimensions and good sound quality. Given the price, I recommend this device to all those who are not satisfied with the quality of the sound card built into your computer or laptop.

Liked

+ Good sound quality
+ Case materials, design
+ Analog potentiometer
+ Compactness
+ Work without drivers in most modern OS
+ Price

Did not like

- Griefiness of the gain switch
- Crosstalk from mobile phones