# Suggest an AMP please



## ithehappy (Dec 18, 2015)

I use an E11 now, absolutely LOVE it. But I need something better, something with better dynamism, and the *most important thing has to be the battery life and charging mechanism*. The E11 can't be charged while used, and that is the reason why I don't use it always even when I want to. I don't remember to charge it and it has happened so many times that just before a movie I found that the amp is not charged up. So I would really prefer an amp which can output while being charged.

It will be used with my desktop in siggy and with my newly purchased MDR 100AAP headphone, which I really like but I would not mind a little more dynamics to the sound signature of it, but neutral sounding is still okay. I do NOT need any extra bass or anything at all, the headphone has more than enough bass. For example with this headphone I use E11 with the bass Eq totally disabled.

I have seen the E12 Mont Blanc and the E17, both are in my budget, but I need to know whether anything better exists or not, and I will purchase from Indian e-commerce sites only, not anywhere from abroad. So if there are any suggestions in that price range of 8-10k I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.


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## muditpopli (Dec 19, 2015)

I would prefer Fiio -E17k alpen 2. You can get it from snapdeal at 9.5k.


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## dissel (Dec 19, 2015)

My Suggestion will be same as above - Brilliant Amp + DAC - In-fact bought one recently after analyzing many things of my requirements....I will suggest to buy it from Ebay and use coupon to further lowering the price.

But people may suggest to go for Fiio Q1 too...priced half of that.

To Headphone Driving power,

Fiio Q1 and E17k are rated for 16-150 ohm when only E12 or E12A  can support up to 16-300 ohm if you plan for Bigger Can in future but investing it you loose DAC function....IMHO using DAC is better comparing Line Out signal from your pc.


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## ithehappy (Dec 20, 2015)

Okay, thanks guys, but honestly I have no idea about DAC, I mean I have been using E11 for couple of years now, but what would be the benefit of a DAC in comparison with direct PC output? I'm gonna upgrade system next year, a gaming grade motherboard, Skylake compatible probably.


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## Faun (Dec 20, 2015)

ithehappy said:


> Okay, thanks guys, but honestly I have no idea about DAC, I mean I have been using E11 for couple of years now, but what would be the benefit of a DAC in comparison with direct PC output? I'm gonna upgrade system next year, a gaming grade motherboard, Skylake compatible probably.



DAC should be first step towards sound quality. AMP processes that signal and amplifies it with some unique character in sound.

If your DAC is sh!t, your AMP gets the sh!t signal to process.

I have Xonar STX soundcard (DAC + AMP). Sounds much better than just the onboard soundcard.


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## ithehappy (Dec 20, 2015)

Hmm, understood, didn't know that at all. So I'm guessing that the on-board audio of my Sabertooth X58 is utter shite anyway, damn, if I knew that would have got a sound card long ago, in fact I was planning to get a Xonar DG anyway, buy a friend told me there was no need for it as I have already got an amp, course he was wrong.

Anyway, thanks for the info, will go for DAC with AMP only, and E17k is the option here.

Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate it.


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## dissel (Dec 20, 2015)

> Anyway, thanks for the info, will go for DAC with AMP only, and E17k is the option here.



Also you can consider Fiio Q1 too....before finalize.


Preferable one was which Sit Outside PC Cabinet - below some video

Here 



and another


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## tkin (Dec 23, 2015)

If you're going to always use a desktop then nothing beats this dac+amp for price vs performance: FiiO Olympus 2 E10K Headphone & Desktop DAC+Amp - Buy Online in India - Headphone Zone

Else for portability: Buy FiiO - Q1 Headphone Amplifier & DAC in India - Headphone Zone


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## ithehappy (Dec 25, 2015)

Okay Aakash, thanks for your input, that is really budget friendly, I will watch review of both and decide.

PS: Yes, it will be used mainly with my desktop.


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## ithehappy (Dec 27, 2015)

Okay, after watching some review videos, I have a question. The DAC units take over your motherboard's sound, that's okay, but its said that the cheaper one, I mean the E10K doesn't support 5.1/7.1 channels! Yes, I use a headphone, not a speaker system, but with the Realtek audio software I can hear significant difference between 7.1 channels and standard stereo option, so the question is if I opt for the E10K will I be stuck with that Stereo option but 7.1 channels?


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## tkin (Dec 27, 2015)

ithehappy said:


> Okay, after watching some review videos, I have a question. The DAC units take over your motherboard's sound, that's okay, but its said that the cheaper one, I mean the E10K doesn't support 5.1/7.1 channels! Yes, I use a headphone, not a speaker system, but with the Realtek audio software I can hear significant difference between 7.1 channels and standard stereo option, so the question is if I opt for the E10K will I be stuck with that Stereo option but 7.1 channels?


With E10k you'll get stereo only. If you want 5.1 or 7.1 you need to get something from Creative/Asus which will cost about the same, but if you're gonna use a headphone/stereo speakers stick with FiiO.


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## ithehappy (Dec 28, 2015)

tkin said:


> With E10k you'll get stereo only. If you want 5.1 or 7.1 you need to get something from Creative/Asus which will cost about the same, but if you're gonna use a headphone/stereo speakers stick with FiiO.



But dude Stereo is no go for me, I was testing the rear audio ports today, to see whether there is any noticeable audio quality difference or not, and with rear ports for whatever reason Realtek's 7.1 or 5.1 options didn't work, there was few streams of audio running but all, anyway, that stereo mode is simply awful in comparison with 7.1 channels option, yes for music listening there won't/might not be any difference cause music don't come as 7.1 or 5.1 (or do they?), so stereo and all will be same, but as my primary objectives are movies and tv shows with DTS HD 7.1 stream I don't really want to go for stereo only espeically after hearing the significant amount of difference between both modes.

So I guess I will have to opt for something which supports 5.1/7.1 channels. At the same time, I need to make sure whether those options will work with headphone or not, cause like I said the motherboard's rear audio ports didn't work with 5.1/7.1 channels mode, yet the front audio port works for whatever reasons!

This is a confusion indeed, especially when someone like me has no knowledge about this stuffs!


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## tkin (Dec 28, 2015)

ithehappy said:


> But dude Stereo is no go for me, I was testing the rear audio ports today, to see whether there is any noticeable audio quality difference or not, and with rear ports for whatever reason Realtek's 7.1 or 5.1 options didn't work, there was few streams of audio running but all, anyway, that stereo mode is simply awful in comparison with 7.1 channels option, yes for music listening there won't/might not be any difference cause music don't come as 7.1 or 5.1 (or do they?), so stereo and all will be same, but as my primary objectives are movies and tv shows with DTS HD 7.1 stream I don't really want to go for stereo only espeically after hearing the significant amount of difference between both modes.
> 
> So I guess I will have to opt for something which supports 5.1/7.1 channels. At the same time, I need to make sure whether those options will work with headphone or not, cause like I said the motherboard's rear audio ports didn't work with 5.1/7.1 channels mode, yet the front audio port works for whatever reasons!
> 
> This is a confusion indeed, especially when someone like me has no knowledge about this stuffs!


The question is whether you are going to use a headphone or not? If you are going to use a headphone then its irrelevant whether you have 2.0 or 5.1 or 7.1 output.

Let me explain.

1. Music always comes in stereo. So the best device for music is a stereo setup, be it speakers or headphones.

2. Games and Movies support 5.1/7.1 audio. But to get that you need a multi channel speaker system, a headphone won't do you any good(rare sets like Roccat kave have true multi channel input+drivers). 

Now I'm not sure what you tried to test but if you have a multi channel audio source like 5.1/7.1 then you have to downmix it to stereo if you want to listen to it using a headphone. Media players like VLC have the option(Audio), audio codecs like ffdshow also do(Mixer option). 

From your description I think you tried to test a 5.1/7.1 audio using headphones? In that case its possible that the audio was being played through all channels and you plugged in your headphones in one port at a time listened to only two channels, hence the issue. You can set audio option to stereo to put all channels in stereo mode, this is how it looks like in ffdshow:

*i.imgur.com/JoSEGvk.jpg

The top represents input channels, the right represents output channels:


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## ithehappy (Dec 29, 2015)

[MENTION=52329]tkin[/MENTION]:

Okay, the thing is I plugged my headphone (I only use headphones, and have no plan to use a speaker system any time soon) in the FRONT socket of my cabinet and I use the Realtek app's 7.1 channels option and that made a HUGE difference to me, in a better way, day and night difference basically, obviously for movies and shows with 5.1/7.1 channel tracks, I know that music is only 2 channels, and music is my least priority anyway.

This is the option I am talking about (that subwoofer stream doesn't work obviously with a headphone, thus marked in green):

*i.imgur.com/NgkExnd.png

Now I have been told from elsewhere that the front audio port is meant for headphones only, and that's why I simply get a surround effect of 7.1 channels in the shape of 2 channels. Now whether that virtualisation is accurate or not, well I honestly don't care, cause I find the sound significantly better and no way I will use the 2 channel audio for movies after what I have heard with 7.1 channel. And for rear ports, I plugged the headphone in the green socket only, and therefore I only got few streams of audio for a 5 channel tracked movie, and not the others, I didn't know that the rear ports don't have the option/capability like the front port, now the difference between rear and front audio ports are pretty clear to me, and like I said I am not a speaker guy, so basically the rear ports seem to be moot for me 

Thanks for mentioning about the ffdshow option, didn't know that, I use MPC-HC, with SVP, which obviously comes with ffdshow and other stuffs.

That elsewhere place also suggested me to go for sound cards like Xonar U series or something.


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## tkin (Dec 29, 2015)

ithehappy said:


> [MENTION=52329]tkin[/MENTION]:
> 
> Okay, the thing is I plugged my headphone (I only use headphones, and have no plan to use a speaker system any time soon) in the FRONT socket of my cabinet and I use the Realtek app's 7.1 channels option and that made a HUGE difference to me, in a better way, day and night difference basically, obviously for movies and shows with 5.1/7.1 channel tracks, I know that music is only 2 channels, and music is my least priority anyway.
> 
> ...


Its called Virtual surround, this technology tries to mimic 7.1 audio in a stereo setup.

Download this: Razer Surround Personalized 7.1 Gaming Audio Software - Razer United States and check out the demo there. 

Now some companies bundle virtual surround in their drivers/softwares, eg: Asus, Creative, Razer. Fiio does not, it's a pure dac. But you can use a software like the above to use Virtual surround.

Virtual surround is great, specially for games and movies. But it's not good for music which is my only focus.

Some devices with virtual surround: 

Sound BlasterX G5 - Sound Blaster - Creative Labs (Asia)

Sound Blaster E5 - Sound Blaster - Creative Labs (Asia)

Most of these are not available here, maybe that razer software will be useful.


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## ithehappy (Dec 29, 2015)

[MENTION=52329]tkin[/MENTION]: 

Ha ha, thanks for mentioning the Razer software, but I'm a hardarse and I wanted to avoid installing anything Razer, but I guess I'll try that.

Someone already suggested me the E5, but like you said it's not available in India, hell it's just released outside too, also price is 200 USD, which is slightly out of my budget. I was looking at the U7 yesterday, but I don't know which DAC is better, Creative's or Asus's, in general I mean.

Thanks though.


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## dissel (Jan 1, 2016)

Little Bit OT,

As here the link posted, Headphone Zone is reliable to deal with ? Do they ship to Kolkata ?

Any one from this region purchase anything from them ?


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