Headphone amps can come in all shapes and dimensions but FiiO's E17 (no relative to the 90s young man band or really the London postcode, as far as we're aware) is absolutely one of the slickest.
At first glimpse it bears more than a transient resemblance to an MP3 player with its dot matrix Oled screen and scrubbed aluminium casing -- it's a neat-looking piece of kit.
There's a 3.5mm headphone jack on peak along with a S/PDIF digital input (optical and coaxial -- it arrives with adaptors and this restores one of the previous E7's two analogue outputs). On the bottom there's a mini USB charging socket as well as a proprietary dock dock and a 3.5 analogue aux in. On the front are an on/off button, volume/menu controls, in addition to distinct buttons for list, input assortment and a contain swap. The screen only has room for four lines of text but it's brilliant, sharp and very simple to read.
The volume buttons twice as list navigators, though it's not habitually obvious how to choose the choices accessible and there are choices for modifying bass, treble and gain, as well as the proficiency to adjust the balance between the speakers.
It's an effortlessly installed supplement to your living PC sound system -- if you have a set of driven speakers it will give them an instant raise in sound value since it actions as a high-value external soundcard. It supports 24/96 over USB and 24/192 over S/PDIF so you'll get no loss of tenacity from your hi-res audio files.
Or you can connect it to your MP3 contestant to help make best use of those adorned new Beats or other value headphones. accidentally, it arrives with a USB and analogue 3.5mm directs as well as a neat little cowhide case.
Connecting it to my endeavoured and trusted 2.1 Acoustic power scheme it instantly consigned expanded minutia across the spectrum, with better characterised bass, coherent midrange and more refined treble. It's the common hi-fi trick of not appreciating there was any thing incorrect until you add a constituent that makes a distinction -- then you can't go back to how it was before.
You can set the maximum capacity so you don't risk your dainty shell-likes, though it will still go considerably louder than you'll get from a benchmark iPhone for demonstration.
If you're at home you can hold it ascribed via the USB port of course but on the move, the electric battery will deliver round ten hours of playback.
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You don't need to have fussy ears to appreciate the benefit of this compact little wonder, the sonic improvements are effortlessly obvious, and it has the benefit of being easily portable.
