I had my E10 mute the left channel and on manipulating the switch/volume POT, the left channel would start working. Eventually I was fed up and opened it up. Turns out, that due to repeated bending of the 'daughter board' while turning the unit on and off seemed to have cracked the solder joints joining the daughter board to the mother board. Wicked all the old solder and correctly re-soldered all the connections between the two. Started working perfectly!!! I started out out looking if anyone had any similar issues,but it turned into a full fledged solder job lol! Thanks a lot for the teardown!
Thanks man, I had the exact same problem happen to me with my E10K, I took it apart but I couldn't notice the cracked solder joints at first glance. Now that I know what might be causing this problem I'll try to get it fixed
Concerning the USB connector at 2:00: I bought the FiiO E10K Olympus 2 in December 2018, and I’m using it with AKG 702 headphones. The USB connector of the model I have has a perfectly snug fit, and nothing is standing out. It seems like they revised the design a little to improve the fit of the USB connector.
Very in-depth video! This video, I believe, proves the effort and quality that FiiO put into this nice little product. The topology is pretty good. Using this device as a dedicated DAC, it's freaking awesome! There is no noise! It's super clean! *And the sound quality speaks for itself!* The amp part? Eh... I'd rather use a powerful pure class A. Especially if you own a glorious planar magnetic headphone.
Thanks for the video. I was thinking about taking mine apart just to see what was inside and what it looked like, but now I don't have to open it and risk damaging something. Thanks for the great video.
A drawback (the drawback IMO) of this DAC is that it draws much power. This sometimes results in some faint background constant sizzling sound which is constant in volume (does not depend on volume knob position). So I assume it is caused by insufficient decoupling from power the lines. This is especially pronounced when plugged into an USB hub with other devices.
Many thanks for this presentation. Actually I have a second one, the first sounded crackly when I turned the volume knob, but a quick clean inside with a cotton bud cleaned up some dust, after which curing the crackles, I screwed it back together again and gave it to a friend, who was delighted. I use AKG K712PRO open-backed headphones whose impedance is 62 ohms, and am delighted. I love both headphones and this FiiO DAC. It was a great purchase, and remains so.
My USB sits flush with my FiiO E10K. At first, it seemed to get stuck exactly where yours is in the video, but then I pushed a little more, and it sits completely flush now. Yours isn't as inserted as mine is.
Mine got its 3.5mm headphones Jack damaged or some issue because I can't hear both sides L R at the same time unless I move the connector in a funny way.
I can turn it up all the way for a short while but it is LOUD with SoundMagic E11 and Sennheiser HD25-1. On high gain it is fairly loud by about 2-3 and by 4-5 you are starting to be able to rock out and 8 is like rave volume! On highly compressed rock/metal (think Green Day's American Idiot album) and hardstyle tracks it's too loud by about "5" on high gain. Low gain everything is about "60%" as loud but you can still get quite loud even on low gain with sensitive in ear headphones. For just talk shows and medium quiet music, "1" is enough on high gain and "1-2" on low gain. On my less efficient Philips SHP2500 it can get reasonably loud but not overwhelming.
It really depends on what you're using to drive them right now. For example, I use a Mac for personal use and the sound driver is really high quality. My work computer, however, is a cheap Dell with a horrid sound card. The difference is even noticeable with earbuds on the Dell but hardly on the Mac.
Connection on my headphone out has become loose on the board, is there anyone willing to give direction on how to solder or restore the connection. A friend told me to lightly clamp and place into a low oven...seemed risky. Any help would be appreciated.
My Fiio got some distorsion on headphones, on coaxial output everything is ok, but lineout and headphones got very bad sound, it was not like that from the begining...i open it, everything looks ok... Any help?
Anyone know how these compare to say a Scarlett 2i2 for driving headphones? I tested the scarlett recently, and was seriously impressed at the improvement over the onboard audio on my Asus ROG laptop, but I wouldn't mind something smaller and cheaper if the difference wasn't really discernible
Hi Nice review... can you please help me in selecting a DAC between Audioengine D1 or Fiio E10 K for my self powered Thonet and vander TITAN speakers? I am from India, Audioengine D1 is not available here but Fiio E10 K is available on Amazon. My only use will be to connect my laptop with DAC & self-powered speakers. waiting for your reply.... Thanks
thats beautiful teared down.... have to say! well mate I am searching for a budget dac to hook up my jbl lsr305 studio monitor just of r music listening... I am stuck between 2 choices: one is FiiO E10k and other one is dragonfly v1.2... I really dont care about portablity or functionality because I will use it only with my jbls and mac. So the one will give me better sound stage and clear sound I will pick that one up. can you please guide me on this.... would be really great help. THanks
+TheRazerHD Definitely. Being only 38 Ohms this would provide enough power to blow your ears out, too. I generally only use mine at a volume level of 3 or so.
+TheRazerHD Not that my input would be as valuable as Rad's, but... definitely haha. This thing does wonders for Sennheiser HD 598's and the M50x's from my personal experience.
I am thinking of buying the ATH-AD1000X. Is the FiiO E10K a good amp for the ATH-AD1000X? And what do you think of the AD1000x? Do you know any better headphones for that price or not?
+KairosSecond its a bit late, but I own the AD2000x, and they are really great sound quality wise, but... the wing system is too loose its kinda annoying, since it doesn't really hold your head it just rests on it all the weight of the headphones comes down to your jaw
10:30 no they did not do a good job, the reason you don't hear a hum when theres no audio playing is because the audio playback is disabled automatically (there is a ~0.1 second cutoff whenever audio starts playing as well, which is annoying)
I don't get that behaviour at all. No noticable delay, and definitely no background hiss. What do you have it connected to? I have mine on my PC and there's zero differences to audio behaviour than having headphones plugged directly into an aux output.
@@GrandHighGamer Yeah I looked into this and apparently it's only an issue with the old E10k (or E10) because the new one has a different DAC. It even says in FAQ on Fiio website that they fixed this bug iirc.
Someone else removed the LED on purpose, so it's really up to you. I like having a visual indicator, but blue isn't ideal for it, so I wouldn't care much either way.
Yes, drives HD 598 well on low gain, but lacks power to push low end on very high levels - not a problem to me, because I don't listen at such high levels. No problems with high efficency IEMS also because of very low output impedance and pushes those IEMS very hard.
For some un-explainable reason my phone cant drive my headphones, i dont understand how a phone cant drive a pair of bluetooth headphones (not using bluetooth) that run at 47 ohms, also i can comfortably listen to music at volume level 8 with high gain on for those 47 ohm headphones, in fact i prefer it
I have a pair of hyperx clouds and their impedance is 32 but i have them plugged into a big ass amp that my dad bought in the 90's and was back then the best but my question is: if i buy these will the sound quality be better?
+Hessel Gamed A dac and an AMP are two very different things. If you're currently using an amp, you're just "amplifying" (duh :P) the signal your computer's internal dac sends but if you use a dac+headphone amp, the sound is no longer processed by your computer.
DragonFly no contest because it have a superior DAC inside. But in the end, it all depends on your ears and headphones to notice a difference. Also do keep in mind that the difference won't be as amazing you think it will be. It will make the sound more refined and higher quality but it is not day and night difference.
Don't believe youtube reviews, most are new comers. What I found out that the FiiO E10k Olympus 2 is the worst. The Fiio X1 sound better. The Cowon even sound better than Fiio. Now I order the Arcostic Research player.
Thanks to the FiiO E10K and it's great sound quality I actually can't stop hearing t his guy swallow every 2 seconds.
which is annoying, thanks FiiO
I had my E10 mute the left channel and on manipulating the switch/volume POT, the left channel would start working.
Eventually I was fed up and opened it up.
Turns out, that due to repeated bending of the 'daughter board' while turning the unit on and off seemed to have cracked the solder joints joining the daughter board to the mother board.
Wicked all the old solder and correctly re-soldered all the connections between the two.
Started working perfectly!!!
I started out out looking if anyone had any similar issues,but it turned into a full fledged solder job lol!
Thanks a lot for the teardown!
THIS!!!!
Thanks man, I had the exact same problem happen to me with my E10K, I took it apart but I couldn't notice the cracked solder joints at first glance. Now that I know what might be causing this problem I'll try to get it fixed
Concerning the USB connector at 2:00:
I bought the FiiO E10K Olympus 2 in December 2018, and I’m using it with AKG 702 headphones. The USB connector of the model I have has a perfectly snug fit, and nothing is standing out. It seems like they revised the design a little to improve the fit of the USB connector.
can confirm
same 4 me
Very in-depth video! This video, I believe, proves the effort and quality that FiiO put into this nice little product. The topology is pretty good.
Using this device as a dedicated DAC, it's freaking awesome! There is no noise! It's super clean! *And the sound quality speaks for itself!* The amp part? Eh... I'd rather use a powerful pure class A. Especially if you own a glorious planar magnetic headphone.
Thanks for the video. I was thinking about taking mine apart just to see what was inside and what it looked like, but now I don't have to open it and risk damaging something. Thanks for the great video.
A drawback (the drawback IMO) of this DAC is that it draws much power. This sometimes results in some faint background constant sizzling sound which is constant in volume (does not depend on volume knob position). So I assume it is caused by insufficient decoupling from power the lines. This is especially pronounced when plugged into an USB hub with other devices.
Many thanks for this presentation. Actually I have a second one, the first sounded crackly when I turned the volume knob, but a quick clean inside with a cotton bud cleaned up some dust, after which curing the crackles, I screwed it back together again and gave it to a friend, who was delighted.
I use AKG K712PRO open-backed headphones whose impedance is 62 ohms, and am delighted. I love both headphones and this FiiO DAC. It was a great purchase, and remains so.
I had the same problem, using electical contact cleaner and waiting 10 minutes fixed it for me.
"Power LED which is that nice blue"
nooooooooo blue LED's are the worst
This is why I haven't bought this product, I hate it so much. I was thinking if its possible to solder on a different colour one...
Isaac it is, there are some tutorials on reddit and youtube
@@Cloudy_Canadian That's the first thing I'll do, probably replace it with white
My USB sits flush with my FiiO E10K. At first, it seemed to get stuck exactly where yours is in the video, but then I pushed a little more, and it sits completely flush now. Yours isn't as inserted as mine is.
As for the Micro USB port it is fine on mine, you just have to plug the Micro usb plug fully in, it's a bit of a tight fit the first few times.
love the quality of your channel!
Mine got its 3.5mm headphones Jack damaged or some issue because I can't hear both sides L R at the same time unless I move the connector in a funny way.
Wish you'd teardown and review the internals of the Fiio Q1.
Victor Coss your wish has been granted, check my channel!
I can turn it up all the way for a short while but it is LOUD with SoundMagic E11 and Sennheiser HD25-1. On high gain it is fairly loud by about 2-3 and by 4-5 you are starting to be able to rock out and 8 is like rave volume! On highly compressed rock/metal (think Green Day's American Idiot album) and hardstyle tracks it's too loud by about "5" on high gain.
Low gain everything is about "60%" as loud but you can still get quite loud even on low gain with sensitive in ear headphones. For just talk shows and medium quiet music, "1" is enough on high gain and "1-2" on low gain.
On my less efficient Philips SHP2500 it can get reasonably loud but not overwhelming.
TY with this I got rid of that wretched EXTREMELY overpowered uninhibited blue light. Shoulda done this like 2 years ago.
about to do the same lol, what a mess it is
Would anyone know what's the max voltage measured at headphone out with 1Khz Sine wave @ 0dBFS?
Mine fell (from only 1 meter) and now only the right channel is working. If I open it what should I be looking for ? Thanks !
I'm seriously thinking about this DAC, but I only have an Audio Technica ath-ax3. Is the e10k worth buying for that low-end headphone?
It really depends on what you're using to drive them right now. For example, I use a Mac for personal use and the sound driver is really high quality. My work computer, however, is a cheap Dell with a horrid sound card. The difference is even noticeable with earbuds on the Dell but hardly on the Mac.
What would happen if we changed that chip with a quality DSP chip, maybe (TMS320) would this make this amp sound even better ?
Connection on my headphone out has become loose on the board, is there anyone willing to give direction on how to solder or restore the connection. A friend told me to lightly clamp and place into a low oven...seemed risky. Any help would be appreciated.
anyone know what part i can order to replace my headphone jack? mine broke and i don't knowwhat i need
My Fiio got some distorsion on headphones, on coaxial output everything is ok, but lineout and headphones got very bad sound, it was not like that from the begining...i open it, everything looks ok... Any help?
Anyone know how these compare to say a Scarlett 2i2 for driving headphones? I tested the scarlett recently, and was seriously impressed at the improvement over the onboard audio on my Asus ROG laptop, but I wouldn't mind something smaller and cheaper if the difference wasn't really discernible
Nice video!
Hi
Nice review...
can you please help me in selecting a DAC between Audioengine D1 or Fiio E10 K for my self powered Thonet and vander TITAN speakers?
I am from India, Audioengine D1 is not available here but Fiio E10 K is available on Amazon.
My only use will be to connect my laptop with DAC & self-powered speakers.
waiting for your reply....
Thanks
Can I use the RCA connections on this to use the unit as a cheap pre-amp for power amps?
Great video! I love mine and it sounds very good.
My speakers have 2 RCA inputs and this only has 1 output.... can i still use it?I have a5+ speakers
thats beautiful teared down.... have to say!
well mate I am searching for a budget dac to hook up my jbl lsr305 studio monitor just of r music listening... I am stuck between 2 choices: one is FiiO E10k and other one is dragonfly v1.2... I really dont care about portablity or functionality because I will use it only with my jbls and mac. So the one will give me better sound stage and clear sound I will pick that one up. can you please guide me on this.... would be really great help.
THanks
would this give better sound to a pair of Audio Technica M50x's?
+TheRazerHD Definitely. Being only 38 Ohms this would provide enough power to blow your ears out, too. I generally only use mine at a volume level of 3 or so.
RadRider33 Great! :D
+TheRazerHD Not that my input would be as valuable as Rad's, but... definitely haha. This thing does wonders for Sennheiser HD 598's and the M50x's from my personal experience.
+TheRazerHD It isnt for good headphones its for bad computers
Was wondering the same thing, if computer can drive them well, would DAC make a difference in comparison to onboard Realtek audio driver that is.
I am thinking of buying the ATH-AD1000X. Is the FiiO E10K a good amp for the ATH-AD1000X? And what do you think of the AD1000x? Do you know any better headphones for that price or not?
+KairosSecond its a bit late, but I own the AD2000x, and they are really great sound quality wise, but... the wing system is too loose its kinda annoying, since it doesn't really hold your head it just rests on it all the weight of the headphones comes down to your jaw
+mor339 I bought the Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium 250 ohm :D
FiiO E10K or AudioEngine 1D? i want to run beyerdynamic DT990 250ohms at my PC
10:30
no they did not do a good job, the reason you don't hear a hum when theres no audio playing is because the audio playback is disabled automatically (there is a ~0.1 second cutoff whenever audio starts playing as well, which is annoying)
I don't get that behaviour at all. No noticable delay, and definitely no background hiss. What do you have it connected to? I have mine on my PC and there's zero differences to audio behaviour than having headphones plugged directly into an aux output.
@@GrandHighGamer Yeah I looked into this and apparently it's only an issue with the old E10k (or E10) because the new one has a different DAC. It even says in FAQ on Fiio website that they fixed this bug iirc.
can we connect micro usb directly to plug in as iam about use it on laptop?
I don't know why but my newly bought E10K's LED doesn't turn on at all (it did on the first time). Should I ask for a new one?
Someone else removed the LED on purpose, so it's really up to you. I like having a visual indicator, but blue isn't ideal for it, so I wouldn't care much either way.
What's the model # for the potentiometer?
hello, serves the Sennheiser HD 598, hd558, Audio Technica Ath-m50x?
Yes, drives HD 598 well on low gain, but lacks power to push low end on very high levels - not a problem to me, because I don't listen at such high levels. No problems with high efficency IEMS also because of very low output impedance and pushes those IEMS very hard.
For some un-explainable reason my phone cant drive my headphones, i dont understand how a phone cant drive a pair of bluetooth headphones (not using bluetooth) that run at 47 ohms, also i can comfortably listen to music at volume level 8 with high gain on for those 47 ohm headphones, in fact i prefer it
Sry, but in the first seconds of your video, 0:56, you say you need to put your sound volume from pc (input) on max to get best quality? Why is that?
The digital output is 24 Bits. If you're at a lower volume, you're using fewer Bits resulting in a lower Quality
I have a pair of hyperx clouds and their impedance is 32 but i have them plugged into a big ass amp that my dad bought in the 90's and was back then the best but my question is: if i buy these will the sound quality be better?
Sound quality likely will be if we're talking 90's analog tech vs today's digital. Also: this thing is tiny compared to what you've likely got.
+RadRider33 yea it would be really tiny.
+Hessel Gamed A dac and an AMP are two very different things. If you're currently using an amp, you're just "amplifying" (duh :P) the signal your computer's internal dac sends but if you use a dac+headphone amp, the sound is no longer processed by your computer.
Ah ok thank you Potus ThePlant
front headphone jack on mines busted, only plays the right channel :(
please teardown Dragonfly DAC
Hello,
Between the Dragon Fly Black (V1.5) or Fiio E10k what is the best??
I play games and lissen to spotify.
Thanks
DragonFly no contest because it have a superior DAC inside. But in the end, it all depends on your ears and headphones to notice a difference. Also do keep in mind that the difference won't be as amazing you think it will be. It will make the sound more refined and higher quality but it is not day and night difference.
So does a DAC use software codecs?
IS IT FIIYO OR FAIYO!?
I WANNA PUNCH THE SCREEN EVERYTIME SOMEONE SAYS FAIYO! Since I've always heard Fiiyo.
I think i will replace the LED once i get mine, i'm the not biggest fan of blue. GO WHITE!
Easy swap !
OPA1642
the potentiometer on these things suck
Can I use this with XBOX1? My headphones are 60 impedance.
No but you can use an optical to audio converter. Cheap as beans on Amazon.
I got a Sondblaster E1 comes tomorrow. Hope this Sound Blaster E1 will work.
Not RGB? Nah, pass
Why don't you try to make a video with a decent sound, like 8 billion peope are capable of, before you start reviewing audio equipment?
Don't believe youtube reviews, most are new comers. What I found out that the FiiO E10k Olympus 2 is the worst. The Fiio X1 sound better. The Cowon even sound better than Fiio.
Now I order the Arcostic Research player.
Altex lan define what "better" is... everyone have their own opinion about how thing sounds.
Altex lan to each his own.
now I use Acostic Research. it sound great n expensive,
"Don't believe to youtube reviews" but believe to random stangers in the comments?