So sánh fiio e18 và q1

The proliferation of truly mobile audio devices (post-Walkman/Discman), starting with the iPod, has made music-on-the-go a new norm, something taken for granted. Along the way, the audio quality declined rapidly thanks to compression, ear-bud junk masquerading as headphones, and the-listener-doesn’t-care-about-quality attitude as regards the digital to analog conversion on these devices.

Mobility over Fidelity no More

True, many listeners didn’t care that much or, in any case, went happily along with the mobility-over-fidelity trend, when this was an either/or proposition. With the two-pronged developments of a counter-movement against impoverished sound on the one hand and space-and-bandwidth-are-no-issue data storage/streaming on the other, that means lossy compression is becoming unnecessary and the situation has changed considerably.

The majority of listeners may arguably feel well enough served by their iPhones or other portable devices as audio sources, with either Apple’s or other mediocre earbuds pumping in the sound, but even the mainstream market is trending towards more quality. The headphone industry has been the first to feel and demark a seismic shift. (See also: ) But good headphones only sound as good as their source… or worse: expose the lack of quality in a source more obviously. Mobile devices and personal computers are particularly offensive culprits. They aren’t made to reproduce sound in anything like an accurate manner; the level of conversion of digital signals into analogue waves that soundcards are capable of is, in a word, pitiful.

Teac HA-P5 • Shure SHA900 • FiiO Alpen 2 E17k • FiiO Q1 • FiiO E18 Kunlun • FiiO E10K Olympus 2 •... [+] iFi nano iDSD LE all in a pile

j.f.laurson

The Candidates

This conversion is easily the single most important factor in any music chain, up to the point of the reproduction devices (headphones or speakers). Fortunately, this is easily fixed: plug a dedicated Digital/Analog Converter into a computer, which takes the unaltered digital signal from it and ushers it to safety outside the computer, converts it and then takes sound from that device’s output – with or without amplification, as needed – to your headphones or speakers. Voilà: execrable sound becomes immediately decent or better. Over the last years, DACs have become increasingly important and visible elements in hi-fi chains, and only ever half a step behind them are mobile DACs. From a rare few such gizmos, we’ve gone in under five years to a veritable glut of quality devices that aim to take your digital sound and make the best of it, while you are on the road. For this review, I have listened to 7 such units:

Teac HA-P5 • Shure SHA900 • FiiO Alpen 2 E17k • FiiO Q1 • FiiO E18 Kunlun • FiiO E10K Olympus 2 • iFi nano iDSD LE

The criteria for inclusion were mobility and ability to drive different types of headphones… in other words, combined DACs and headphone amplifiers, that could connect to a computer (mainly) and also to a mobile phone (as a bonus for me, since I don’t use my phone as a music player).

The Criteria

In judging the DACs, I looked at six different criteria in four steps: Sound Quality, Intuitive Handling, Quality Feel, Utility, Mobility, and Looks, attributing one of four quality levels to each category.

“Looks” and “Feel” – the visual and haptic/handling qualities – are self-explanatory if obviously on the subjective side. “Sound quality” is in part subjective and certainly so given the relatively small levels of difference between these devices. This much up front: All devices improved the sound from the source dramatically when used on a computer, but the differences between them were nuanced. None were less than what can reasonably be considered ‘very good’. “Intuitive handling” means both, the plug-and-play ability and software aspect (if and where necessary) as well as the day-to-day handling of the physical object, accessibility of options et al. Since none of the devices were truly plug-and-play without installing software either manually or automatically, none got a ‘perfect’. “Mobility” is a matter of size but also convenience in use while traveling… fairly straight forward and all but two of these devices were at least very good in this aspect. The “utility” of a device means firstly that it does what it is supposed to: easily convert a digital audio signal to analog and amplify the signal appropriate for a variety of headphones – on the go. But there are bonuses that may be important to some and not others (like a digital-In or being able to serve a backup battery for your phone) that will push a device’s OK utility into the realm of the very good or outstanding.

A note on resolution: All listening was done with at CD quality levels (16 bit, 44.1kHz); no listening was done to High-Resolution files, either downloads or SACDs. High resolution is supported by these devices (the iFi even prides itself of supporting 31Bit/384kHz) and there certainly are people who believe they hear these differences and even more who claim it, but you won’t see such claims put to double-blind tests. I opt to focus on the realm where most quality-conscious (but not clinically audiophilitic) people do their listening and where most people’s ability to differentiate stops or, at the very least, where the differences become very small, indeed.

Listening with:

To listen to, I used my primary mobile headphones, Etymōtic ER•4 (~$230) to test sound, then, in order to also test the capabilities of the amplifying aspect of these dual DAC/headphone amps, the equally revealing but more demanding Sennheiser HD800 (300Ω) and the very demanding HD580 (Ed. 600300Ω). I also tested a pair of just-released RHA CL1 Ceramic ($450) earbuds with these DACs, which I approached partly with high hopes, and partly with suspicion. I have a pair of RHA T20i (RHA’s former top model; ~$250), with which I listened also, and I love everything about them – their build, the attention to detail, the looks, their feel, even the packaging – except the sound. With headphones, that’s of some importance. To quote myself :

“They color the sound, they enhance the bass, and lift the lower to middle frequencies which, at best, gives the sound a warm, saturated glow. They beautify and glorify – to the point where they make my laptop sound listenable (sometimes even impressive) when feeding directly into headphones.”

But they really do make a mes of the source’s actual recorded sound, to which I am allergic. The T20i are, in short, built for the modern listener who likes to boost fun over veracity-in-sound. I, on the other hand, want total accuracy in my listening equipment, even if it means hearing the conductor turn the pages or the cellist wheeze, the pianist mumble, the strings of a badly voiced violin grate, or simply a bad recording unmasked for what it is. The RHA CL1 Ceramic looked an appealing choice, then, because in addition to everything I know and like about the company’s product, they promise to be “dedicated to accuracy, precision and true-to-life sound”.

Plugging the RHA CL1s into one of the DACs (the TEAC, for a first impression) produces at once impressive, full-bodied results. For such little headphones, their impedance is quite impressive (well, high, in any case): Ω150. I noticed when the sound, for all the saturatedness, was a little emaciated at first but improved when switching the DAC to high gain rather than simply turning up the volume. As you would expect. Bass notes appear in fat black, many details are audible and yet those details seem slightly veiled. It made my ears suspect coloring and warmifying again, although much, much less prominently so than with the T20i. Over time I began to appreciate them ever more. Unlike the T20i which are a lifestyle product catering to faddish listening (albeit at a very high level), it turns out that the CL1 are true high fidelity headphones.

When attached to most mobile devices, the RHA CL1s benefit very much from amplification and indeed they can bring their own to the party, since RHA has their own mobile DAC/Amp to go with the RHA CL1, the RHA DACAMP L1 ($550) but it was, alas, not part of this comparison.

The CL1 are less heavy than the T20i, which is a bonus, because those relatively large casings in the ears can become uncomfortable after longer periods of wear. The ER•4 are sufficiently uncomfortable in their own way (but much, much lighter), which means there’s no clear winner between the two. The build-quality of the RHA does, however, produce an easy winner, and adds to the attraction of the item. Ditto better, much less microphonic, thicker, very soft cables which, granted, tangle with gusto! Two cables, even: the ‘standard’ “braided high-purity OFC cable with 3.5mm and 6.35mm terminations” and a balanced cable with 4pin Mini XLR termination that finds use with the RHA DACAMP L1.

What is also hugely appreciated is the fact that the earbuds can be detached from the cables, or more to the point: the cables from the earbuds. A broken cable can be more cheaply replaced than fixed, if it can be fixed at all. That is a notable advantage because the cables turn out to be the ER•4’s weak spot. If I were not quite as obsessed with total neutrality and accuracy in my headphones, and if the ER•4 didn’t have a considerable price advantage, the CL1s would be my new favorites and workhorse headphones. They are the Bowers & Wilkins 800 series among headphones to the Thiel Audio Loudspeakers of the ER•4. As it is, the former will remain my monitors of choice for now.

The Listening

…started, simply because it was the first unit to arrive, with the Teac HA-P5 (~$500), which is the latest mobile DAC/Amp in that company-family. Out of the box the HA-P5 is a beautiful all-aluminum flattened cylinder. At 185g, the device has a nice weight: enough for a quality feel and not seem flimsy, light enough not to be cumbersome. It’s a little longer than a pack of cigarettes or, to use a more 21st century comparison: about twice, trice as thick as a mobile phone, and otherwise the same dimensions as a smartphone on what’s by now on the smaller side. The volume knob (which is also the On-function, which is intuitive) is sunk into the top and offers enough resistance not to turn by accident, even if you were running with the HA-P5 stuck in your tight jeans. A very nice touch is the little copper ring around the headphone jack. Seeing that most other such devices have more than one 3.5mm input/output on the front side, this sets the headphone jack apart more and better than on any of the other devices. It might be embarrassing to detail how often I’ve plugged my headphones into one of these DACs, finding myself frustrated why the darn thing wouldn’t work… until I noticed that I had plugged myself in the wrong hole. The more I used the TEAC – and even more when using other DACs without this little attentive detail – the more I learned to appreciate this.

Plug and Play: Not quite. All the cables necessary come with the device, but the idea of simply connecting the DAC to the PC, plugging in earphones and hearing sounds made by the computer via the headphones in good quality did not materialize. Instead, on my clumsy way there, I managed experienced a BSOD instead. Ditto when plugging the device into an Android phone: Nothing happens. The annoyance factor rising, I headed for the product support site, which was easy enough to find. Alas, the firmware update instructions exist only for iPhones and other iOS-running Apple gadgets… which leaves it unclear as to whether the iPhone needs the update, or the DAC. Intemperate as I tend to be when electronic devices don’t seem to do my bidding, I started flailing about.

Installing the TEAC Audio player, which should not have been (and wasn’t) necessary in the first place, yielded no results: “Playback device is not available (device = )”. Then, finally, after hitting “Configure” on the player, it worked, after all. But now I was nearly as annoyed for not knowing why it worked as I was for it not working. But would it work using another software, like Qobuz? Sure enough, the option for the TEAC USB now was available in the Qobuz Desktop application and worked like a charm. Foobar? MusiCHI Music Player? Ditto. The solution: I had meanwhile also installed the TEAC USB DAC Asio Driver. Perhaps – nay: obviously – I should have done so, right away. Page five of the manual, where this is spelled out, certainly thinks so. In fairness: The TEAC suffered mainly from being the guinea pig, rather than being unusually obstinate. The TEAC Audio player, meanwhile, is a simple, clean nifty CD-playing device which I wouldn’t mind using more when listening to just one CD, except it only works when the TEAC DAC is connected; not when it isn’t or another device is hooked up.

A size comparison of the Teac HA-P5 and Shure SHA900

j.f.laurson

How to get the Android phone to play through the DAC, though? A USB OTG (On-The-Go) micro-B to micro-B cable and a phone that is willing to support it should do the trick. Mine, sadly, doesn’t, and none of those in my acquaintances’ realm did either. This aspect might have to wait for a review of its own then.

The HA-P5 has a 5V DC-In for charging out of an outlet but does not come with an AC adapter a.k.a. wall wart. That is a smart move: Most people have one and/or won’t need one for the device, which also charges via a USB cable (connected to a computer or cell-phone charger) and they certainly don’t carry one around when the idea is to be mobile. It avoids electro-junk lying about and knocks a few cent off the price. But the option is there, i.e. when the device is used in a stationary stereo system for which it is well equipped. The fact that the device switches on manually but turns itself off automatically if it hasn’t received a signal for a while is hugely useful and convenient. The point was driven home when I constantly caught myself leaving the devices on, after mobile use.

One item of very specific utility – but one I happen to be keen on – is the digital Coax-In on this DAC. Only the HA-P5 and the FiiO Alpen 2 E17K offer this feature and both use a 3.5mm jack (with the necessary adapter included) to allow connection from a Coax-Out plug from another device, allowing you to use the DAC on a machine without USB connections. Specifically, this is practical if you have a CD player with a mediocre DAC or without a headphone jack or – more commonly encountered – without a potentiometer to adjust the volume. Connecting the HA-P5 to such a CD player immediately turns such device with a digital OUT (or a CD transport) into a small headphone-optimized stereo with a very small footprint.

The sound: The principle issue is the absolutely beyond-atrocious sound of my computer’s sound card and the believe-it-or-not worse sound of the Realtek “High Definition Audio” driver, which has nothing whatsoever to do with “High Definition” but everything with a muffled, artificially reverberating mess that sounds so bad that I absolutely can’t listen to it all. What a relief to switch over to the TEAC: Clean and civilized with an absolutely satisfying, ‘black-nothingness’ virtually non-existent noise-floor. So good, so neutral, and so pleasant, in fact, that over the course of listening to other DACs, the TEAC emerged – until the last ‘testling’ came along – as the one against which to judge the others. When asked to drive the high resistance HD 580, it proved itself well suited to the challenge. The bass remained natural and the voices detailed; the power of the piano-violin Duo Brüggen-Plank, which supplied the Szymanowski works for that stage of the testing (Genuin 17459), was projected directly but not ostentatiously. That said, and fairly obviously, not even the best of the mobile devices could compete on the HD580 with the Estro Armonico tube amplifier custom-made for these headphones (a proto-type), which reveals a depth and presence down to creaking floor-boards (metaphorical and, depending on the recording venue, literal) that no other amplification has achieved. The comparison is not only unfair, though, but also skewed, since listening to the this amp always involved a very different DAC.

Next up the Shure SHA900 (~$900), which comes in a particularly sturdy box that aims to impress. Once the included micro-fiber polishing cloth is whisked away, its solid little body sparkles at the beholder. The polished chrome top and bottom of the DAC/Amp attracts finger prints immediately, so the cloth makes plenty sense. Because it is a little more compact than the TEAC HA-P5, it almost feels weightier when it is actually a negligible ~6g lighter. The thick prominent volume knob (not protected from accidental turning, but the Shure has a lock-switch for that purpose) looks half-way between luxury and gaudy. The device charges automatically on plugging a USB cable into it and in fact that is the only way to charge it… just like a modern mobile phone. It does come with its own USB charger and cable.

Although I know better by now than not to read the manual, it’s only fair that I don’t… not the least because I am surely not alone in expecting, lazily, everything to be plug-and-play these days. Temporary unable to access the Qobuz online player, I turn to the trusty Naxos Music Library to listen to some Chopin Nocturnes with Claudio Arrau. Nothing. The TEAC Audio player also won’t find the device, which doesn’t, granted, surprise. Nor does any new option show up among the playback devices on the computer. To the instruction manual it is. Here comes the irony: The Shure should be plug-and-play: “The driver automatically installs when the amplifier is first plugged into a device. The SHA900 should take over as the default audio device. But what if it doesn’t? The solution is, again, embarrassing simple: The power button needs to be held for a good second, so that the device actually turns on (and longer still to turn off). Voila. Holding it for less than that, only turns on the little pixel-display to show how full the battery is. Now it installs itself and… nothing. (And yes, the input switch is on USB, not line.) Manually setting the device as the default in the windows menu finally fixes it.

The Sound: The Nocturnes are beautiful, the sound is rich – almost too rich – but hissy. The Shure sound strikes me as just a touch warmer than the TEAC, but the difference here is marginal and I am moving on to something I know sounds very good: Harpsichord sonatas of Fr. Antonio Soler, played by Diego Ares on an very nicely recorded Harmonia Mundi disc. (Albeit in the very decent, though hardly Hi-Res mp3 quality of the Naxos Music Library.) I try to compare the sound of this DAC and the TEAC by plugging both in, one set of Etymotic ER4 in each DAC and the a right-side bud in each ear while shifting back and forth the playback-device default. The impression remains: The Shure seems to add a touch of warmth and bloom while the TEAC is a little colder, the euphemism of choice being “analytical”. It’s an attractive sound, but with my strong predilections for a totally honest and, indeed, analytical sound, I suspect the Shure of ‘beautifying’. At the same time there’s a lingering impression of the Shure adding a hint of accentuated brilliance to the notes. The equalizers which the Shure offers – accessed via a quick-click on the volume button – can make matters better or worse, according to taste. I prefer not to touch them. The menu thus reached, I manage to set the output gain to low (the TEAC has a switch for that), which improves matters considerably. That done, I can barely move, because I am trapped in an unholy headphone tangle that occurred in the process.

The Shure has an Analog-IN, via 3.5mm jack, which is convenient but it wouldn’t seem a priority to listen in that way (and definitely not on a computer), skipping the DAC and employing it merely as an amplifier. On plugging it in, after initialization, it is not always automatically recognized (depending on which program is emitting the sounds), which means that each time it needs manual adjustment of the default playback device or even restarting the program which is meant to employ the DAC: annoying if hardly unique to the SHA-900. For anyone using different headphones where they might want to switch back and forth the gain from time to time, the way of doing this via the menu isn’t ideal either. When the apparatus is attached via USB and loading, it lights up the same way as if it were already turned on, which can cause momentary confusion. I’d chide the menu and how it is navigated as not particularly intuitive (with the double click of the volume wheel), but that, presumably, one would get used to quite quickly if one only operated it often enough (and not always a different DAC in between.) If the Shure DAC, for all its obvious and indeed ostentatious quality doesn’t seem competitive at its price, it might be remembered that it was specifically designed to be part of the $3000 Shure KSE1500 Electrostatic Earphone System… one of the first electrostatic sound isolating earbuds on the market. God knows what it is able to pull off with those!

FiiO

No company has more options and choice or shows more dedication to that specific niche market of mobile DACs/headphone amplifiers than the Chinese company FiiO whose very company motto is to dispel the prejudice about “Made in China”, with its attention to detail and quality and a becoming dash of elegant understatement. It starts with the fact that there isn’t a single misspelled word nor any translation-fails in the instruction manual. Their focus on this niche became obvious when I didn’t know which FiiO to send into the race, seeing that they have so many different DAC/headphone amps in their lineup. I ended up with four FiiOs in the running.

The FiiO Alpen 2 E17K (~$100) is a DAC and headphone amplifier. It comes in a cute little box that hints of its compact dimensions and indeed, the apparatus that slips out of the protection pouch with which it comes has a very different, more slender appearance than the Shure and TEAC apparatuses. Its weight and very solid feel belies its size, though… or rather: hint at the fact that it is not as small as it looks: It’s really only two cm shorter than the HA-P5 and not even one cm shorter than the SHA900; just about as wide as the HA-P5 and 4mm wider than the SHA900: Its very distinctly different looks stem from the fact that it is less than 12mm thick and modeled after audio players, not audio tools. Like the HA-5P the FiiO has a 3.5mm digital Coax-In (and the necessary adapter) included, which I find highly useful and certainly more useful than the 3.5mm analog Auxiliary-In that some other mobile devices have in its stead.

Out of the box, the FiiO – any FiiO – is easy to use. The device is very intuitively handled and best of all: immediately upon being connected with the computer prompts its own recognition. This takes a while and you still have to set the default playback device to it, but that’s the only hurdle. The menu (where gain, equalization, balance, memory volume et al. can be set) is easily accessed through a click on the volume wheel and easier still navigated. The monochrome display (OLED 128×64/1.3 inch) is bigger than the three-color display of the SHA900. “Hold” is activated by a longish press on a little button on the front that corresponds to the power on/off button: A touch less convenient than a mechanical button or switch, but not inconvenient enough to present a bother in the long run. There are three gain levels to choose from, recommended for headphones with an impedance from 16-150Ω. Technically that means high-impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD800 (300Ω) and the dated but trusty HD580 (600Ω) with which I listened are beyond it. But it can drive even the demanding HD580s reasonably well. Of course it would look highly silly (and be impractical) to don either of these ‘open’ models in public, but for that extra bit of home-utility I listened with those models to each DAC anyway. As on the Kunlun, the bass gain is quite subtle and never unpleasant, though I wouldn’t touch it for regular listening all the same. The Alpen also has the next best thing to the TEAC’s auto-turn-off function, namely a sleep function that can be accessed through the menu and which can be set to a maximum of 90 minutes.

The Sound: The usual, massive improvement over the PC’s soundcard. Compared to the other devices, the devices the difference was again so small that I wouldn’t rule out the difference between my left ear and right ear (assuming, as I do, that ears hear as differently as two eyes in one head see differently, which is more pronounced than we tend to think) to contribute to some of it. Sometimes it sounded clearer than the SHA900, more detailed, and better at bringing out middle voices of an orchestra. Sometimes it sounded harsher, less homogenous (less ‘soundstage’), certainly less warm at high volumes, but occasionally also less bloated than the SHA900 in big tutti sections. It also had a way of making the music sound strangely uncomfortable at certain levels, a phenomenon which disappeared after switching back to it from a different DAC. Compared to the TEAC it lacked a notable bit of air between the notes and depth while adding a slight bit of warmth which, on neutral headphones, does no harm but will, with headphones that already ‘warmify’, push it into a direction that is not aligned with my taste. With that little caveat, the combination of utility and price and given the vast improvement in sound over not using a DAC, this device quickly became one of my favorites.

The FiiO Q1 (~$70) comes without the satchel but otherwise the packaging is just as nice as the Alpen’s. (Not that that should matter; you’ll never think about the box again, after a few days of use.) The device looks and feels absolutely great: A matt black little flask with a protruding protected volume knob where you would otherwise sip your single malt from. It has only the headphone jack on that same side, and a bass-boost button. No display; a bottom switch for the gain boost and one to switch charging on and off. The latter is less important when hooked up to a laptop but purposeful when hooked to a phone. For that purpose, all the explicitly mobile FiiOs also come with several black, thick and wide rubber bands to make a convenient sandwich of your two devices. Such a sandwich might have problems given the convex flask-form, but the device comes with little vinyl (or some soft plastic) placemats that, placed between a phone and the Q1, solve that problem. It has a line-In and Out (sharing the same port) but lacks the digital Coax-In which speaks to it being more pointedly a mobile-only device (and available for a few dollars less). The line-Out is activated when the device is used as a DAC via the USB cable; otherwise it functions as a Line-In. With it in line-Out mode, the device becomes a headphone amp only, i.e. for use on a digital music player or phone – hopefully with a decent DAC of its own. Or, if you still have one as I do, a CD Walkman, where amplification alone improved the sound slightly and enabled a greater choice of headphones to use with. This is where the tiny 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack comes in, making it easy to connect such a player or phone to the Q1 while they are bundled together. The rather low price tag also shows in the bottom and top plates, which are faux brushed aluminum (i.e. plastic).

The sound is similar to the E17K Alpen 2, perhaps a touch warmer, with a little more noise, and greater directness… just a hint less satisfying in direct comparison. Still, for looks and price, this might be the winner for anyone looking for mobility without bells and whistles and simply overcoming a bad DAC with a good one. Same as the Olympus, the Q1 can drive the HD580 creditably, but not as well as its FiiO buddies Alpen and Kunlun or even the iFi. As the Teac and Shure amps expose, the result is either a little limp or, at the same level of loudness, shrill. Still, the difference is more subtle than one would think, especially compared to plugging these headphones directly into a computer or other player’s headphone jack, where whatever sound does come through, sound slack and lifeless.

The FiiO E10K Olympus 2 (~$76) has the micro-bulky look of a device made for a discerning audiophile who needs a mobile device plunked down next to his computer rather than the style-conscious musicophile who likes to travel with great sound in his pocket. It’s still tiny and therefore mobile in that sense and also too small to be entirely practical in stationary home-use, but it is also a desktop item with protruding Coaxial out cinch jack, a large unprotected (but not too easily adjusted) volume wheel, and lack of a hold/lock-function. It’s somewhere between a match box and a mousetrap in size, and strangely adorable for a black bit of metal with a wheel on it. Like its brethren, it has a gain switch, bass-boost switch (I wouldn’t touch it, but for those who like to tickle their eardrums with a bit more whoomp it’s a bonus), a line-Out and a Coax-Out plug. The lack of a Coax-In makes it slightly less flexible as described above, if not by much for most users. With its small footprint and conveniently reachable, pleasantly large volume knob it’s well suited for being putting next to your laptop on the road (be it in a train or hotel). Strapping this to your phone, though, would look plain silly.

The Sound: The E10 does the same thing all devices do: It takes the absolutely dismal sound output of a computer and turns it into listenable, good stuff. While it showed limits in how loud it could make the Etymotic headphones play (on Lo Gain; High Gain raises the noise floor in an – wait for the pun – ungainly way), it strangely had no problems pushing the higher-impedance RHA CL1 (even in the Lo Gain setting, though more easily still, and better, in the High Gain setting). In this combination, the CL1 sounded very good; listening to the Cuarteto Casals release of Mozart’s “Haydn” String Quartets (Harmonia Mundi) there was only a touch less depth and richness audible compared to the HP-5, which had by now emerged as my touchstone; a hint harder in the edges of the strings. The Olympus can even drive the Sennheiser HD580, but not as well as its other FiiO buddies or the iFi, much less the Teac or Shure gizmos.

The FiiO E18 Kunlun (~$110) makes its other family members look cute. Although still a little slimmer than the HA-P5 (shy of 15mm vs. 21), it is a bit longer and just as wide (though wider-looking because it does not have the rounded corners of the TEAC model. It’s a solid block of black, brushed aluminum with a volume knob (attached to a potentiometer, rather than amplifying digitally) that turns with enough resistance (and is encapsulated from the top) not to need a hold function. Similarly, all other buttons and switches (Hi and Lo gain) are solid and easily pressed or changed manually but not likely unintentionally. Everything is mechanical; there’s no menu and screen, which is actually nice and efficient.

The E18 is built to become your Android phone’s best friend and it even doubles as a battery pack for a phone, although in that mode you won’t be able to use the E18 as a DAC. The device has a digital Coax Out, but no Coax-In… which means that the amplification of the E18 can be used routing music through it, but not its DAC. Nor can the device double as a pre-amp/headphone amp for devices like old CD players which I have, as described above, put to good use that way. A rare utilization perhaps, but one I cherish and a big practicality-bonus in my book for the E17K and the HA-5P. The bass boost on the Kunlun (which I wouldn’t normally use) is subtle and musical rather than audibly impressive and distorting.

About the idea of only using the amplification through the Coax-In or Line-In jacks: This would seem to take away most of the attraction of and DAC/Amp, but if the source is decent enough (in my experiment various Discmen – is that the right plural?) and the headphones needy (starting with the RHA CL1 or when using a Y connector to attach two headphones for partner-listening on the road), the improvement in sound is notable and the device retains a still acceptable convenience-to-utility ratio.

The Sound: Listening to Christian Tetzlaff and friends performing Beethoven’s String Quartet op.132 (CAvi Music), the E18 sounds more immediate than the HA-P5, always a touch symphonic, but less transparent. Not greatly different from the E17K, actually… in any case not better in any notable or certain way, only slightly different. Between the TEAC and the FiiO (also, if less so, with the Shure) the difference became more pronounced listening to the Bach Cantata “Wachet auf, ruft uns dis Stimme”, from Masaaki Suzuki’s cycle on BIS (Vol. 52). Here the HA-5P brought out the details especially of the harpsichord more clearly, just as the Shure brought out the voice more to the foreground, with a less compressed feel to the proceedings. (Meanwhile: A comparison of the specs of the FiiO devices can be found here… a fine, picture-heavy review of the E17K on HeadFi here.) I like the all-mechanical aspects of the Kunlun (no menus, no displays; everything just a quick click away), the back-up battery element – which has come in handy on occasion, the build, and its looks. Except for the digital-In of its sibling, the Alpen, it might be my favorite in the FiiO family… but if I had to choose between battery backup and potential pre-amp for CD players, my inclination would be opting for the latter.

iFi nano iDSD LE

The model lineup of iFi teems with different models, to the point of confusing the heck out of their website’s visitor. The iFi nano iDSD LE (LE for “Light Edition”) is a member of the smallest and therefore most mobile of their models, the “nano” series. (There’s otherwise the longer shaped “micro” series and five-by-five inch studio-grade headphone amplifier to be had.) Like all the iFi gear, it is built and designed to appeal to the hard core of audiophile listeners. This is not cute, this is not sexy gear, and even at its most mobile this looks like solid, serious table-top gear with a solid aluminum volume knob, protruding (but plastic-cap protected) RCA line outputs on the front and a High-Speed Asynchronous USB 3.0/2.0 plug on the back. You could strap this to your cellphone (the rubber straps and pads to do this properly are supplied), but it’s not meant for that. Quality cables, rather than the usual flimsy stuff, are part of the package… and as the only device in this lineup the cable isn’t USB micro-B but the sturdier USB-B more typical of desk-top DACs or printers. The little light but sturdy thing oozes build-quality. The iFi units are all Hi-Res compatible, handling high-resolution files up to DSD128 and PCM192.

The nano iDSD LE is the entry-level DAC from iFi audio, the slimmed-down version of the nano iDSD, lacking its coax SPDIF output and digital filter selection. The coax output is of no concern to me (in fact I’m not quite sure where its use would come in), whereas a coax SPDIF input would increase its utility. But that can’t be found on a nano model. The sound of the two items should be identical for all my applications. Although you could miss the fact, from the information on the unusually brief and clear instruction sheet or their website, the iFi nano iDSD LE is also a headphone amplifier. Without bells, whistles, or a gain-switch, but 130mW output, it even does a very creditable job of driving the high-impedance Sennheiser HD580; really just as well as the FiiO Alpen and Kunlun

In combination with the New York Polyphony’s latest record “Roma Æterna” (renaissance masses by Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina on BIS-2203), the sound was staggering from the first second on. That despite this hybrid SACD only running on the laptop’s CD drive on the road. The way this gentle-yet-powerful music rose in absolute purity from just as absolute, pitch-black silence was immediately mesmerizing. The sound struck me as neutral but well-rounded, not sweet but smooth, without a hint of edge or glare. I felt after seconds that I should like to listen to music like this for hours – and after hours I still felt the same… although at least some of that praise also belongs to the vocal ensemble of New York Polyphony, whose rendition Missa Papæ Marcelli exudes the kind of perfection I had not hitherto experienced – including the Sistine Chapel Choir’s rendition that was recently a CD of the Week (“”). The impression remains excellent with any number of other discs: Masaaki Suzuki’s Mozart Mass in C-minor (BIS-2171) among them, displaying orchestra and voices equally well. The sound, compared to the one DAC which had become my subtle favorite at this time, the TEAC, proved to be every bit as clean, but with a little more room… although that was not an impression that consistently held up.

28.3mm thick | 101.7mm long | 64mm wide | 152g

The Conclusion

The short and sweet of it all, after 7000 words is: Every one of these DAC/headphone amps, whether $70 or $900 will more than sufficiently do the job of cleaning your computer’s sound up to very appreciable standards. The rest – i.e. the differences from one DAC to another – are details, nuances, functionality, looks, and how well they drive more demanding headphones. Although even that job is done creditably even by the least of candidates. If I went by sound quality alone, I might go by a hair’s breadth with the iFi. But as a portable unit, I find the iFi less convincing than most of the other units; what my impression has done, though, is that if and when I will be looking for a stationary DAC in the future, I will look close and hard at what iFi has to offer. My personal favorites, all-things-considered, were the TEAC, which simply has everything except tight-jeans-pocketability, and the FiiO Alpen, which does everything the TEAC does, nearly as well, which is nearly as functional as the FiiO Kunlun (and in some ways even more-so), which is very reasonably priced and a splendid compromise. The Shure might show more of its qualities in combination with the headphones for which it was made; as a stand-alone DAC/headphone amp it strikes me as splendid but, given the price, not remotely competitive… especially next to the TEAC.

The diversity and quality of all these products – and there are many more that fit this category that I have not heard: Oppo, Sony, Denon (products closely related to the TEAC), Shiit etc. – is a testament to a surge of attention to sound quality even on the Go. Hallelujah!

FLAC, ALAC, WAV, and even Hi-Res formats being the lossless alternatives, both compressed and uncompressed.

Not to be confused with its predecessor model TEAC HA-P50 (in turn all but identical Onkyo DAC-HA200).

This is a serious review, not “Are You Being Served”. Look for a bawdy pun elsewhere!

Though of course I also switched ears while listening to the same channel on identical headphones while toggling between devices.

Yes, I actually still own such devices and fine them immensely useful for my purposes – which is a lot of spontaneous specific CD-grabbing and listening on the road, without time or willingness to digitize them first.

So sánh fiio e18 và q1

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