Inexpensive and nicely-regarded FiiO E3 Mini/Portable Audio Amplifier

Thanks for posting the pics Hulk.  I’m on the fence about it, mainly because it’s yet another thing to keep charged. I assume you need to have a AAA recharger for it, so I couldn’t recharge it with my Clip.

Still it’s cheap, so I might pick one up just to play with.  Thanks for the post.

@cydewaze wrote:

Thanks for posting the pics Hulk.  I’m on the fence about it, mainly because it’s yet another thing to keep charged. I assume you need to have a AAA recharger for it, so I couldn’t recharge it with my Clip.

 

Still it’s cheap, so I might pick one up just to play with.  Thanks for the post.

Hey, no problem.  Yes, you’ll need an AAA recharger for the E3.  I’ve recently heard of the FiiO E5 coming sometime soon.  I believe it’ll actually have an on/off switch, a clip, and the ability to be charged through an USB port.

 

All the best,

Brad

I thought I’d post a couple of pics of my portable set-up in its new case.  It’s a Case Logic flash drive case I picked up at Office Depot for a dollar (the same day I got my new 'phones).  My brother and I bought nearly every one of these cases; we just couldn’t beat that price.

 

Here are the pics:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/ChironHeroTeacher/DSCF0001.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/ChironHeroTeacher/DSCF0004-1.jpg

 

As you can see, I’m able to fit my Clip, FiiO amp, interconnect cable, and two extra batteries for my amp and my 'phones neatly inside the case.  It’s also well padded, protecting everything inside and keeping it all in place.

 

All the best,

Brad

That thing is cool as heck!  Now I want one.

kwl sounds gd.

does it have a battery level indicator?

Message Edited by Zaim on 10-23-2008 03:05 PM

No.  I just keep an extra charged AAA battery along with it (which I would do regardless).  (That’s the nice thing about devices that use removable standard batteries–easy to have a spare around.  The E5 version of the amp., to be out next month or so, has a built-in rechargeable battery–while nice, it’s also a barrier.)

Can some1 plz explain how this amplifier works? how the clip knows to tell his intergrated amplifer to shut down itself? do the amplifer knows how to decode vorbis? thx

The E3 version of the FiiO amp turns on or off by inserting a cable (which would be connected to the Clip’s headphone jack) into or out of the amp’s input jack.  The E5 version will have an on-off switch.  As to the amp and equalizer in the Clip itself, there is no active interplay between them and the FiiO amp–you potentially would need to turn the Clip’s EQ “off,” if that’s what you want.  (That’s no issue for me, as I have the Clip’s EQ set to flat/normal as a general matter.)  If I recall correctly, the E5 version of the FiiO amp will have a control to eliminate extra bass that an input player has added, if that’s desired.

The FiiO amp doesn’t de-code–rather, it amplifies the audio signal that it already receives (in the case of ogg vorbis, the Clip de-codes the file and then sends the audio to the amp, just as it would send the audio to a pair of headphones).

Info. on the amp can be found at the manf.'s website, at http://www.fiio.com.cn/en/showproduct.asp?id=301.

I read on head-fi.org that using a rechargeable AAA battery may cause to have (maybe little) problems driving high impendance phones. Alkalines give more power than rechargables. Just an advice and maybe something to think about when deciding about buying a FiiO E3 or waiting for the new FiiO E5.

Ordered the black E3 last week, so should I be expecting it to be at my door by late next week? Well from the reviews about this amp, it seems worth the wait.

 $8.14 with free shipping is one h3ll of a deal though. With the added features of the coming-soon E5, do you think it’ll stay even near that price?

@webspin_r6 wrote:

Ordered the black E3 last week, so should I be expecting it to be at my door by late next week? Well from the reviews about this amp, it seems worth the wait.

 $8.14 with free shipping is one h3ll of a deal though. With the added features of the coming-soon E5, do you think it’ll stay even near that price?

From what I’ve heard, the E5 will be at the very least under twenty dollars, which is still quite a steal for a high quality headphone amp.  Still, here’s hoping it’ll be under ten bucks.

 

All the best.

@webspin_r6 wrote:

Ordered the black E3 last week, so should I be expecting it to be at my door by late next week? Well from the reviews about this amp, it seems worth the wait.

 $8.14 with free shipping is one h3ll of a deal though. With the added features of the coming-soon E5, do you think it’ll stay even near that price?

Delivery depends where you are and many other factors, seemingly.  I received my E3 amp in the U.S. in under a week-and-a-half; a separate order for 5 button batteries took 2-1/2 or 3 weeks …

… yea I figured it’ll take bout 2 weeks for the snail mail from China to San Jose, California. I actually bought an R4 Revolution adapter for my Nintendo DS over a year ago, and I recall it did take 2 weeks to get to me. Can’t really complain considering it’s free shipping! If anyone out there that never bought from them are skeptical about buying from an overseas company, I can vouch for their customer service is pretty fast in responding to emails ( and no, the english is not broken up, like other overseas companies I dealt with before). I was actually impressed with all the lil’ electronics and gizmos they had to offer. Couple gadgets they had I didn’t even know existed, like the MicroSD-MemoryStick PRO DUO adapter they have for only 4 bucks!!  Byebye to those overpriced MS PRO DUO’s for my PSP. Anxious to test this Fii0 E3 on my PSP as well as my Clip! Well, sorry if I’m gettin off-topic guys, but bottom line… get the E3… it’s a good deal! :robotvery-happy:

I’ve had mixed success with Dealextreme customer service–poor/non-existent with product inquiries, better with order issues (they once substituted an equivalent item on me without checking–but it got solved).  But great prices, and items (like the FiiO) not found elsewhere.

Has anyone used this going into the audio input of a car stereo system. With the volume on both the clip+  (set to US) and the car audio set to max, the output is still too low in most cases. I would  like a louder volume (for audio books, podcasts) rather than perfect sound quality.  thanks,   Mark S.

Are you in Europe? If so, you’ve probably got the volume cap on. If you switch the region to US, you’ll be able to get close to 1V output, which will drive a stereo just fine.

Hi Saratoga; I’m in the US and the region on the player is set  to US. I have the same problem with a Creative EZ300. In my Toyota Tacoma the voume for both players is really low. My wife’s Nissan Versa isn quite as bad. Both players have their volumes turned to max and the the car audio turned to max.    Mark S.

@mscoff wrote:

Hi Saratoga; I’m in the US and the region on the player is set  to US. I have the same problem with a Creative EZ300. In my Toyota Tacoma the voume for both players is really low. My wife’s Nissan Versa isn quite as bad. Both players have their volumes turned to max and the the car audio turned to max.    Mark S.

Is your Volume option set to HIGH?

The FiiO E3 amplifer may help some, but I found it isn’t as powerful as it could be. But then, for 20 bucks you really can’t expect miracles.

I found the FiiO amp shall we say “lacking”, so I invested in a JDS Labs headphone amplifer for $60. It kicks some major butt. :stuck_out_tongue:

Do keep in mind that an amp like the FiiO E3 isn’t really intended to be a volume increaser as a general matter.

Build one! I started with a simple CMOY - http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

I now use a Mini3 at work -http://www.amb.org/audio/mini3/

At home I have this Starving Student tube / Mosfet hybrid - http://www.head-fi.org/t/319231/millett-starving-student-hybrid-amp

Any of the above will bring out the true beauty of the sound chip Sandisk uses