How the E11 manages to drive the HE-500 out of that tiny 3.7V mobile phone battery is beyond me, but I just love taking the pairing to meets and see people’s impression as they are listening to the HE-500 being driven from this tiny amplifier. High and low power switch hidden under the battery. Many amp builders swear by the quality of through the hole parts when compared to SMD ones, and in this case I think it’s what’s contributing to the overall bigger and smoother sound of the JDSLabs, despite being based on a much simpler design when compared to the E11’s three-channel design. The JDSLabs also had a smoother sound throughout the frequency range and is clearly my favorite of the bunch, except when I need to drive the monstrous HE-500 headphone, in which the E11 is the only one that can do the job. I also compared the E11 to the JDSLabs Cmoy (stock configuration) and found the JDSLabs to sound significantly bigger and grander, both in the soundstage and the overall sound presentation. Perhaps the killing blow on the T3D is the recessed vocal presentation which kills the presence on a lot of Rock & Pop recordings. Soundstage width is narrower on the T3D, but the T3D clearly has a much better depth and a cleaner separation than both the Fiio E11 and E7. The most significant improvement come with the overall power output of the E11, where it clearly beat the E7’s fairly limited voltage swing.Ĭompared to the Ibasso T3D, the Fiio E11 again comes out as being darker and bassier sounding of the two, where the T3D had a fuller midrange and a more sparkly lower treble. The E7 was a little more open sounding with a bigger soundstage and livelier treble, where the E11 is darker and fuller on the mids and lows and being smoother sounding overall.

The sound quality was quite good, though being mostly similar to the Fiio E7’s amplifier section (the E7 has an onboard DAC in addition to the amp).

Audioengine d1 dac hd598