I have always lowered my expectations of portable music players due to their convenience. They have always been exciting in some way, but lacking in another. My best headphones could not be driven directly from media players, and the ones that could, always seemed to have that "portable" sound, meaning all the frequencies were there, but something was still missing. This little amplier allows me to hook up my venerable Grado SR200 and my super-comfy Sennheiser HD580 with little trouble to my 30GB Zune. I set it to "classical" in the preset eq. I usually encode my music to either WMA Lossless or 256 MP3. This combination blows away any of my accepted preconceptions of what low cost electronics could do. I am aware that there are more optimized and far more expensive solutions out there, but what is the fun in that? This little amp is well built, has outstanding battery life, and includes all the accessories you'll ever need to make it work. It you don't mind looking like a space cadet carrying around full-sized headphones with your media player, this thing will give you 85% of the experience of a mid-priced home system. I highly recommend it to anyone who dislikes in-ear earphones and misses what music really sounds like. At this price, there is no way you can go wrong. Fiio E5 headphone Amplifier
I really like this little device. It does add some depth and bass to my HTC Incredible Smartphone. I use the phone as an MP3 player and the E5 provide a bit more Bass Boost. Don't expect too much from the unit, but it does help. Overall worth the $20 price.
I needed something that could boost the output volume level of my TV so I could run on the treadmill with my earphones without disturbing my family. The volume was not load enough, but this little guy did the trick. It boosted my volume up with no sound distortion. I would highly recommend it.
I have spent more money than this trying to build my own headphone amps, and they didn't have rechargeable batteries, USB power or a tiny form factor. Nice improvement in sound quality using Grado SR-80s, especially on the lower end, everything just sounds fuller and tighter.
The one downside is that the amp tends to pick up lots of EMI noise when it's plugged into a USB port that is plugged into a computer. I wasn't really surprised by this, because computers are really noisy and I have a little experience with electronics I know EMI is a pain, and cables/wires basically act like antennae, and I can't really expect anything this cheap to be immune. So for my purposes I have one permanently plugged into my desktop computer and I power it from a USB<->wall power adapter (think iPhone or Kindle power adapter) and that provides wall-powered and noise free operation.
I've had this amp for a couple of weeks now and it has been great. I have noticed quite a large improvement in the max volume and a decent improvement in the sound quality (quite impressive for $21)
I bought this primarily because while listening to my Zune in the car through the auxiliary input, even with the car stereo and Zune volume all the way up, I could not really hear most music if my windows were down. I bought this and now at about 75% max volume, I can cruise at freeway speeds and enjoy even the quietest of songs. I also noticed that the sound was...more full...I'm not an audiophile really so it's hard to explain, but it just sounded better in general. Maybe this is a placebo effect, but for the low price, just the volume enhancement was worth it.
I will say that with my Grado SR80i headphones (which I highly recommend as well) there was not as much improvement in sound quality as the headphones themselves seemed to work as much magic as can be squeezed out of the Zune. With the default earbuds, I experienced the fuller sound though, but I hate earbuds so my testing was not very extensive with them.
As for battery life, I use it a couple of hours every day and just charge it when I charge my Zune (every few days) no problems so far, but it's still a bit early for that to be an issue.
Also, due to its small size, it is completely unobtrusive while in a pocket.
I may have found what I'm giving to my friends as a Christmas gift this year.
I bought my E5 in November 2009. It lasted 4 - 5 months with very light use before the battery died completely.
Until it died, the E5 was a fun device and I did not regret purchasing it. I used it with a Sandisk Sansa Fuze and Atrio M8 earphones (32 ohm). The E5 did not increase volume much, but it did extend the bass and give the sound more "depth". The tradeoff was a certain amount of hiss. Sometimes the music sounded better and sometimes it didn't. Classic rock sounded good. Classical didn't. For a mere $17, I thought the E5 was a reasonable purchase.
And then the battery died. The purple light goes on when charging, but turns off immediately when the amp is disconnected and the device will not respond to presses of the on/off switch.
I'm disappointed with my purchase. - Portable - Fiio E5 - Amplifier - Headphone Amplifier'
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