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FiiO Audio and SoundMAGIC Earphones
“Special to the Chicago Tribune
September 28, 2008
FiiO E3 Headphone Amp is therapy for your MP3 player. FiiO's E3 Boosts digital
playback
By Kevin Hunt
“Beware of earphones and an iPod living a seemingly idyllic musical life. No relationship
is ever perfect.
The FiiO E3 headphone amplifier is the best type of therapy for any
digital music player: effective and ridiculously cheap.
The E3 gives your earphones a shot of courage, with bigger, bolder sound and brawnier
bass. To most ears, it also boosts the perceived volume, eliminating the urge to
dial up the iPod's master volume and burn precious battery power.
To do this, the E3 requires nothing more than a single AA battery.
I do know that the E3 is a valuable accessory for almost any iPod-toter.
The E3 is
only about twice the size of the AA battery, with no on-off switch
Understood? Yes,
the iPod is a universal language. Fortunately, the E3 isn't complicated. One end
connects to an iPod—or any non-Apple player—with the included minijack cable. The
other end connects to your earphones, illuminating a nearby red light. To turn off
the E3, remove the earphones connector.
Despite the price, these are not little gum-machine
trinkets. They don't work magic with every set of earphones—FiiO suggests high-impedance
and low-sensitivity models.
I tried the E3 with two music players, a Nano and Sansa
e250, and two earphones, Comply's $80 NR-10 in-ear model and the $49 over-the-ear
iGrado. (Expect the AA battery to last about 20 hours.) It made the Sansa's lower-quality
MP3 files sound better and the Nano's high-quality Apple Lossless files sound great:
more upfront, more dynamic, improved bass and more "inside the head."
Chip Taylor
and Carrie Rodriguez's "All the Rain" almost blew up my head, because it was so much
louder than I anticipated. The FiiO amplifies everything, including noise. I heard
slight hiss between songs with the Comply earphones—the NR-10's 16 ohms is the lowest
recommended for the E3—but the iGrado remained silent. So experiment a bit.
Your iPod and earphones will never be happier.
This is the cheapo accessory of the year.
I doubt there is any other audio accessory able to deliver anywhere near as much
bang for the buck as the FiiO.”
