Considering an Iriver to dac/amp combo - better than my S9?
 

Hi

This is what i use now Cowon S9 -> mini^3 -> hd600

I was thinking about selling the cowon and the mini^3 and getting this:

Iriver 120/140 rockboxed -> Fiio e7 ( http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/...-headphone-amp )



In pricing this would be a "downgrade" but does anyone know if it is sound quality?

Also if you have something to say about irivers and rockboxing, my knowlegde about these are very limited.


Thanks
- Rune

It sure won't improve sound quality in any way.

Furthermore, maybe you got some things confused there: the H100 has an optical Toslink (S/PDIF) output, the FiiO E7 has an USB input - they aren't compatible on the digital side.

Here's my FiiO E7 review, by the way: http://anythingbutipod.com/2010/03/f...sb-dac-review/

RE: iRiver H1xx as a digital transport to a DAC/Amp
 

When used as a digital transport to a DAC/Amp (say, an iBasso D10 or D12) via a SysConcept mini-optical-to-TOSLINK connector, the iRiver and DAC/Amp combo works very well.

The Very Good quality sound is not coming from the iRiver H1xx itself at this point, but outboard, from the DAC/Amp unit.

I've had an iBasso D10 and it sounds great paired with the H140 streaming flac files to it. I also upgraded the opamp to a reccomended version that sounded Really Good.

I don't understand why anybody would say the iRiver/iBasso combo doesnt sound good?

I thought about the same thing, having a PMP connected to my Ibasso D12 using a digital output would be cool. An Iriver player, modded with a fresh (and bigger) battery an perhaps a 32/64gb cf card could give me that...

But then I remembered that I don't own any cans that my Cowon J3 can't drive sufficiently...