Creative Sound Blaster E5 High-Resolution USB DAC 600 ohm Headphone Amplifier with Bluetooth

Just received it today and I am loving it already. I am not an audiophile in anyway. I owned a few headphones: Beyerdynamic T1, HD650, ATH M50, UE TF10, Super 5 Pro, Harmon Kardon CL, BT, NC and Aony MDR-NC60, and a Sony earbud came with my notebook. I also own various kinds of headphone amps: Little Dot II with upgraded tubes, Fiio E17, E12 and E6. I hated UE TF10, Sony MDR-NC60 and the Sony earbud. The first thing I tried after receiving CSB E5 is to create a profile for my hated headphones. I can use EQ to adjust these headphones to my likings. The big surprise is my Sony Earbud(no model # on it at all), immediately after plugged in to E5, it bombarded my ears. It was very uninspiring when used with Z1190x, almost like WHAT a $5 earbud would produce. With E5 it is like a completely different league of headphone! I then used EQ to adjust Frequency Response and it is now sounds wonderful! I then EQ MDR-NC60 and UE TF10. Now they all sounded about the same although the analytic ability depends on the design of the headphone but they are now sounded as close to each other as possible. CSB E5 cannot do magic to the headphones but it can makeover the sounds headphones make! Now I have not hated headphones! I am now listening to Hill Song's Ocean. The highs are almost as clear as my T1 with Sony NC60 and EQ(to my surprise)! The sound stage is also widely expanded(with SBX turned off of course). For how much? When amped with Fiio, it sounds like sitting in my study room. When amped with CSB E5, it sounds like I am sitting in a big auditorium without echos. Like I told you before, I am not an audiophile, this is as close to my listening experience as possible. I have not tried my high end(high Impedance) headphones yet since I probably will not use E5 with these headphones anyway and I just received it for 4 hours. These headphones are too large to be portable but I believe they will sound as good. However, CSB E5 has its limitations. It amped too much to most of sensitive headphones. The above mentioned headphones all sound too loud when plugged in. I have to level -6B to be able to bear the volume. Now I am listing to 2 out of 100 on Windows 8.1's volume! And I am using low gain! I found the CSB E5 boosts bass a few db too much when compared with my Little Dot II, otherwise it is balanced. The highs are not harsh(but not as smooth) and the mids are a little recess. Other than these, it is perfect considering it is a "portable" headphone amp/bluetooth receiver. I cannot take Little Dot II to school but I can take E5 to school. When compared with Fiio amps. I would say E5 is better in anyway than Fiio's amps(all I have at this moment anyway, E17 is coarse when compared with CSB E5). Suggestions to Creative: 1. Add a LED display like Fiio E17 and allow users to change EQ profiles on the fly. Otherwise I have to plugin to a computer to change EQ, it is very annoying. 2. It is too loud for sensitive headphones! 3. Come on, we paid $200 and there is no carrying/protecting case in the box? It is a portable amp right? 4. I do not like the touch of E5 case, I like E17's case better. It feels like cheap plastic even though it is not plastic. Now you know what I mean. 5. Make it smaller. It is unnecessarily large. If it comes with a bigger battery then it is understandable. However, the battery is only 3200mah and drains with my android tablets why such a big body? 6. Make it round instead of hexagon. I understand the design for raising up with the included stand, but why? I can record when it is laying flat. I'll purchase again if all current features are kept with the ability to change EQ on the fly in the next release.

Worked for 30 days. Now can't register when plugged on through micro USB. Won't charge either. Otherwise I enjoyed using it the first 30 days. Great sound processing. Brings life to even low bitrate files I think the solder joints on the micro-USB port fractured. The insertion and removal of the micro usb cord takes a lot of force and probably fatigued the solder joints after multiple insertions. The unit continued working with Blue tooth connection instead till I drained the battery and now can't charge. I plan on returning to Creative to fix or replace since its under warranty.

I'm pleasantly surprised with this. I can honestly say i've been ANTI soundblaster products since the Audigy sound cards. SOOOOO many problems with their products on pc's. Anyhow, I decided to give this a try. I had a FiiO E12 Mont Blanc and returned it for numerous reasons, it's sound signature is less than desirable in my opinion. It was dark and muddy imho. I also had a FiiO X3 and returned that as I had some issues with the playlists and other glitches that were not ok. The sound of the X3 was pretty darn good I do admit. I'm listening on a pair of Senneheiser Momentum's with a Pure Solid upgraded cable by Lavricables. My other listening preference are a pair of the amazing IEM's- Xiaomi Piston Earphone Ii. I'm a picky listener and this E5 has left me in awe of how much performance it's managed to pack into a very very reasonable price. I hate to say I even use the bluetooth in this as it's the best sounding bluetooth connection i've ever heard. I HATE bluetooth as the sound is so degraded in most cases. This E5 has managed to make it bearable. Albeit it's obvious that direct connection is the best. I'm a bit upset that the max output from an Iphone is 24bit/48khz. and worse with an android, something like 16bit/48khz or 44khz, not sure. I don't have an android phone. I use Onkyo's HF player on my iphone 6 64gb... darn, I should of purchased the 128gb. Anyways, i'm likely going to get a real Flac/DSD player soon... looking to get the new X3K from FiiO, or maybe just get the iBasso DX90.. not too sure as there isn't really many players that are what i'm looking for. This E5 is a sure winner in my collection and I use it at work a lot. I carry it in my pocket and plug in my Piston IEM's... I leave my phone at my desk and let it charge while connected to the E5 via bluetooth. Sounds great for bluetooth. I have it direct connected in my car and I can see myself using this daily. I just love the sound stage. It's the same setup as whats on my Asus Black Edition Rampage IV motherboard... the Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC (i'm a big fan of this), and the same amazing headphone amp TPA6120A2 and in the E5 they have managed to get it to be only 2.2ohms. That makes this E5 a very practical portable DAC with surpreme sound quality for 200 bucks! Buy this and you'll be happy you did. I'm still going to buy a FiiO E12A IEM edition amp with the Muses02 opamp, I must have... likely will pair that with the X3K... and i'm really wanting to compare side by side with the E5... I have to say one bad thing, the E5 is a little thicker than I would want. I would give it a better rating if it was .5-.6 " thick. it's almost 1inch thick... kinda chunky. However, it's very lightweight. The FiiO is heavy, solid metal. This E5 is plastic yet well made. It's base is rubber and grippy.

Tiene muchas funciones las cuales no creo utilizar. El sonido por Bluetooth es excelente y se puede utilizar como batería externa.

If you are looking for one extra device to improve your music experience or to power all you in-ear-monitors and overhead headphones, this is the exact device you are looking for. It can drive your smallest impedance earphone, or 600 Ohm headphone very well. The sound is rich and detailed. In fact, we don't see lots of reviews online for this item. That is because Creative Sound is not paying those people to write those biased review. Device tested: Shure SE425 IEM and Beyerdynamic DT 990 600 Ohm, on Windows PC, iPhone Bluetooth and iPhone wired.

It gets one star because I don't know how to do a no-star review. Since it arrived it has failed to power up, just leaving a flashing light indicating that it is charging (which I have tried several times), and has not worked at all. I won't be buying electrical goods via Amazon again.

Peccato, avevo letto molte recensioni positive sulla qualità del prodotto ma purtroppo il mio è arrivato non funzionante. Un problema alla batteria forse, fatto sta che non si accendeva nemmeno. Rispedito ad Amazon che ha prontamente provveduto a rimborsarmi. Ottimo servizio clienti come al solito!

Avoid this thing at all cost. It worked for 2 weeks, and then it wouldn't turn on or charge. Stupidly, it will not work unless the battery is charged. So I now have a $270 paper weight. Creative wouldn't help, Amazon wouldn't help, and neither would the third party seller.