Fireye II USB DAC - anyone own one

[admin_exported]

http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?src="google&lookup=1&region=UK&currency=GBP&pf_id=4626&customer_id=PAA1121129509190KMYNIXETMKGCVLBE"

Basically i do allot of my day to day work in my office listening to music stored on my hard drive. I have some quite nice noise cancelling headphones which I am pretty happy with but will one day upgrade to some more expensive ones. The headphones plug into a ‘Creative Sound Blaster’ external sound card (link here). So this handles providing more power and upgrading the sound. It was about £30 when I bought it.

This leads me to the question; will the Fireye II USB DAC offer me a better and fuller sound? Will the difference be much more noticeable compared to the existing plastic encased soundcard?

Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Would also love to hear from anyone for has purchased the Fireye II.

Many thanks

Simon

 

[idc]

Hi Simon. I do not know of anyone who has a Fireye on the forum, let alone and a Creative Sound Blaster. What Hifi have no reviews. If you google it there are some reviews out there. This is one for you to take the plunge and report back to the forum!

 

[Anonymous]

cheers. i'm getting it for christmas anyway now i hope, so will let people know if they care to read.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Mate,

I use the fireye 1 which is basically the II without the dac, I use it to listen to my ipod using Grado sr80 i headphones which improved the sound no end.

My main reason for purchase was on the strength of other firestone products I ve bought from Russ Andrews and the service I get from them.

The fireye is an ideal size and can be charged via usb which was also why I bought it.

Cant comment on the soundblaster though sorry.

Not much help to you really as Ive never used it on a pc, but it makes ipods sound better!

 

[idc]

Simon great stuff, looking forward to your review. Diy hubs, what else have you tried of the Firestone range? How do you connect your ipod to the Fireye? I have a FiiO E5 and it really benefitted from a Line Out Dock to connect the ipods dock to the amp.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheer, was looking at that one as well funnily enough but i listen to my laptop more than the ipod so thought i would go with the other option and get the DAC. as for the creative, i've decided it must be better, not just because of the price difference but also build quality (creative is plastic) and the fact the fireye II was designed specirfically for what i want it to do.

have been reading up on firestone and reviews seem to be good so will take the plunge.

IDC - you connect it via a single cable from the headphone jack on the ipod into the fireye 1. you then plug your headphones into the fireye and it acts like a little amp. it's about the same size, probably smaller than the ipod. it is designed for mobile listening and not really home amps.