FiiO E09K High Output Desktop Headphone Amplifier with E17(E17K) Alpen II Portable Amplifier with RCA-to-RCA Cable Kit

WARNING! The E17K does not dock in the E09K. Don't order these together unless you are sure they are sending you the E17.

So far so good. I received these items just last week. They both are working and do a fine job cleaning up the signal going into the headphones. It's a much cleaner, clearer sound, no noise in the silent places and helps push the less efficient headphones where they need to be. I found the portable to really help the sound coming from a phone. It does add size, bulk and weight to the phone, but if you have a set of favorite headphones that need amping, these do the job. The bottom piece stays at home connected to the computer (you could also attach this to an existing stereo) and also has plenty of power to push my Alpha Dogs, Sennheiser 558's, and Philips Fidelio x2s. There are more expensive headphone amps and portable amps out there, but really these fill the bill with nice clean power. I would recommend these if you are looking for both types of amps and want something reasonably priced without giving up performance.UPDATE to above review; In exactly one month's time the portable amp E17 has stopped taking a charge. Neither the dock port or the plug-in. As Amazon does not want to deal w/ questions of repairs/replacement the ONLY option given was to ship the whole order back to them for replacement. I wish, at times like these, there was a person, a tech/repair guy, to speak with. Now I cannot recommend either the E17 or the purchase of complicated equipment through Amazon. I will certainly get another portable amp, just will buy it locally where a salesman, tech team can step in and help w/ small repairs.

BE AWARE THAT DAC DOES NOT DOCK TO THE AMP. The picture is misleading, although the product numbers in the text are correct. Think of this as a bundled package with a separate headphone amp and portable DAC. But the two do not work together as pictured. This is OK for my purposes but I was disappointed. Both items I received are in good shape and confirmed as genuine FiiO on the FiiO website. A good deal if you are OK with a separate amp and DAC; look elsewhere if you need the integrated pair.

I found a pretty good deal on a FiiO E17 E09K pair. The E17 is a V1 model whereas V2 is the current model. My headphones (Sennheiser HD500 and HD558) have come alive (ex. a Sting compared to plugging into the PC/Laptop. Even at lower volumes the highs are just far more clear, not just amplified but actually clear. The headphones rumble on something like a deadmau5 or Daft Punk song. That said, the E09K is basically not needed for the headphones I have. I've got the E17 and the E09K set to zero gain and the volume is plenty high. The E17 goes up to 12db of gain and then you can throw a gain switch on the back of the E09k. I can't see using more than 6db with the headphones I have. On a pair of headphones that can't be driven at all by a PC/Phone maybe you would use 12db and still the E09K wouldn't be needed? On the plus side, leaving it at 0db of gain reduces noise. The other issue is that the E17 has a mini USB connector on it, which requires an adapter when used with an MHL port phone like the Samsung Galaxy S4. These mini ports are already prone to bending. Stick an adapter on the cable and now you have a solid lever sticking out of the port. Not a good idea. I'm so happy with the sound, I'm going to probably just leave this duo on my work desk and get an E18 to use at home with my laptop and/or my phone when traveling.Having heard the Audeze EL-8 headphones I've unfortunately gotten an itch for a headphone upgrade. Might have to go back to a closed ear model now that I have these amps.Instead of an RCA-RCA cable as pictured, I received a Monoprice 1/8 to RCA cable. I honestly hadn't noticed the cable in the pictures in the first place so it didn't really matter to me. Neither of the two FiiO products are boxed with an RCA cable so this is just an add-on from the seller.