If you have a headphone with more than 32 Ohm requirement and needed amplification power to run it. The tiny FiiO E5 headphone amplifier seems to fit in the gap to your requirement to get more juice from your ipod or portable player for you headphone while on the move.  Due to the portable player low power profile by design will not have the amplification power to run those high end headphones that need 64 ohm or 300 ohm so even if you plug your high end headphone on the portable player it will sound very soft and lack the umph! to drive the headphone. FiiO E5 was design to address that requirement for people who are on the move with their high end phone and portable player.

The FiiO E5 is a tiny device like the size of a tiny matchbox and the width matching with the ipod nano and same goes with the rest of the styling like ipod nano. The build quality is good and come with digital volume control which can be annoying when trying to quickly turn up or down the volume and feature a bass boast to give more bass to the sound and the build-in lithium ion battery will last up to 20 hours per full charge through USB and lastly come with a clip to hang on. All of this comes with a price of just 20.00 USD.

Most importantly is how does the FiiO E5 sound and if you are thinking that this small little cheap device is able to improve your sound quality from your portable, think again! My test setup was using the Sony A-806 Walkman MP3 and AKG K 701 with 62 Ohm requirement. After making lots comparison with and without FiiO E5 with many 320 kbps MP3s my conclusion, yes it does boast the sound volume and give more bass to the music but sacrifice of sound details and texture. To be honest I would rather use a cheaper headphone with less than 32 ohm with my portable player that can easily sound better than with FiiO + AKG K 701. If you turn on the bass boast it will make it sound even worst. The sound with FiiO E5 is bright and bassy that over shadowed some the music details and even if I crank up the Sony Walkman MP3 to the max on the AKG K 701 it sounded better than with FiiO E5 although very soft.

FiiO E5 is cheap but not cheerful because I feel it does not sound acceptable even though it is cheap, I would recommend spend a bit more on a good pair of headphones that work well with portable player rather than spend on a tiny little box that does not do justice with the high end headphone. Or alternatively you can go for better portable headphone amp from iBasso or Graham Slee. If you are on a budget and needed to something fix the soft volume for the large headphone when on the move, FiiO E5 is the only choice to have.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5

It has been out for a while but I thought it would be a good idea to share what it have been like using the Sennheiser HD 555 for more than 6 months and have over more than 300 hours of music and movie on it. For starters Sennheiser classify this headphone as audiophile grade and suitable for movie and music. So the HD 555 it is considered the mid range of the entry level audiophile grade headphone from Sennheiser and price between HD 515 and HD 595.

The built quality is good and does not feel flimsy or break easily but mainly made of plastic. Ears cap are soft and made of micro fiber clot like material so it would be easy on the skin.  So since this is over the ears type of headphone it very comfortable for long hours of usage. Keep in mind that this is an open type of headphone which mean it will not isolate sound from around and you can hear them while playing music but this type of design in theory offer better sound dynamics because this type of design allow more air flow for more dynamic sound pressure that is required for good sound. It comes with only 6.3 mm plug but include a converter to convert 6.3 mm plug to 1.5 mm plug and when attached with the converter is quite long stretching making it inconvenient to plug to 3.5mm devices with space constraint. It rated at 50 ohm means it can be powered by iPod but have to max out the volume for decent loudness, recommend to use amplifier for better sound. It can be use with PC too since it is just under 64 ohm.

Ultimately comes down to how good it sound, let’s begin by talking about the way it sound are directed at an angle to create sound stage instead of direct into your ears, just like listening from a well position pair of speakers, this obviously is a very good feature to have and make listening feel natural. The HD 555 really shines when it comes to voice; there is a lot of details and depth in the voice that the music doesn’t outshine. Separation between voice and music is very good and does not overlap each other especially when listening to opera musical. Because of this there is a lot details in the sound even guitar string squeaking is also noticeable. The only downside is the bass, it can generate bass for those mid bass sound but it is lacking the deep strong punches for those heavy bass types of music.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Specifications

• Nominal impedance : 50 Ω
• Contact pressure : 3,5 N
• Weight w/o cable : 260 g
• Jack plug : 6,3 mm stereo (3,5 mm Adapter)
• Transducer principle : open, dynamic
• Ear coupling : circumaural
• Cable length : 3 m
• Frequency response : 15 – 28000 Hz
• Sound pressure level : 112 dB (1 kHz and 1 Veff)
• THD, total harmonic distortion : < 0,2 %