How can I enable digital output on a FiiO E7 without ending session?

Solution 1:

To enable digital output on a FiiO X3 without ending session you need to kill PulseAudio as suggested in How to I get the right Pulseaudio profiles to show up without restarting Pulseaudio?:

pulseaudio -k

Then I can see the device FiiO USB Audio Class 2.0 DAC Digital Stereo (IEC958), while PulseAudio Mixer reports the Digital Output (S/PDIF) port.

I'm not convinced yet that using the Digital Output (vs the Analog Output) changes audio quality that much, though... And the X3 still displays 48kHz/24bits, whichever device is selected, so I suspect that the OS still downsamples the whole thing before passing it to the device...

Solution 2:

You need to connect your E07 before you turn on your computer. It is that easy. Enable Digital Output for E07 in Ubuntu