K5Pro ESS Amplifier Headphone Amps Stereo High Resolution Portable Desktop DAC 768K/32Bit and Native DSD512 for Home Audio/PC 6.35mm Headphone Out/RCA Line-Out/Coaxial/Optical Inputs (Black)

Full disclosure, I ended up returning this unit because I ended up upgrading to the K9 Pro. So if I returned it, why am I still giving it a rave review? Because, for the money, this is a fantastic DAC/Amp. The amp side provides plenty of power to your headphones. The layout of the unit is very straight forward, simple, yet large potentiometer that controls the power and volume. Flip switches for the gain and the source select and then the headphone input. Very easy to use and a lightweight amp that performs very well. I used this amp to drive Audeze LCD-GX and while that is a pretty efficient headphone, this amp provided lots and lots of amplification. I used the amp in low gain and it still got quite loud with headroom to spare. So there are a few reasons I ended up upgrading to the K9 Pro and returning this model. One, I wanted bluetooth capability; being able to stream music from my phone was something I really wanted. Another was I wanted to be able to use balanced cables in my system. Additionally, I was looking for a solution that would help reduce jitter and pops and noise while I was using the optical SPDIF input. My television is notorious for having all of those things, so I tried many, many solutions, in order to mitigate that, including SPDIF filters, digital reclockers, different cables, HDMI extractors, etc, and what I landed on was the Fiio K9 Pro. So this is not a knock on the K5 Pro because this is a $200 DAC/Amp. Rather versus the K9 Pro which is over 3x the price, at $700, this review is a reason for me to explain, if I didn't want/need any or all of those things, the K5 Pro would absolutely still be in my system because sound quality-wise and usability-wise the K5 Pro is a fantastic value. If you are looking for a high quality sounding DAC/Amp at a great value, this Fiio unit really should be one you should try.

So first off I wanted a K7. I have some harder to drive cans but its basically impossible to find anywhere. Amazon pulled it and several other retailers are all listing it as a pre order but not available yet. Anyway... ended up settling on this or so I thought (spoilers, I don't feel like i settled anymore, it does exactly what I wants at this price point and I'm glad I saved the 50$). I don't mean to say the k7 isn't better, I wouldn't know, but I am gonna say that the K5 drastically outperforms my expectations. I'm a primarily audio-gd user, and due to mishandling it I broke the volume potentiometer on my main rig and so I bought this as a standin. I didn't want something to outperform my main rig, and this manages to get right up to it without quite beating it... and that's saying something because it's over 1000$ in amp and dac. This is an absolutely mind blowing eye watering ear melting value. Now on to the sound: It's mostly hifi. There are parts to this device's presentation that is closer to "the hifi version of something not very hifi but people dig anyway". The other products in the line up feature a bass switch for example, and this definitely has some exaggerated bass but only enough and in just the right way that makes it good. It's not gonna make the staunchest audiophiles happy on their main rig, but it will satisfy anybody who knows they're kinda sorta settling for one reason or another. It's really good value hifi while retaining some elements of consumer appeal (think like, beats by dre). Basically this amp/dac combo is the new king of yeah but it's doing it with x. It sounds this good, it's not the best i've heard, but at 150$ It's a huge wtf. It sounds this good, yeah, I've heard better but not from something this SMALL. The pictures make it seem like it's bigger than it actually is, it's like a 4x5inch thing, really small, about the size of a modern cable modem. This rig does a lot of things like that. New to hifi? Buy it. Seriously, nothing's gonna touch this at it's price point. Can you do better while still maintaining the value? Sure, you've got a lot of room to grow without losing good value for your money but this is probably where great sound really starts. If I was starting out, I'd want to start with this device right here. Need another for your work setup or just your shop or something? Buy it. It won't make your face wrinkle up in disgust, and in some cases it'll make you say whoa, without replacing your prized hifi and it's the cheapest thing I could find with a 6.3mm jack and no bs. Only real complaint I have about this amp/dac combo is what the other reviewer pointed out: there's a deadzone at the start of the volume knob, after you click it on to when you start hearing stuff is a surprisingly large amount of the turn, I'd say 15-20% of the knob is deadzone after the on click then you start hearing it and it rapidly climbs in volume at teh beginning presumably to make up for lost time. I wish there was a touch more nuance in the lower volume levels because I listen primarily quietly, although this does get loud and that serves me well on my work setup because i'm way more likely to listen to something loud and brutal while working. BFG division has gotten me through a lot of shifts, but most of the time I listen quiet and this loses some of the super low end volume range... But it is meant to be used with an intelligent transport of some kind (aka a computer so you can make up for this a bit with your player or system volume, and the volume movement is there in the knob it's just really tight starting out and hard to adjust because of it). The gain switch is nice for medium to higher volumes, however... oh and on the subject of stuff it connects to, I'm using this on linux with no issues. I hope that's useful to somebody. Anyway this review is already obnoxious, take care audiophiles!

Based on sound alone, I would have given this DAC/AMP 5 stars. Unfortunately it did not play nice with my PC on a fresh install. This DAC/AMP replaced a Topping DX3 Pro+ and is an upgrade to the older K5 Pro that I used for 2 years prior to the Topping with an AK chipset. This DAC/AMP has a Sabre ESS chipset and a powerful headphone AMP and sounds amazing with my Hifiman 400se headphones and my 7hz Salnotes Zero IEM's. The unit comes with 3 gain levels and even with high impedance headphones I did not need to use a higher gain. It did take me 2 days to get this up and running correctly and I made the assumption that the unit was DOA. First of all, this unit is plug and play, however on my PC windows set up the bitrate to 32 bit 48000khz. This prevented an output from the DAC/AMP to my headphones. This was fixed easily enough when I went into settings and changed the rate back to 32 bit, 44100khz. After this, everything sounded absolutely fantastic. Shame it took me a couple of days to work out what was wrong. The second issue I had was with the ASIO drivers from Fiio. My recommendation is not to bother using them, as they introduced noise to playback with a faint intermittent background ticking, which was extremely annoying. I thought the unit was faulty, until I removed the drivers and used WASAPI instead of ASIO. Great sound for the money and a terrific headphone amp.

I got this headphone amp to drive my AKG K701s, which are notorious for being too quiet, and this was the model that was recommended to drive them. Well, as it turns out, with 3 different gain settings and stellar sound, this is the amp I will use in the studio for life. It not only drives the K701s really well but also adds life to my older cans. I love the sound, and the build quality is fantastic. My only grip? Just 1 headphone output. Would have been great to have two, but that said, I can use a Y cable and I am sure that the gain will be sufficient for two pairs. UPDATE!!!! This headphone amplifier has a real ASIO driver, so for writing music, I can use it without latency. I will admit the driver was harder to find than I would have liked, but the install went well and it works extremely well.

It Just Werks in Windows. When it's off (volume dial all the way to the right), Windows doesn't see the device at all. Once you turn the dial at all, there's a firm click, and a blue ring appears around the dial to indicate that it's on. Immediately, Windows will then recognize the device. Similarly, when you turn the dial back off, Windows will no longer see the device. This is nice because it enables the following: 1) With the DAC off, set your normal speakers as the default Windows audio device. 2) Turn the DAC on, and now that Windows sees it, set IT as the default audio device. 3) Now when you have the DAC off, Windows will use the normal speakers for everything since it's the top-ranked audio device it sees. But the moment you turn the DAC on, it will remember that you had previously told it to use that as the default, so it will immediately switch all audio output to the DAC! Similarly, turning the DAC off again will immediately cause audio to go through the speakers again. It's very nice that this setup lets me completely avoid ever having to use software-based audio controls (ie I never have to use the volume icon in the taskbar's systray). The volume dial feels good and is precise. I got this because I tried some tiny amps for a new Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro, but they weren't up to the task and audio was still too quiet. This has plenty of power for those headphones at the low and medium power settings.

Please note that I don't listen to much with headphones (mine are nothing great) but many folks love what this unit does for music via its headphone output, given its price. That said, this review is based SOLELY on using it at as a DAC via its RCA outputs, which are not reputed to be its strength; still... So, my main DAC is for listening on my speaker system and provides PCM/DSD at up to 384/128 respectively, in Class A. It is not time to upgrade it yet but I needed to appraise some PCM 768/DSD 512 recording files. Enter this FiiO gizmo, as an impulse purchase. I plugged it into a decent power conditioner and I gave it over 300 hours of constant PC-sourced DSD music playback to burn in. Only then did I sit to listen. I did so via both an optimized Volumio (Linux) and also my optimized Foobar2k PC installs. Well beyond my expectations, this sucker kept me listening and enjoying for hours! On all levels, from musicality and definition, to quite respectable sound staging (large. beyond all walls) and commendable 3D imaging, my speakers never felt "underfed" as far as quality is concerned. Neither did my ears; no lack of anything fundamental to thorough enjoyment. From classical to jazz and vocals, I never felt shortchanged. In the context of the above, many can spend a little more and get a better unit but they won't easily hear the difference until they spend several hundred $ more. In any case, do spend on decent power conditioning first if you can. Edit: Three more points to add. - My configured signal path is from a PC (optimized for music only) sent via USB to this FiiO K5Pro ESS, then directly from its RCA outputs to my power amplifiers which then drive a pair of large speakers. - For those of you interested, I installed the Fidelizer Pro optimizing software in my music PC a few days ago. The K5 delivered the additional goods in spades. - The lack of remote control, which is hardly an issue for headphone use, may become a minor drag when used as DAC in a speaker system. If it is important to you, other models do feature it.

Another reviewer here wrote that the gain control is the star of the show and (s)he is right! I love the 3 levels for gain because I can use low for my PC38X and medium for my 6XX, 560S and 580X. I don't need high just yet because I don't have super power-hungry cans. I love the fact that the gain control uses toggle switches as well. It is so satisfying! The volume dial is quality and it feels precise and well-built. THANK YOU FiiO for not making us use a remote like some other brands! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Lastly, I also like the shape of the device, simple and elegant. I just wish it came in other colors like all white, blue or red. The sound is fantastic. I've always loved DACs with ESS chips because they usually provide a warm sound but also clear vocals. I have no idea what to expect if I upgrade to the K9 Pro. I highly recommend Chroma Cables ASIN: B083QMZ9L3 (USB C) if you want to use it with your phone. I had tried a cheap generic printer cable but it caused interference with my headphone cables. Chroma Cables fixed that. The pic that I uploaded shows the blue one but they have other colors as well, in case you want to color code your sources.

I choose this to replace my previous DAC/Amp for my desktop, which was a Schiit Hel. I only use one of the inputs (USB) on the Fiio K5, and use this to power my Fostex T50RP MK3's. Which require some power.. I found this to be a great replacement, naturally these are without a microphone input; Which I think is fine. I found the analog microphone input on the Schiit Hel to be poor quality, and better handled with even a generic USB microphone instead. Which I had to purchase separately to use this device over the schiit hell and still use a microphone. The Fiio K5 has a bit more power than the Schiit Hel, but to be honest I thought the difference would be more apparent. In reality I vaguely notice the power increase, but it perhaps sounds more clear in the upper range instead. However, I find the sound quality to be far superior to the Schiit Hel.. I'm not much of an audiophile, but I find the Fiio K5 to show more pronounced bass and mids. I think it's a worthwhile upgrade. My previous setup (Schiit Hel) has been RMA'd a few times, and I don't want to deal with it anymore. I can't speak poorly of their customer service at Schiit, but having to send a product back 1-2 times over 3 years isn't fun. Hoping this Fiio K5 has less issues. I will update if there are any. So far, quite happy with the product, sounds great, easy to setup. No special drivers needed on windows 10. Only thing noticed so far is the device can get warm over extended use... No issues with this yet however.