FiiO KA series headphone amplifier currently has four products, the price range is $50~$120, just covering beginners to advanced users. FiiO KA5 is a recently released portable decoding amp with higher playability and stronger driving.
FiiO JadeAudio KA5 specs and features:
- 0.9-inch OLED display
- Dual CS43198 DAC chips
- Supports 32bit/768kHz PCM and DSD256
- 3.5mm+4.4mm dual output
- $119 – Check latest price on AliExpress, Amazon US, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries
Appearance Design – Interface – Controls
In size, FiiO KA5 maintains the same “slim body” as FiiO KA3 – weight about 19g. The most important portability of a small decoding amp is well preserved on the KA5. For daily use with mobile phones, FiiO KA5 has no obvious sense of weight after plugging in headphones. Compared with the full-size amps I have used before, FiiO KA5 has sufficient portability.
FiiO KA5 is equipped with a 0.9-inch OLED display, which can display song format, sampling rate, volume, gain mode, digital filter, etc. – more intuitive operation experience. The body is made of aluminum alloy with the front and rear are tempered glass panels, but it is also a fingerprint collector.
In terms of interface, FiiO KA5 is equipped with 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone jacks – which can be adapted to more headphones. The other end is the USB-C input interface, and comes with a C-to-C cable, Lightning-to-C cable and USB-A adapter – Android, Apple and PC are all suitable.
Convenience of control is the obvious improvement of FiiO KA5 compared to FiiO KA3. There are three buttons on the side of the body (multifunction button, volume + and volume -), double-click the multi-function button to light up the screen, single-click for play/pause, and long press to enter the setting menu.
Interestingly, the volume button of FiiO KA5 has two control modes – A and B. In mode A, click to adjust volume, long press to switch songs, and vice versa in mode B. Users can set it according to their own operating habits, although it is not known how many users really need this function.
Configuration – Sound Description – APP Support
In terms of hardware configuration, FiiO KA5 uses dual CS43198 DAC chip. The audio op amp is also the dual SGM8261-5. Also, 4.4mm balanced output power up to 265mW (32Ω).
The sound style of FiiO KA5 maintains the neutral and balanced characteristics of this series. The tuning style is in line with the taste of the public, and it also means that KA5 can adapt to more headphones.
Under the premise of higher power, FiiO KA5 can bring a very clean sound floor – almost negligible noise floor. In my opinion, a clean sound background is the cornerstone of “good sound”, otherwise the so-called “HiFi” can’t be talked about – I don’t know if everyone agrees with my point of view. Also, the dual DAC architecture has stronger driving – easier to drive some multi-driver headphones.
In general, FiiO KA5 tunes the tri-frequency to have certain characteristics while taking into account portability and stronger driving. The transparency of the sound floor is excellent, the details are rich, the function and operation playability also surpassed FiiO KA3.
In fact, the more practical function in my opinion is the Fiio Control APP – after all, the buttons on FiiO KA5 have limited functions. In addition to being more intuitive to control in the App, the settings are also richer – gain adjustment, DAC working mode, filter switching, etc. However, currently the App only support Android devices, and iOS users need to wait a little longer. (FiiO engineer: working over time~)
Conclusion and Buying Advice
FiiO KA series headphone amplifier currently has four products, the price range is $50~$120, just covering entry-level users to advanced users.
How to choose? If you want to experience entry-level HiFi with a low budget – choose FiiO KA1. Advanced users who like different sound styles can consider FiiO KA2. To be compatible with more platforms and further improve the sound quality – FiiO KA3 is more cost-effective. High playability and strong driving – no doubt – FiiO JadeAudio KA5.