FIIO EA13 "pure vacuum tube" integrated amplifier (?!)

[Pareto Pragmatic]

With 28 watts, I could peel paint.

IIRC, that is with 10% THD. 14w is 1%, I think. But that's from an non-measurement based yotube review from a person who blocks links from ASR, so take it with a grain of salt.

If I were in the market, which I am not, I would consider it 10w "clean" as my assumption. "Clean" in tube terms, not absolute terms, of course.

 

[fpitas]

IIRC, that is with 10% THD. 14w is 1%, I think. But that's from an non-measurement based yotube review from a person who blocks links from ASR, so take it with a grain of salt.

If I were in the market, which I am not, I would consider it 10w "clean" as my assumption. "Clean" in tube terms, not absolute terms, of course.

Good point for general use; but our horns will deafen you with 10W. I know mine are 111dB/w.

 

[mlsstl]

I saw it listed on the B&H Photo website for $800 but not in stock yet -- was "coming soon".

 

[mhardy6647]

IIRC, that is with 10% THD. 14w is 1%, I think. But that's from an non-measurement based yotube review from a person who blocks links from ASR, so take it with a grain of salt.

If I were in the market, which I am not, I would consider it 10w "clean" as my assumption. "Clean" in tube terms, not absolute terms, of course.

I told you I could strip paint with it via my Altecs.

 

[mhardy6647]

I saw it listed on the B&H Photo website for $800 but not in stock yet -- was "coming soon".

It has to warm up.

 

[mhardy6647]

I'll mention the elephant pirouetting around in the room. The performance of this will ultimately depend on the quality of the output transformers. There, I said it.

Having Carver Crimson 275 deja vu all over again, am I.
In seriousness, though. Yup, and another reason the aforementioned Fisher 500C was fairly expensive was good quality output iron. Not great quality, but very good. Bandwidth and distortion depend significantly on the OPTs.

 

[fpitas]

Having Carver Crimson 275 deja vu all over again, am I.
In seriousness, though. Yup, and another reason the aforementioned Fisher 590C was fairly expensive was good quality output iron. Not great quality, but very good. Bandwidth and distortion depend significantly on the OPTs.

And these clone amps often have sub-standard (a tactful word) iron, because it's expensive.

 

[mhardy6647]

And these clone amps often have sub-standard (a tactful word) iron, because it's expensive.

On the other hand, FIIO brag(s) about the custom OPTs they're using:
No expense was spared.

 

[fpitas]

On the other hand, FIIO brag(s) about the custom OPTs they're using:
No expense was spared.

View attachment 554228

You can read that two ways...

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Good point for general use; but our horns will deafen you with 10W. I know mine are 111dB/w.

Which would mean very low power distortion would be important to know.

My horns are nowhere at that level, and I still rarely put more than 1w into them. That gives me enough to be borderline painful.

 

[fpitas]

Which would mean very low power distortion would be important to know.

My horns are nowhere at that level, and I still rarely put more than 1w into them. That gives me enough to be borderline painful.

Yes. This claims to be class A, so hopefully crossover distortion is nonexistent.

 

[JeffS7444]

One reviewer noted that the controls are a bit wobbly, describing what sounds like rotary encoders for both input selection and volume. My AVR uses those: They have a vague and lightweight feel to them, but zero issues with channel tracking or noisy contacts. I imagine they could easily design a remote control into it.

"Interesting" feature: If no signal is detected, goes into standby after a certain amount of time.

 

[mhardy6647]

I saw it listed on the B&H Photo website for $800 but not in stock yet -- was "coming soon".

In fairness to FIIO, this product, at $800, is almost certainly leaps and bounds better, qualitatively and quantitatively, than one of those $149 AliExpress vacuum tube abomination amps*.
Yeah, yeah, I am sure they're more than $149 nowadays (particularly in the US), but many of y'all know the genre of product I am referring to!

This sort of thing.
___________________
* Hmm, maybe a new amplifier circuit design topology: single-ended, push-pull, linear... abomination.
Abomination amplifiers are characterized by design innovations such as far too much capacitance on the first filter in the (linear) HV power and the choice of really unusual operating points for well-proven vacuum tubes (small signal tubes and/or power output tubes).

 

[JeffS7444]

The Fiio's transformers are likely more than good enough to meet the amplifier's 1% THD @ 18 watt spec.

Am pretty pleased with my own super-cheap PRC amplifier (Nobsound / Douk DIY), but I spent a lot of time polishing out rough edges, some of them actual. Came to appreciate all of the fiddly little details that make a product feel high-end rather than AliExpress-closeout, and think this little turd polished nicely: What had been an ill-fitting volume control knob now fits perfectly, with no wobble, and the connectors don't loosen up even if I torque on them.

When built per the schematic, I got ugly overshoot on my square waves as shown below, indicating a high-frequency resonance, probably above 100 kHz; not what I wanted to see, but very typical of these ultra-budget amplifiers. The fix would've cost the factory fractions of a penny, but since they didn't want to spend the money, I did. Of course, if I calculated a reasonable $/hour figure for my labors, the total real cost of my amp would've made the Fiio look cheap.

After: Ahh, much better.

 

[Labhound]

The cost increment in the 500C for headphones is two one watt resistors. I don't think the profit margin on those accounts for the price differential!

EDIT: Note also that the Fisher also includes an FM multiplex stereo tuner (and a rather good one at that). Likely that had a bit more to do with the MSRP than the headphone option.




The PCL80 EDIT PCF80 is probably the cheapest option for the small signal triode and pentode used in the circuit. How long they'll stay cheap will likely depend, for better or worse, on how successful this product is.
View attachment 554155
source: https://frank.yueksel.org/sheets/191/9/9A8.pdf

I'd bet they designed the preamp around a cheap easy to find NOS TV tube just so they could advertise "NOS Sylvaina Preamp Tubes" rather than use current production audio preamp tubes.

 

[fpitas]

I'd bet they designed the preamp around a cheap easy to find NOS TV tube just so they could advertise "NOS Sylvaina Preamp Tubes" rather than use current production audio preamp tubes.

True. And frankly a lot of old TV tubes are perfectly usable for audio.

 

[fpitas]

I have noticed the same behavior in Microchip Studio 7.0.2594. A new GCC C Executable Project automatically creates both main.c and library.c, even though no additional libraries or extensions are selected.

It seems like it may be related to the project template rather than the selected MCU. The library.c file can simply be deleted if it isn't needed.

Has anyone found out why this happens or how to prevent library.c from being generated automatically?

Wrong thread. You want the vintage tube FPGA thread

 

[Saponetto]

Darn!
Another nice tube amp I'll desperately try to avoid purchase...

 

[Labhound]

True. And frankly a lot of old TV tubes are perfectly usable for audio.

I know some TV tubes are quite good for audio, I use premium versions of the 6DJ8 in the driver section of my power amp.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Amazon USA is again taking orders for the FiiO EA13 at $769.99 - for delivery in mid to late September 2026.

https://www.amazon.com/Amplifier-Push-Pull-Integrated-Stereo-Headphone/dp/B0HCV7HQ3K/?th=1