FiiO KA11 Portable DAC/Amp Review

[dark132]

Actually I don't think this one has PEQ - the much less powerful JA11 has PEQ and then the larger KA15 and above have PEQ.

While it amazing having this power in such a small device, I did find, with this dongle, that it does pull allot of power from your smartphone pretty fast so your battery will die after a few hours usage.

It's true that these kinds of devices consume a lot of power, so using an old phone specifically for listening to music is a reasonable approach. Everyone has phones from a few years ago

 

[Saponetto]

Here in Italy this little device costs near 120 Eur.
Absurd.

 

[Jeromeof]

Here in Italy this little device costs near 120 Eur.
Absurd.

Seems to be €32.99 on the FiiO.eu website:

https://fiio.eu/product/fiio-ka11-dac-and-headphone-aplifier-black

 

[Yersinia Bestmate]

@amirm would it be possible to get Tanchjim Space to the chart as well? And sry for the off-topic.

Anyway very respectable performance from Fiio!

 

[Svensson]

Performance, value AND pretty!
Comical that this, Jcally JM20 Max and similar could replace "trad" DAC Amps for many.

 

[GWolfman]

This one surprised me! A worthy replacement to the Apple dongle.

You know it’s going to be a good day when @amirm posts a review, but this many for the last week and we know he is truly Santa. Thanks.

 

[MediumRare]

Incredible performance and output. @amirm, can we expect the same output level from a cellphone? Would be fascinating to compare the output directly with the analog output of an newish Apple from its USB-C port.

 

[trevor_bartram]

Fiio makes good stuff.

 

[GWolfman]

Fiio makes good stuff.

Eh. They’re hit or miss really.

 

[DearSX]

So now end game is $33? I plug this from my phone straight streaming Qobus into a Purifi or B200 amp(s) to Cadentia 3 speakers and call it a day? $3500 all in?

 

[delta76]

So now end game is $33? I plug this from my phone straight streaming Qobus into a Purifi amp to Cadentia 3 speakers and call it a day? $3500 all in?

uh no. this is for IEM. It has not enough Vrms to drive a Purifi. Very competent but we're talking about different tool/class
but you can buy an end game DAC for 100$ yes

 

[Briocat]

Seems to be €32.99 on the FiiO.eu website:

https://fiio.eu/product/fiio-ka11-dac-and-headphone-aplifier-black

I tried to order the USB-C type on the Fiio Europe website, but it appears to be unavailable. It's also unavailable from several Italian importers and on Amazon Italy.

 

[Bacchusoo7]

Everything says USB-C but that picture is clearly a USB-A connection. What am I missing?

 

[AudioSceptic]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the FiiO KA11 portable stereo DAC and headphone amplifier (USB-C). It is on kind loan from a member and is on sale for US $33.
View attachment 503559
I didn't think there was room to make a stylized dongle but here is FiiO, doing exactly that. Attention was even given to the 3.5mm headphone jack with its white color and such.

Above you see it with my USB-A adapter which I used for testing but is not included with the unit (the plug is USB-C as mentioned).

Note that there is no volume control in the unit. And on Windows, for some reason, all of these devices start with very low volume even though Windows says "100%." You need to change the volume and yet again set it to 100 to get max volume.

FiiO KA11 Measurements
I must say, I was not prepared for such excellently low noise and distortion from this little device:
View attachment 503560
Distortion is vanishingly low and slightly above nominal voltage output puts the KA11 squarely in desktop class performance and well above many dongles:
View attachment 503561

Noise alone does the same thing:
View attachment 503562
View attachment 503576

As does jitter:
View attachment 503563

Ditto for multitone:
View attachment 503564

I was however disappointed with the slow filter:
View attachment 503565
It should attenuate by 24 kHz and not 26.

Fortunately frequency response is correct:
View attachment 503566

Again, IMD results are more than what I could ask for in such a tiny device:
View attachment 503585

Max power is also very respectable:
View attachment 503569
View attachment 503571

View attachment 503570
View attachment 503572

Conclusions
Who would have thought that we can get such incredible performance in such a small and low cost package? Beyond the small (bug) of DAC filter, the rest of the KA11 performance is amazing, leaving no room for any complaining. And the thing dares to be attractive to boot!

Happy to recommend the FiiO KA11 DAC and headphone amplifier.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Great performance but is it likely to be audibly better than the Apple adapter for 3x the cost?

 

[Matias]

Everything says USB-C but that picture is clearly a USB-A connection. What am I missing?

Amir took the picture with an adapter attached. Below is a stock picture of the dongle itself.

 

[AudioSceptic]

This one surprised me! A worthy replacement to the Apple dongle.

You know it’s going to be a good day when @amirm posts a review, but this may for the last week and we know he is truly Santa. Thanks.

It costs 3x as much as the Apple adapter...

 

[AudioSceptic]

Caveat is that it only supports USB input. So quite limited compared to a desktop unit...

What else would you want? Ethernet? Wi-Fi?

 

[delta76]

It costs 3x as much as the Apple adapter...

about 9x more power at 300Ohm and 5x more power at 33Ohm, (SINAD is 20dB higher, but that's less important) so it's worth it

 

[DSJR]

Great performance but is it likely to be audibly better than the Apple adapter for 3x the cost?

I have the JM20 Max and US spec Apple dongle with 1V output. My subjective vibe is tied up in level matching - or not - but the JM20 Max certainly, offers a little more 'push/drive' into the Zero 2 and Truthear Gate iems and I don't *think* it's all just in the levels, although I'm very happy to be proved wrong.

No idea how the beauty reviewed above behaves, but my old laptop, using a USB-A - USB-C adaptor, switches to the Apple dongle as soon as the iems are plugged in, where the JM20 Max usually has to be unplugged and then plugged back in for Windows to offer the option, let alone switch over. More modern laptops with W11 may perform differently, however...

 

[Madeintooting]

What else would you want? Ethernet? Wi-Fi?

Looks like Fiio are about to address the Wi-fi part-

FiiO’s latest portable music player resembles an iPod Nano and doubles as a USB DAC

The Disc joins the Echo Mini and Nano to bolster the Snowsky range

www.whathifi.com