FiiO KA11 Portable DAC/Amp Review

[Lambda]

So with about 2X this hardware it should be possible to get a USB bus power DAC with About 5V RMS Blanced That fits amlost in a XLR plug.

 

[audioholic63]

Bought one of these just the other week to augment the anemic headphone out on my ThinkPad laptop. Glad to see that measurements bear out my generally positive experience with it. Drives 300Ohm Senn/Drop HD6XX with ease. Have not tried 600Ohm AKG K240's yet (as I rarely listen to them anyway...).

 

[honn]

Perhaps the differences are indistinguishable in real life, but technically speaking Jcally JM20 Max still edges the FiiO overall?

 

[Saponetto]

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

Loading…

fiio.eu

Thanks.
Now I'm feeling just better.

 

[antcollinet]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those two charts are not the same test.

Apparently FiiO has been really good at updating their product line to try and resolve the weird distortion issues of the Cirrus chips, but if you care about performance I recommend you guys check out some of those bespoke Cirrus measurements for the specific product you're considering. Those CS chips introduce distortion in their default settings and will not behave as hoped unless special care has been given to the implementation.

You are correct - they are not the same. Sorry for that.

Though the one I posted is the IMD 20K+19K test against level, rather than the multitone test (32 tones rather than 2). Even so -if the "hump" still existed, I'd expect the 2 tone test signal to reveal it, as it does in the other 2 tone tests carried out in the test report - albeit at lower frequencies.

 

[CedarX]

What is the story with the DAC filter?

See this thread mentioned in earlier post:

On the Distortion of Cirrus Logic CS431xx-Based Devices: A Comparative Review

TL;DR / Changelog [5/20/25] Eleven DAC/HP amp combo devices adopting either the Cirrus Logic CS43131 or CS43198 were tested, and seven of them were found produce the distortion dubbed a "Cirrus hump." Based on measurements from multiple sources (including this review), a list of...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[nemesisrobot]

I bought this dongle a few months ago and unfortunately the the cable doesn’t deal well with constant bending/stress. I got an unstable connection after two weeks of daily use (just keeping my phone in my pockets).

 

[phoenixdogfan]

These dongles are the best for IEMs. I bought two Apple USB C dongles for my Crinear Zero Reds and my Crinear 7 hz Zero Twos. I just keep a dongle attached to all four of my IEMS, and just plug into my phone's USB C slot, so no hunting or swapping of Dac/Amps ever. Pure convenience, and everything is powered just fine.

The Fiio tales it to another level. It's three times more expensive than the benchmark Apple but has 6x the power and its sinad equals high end desktop units, so a real bargain if you have a pair of Thieaudio Monarch IV's, or Subtomic Storm's or something super expensive like that.

Thanks for the very nice review, Amir.

 

[mc.god]

I bought this dongle a few months ago and unfortunately the the cable doesn’t deal well with constant bending/stress. I got an unstable connection after two weeks of daily use (just keeping my phone in my pockets).

This device seems to be prone to faults due to the DAC chip placement into the 3.5mm jack enclosure instead of the usb-c plug, requiring to run a more fragile digital connection through the dongle cable.
@crinacle mentioned this and other interesting considerations about KA11 here, starting from min 8:00, ending up preferring the JM20 Max physical implementation:

 

[Somafunk]

I know we are always striving for best performances & measurements but realistically, DAC chips is a problem that has been solved long ago.

I enjoyed my music just as much from my iPods or my iriver mp3 players back in early/mid 2000’s, the headphone/iems were a bit hit/miss though apart from my sennheiser cx300 earbuds or the Etymotic er4-p

(Edited as I originally typed Hiby instead of iriver)

 

[SuicideSquid]

It blows my mind that for under $100 USD, you can get a reference-class DAC, reference-class IEMs, and have money left over to buy a several albums on Bandcamp.

 

[Lambo1985]

I have both the KA11 & the JM20 MAX. Unfortunately, I'm given up trying to use the JM20 MAX with my Galaxy S24+ (my main listening device). When connected, the S24+ sometimes will say that it's is a "high-powered device" and it won't operate, or will sometimes connect but won't play audio (even though it is playing on the device). It's just very finicky, and causes unnessessary wear & tear plugging it in and out trying to get a stable connection. The KA11 runs no problem on S24+. Does anybody know why this happens or why this can happen?

Also there are 5 lowpass filters available in the Fiio Control app. It defaults to min-phase slow roll-off. I'd be curious to know how each measures.

 

[xanalog]

..............leaving no room for any complaining.

You will miss us, if we stopped complaining!

Thank you for the review.

 

[CD2]

This is inspiring. Could it serve as a preamp in a really minimal system?

IOW, perhaps:
PC running Foobar > FiiO KA11 > rca adapter > Topping Mini 300

Not sure about the volume control part.

 

[amirm]

PC running Foobar > FiiO KA11 > rca adapter > Topping Mini 300

It would work fine.

 

[Mnyb]

I have both the KA11 & the JM20 MAX. Unfortunately, I'm given up trying to use the JM20 MAX with my Galaxy S24+ (my main listening device). When connected, the S24+ sometimes will say that it's is a "high-powered device" and it won't operate, or will sometimes connect but won't play audio (even though it is playing on the device). It's just very finicky, and causes unnessessary wear & tear plugging it in and out trying to get a stable connection. The KA11 runs no problem on S24+. Does anybody know why this happens or why this can happen?

Also there are 5 lowpass filters available in the Fiio Control app. It defaults to min-phase slow roll-off. I'd be curious to know how each measures.

View attachment 503745

Amir could advice on which filter in the products meny is recommended to use ( and he does in some test ) .
Somewhere in the overabundance of filter options is the correct one that gives the best reconstruction.

 

[JSmith]

which filter

Amir measured only one, slow, filter;

So I gather since it was sent to him, Fiio have exposed the filter options to the user via firmware update and their app... otherwise surely he would have noted the other reconstruction filter options.

It defaults to min-phase slow roll-off

I'd select "Fast Roll‑Off, Phase‑Compensated"... don't select NOS.


JSmith

 

[ad_fletch]

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

FWIW, the 2.6V that this DAC puts out is enough to drive the unbalanced inputs of many amps to clipping at default gain.
Obviously if you need 4V look elsewhere, but I've found this thing has more than enough oomph to replace a big DAC for me.

 

[IsaacOscar]

@amirm, minor thing but in the review index this is listed as a a "DAC+Headphone AMP", I suggest changing this to "Headphone Amp (Dongle)" or "USB Dongle" so it's easier to find when looking for compact DACs.

 

[Mnyb]

I'd select "Fast Roll‑Off, Phase‑Compensated"... don't select NOS.


JSmith

+1 not NOS and thankyou for identifying the best filter , weird naming