FiiO KA11 Portable DAC/Amp Review

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

I almost had a heart attack. PEQ on a device with this price and performance would go beyond "game changing", almost more like game breaking.

I'd buy one for each set of headphones I own so they could have dialed in EQ regardless of device.

I essentially "standardized" on my Bose QC headphones, which to me sound good-but-not-great, because they sound good out of the box and I don't want to mess around with EQ adjustments on every device.

There is even smaller and cheaper device with PEQ (using walkplay app) but It's definitely less powerful and with worse overall performance.
But I use it with IEMs and phone, as the footprint is extremely small.

hi-max dongle

ps. also good and not expensive option (a bit bigger) is Trn black pearl dongle it also offers peq.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

This means that this dongle has the potential to become the best adapter of this form factor on the market if we make our voices heard and ask FiiO for a Firmware update

If you disable DRE, the performance becomes a lot more ordinary. That's the point of DRE it artificially boosts the DAC's measured performance.

 

[tccalvin]

If you disable DRE, the performance becomes a lot more ordinary. That's the point of DRE it artificially boosts the DAC's measured performance.

Yup, but an Apple dongle has worse performance overall even with DRE enabled. Even after taking a hit to SINAD, I think the KA11 would beat it.

 

[Medsca]

I use this little device daily with my Apple 14. I plug in Crin ear daybreaks. I am very pleased.
Thanks for the detailed review. Now, I’m very pleased with the purchase.

 

[dark132]

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

I also encountered a sound interruption issue when using the JM20 Max. I believe it's caused by Android's support for USB devices, because the sound never stop while playing; it only stops when switching between videos in app. I've never experienced sound interruptions when using applications that support USB DACs, such as Filo Music, Music Center, and Neutron.

 

[dark132]

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

The simplest test is to open a video application like YouTube, connect a USB DAC, play a video (with sound), wait about ten seconds after playback, and then select another video. The sound stops within four or five videos, sometimes even within two or three. I believe this is related to the system's power consumption settings for high-current external USB devices, but I cannot find an option to make the system ignore power consumption. Music apps that support USB DACs do not have this problem.

 

[PjV]

Was going to order the device, but saw it has mqa...
No order and vote changed to 'poor'.

 

[Lambo1985]

Was going to order the device, but saw it has mqa...
No order and vote changed to 'poor'.

What?! It supports MQA?! That's it. I'm taking a hammer to this thing... RIGHT NOW!

 

[solawind]

Was going to order the device, but saw it has mqa...

so.. whats wrong with it? someone may still have mqa music downloaded or on CD. It is just supporting outdated format at this point

 

[CedarX]

Was going to order the device, but saw it has mqa...
No order and vote changed to 'poor'.

Link please. I don't think it supports MQA—in the sense, onboard MQA "unfolding"

 

[mm0zct]

Since it's been mentioned a few times in the thread as an alternative dongle, I got the fiio snowsky melody recently and can confirm it supports microphone on the 3.5mm connection, has PEQ, and let's you turn off DRE in the settings - in fact mine came with it disabled by default. You can also switch the amp between AB and H class modes of you care about that. I've been enjoying it with my chu2s and hd599se (both with boom mic cables for work calls between music listening, and both with EQ profiles saved to the dongle)

It's smaller than I expected, really neat little thing

 

[norcalscott]

Was going to order the device, but saw it has mqa...
No order and vote changed to 'poor'.

Good grief, I hope this is a joke...

 

[PjV]

I read it in a section explaining the led colours, it required UAC1.0.
Now I can’t find that section anymore, hopefully I was wrong and it is not supported.

 

[Jimster480]

Does this also have an ADC? Or is it purely a DAC?

 

[mc.god]

Does this also have an ADC? Or is it purely a DAC?

No, it doesn't. It relies on a CS43131 dac+Savitech USB bridge, both lacking and ADC, so no mic input support.

 

[mm0zct]

Does this also have an ADC? Or is it purely a DAC?

No sign anywhere of adc/mic support unlike the Melody.

 

[IsaacOscar]

Does this also have an ADC? Or is it purely a DAC?

No ADC unfortunately, see the bottom of the FAQ: https://www.jadeaudio.com/details?article_id=173&_l=en.

 

[tccalvin]

so.. whats wrong with it? someone may still have mqa music downloaded or on CD. It is just supporting outdated format at this point

Yes. Although, since MQA is a scam, supporting MQA might be seen by some as supporting a scam...

 

[KDRN]

I almost had a heart attack. PEQ on a device with this price and performance would go beyond "game changing", almost more like game breaking.

I'd buy one for each set of headphones I own so they could have dialed in EQ regardless of device.

I essentially "standardized" on my Bose QC headphones, which to me sound good-but-not-great, because they sound good out of the box and I don't want to mess around with EQ adjustments on every device.

there is a dac with (undocumented) PEQ with the same power output of the ka11. its called the Jcally JM98 MAX

 

[PjV]

Yes. Although, since MQA is a scam, supporting MQA might be seen by some as supporting a scam...

Indeed.