FiiO KA11 Portable DAC/Amp Review

[IsaacOscar]

the usb c cable im using does not mention any amplifier included. i'm confused. i get that fiio one DOES have DAC and amp, but the other cable im referring does not claim to amplify the sound, only dac.

Sorry, the AMP will be inside the DAC chip itself then (as opposed to being a seperate chip).

 

[Grenadine]

Sorry, the AMP will be inside the DAC chip itself then (as opposed to being a separate chip).

so the old dongle i have been using actually does have a built in amplifier within the chip. there is no mention of it on the product listing page. i thought it was just a standard cable and iphone usb c port was still throwing out an amplified signal

 

[IsaacOscar]

so the old dongle i have been using actually does have a built in amplifier within the chip. there is no mention of it on the product listing page. i thought it was just a standard cable and iphone usb c port was still throwing out an amplified signal

Any "standard" cable will either have both a DAC & AMP in it or will have neither and use the outdated "Analog" mode I mentioned (but only older devices support that).

Ignoring the Analog thing, your phone will send power and digital data to the cable/adapter,
this will then convert the data to analog form (the DAC) and amplify it (the AMP), then send you to the headphones.
The power from the USB cable is used to power the DAC & AMP, the phone won't give more power than asked for, but sometimes they give less power (so it might be louder if e.g. you connect the cable to a computer that doesn't care about saving battery).

The phone will not "amplifying" a digital signal, it sends it at the same power as required by the USB spec, any more power won't do anything other than damage your dongle (digital is either 0, i.e. no power, or 1, i.e. full power). You can use an app to "amplify" the data sent (i.e. increase the sent level of each sample / frequency) but this will lose quality as it cannot increase above 100% volume (e.g. it might increase the volume of quieter instruments, but not increase the volume of the loudest ones, only distort the sound).

Bassically, do not try and amplify a digital signal (unless your intentionaly only amplifying part of it, e.g. certain frequencies or only one app when multiple are playing). If you want louder sound you need a better/seperate amp and means to provide it enough power (portable ones often have their own battery that needs to be recharged as the phone won't give it enough power).

 

[IsaacOscar]

so the old dongle i have been using actually does have a built in amplifier within the chip. there is no mention of it on the product listing page. i thought it was just a standard cable and iphone usb c port was still throwing out an amplified signal

If you know the specific DAC chip it uses, you can look that up online to get more information about it's AMP.

 

[Somafunk]

I imagine grenadine will be using a cable like the Ugreen usb c to 3.5mm audio Jack

 

[Grenadine]

I imagine grenadine will be using a cable like the Ugreen usb c to 3.5mm audio Jack

 

[Jimster480]

View attachment 506292

There are tons of these but quality is questionable

 

[IsaacOscar]

View attachment 506292

As is often the case with these cheap things, they don't specify the chip used (it just says it's a "Smart Chip"), you'd have to open it up and have a look at it (if you feel like probably damaging it) or contact the manufacturer if you really need to know.

 

[Somafunk]

ah I see, no information as to what dac chip they are using

LERTOSEN 2 Pack USB C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter – HiFi Audio Dongle, Type C to Aux Female Cable Cord Compatible with iPhone 16/15 Pro Max, Samsung S25/S24/S23, iPad Pro, Pixel, MacBook: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Shop LERTOSEN 2 Pack USB C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter – HiFi Audio Dongle, Type C to Aux Female Cable Cord Compatible with iPhone 16/15 Pro Max, Samsung S25/S24/S23, iPad Pro, Pixel, MacBook. Free delivery and returns on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[CedarX]

The phone will not "amplifying" a digital signal, it sends it at the same power as required by the USB spec, any more power won't do anything other than damage your dongle (digital is either 0, i.e. no power, or 1, i.e. full power). You can use an app to "amplify" the data sent (i.e. increase the sent level of each sample / frequency) but this will lose quality as it cannot increase above 100% volume (e.g. it might increase the volume of quieter instruments, but not increase the volume of the loudest ones, only distort the sound).

Bassically, do not try and amplify a digital signal (unless your intentionaly only amplifying part of it, e.g. certain frequencies or only one app when multiple are playing).

With all my respect, this is more confusing than anything…. Why are you talking about “power”, “amplifying data”, “distorting the sound” … in digital audio?

 

[IsaacOscar]

With all my respect, this is more confusing than anything…. Why are you talking about “power”, “amplifying data”, “distorting the sound” … in digital audio?

Because @Grenadine was claiming his iPhone was "amplifying" the sound and not the adapter. I was trying to explain thats not how it works...

 

[tccalvin]

so the old dongle i have been using actually does have a built in amplifier within the chip. there is no mention of it on the product listing page. i thought it was just a standard cable and iphone usb c port was still throwing out an amplified signal

Audiophiles and reviewers are kind of guilty of spreading misinformation by saying stuff like "do you need an amp to drive this headphone?" and the like...

One thing we should all understand is that every speaker (be it a loudspeaker or a headphone driver) needs amplification to produce sound.

What people mean by "do you need an amp?" is "do you need a dedicated, powerful amp or will the anemic amp in your device/phone/dongle suffice?"

As an example, it's the same principle as having a dedicated gpu vs an integrated gpu. At the end of the day, you still need a gpu to send video to a screen.

So yes, all modern phones do have a DAC/Amp combo inside of them, but they are used to drive the built-in speakers. If the phone has a headphone jack, then the same amp or a different internal one might be used to drive that.

If you're sending audio via USB, then the phone's DAC/Amp combo will be ignored and you will be using whatever is inside your USB device.

With all my respect, this is more confusing than anything…. Why are you talking about “power”, “amplifying data”, “distorting the sound” … in digital audio?

Digital amplification does exist, but it will always be limited to the 0dBFS ceiling.

Effectively, it is compressing the signal, applying make-up gain and limiting/clipping when you attempt to go above the 0dBFS threshold. What you're doing is bringing up the quieter parts (and therefore noise) and reducing dynamic range while potentially creating distortion if you go too far.

Analog amplification is fundamentally different and it is what we're talking about most of the time when we are discussing amps on ASR. Digital amplification can't drive speakers.

 

[Ahmonge]

The USB port, in [EDIT: almost] all its variants, is a purely digital interface; it does not carry sound in analog form. If an adapter with an analog audio output is connected, the adapter must include a DAC to convert the digital audio data into an analog signal and an amplifier that supports the load of whatever we connect next (headphones, line input from another amplifier, etc.).

Fortunately, USB also provides electrical power in the form of direct current so that connected active devices can operate autonomously, provided they do not require more power than the maximum supplied by the USB port.

Therefore, it is not possible for a USB adapter for headphones to be just a cable.

EDIT: There are rare implementations where USB is able to send analog audio. Thanks, @IsaacOscar, for that info

 

[IsaacOscar]

The USB port, in all its variants, is a purely digital interface; it does not carry sound in analog form.

Sadly this is only true 99% of the time, due to the deprecated "Analog Audio Adapter Accessory Mode" (example cable), as well as non-standard stuff (e.g. this 7.1 channel analog output).

 

[CedarX]

Sadly this is only true 99% of the time, due to the deprecated "Analog Audio Adapter Accessory Mode" (example cable), as well as non-standard stuff (e.g. this 7.1 channel analog output).

Is it actually deprecated? I thought it was still present in the USB-C standard…
That it never had much success and is seldom used is a different story.

For the records, the USB-C standard also allows select pins (not all of them) to be reconfigured for proprietary use. So, some of the proprietary USB-C cables (e.g. USB-C port on BT headphones allowing the use of an analog USB-C to 3.5mm cable) are actually “standard”—they conform to the USB standards.

 

[tccalvin]

the deprecated "Analog Audio Adapter Accessory Mode"

In these cases, the adapters are more like USB-shaped analog jacks than anything else. No real USB connection is going on. I believe KOSS use fully analog "USB" cables (USB to 3.5mm) on their bluetooth models instead of the standard 3.5mm jacks. Cool option to save space.

 

[Yersinia Bestmate]

Uhh... the review is right here?

They're about the same. They trade (very light) blows here and there.

TANCHJIM Space Portable Headphone Adapter Review

This is a review, listening test and detailed measurements of the TANCHJIM Space portable DAC and balanced headphone adapter. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $90. I like the transparent window so that you can see the insides. There is an LED that lights up there when you reach...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Indeed it is, we knew that of course.

But it is not on the chart which has been politely asked for quite few times in several portable dac review threads. After all the charts are a handy way to compare performance so why not put it there?

 

[Pkok_808]

So I've been listening to music on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro phone on Sennheiser HD 550 via the FiiO KA11 dongle.

I set the source at 100% volume (256 index gain in the engineering mode), and ajdust the volume output of the dac/amp on the FiiO Control App. Usually at around 25-35/50.

Now, the max volume of 256 I noticed the bass being kinda sludgy and losing articulation, kind of sounding too round if that makes sense, and losing definition on some hi hats and such. So I figured "OK this is distortion?" even if I didn't hear any clipping as such. So now I lowered the volume to around 81-82% which are the 212 and 208 steps (can only put steps divisible by 4). They sound the best, but both DIFFERENT, and I'm kind of losing my mind over it. I don't know at what point I'm degrading the sound. If I go too low, I lose digital data and it sure does sound kinda harsh, grainy and peaky at let's say 176, compared to 212 and 208.

Now 208 sounds good, but 212 has more "body" (low-mids). However, I can't tell if that's "the start of distortion" if that makes sense. 208 vocals sound a bit more dry, but everything sounds perhaps more airy? And the subbass is defined just a little bit more.

So yeah, at the end of the day, I just don't get how you can comfortably know that your gain staging is "correct" for that gear. I feel like somewhere over 85% the signal starts to distort, so ~80% that's the sweet spot definitely.

Does anyone have any advice on how to adjust the volume without distorting but at the same time not losing any data?

It's amazing how different the sound is when adjusting the digital gain on my phone. Everywhere I go people say that it doesn't matter all that much and that you won't hear the difference anyway, but it's so obviously there and I cannot figure out how to approach this.

 

[kyuu]

Now 208 sounds good, but 212 has more "body" (low-mids). However, I can't tell if that's "the start of distortion" if that makes sense. 208 vocals sound a bit more dry, but everything sounds perhaps more airy? And the subbass is defined just a little bit more.

It just sounds like you're trying to describe the difference between two things where one is a bit louder than the other, but not loud enough where you necessarily detect the difference as a change in loudness. This is why level matching is important for blind testing.

You're overthinking it, IMO. Set the source volume as high as you can but lower than the point where it starts to sound bad, then leave it there and don't worry about.

 

[Pkok_808]

It just sounds like you're trying to describe the difference between two things where one is a bit louder than the other, but not loud enough where you necessarily detect the difference as a change in loudness. This is why level matching is important for blind testing.

You're overthinking it, IMO. Set the source volume as high as you can but lower than the point where it starts to sound bad, then leave it there and don't worry about.

Yeah, I'll hover over those two levels. Thank you.

Also, can someone explain this, because I'm not all that educated about external DAC/amps, and I'm a bit confused.

In a nutshell, shouldn't external DAC/amps sound the same connected to any source?

I ask this because there is an obvious difference when I use it on my Xiaomi phone and when I use it on my laptop (budget HP 250 G7 Notebook). When I adjust the volume on my phone so that it doesn't distort the sound is very good on my headphones. However whatever I do on my PC it just sounds like shit. Kinda hissy, mushy in the higher frequencies, quite thin and not articulate. It sounds similar without using the dongle. I thought it should sound exactly the same on every device. I don't get it. Am I doing something wrong?

I have no problem using it exclusively on my phone. It's just that it would be nice to use it on my pc from time to time not to drain my phone's battery, and when I'm at my desk.