Looking for review or comparison of Fiio K11 & K5pro rca output

[Massiveattack]

Hello everyone, I have a bit of a technical question and Ive exhausted my searching on the internet, and cant find any reviews of the Fiio K11 (non R2R) on here.


specifically a review by @amirm .
I mention you, dude, because I really appreciated your K5 Pro review and along with a few other people's information, I gathered that the RCA outputs on the back produced worse sound than the headphone out on the front, but that was no concern of mine since it was only used as headphones from the PC. (Apparently around 80db from the rear outputs)
(The k5pro i have is also an AKM DAC version, not ESS.)

Ive had my k5 pro since around 2019 to power some AKG 712pro headphones and ive been happy ever since.

For some reason about a year or more ago, I decided to pick up a K11 (non R2R), which made me end up putting the K5pro into the closet.

In that time, the use of the K11 has been... "ehh, I guess it works"... hasn't felt amazing, but didnt seem to lower my listening quality/helped lower desk real-estate.
However in that time frame Ive lately started getting away from living through my headphones, and more specifically, I was gifted my grandfathers old '93 Kenwood stereo stack.

I get it, its not amazing, but it has been a real blast for myself.
Apparently the equipment is considered "A/B" material, so its good enough for someone as grateful as me and Ive started to focus all my listening pleasure out of the stereo now.

The thing is, at some point I realized I could hook my TV theater PC spdif/USB DAP player into the stereo if I just had another piece of equipment.... which happened to be the spare K5 pro from the closet- and thats what Ive been doing for the last 6 months and I couldnt have been happier.

Then came the recent rabbit hole, and long story short, I remembered that the RCA outputs which I need to use to hook into the vintage 100wpc stereo was considered "inferior".

So im just a bit curious... I cannot find any similar reviews of the K11 to warrant if the RCA outputs are equally as bad or if they are better. I cant find similar reviews as from @amirm.

Seeing as how I dont feel either way about the k11, other than I like the look of the k5pro near my vintage stereo vs the more newer K11, I was curious to learn how the RCA outputs stack up against the K5pro, and if anyone can help answer that for me.
Im willing to swap them and put the k5pro back where it used to be, because I wont need the RCA outputs again.


One last thing: im willing to physically swap them to test, however, the power blocks are BOTH equally buried and would take a lot of effort to pull out.
If I read correctly, the k5pro uses a 15v2a power, and the k11 uses a 15v1.5a, both bullet connectors that fit. Can I at least plug the K11 into the k5pro power supply just to test it, or could I risk damaging something? This is the only reason why I haven't actually done this test, im just not keen on exploding wiring all over the place if it turns out the K11 has the same terrible outputs and wont offer me anything over the k5pro.
Thank you for any help offered.

 

[raif71]

Why don't you just plug the rca out of k5pro to the Kenwood rca in and listen for yourself? Same with the rca out of k11...just hook it to the kenwood and listen for yourself

 

[Massiveattack]

Why don't you just plug the rca out of k5pro to the Kenwood rca in and listen for yourself? Same with the rca out of k11...just hook it to the kenwood and listen for yourself

You... Didnt read anything of what I wrote... Or this wouldnt have been your response.


Here I thought trying to be friendly and a bit more descriptive would help and instead it was my fault for expecting people on the internet to read anything past the title and respond off of that just to hear themselves talk.

Here's hoping others are more attentive and can offer real help.

 

[raif71]

You... Didnt read anything of what I wrote... Or this wouldnt have been your response.


Here I thought trying to be friendly and a bit more descriptive would help and instead it was my fault for expecting people on the internet to read anything past the title and respond off of that just to hear themselves talk.

Here's hoping others are more attentive and can offer real help.

ok...sorry

 

[Massiveattack]

ok...sorry

Sorry myself. I get a short patience these days for the internet/social media. Too often no one reads, just felt like the same thing when I already said I was running the K5 but I dont have an easy way to simply swap them. Your phrasing made it seem like you just read the title without anything else.
Thats why I asked about safety of swapping power supplies as a temporary fix to test.
One basically uses an AC outlet wall wart, the other uses a mini power brick from a similar PC cable

If the k11 has the same issue as the k5, theres no reason for me to spend an entire day to undo all my hidden/packed wiring. Both of these items are in different places and different setups.
Thats why I was asking if anyone has experience with the issue the K5 has, if its a recurring Fiio "feature"

 

[RandomEar]

The K11 has been measured here. That's not quite as much info as in a full data set from Amir, but it gives you a good impression. I think that thread shows the headphone output performance, but Fiio themselves spec the K11 at a THD+N of 0.025% via RCA which is -72 dB and agrees well with those measurements by @swa2023 . That would be somewhat worse than the K5 Pro, which is actually only as bad as shown in the review when pushed to an output level of 2 V.

Overall, both DACs perform significantly worse than the current state of the art, which easily surpasses a SINAD of 115 dB. They are also both worse than what a standard audio CD can deliver. That being said, this level of performance is unlikely to actually sound broken or bad. It's just a sign of mediocre engineering.

 

[Massiveattack]

The K11 has been measured here. That's not quite as much info as in a full data set from Amir, but it gives you a good impression. I think that thread shows the headphone output performance, but Fiio themselves spec the K11 at a THD+N of 0.025% via RCA which is -72 dB and agrees well with those measurements by @swa2023 . That would be somewhat worse than the K5 Pro, which is actually only as bad as shown in the review when pushed to an output level of 2 V.

Overall, both DACs perform significantly worse than the current state of the art, which easily surpasses a SINAD of 115 dB. They are also both worse than what a standard audio CD can deliver. That being said, this level of performance is unlikely to actually sound broken or bad. It's just a sign of mediocre engineering.

Appreciate the info, Ive seen that review, however its for the R2R model, which is not mine.

I have the other version with the Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC.

Honestly it does not feel as impressive as the AKM or ESS DAC devices I own. Reviews say its intended as a cheaper portable device DAC choice.
Really not sure why Fiio would make the K11, it was a bad purchase on my part.
More likely ill just keep things setup as they are.

 

[RandomEar]

Ahh damn, they sell two devices with essentially the same name and different DAC chips? Yeah, sorry, I didn't know. Also: Bad choice by Fiio.

 

[PjV]

I have the K11 and use it only with heaphones, so, I can't answer your question, but...
K11 specs: https://fiio.com/k11_parameters