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Review and Measurements of Fiio K5 Pro

odyo

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Hey am i missing something or this k5 pro is worse than soundblaster g6 or ae-5 in your tests which looks impossible due to dedicated purpose with big casing ? G6 is small and gaming oriented product.
What you guys can recommend for my DT1990 pro 250ohm ? I wanna hear full potential of this headphone however i don't have big budget. Which one should go better with my headphone ? I will use it mostly with my headphone but i also have Edifier R1280T bookshelf speakers. Music, movies and games all equally important.

K5 pro has dedicated power supply and nice big casing. AK4493 DAC and powerful amp.
G6 uses usb power. I guess it has Sabre ES9018 DAC and praised discrete biamp.
AE5 uses pcie power. It has Sabre ES9016 DAC and same praised biamp.

If i understand correctly AE5 and G6 better than K5 pro DAC wise. K5 has the most amp power thanks to power supply, AE5 second and G6 least amp power. I'm not sure which amp better though. Biamp should be better ? I think none of these will have issue with loudness. All of them can drive 250ohm headphones easily. But it's not just about brute force power, which amp can sound better ?

I personally liked the K5 pro. It looks great and it's a dedicated product however G6 looks like best choice for me. Even though it's ''gaming'' product it's still better or on par with the K5 pro?
 

Rockfella

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@ odyo : Got with K5 pro. Stellar reviews everywhere.
 

odyo

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@Rockfella yep it's very complicated though. It should be better when i look at it but objective numbers here doesnt look as good as soundblaster. Anyway Creative did an impressive job with this G6 imo. It would be better if they do something like K5. They are probably working on G7 right now since they introduced AE7 and AE9.

@flipflop I guess i will do that :) I'm newbie at these. I saw this measurements and confused though. Didn't understand what these measurements telling to us.
 

Mr:River

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Simply loving my HE400i Mod grill + K5 pro setup, yesterday I had 8 hours of wonderful listening. :D

NcJu9vcRIN2npqMrPkCnrDpsILLTj-D-fBlZxrln4sF1Up1_h85r3FgplJmxXpFo0zum8km1sEZLhmGEqC5Z8nHr5-qXXRgVQgU1y4YsYJY5kLo3o3xwxTs7K3vnZ8RloazwYWlLG9fjPAmpQ9YJCF0pVF6VBlWrtDHmPdUMPAbwG1DK2ezoUM42qQIIwzHT5ZojtvpMc-lOZLHN9xBi9dpfbd7m8aJJUGOPTJ_0Td0J1LklZDBeRIf-houmg5Asy7sHT5Oxxpv1CzIKrrcT3FF3T6ObIeK5LgD3UEPWo9lF7tsP6sZR5ChnWZPKhVVxW0rGLwaowm-kkK6b1zNqFdLxUiBRekauASXeAznKwTrQ4F0jibR8EMDcEGtA2SWqNGdSyQgXXPe5SLpcd9xObzyoaJEZGB3rfAGPkb4N_ctrzjx7lbWURj1OzYoso4nBr8mU8XjjGqno4aw-fM6XpklsGH4XqaOtSrb77MeFUFIH5SbFDsoBs_dNkkUa1-6r9ITZKwQ8s1oIVivbLrgaqvjZgw7w3VEyzvAN3ePkVS4zyQU1JoKeVyn1zCFzDGdphf_NFgeZkym_Hm9iBctH3by4ebHSeRzOyq32dlNm8wZ0Aby2VmHDlUXyzlUnWKXGgGT2C9vXF_Aj4_kXzeB9hBiDxU6AjRc-ZCjEnVNOYgs-Yf4lrBtNeGw=w1723-h970-no
 

holsen

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Disappointed,Still can't pose a threat to the king of budget DAC D10。

The good news is that it has analog input,Analog input is very good。
D10 + JDS Atom or K5 Pro?
So, let me just throw this out there. If given the choice between a JDS Atom paired with the D10 DAC or a Stand Alone K5 Pro, which would you all go for? I've got the Atom, with D10 in shipping right now, but out of curiosity, searched eBay and a seller in NY has the FiiO for $149
 

Kosta

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D10 + JDS Atom or K5 Pro?
So, let me just throw this out there. If given the choice between a JDS Atom paired with the D10 DAC or a Stand Alone K5 Pro, which would you all go for? I've got the Atom, with D10 in shipping right now, but out of curiosity, searched eBay and a seller in NY has the FiiO for $149
I wouldn't stress over it at this price range youre not going to hear any audible difference. Measurements are a nice intellectual exercise. If you are happy with the price of what you got then stick with it.
 

Rockfella

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Simply loving my HE400i Mod grill + K5 pro setup, yesterday I had 8 hours of wonderful listening. :D

NcJu9vcRIN2npqMrPkCnrDpsILLTj-D-fBlZxrln4sF1Up1_h85r3FgplJmxXpFo0zum8km1sEZLhmGEqC5Z8nHr5-qXXRgVQgU1y4YsYJY5kLo3o3xwxTs7K3vnZ8RloazwYWlLG9fjPAmpQ9YJCF0pVF6VBlWrtDHmPdUMPAbwG1DK2ezoUM42qQIIwzHT5ZojtvpMc-lOZLHN9xBi9dpfbd7m8aJJUGOPTJ_0Td0J1LklZDBeRIf-houmg5Asy7sHT5Oxxpv1CzIKrrcT3FF3T6ObIeK5LgD3UEPWo9lF7tsP6sZR5ChnWZPKhVVxW0rGLwaowm-kkK6b1zNqFdLxUiBRekauASXeAznKwTrQ4F0jibR8EMDcEGtA2SWqNGdSyQgXXPe5SLpcd9xObzyoaJEZGB3rfAGPkb4N_ctrzjx7lbWURj1OzYoso4nBr8mU8XjjGqno4aw-fM6XpklsGH4XqaOtSrb77MeFUFIH5SbFDsoBs_dNkkUa1-6r9ITZKwQ8s1oIVivbLrgaqvjZgw7w3VEyzvAN3ePkVS4zyQU1JoKeVyn1zCFzDGdphf_NFgeZkym_Hm9iBctH3by4ebHSeRzOyq32dlNm8wZ0Aby2VmHDlUXyzlUnWKXGgGT2C9vXF_Aj4_kXzeB9hBiDxU6AjRc-ZCjEnVNOYgs-Yf4lrBtNeGw=w1723-h970-no
8 hours!!! FML I have not done that ever!!! K5 pro! FTW!
 

jak

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what pisses me off with this is that volume has huge jumps at the beginning, which means its not suitable for super sensitive stuff. with my superlux hd668b, i can hear a stage of 3 volumes after turning it on before it becomes a smooth scale.
 

ZTG

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I would like to ask Fiio K5 Pro owners if they too experience the following. When switching on and off with headphones connected, can you hear like two "clicks", one a few seconds after the other, on both channels of your headphones but louder on the right one? The clicks sound almost like the bumps on speakers when an amplifier has no speakers' protection and they get louder with higher gain settings and higher sensitivity headphones. I ask to know if this is normal or if I received a bad unit. Thank you.
 

flipflop

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Yeah, high gain would be madness with those headphones.
It also has a medium gain setting.
You can see the jumps in the channel balance graphs too I think.
It's flat until the unit shuts off. The bump at 11 s is audibly inconsequential. Sorry, I was mistakenly looking at the channel balance graph.

While not an ideal solution, your problem could be solved by turning down the system volume.
 
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jak

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It also has a medium gain setting.

It's flat until the unit shuts off. The bump at 11 s is audibly inconsequential.

While not an ideal solution, your problem could be solved by turning down the system volume.

But the two bumps seem to be precisely what I'm hearing, the big one between 14 and 13 especially.

But it does mean you lose the advantage of channel balance, because that's the same region where the atom starts showing imbalance.

It's odd because you move the knob and the volume does not change and then suddenly it does. It does not feel natural.
 

Rockfella

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I just got mine and I can't power it up!

OMG What a bummer! I think I got a dead unit.

I am unable to power it up. Tried multiple sockets, no luck!

Crap I hate this :(

Maybe I am missing something.

Called up FiiO.in, pickup scheduled for tomorrow :)

View attachment 34825
Replacement shipped yesterday. Should be delivered by this saturday :)
 

Ansau

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what pisses me off with this is that volume has huge jumps at the beginning, which means its not suitable for super sensitive stuff. with my superlux hd668b, i can hear a stage of 3 volumes after turning it on before it becomes a smooth scale.
I also experience the same, starting at 9h and finishing between 9h and 10h. But with the Fidelio X2 it happens at very low volume, even when system sound at max, I really need to search for it to notice it.

I would like to ask Fiio K5 Pro owners if they too experience the following. When switching on and off with headphones connected, can you hear like two "clicks", one a few seconds after the other, on both channels of your headphones but louder on the right one? The clicks sound almost like the bumps on speakers when an amplifier has no speakers' protection and they get louder with higher gain settings and higher sensitivity headphones. I ask to know if this is normal or if I received a bad unit. Thank you.
I also experience the same, but only at high gain is listenable.
 

Rockfella

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9.jpg

Got it today. It is good. Better than FiiO E10. Cleaner wider and does not distort. I think my expectations were too high or I don't have good gear to justify this upgrade. TinAudio T2 and ATH M40x. Yet to connect LP6 to the pre-outs. Nevertheless the unit looks sexy!
EDIT: Do I need to tweak some settings in Foobar? Nothing plays in it. Although YT music plays fine.
 
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solderdude

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The solution for the volpot issue with sensitive headphones is very easy when you know how to solder.
Also there is solution you can buy.
 

Rockfella

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No audible difference when speakers connected to pre-outs VS internal sound card.
 
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