FiiO K5Pro ESS Amplifier Headphone Amps Stereo High Resolution Portable Desktop DAC 768K/32Bit and Native DSD512 for Home Audio/PC 6.35mm Headphone Out/RCA Line-Out/Coaxial/Optical Inputs (Black)

So first off I wanted a K7. I have some harder to drive cans but its basically impossible to find anywhere. Amazon pulled it and several other retailers are all listing it as a pre order but not available yet. Anyway... ended up settling on this or so I thought (spoilers, I don't feel like i settled anymore, it does exactly what I wants at this price point and I'm glad I saved the 50$). I don't mean to say the k7 isn't better, I wouldn't know, but I am gonna say that the K5 drastically outperforms my expectations. I'm a primarily audio-gd user, and due to mishandling it I broke the volume potentiometer on my main rig and so I bought this as a standin. I didn't want something to outperform my main rig, and this manages to get right up to it without quite beating it... and that's saying something because it's over 1000$ in amp and dac. This is an absolutely mind blowing eye watering ear melting value.Now on to the sound: It's mostly hifi. There are parts to this device's presentation that is closer to "the hifi version of something not very hifi but people dig anyway". The other products in the line up feature a bass switch for example, and this definitely has some exaggerated bass but only enough and in just the right way that makes it good. It's not gonna make the staunchest audiophiles happy on their main rig, but it will satisfy anybody who knows they're kinda sorta settling for one reason or another. It's really good value hifi while retaining some elements of consumer appeal (think like, beats by dre).Basically this amp/dac combo is the new king of yeah but it's doing it with x. It sounds this good, it's not the best i've heard, but at 150$ It's a huge wtf. It sounds this good, yeah, I've heard better but not from something this SMALL. The pictures make it seem like it's bigger than it actually is, it's like a 4x5inch thing, really small, about the size of a modern cable modem. This rig does a lot of things like that.New to hifi? Buy it. Seriously, nothing's gonna touch this at it's price point. Can you do better while still maintaining the value? Sure, you've got a lot of room to grow without losing good value for your money but this is probably where great sound really starts. If I was starting out, I'd want to start with this device right here. Need another for your work setup or just your shop or something? Buy it. It won't make your face wrinkle up in disgust, and in some cases it'll make you say whoa, without replacing your prized hifi and it's the cheapest thing I could find with a 6.3mm jack and no bs.Only real complaint I have about this amp/dac combo is what the other reviewer pointed out: there's a deadzone at the start of the volume knob, after you click it on to when you start hearing stuff is a surprisingly large amount of the turn, I'd say 15-20% of the knob is deadzone after the on click then you start hearing it and it rapidly climbs in volume at teh beginning presumably to make up for lost time. I wish there was a touch more nuance in the lower volume levels because I listen primarily quietly, although this does get loud and that serves me well on my work setup because i'm way more likely to listen to something loud and brutal while working. BFG division has gotten me through a lot of shifts, but most of the time I listen quiet and this loses some of the super low end volume range...But it is meant to be used with an intelligent transport of some kind (aka a computer so you can make up for this a bit with your player or system volume, and the volume movement is there in the knob it's just really tight starting out and hard to adjust because of it). The gain switch is nice for medium to higher volumes, however... oh and on the subject of stuff it connects to, I'm using this on linux with no issues. I hope that's useful to somebody. Anyway this review is already obnoxious, take care audiophiles!

I love all Fiio products I've used and this is no exception. Great control, absolutely amazing sound, can drive high impedance headphones with plenty of headroom, and it's super easy and quick to set up. The volume knob also has a really great feel to it. It is somewhat light weight compared to what I expected for a mostly metal construction.

Please note that I don't listen to much with headphones (mine are nothing great) but many folks love what this unit does for music via its headphone output, given its price. That said, this review is based SOLELY on using it at as a DAC via its RCA outputs, which are not reputed to be its strength; still...So, my main DAC is for listening on my speaker system and provides PCM/DSD at up to 384/128 respectively, in Class A. It is not time to upgrade it yet but I needed to appraise some PCM 768/DSD 512 recording files.Enter this FiiO gizmo, as an impulse purchase. I plugged it into a decent power conditioner and I gave it over 300 hours of constant PC-sourced DSD music playback to burn in. Only then did I sit to listen. I did so via both an optimized Volumio (Linux) and also my optimized Foobar2k PC installs. Well beyond my expectations, this sucker kept me listening and enjoying for hours! On all levels, from musicality and definition, to quite respectable sound staging (large. beyond all walls) and commendable 3D imaging, my speakers never felt "underfed" as far as quality is concerned. Neither did my ears; no lack of anything fundamental to thorough enjoyment. From classical to jazz and vocals, I never felt shortchanged.In the context of the above, many can spend a little more and get a better unit but they won't easily hear the difference until they spend several hundred $ more. In any case, do spend on decent power conditioning first if you can.Edit: Three more points to add.- My configured signal path is from a PC (optimized for music only) sent via USB to this FiiO K5Pro ESS, then directly from its RCA outputs to my power amplifiers which then drive a pair of large speakers.- For those of you interested, I installed the Fidelizer Pro optimizing software in my music PC a few days ago. The K5 delivered the additional goods in spades.- The lack of remote control, which is hardly an issue for headphone use, may become a minor drag when used as DAC in a speaker system. If it is important to you, other models do feature it.

The sound is wonderfully clear. I used Beyerdynamic DT770 closed-back headphones (great low extension BTW) and this DAC/AMP delivered. Absolutely no background noise. All functions are excellent however when the headphones are plugged in, the line-out RCA connectors are still on. So If you are to run external speakers, say, desktop powered or out to an amp, you'll have speakers and headphones going at the same time. Instructions say to just unplug headphones and set lowest gain and set volume in that configuration, however, that means I have to get up and turn off speakers when I plug in. Some other DAC/AMPs shut off the line out when you plug in headphones, and that was what I needed. I didn't feel it was clearly stated in product descriptions (hence the 4-star) but regardless, that is how I'm used to things functioning with my old PC speaker setup and wish to continue that use so I'm returning it in favor of probably a Schiit Fulla or Gunnr or other dac/amp that has the feature I want + Kali powered speakers. Otherwise, for $150 this is a fantastic and clear and solid device!! I highly recommend it, it can easily drive your 300+ ohm headphones.