FiiO Andes (E07K) Portable USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier - 96kHz/24-Bit

Introduction:
The Fiio E07K Andes DAC and Headphone amplifier is a must have for a beginning audiophile. The quality outweighs the price. It has great value and is a great buy for a powerful, and casual portable amplifier. Also the fact that the amp has a built in DAC for quality audio playback is pretty awesome as well. I will talk about all the positives and negatives about this amp in it's sound quality, build, etc.
The Fiio Company: Fiio is a China-based company that specifically produces headphone amplifiers. Fiio is a very popular company among audiophiles. The most popular amp by Fiio is the Fiio E6, a mini-amplifier that is bought by both regular consumers and audiophiles alike.
 
Positives:
The key things you should know is that this is a DAC and a headphone amplifier in one. The DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) is what changes the computer's 1's and 0's to analog (audio, in this case). This provides the "upscale" in your audio format. Basically, a DAC is used with the goal in mind to get the original, best sound quality out of an audio file. One positive about this amplifier is that it has up to 24 hours of battery life when fully charged. Another positive is that the amplifier gives the headphones more driven power, and allowing them to hit all of the frequencies with ease. To have both the DAC and the amplifier in one under $100 is quite remarkable. Now to talk about all the audio benefits; I feel like the bass is the most impacted area when it comes to this amp. The bass is deep and impacting. (It's not overboard with bass though, so don't worry about that.) In addition to deep bass, this amp drives the mids to a completely new other level. The mids are perfect, and are just what they needed to be. I was also very satisfied in the warm, clear sound that this headphone amp produced. 
 
Negatives:
It doesn't do much improve the highs. As I said this amp features more of warm sound signature. There's not much "sparkle". However I think this amp thrives without "twinkle" or "sparkle". It's really just based on preference; but I am a kind of person likes a smooth, warm sound signature with a little bit of bass, which this amp particularly thrived in.
 
The Build:
The build quality is purely sleek. A brushed metal look encases the E07K, and there is a glass front with an crystal clear OLED screen. All of the inputs are positioned reasonably. It is comparably sized to an average smartphone. This makes the size pretty beneficial in the aspect that you can strap it to the back of your smartphone when you are out and about and you're listening to music.. It is a pretty sturdy amp as well. Not the glass doesn't appear like it could break like mere iPhone screen glass. (It seems pretty tough.) The amp does not appear bulky or nerdy at all; in fact it looks pretty cool with the glass/metal build. I'm very glad I didn't buy just a big bulk of plastic. I very much enjoy the look and the feel of this amp and its controls.
 

 
Specs. (For those analytical people...)
Frequency Range: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
 
Output Power:
250 mW @ 16 Ω
220 mW @ 32 Ω
36 mW @ 300 Ω
 
Output Impedance: 0.3 Ω
 
Gain: Switchable between 0, 6, 12 dB
 
Bass Boost Range: -10 dB to 10 dB
 
Input Sensitivity:
0 dB @ 2.75 V
6 dB @ 1.38 V
12 dB @ 690 mV
 
Conclusion:
Overall, I think it was a great buy! You can't really go wrong with it. It does great with powering ohm-heavy headphones; and it drives an incredible impacting bass. (For those bass-lovers out there..) I personally love the nice, warm sound signature, and would definitely recommend this amp to a friend. Simply, it just does a fine job at getting an overall better sound quality. The build of it is sturdy, and it's just the right size to be a portable amplifier. Not to mention it's design is pretty cool. I give this amp a 9.5/10, I deducted it half a point because of the amp not improving the highs to the extent that I wanted it. However, it was hardly noticeable with all the other fine sound quality features it portrayed.
My name is Cody, and I hoped you enjoyed my review! If you have any questions/comments feel free to comment down below!  

Owned this amp for just over a year and it is wonderful for the price. FiiO is one of the few companies that openly lists all of their specs to the public. I reason I bought this was primarily to be used as a portable DAC. The Wolfson WM8740 is a very competent DAC which is found in much higher priced equipment. 
 
Just because FiiO is a Chinese company, does not mean that the quality of the E07k Andes is poor. On the contrary, the design is very compact and the materials used mostly comprise of metal parts. The unit feels very solid in the hands without being too heavy to carry around. 
 
Plugging these in via USB on my laptop completely blew me away on how much different and detailed it sounded in comparison to my stock motherboard sound. A night and day difference. While most people are not able to hear a difference on perhaps higher end equipment, I can guarantee almost everyone is able to hear a considerable difference through using a DAC vs. Computer Sound. 
 
Pairing these with IEMs around 30-40ohms are great as I use these as my portable setup hooked with my iPhone 4S. The quality bump is minimal using IEMs and these as an AMP rather than a DAC since the iPhone is already a very good DAP. However, I did notice that compared to plugging it in directly to my iPhone jack, the E07k provided a flatter response with not as much bass. The bass was still very impactful just not as noticeable. It is also apparent that the bass did tighten everything up and made the IEMs retrieve detail ever-so slightly more due to this subdued lower ranges. 
 
Pairing these with lower impedance full-size cans will work as well although not recommended. It has a low impedance so it works great with IEMs but with more powerful headphones it does lack power and is rated for 150ohms maximum. Most professional headphones will linger around the 300-600ohm mark and at 36mW at 300ohms, these will definitely not be enough for say for example the Sennheiser HD650 or the DT990s/880s. It would not even be an optimal choice to use them with 150ohm headphones. However, at this price you can't really complain.
 
I would recommend this if you are looking for slight amplification but with a great soundcard for the price. A top choice in the portable market but not enough power as a desktop solution. Would recommend the E09k to pair with this if you are using it for desktop.

Using WASAPI, ASIO and onboard stock drivers yielded the exact same result. Same sound quality and same sound coloration. Unless you are suffering from serious EMI and static noise then these dont really offer any improvement at all.
 
Just control the volume/output of the desktop or laptop to not damage the headphone drivers.