Fiio amps? - Page 8

I seem to be hearing the FiiO differently than many, as I am slack-jaw AMAZED at the SQ from this amp and its price (note that I did not say FOR the price, as I prefer the FiiO to the iBasso P2 and the PenguinAmp Caffeine, regardless of price). At the dealextreme price, I just picked up two more, plus two pairs of the inexpensive in-ear buds you'd reco'd. Thanks VERY MUCH for turning my attention to this simply unbelievable (but real) tiny (in size and price) DYNAMO (in SQ) of an amp.

I'm with you sbulack, i like the warm sound from this little box, and for the price it is a steal.

Just bid on one (1p!). Should be a good little amp to go offroading with -no way I'm risking my Hornet or Xin on any downhill

A kid on the block has one, and trashes it...may be an indicator of the quality?

Translation? You mean he treats it like crap and it still keeps working -- which may be an indicator of good build quality/durability? Or he treats it like crap because it may be crap?

So it has arrived...

And well, it's not a match to the Minibox-D (obviously), but for the money it's a very good deal. It has a very good synergy with "portable" headphones, the OVC HC1000 are lovely paired with the FiiO amp. Not as impressive as with the Minibox-D, of course, but the FiiO cures the last small problem the HC1000 had - dip in low midrange.

The only possible snag with the FiiO is that it doesn't amplify volume by much. So with a low-powered player (Sony D-NE500 PCDP) it can't play loud with the K-240S. Looks like it's made with 100+ dB/mW headphones in mind.

So, is this recommended while using Porta pro?

Because one of the users said it causes a bit of static.

Static would be generated either by the source, or an overly powerful battery (a regular AA battery instead of an AAA makes the FiiO amp overdrive).

No trouble with the Porta-Pro here (FiiO on an alkaline AAA battery).

So here's how it sounds with different gear...

Sony D-NE500 PCDP+recabled K240S, street: too quiet. Lacking volume (unsurprisingly). This is mostly the player's problem - the D-NE500 is very underpowered, running on a single AA battery and with a weak headphone out.

AC97 onboard audio+Denon AH-D1000 - rather nice, warmish, detailed, with good bass outline and good midrange texture. But there's that slight thick-packed-"squarish" character to the sound, it's almost Sennheiser/Ultrasone-like. The Minibox-D manages to sound natural and effortless, the FiiO doesn't get the same wide-open space soundstage and effortless sparkling dynamics. It's more like a good player amp (somewhat similar to Cowon *2 players) with more power and body. It does sound somewhat too edgy and lacking treble extension, looks like the FiiO slightly sacrifices spatiality for warmth and naturality for definition.

Cowon T2+AH-D1000: this can get unbearably bassy-boomy at times, but otherwise quite nice. But not natural. The amp's slight edginess adds to T2's slight darkness and edginess, and adds to the lack of harmonics (and hence lack of dimension) in MP3 files. To someone not familiar with the higher-end digital (or analogue) formats, this might be impressive, but the artificiality does get burdening after a while. The Minibox-D has an effortless, smooth, wide-open and powerful soundstage, very natural. The FiiO/T2/AH-D1000 combination is more like a show inside a glass box with square edges - it's transparent, but not very lifelike.

Cowon T2+HC1000: the artificiality is still there, but this is a more lovely combination. The FiiO cures HC1000's dip in low midrange, and HC1000's excellent frequency bandwidth gets a boost from the amp. HC1000 sound like full-size headphones powered by the FiiO; some trebliness is still there, but they fill much better. Some of the edginess is noticeable, but it's not as harsh.

Cowon T2+recabled K-240S: surprisingly well. It's still more artificial than the Minibox-D, sounds like a piece of kit (the Minibox-D tends to disappear almost entirely when playing), but it's a good piece of kit. The Minibox makes the Cowon T2 and lossy format files show their artificiality (the space isn't there, everything sounds flatter than it has to be), the FiiO amp just can't reproduce the same dimension/space as the Minibox. So the lack of dimension in lossy MP3 files isn't as obvious, instead what's still there is brought to focus.

Yet another impulse buy for me

Me too Looking forward to seeing how it fares against my Mini3, if not so well then $10 isn't all too much to pay for a paperweight ^_^

Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have come back to this place

I just ordered two of them... but I was a good boy and didn't get tempted by the cheap earphones.

Ordered one too. I love cheap Chinese crap. Of course they cut loads of corners but every once in a while the corners they cut are exactly the right ones and you end up with something that performs way above it's price range.

is the amp available in singapore?
thks alot