Hi everyone. I saw a thread from audiosciencereview that i felt annoy and unfair for this headphone amplifier and F.Audio brand. After 3 months with this amp, i've satisfied enough to write a review, i hope my review was written in right box in this forum. I'm not a pro reviewer so if there are something wrong in my written just tell me in reply section, i will try to fix it.
- Some specs:
Am01 has various in and output (Aux, XLR, RCA in. XLR 4pin, 6.3mm, 3.5mm, 4.4mm out), and come just power cable.
I found some shops on Aliexpress mentioned SMSL SP200 in the AM01's title and something like "Balanced amp" made people misunderstanding. First, the official F.Audio shop on Taobao did not mention anything about SMSL SP200 in their title. Second, they did not introduce AM01 as a "Balanced amp", it said "Balanced input". So basically, they introduced honestly about their product. I think the other shops on Aliexpress were main culprit for the misunderstanding, made people said "This amp was clone from SP200", "It;s not truly balanced amp, it's fake"... .
- Build Quality:
It's sturdy, simple, nothing crack inside. ALMOST everything works fine, i will talk about the thing does not work below. All in all i feel ok about build quality, nothing serious goes wrong.
- Sound Quality:
AM01 took me few days to sound right. Out of the box it sounded muddy, lack detail and clear. After 3 days or so, i was glad that the amp sounded much clearer, everything felt truly from the source i gave to it (My DAP FA3s). Clean, and strong were the my first impression.
With XLR input, my Monolith M1070 needs to go 9 o'clock or more a little bit for my listening level (CD files). With RCA input, i turned it up to 10 o'clock in low gain. High gain was way too much power for any headphone a gave to it (Sennheiser HD600, Sony 1Am2, M1070, and Ananda)
I found no hiss on any headphones i plugged to this amp. Slight hiss on LZ A6 (way to much power for A6, i just need my DAP for IEMs)
I lined out my Denon CD player to this amp, campared to the CDplayer's phone out. AM01 warm up the upper mid a little bit ,just slightly not day and night difference. Detail and sound from CD player almost don't change that i really like about this head amp.
The amp have XLR, and 4.4 balanced out, but i think it just for convenient purpose. I found no better sound from balanced out, or stronger power. That mean every output have the same power. I'm ok about that, ask for a full balanced amp at this price is ridiculous
An only negative i will give that 4.4mm did not work, XLR 4pin was fine but 4.4mm almost no sound came out. I tested 4.4 output with Sony 1Am2 (Every inputs, the same result). That why i said "ALMOST everything works fine".
- Conclusion:
I bought AM01 on Taobao (945 yuan) about 140$ after i've used their DAP - FA3s. Honestly, i became F.Audio fan. Their products are not perfect, they are always have some flaws, but not deal breaker. I satisfied with the money i paid for. I feel like F.Audio have'nt released too many audio gears for taking as much as money from people. They've made them carefully as they can for good, reliable products, that why i became a fan of this brand.
- Some specs:
Am01 has various in and output (Aux, XLR, RCA in. XLR 4pin, 6.3mm, 3.5mm, 4.4mm out), and come just power cable.
I found some shops on Aliexpress mentioned SMSL SP200 in the AM01's title and something like "Balanced amp" made people misunderstanding. First, the official F.Audio shop on Taobao did not mention anything about SMSL SP200 in their title. Second, they did not introduce AM01 as a "Balanced amp", it said "Balanced input". So basically, they introduced honestly about their product. I think the other shops on Aliexpress were main culprit for the misunderstanding, made people said "This amp was clone from SP200", "It;s not truly balanced amp, it's fake"... .
- Build Quality:
It's sturdy, simple, nothing crack inside. ALMOST everything works fine, i will talk about the thing does not work below. All in all i feel ok about build quality, nothing serious goes wrong.
- Sound Quality:
AM01 took me few days to sound right. Out of the box it sounded muddy, lack detail and clear. After 3 days or so, i was glad that the amp sounded much clearer, everything felt truly from the source i gave to it (My DAP FA3s). Clean, and strong were the my first impression.
With XLR input, my Monolith M1070 needs to go 9 o'clock or more a little bit for my listening level (CD files). With RCA input, i turned it up to 10 o'clock in low gain. High gain was way too much power for any headphone a gave to it (Sennheiser HD600, Sony 1Am2, M1070, and Ananda)
I found no hiss on any headphones i plugged to this amp. Slight hiss on LZ A6 (way to much power for A6, i just need my DAP for IEMs)
I lined out my Denon CD player to this amp, campared to the CDplayer's phone out. AM01 warm up the upper mid a little bit ,just slightly not day and night difference. Detail and sound from CD player almost don't change that i really like about this head amp.
The amp have XLR, and 4.4 balanced out, but i think it just for convenient purpose. I found no better sound from balanced out, or stronger power. That mean every output have the same power. I'm ok about that, ask for a full balanced amp at this price is ridiculous
An only negative i will give that 4.4mm did not work, XLR 4pin was fine but 4.4mm almost no sound came out. I tested 4.4 output with Sony 1Am2 (Every inputs, the same result). That why i said "ALMOST everything works fine".
- Conclusion:
I bought AM01 on Taobao (945 yuan) about 140$ after i've used their DAP - FA3s. Honestly, i became F.Audio fan. Their products are not perfect, they are always have some flaws, but not deal breaker. I satisfied with the money i paid for. I feel like F.Audio have'nt released too many audio gears for taking as much as money from people. They've made them carefully as they can for good, reliable products, that why i became a fan of this brand.
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