[MegaMushroom]

Finally hooked up my Taishan directly to my HiFiMAN EF2A, and I must say.  I think I prefer it to the onboard chip of the EF2A.  Less hissy I guess.  Just sounds better to my ears. 

 

[WarrenR]

Hello everyone.
 
I have a Brix PC and need as soundcard as the internal one is not very good.  I was looking at either this or the Behringher UCA202.
 
I take it the Wolfson D3's are long gone now?  So that would leave me with only the D03k.  Is this still  a decent device?  I would be running the device via the Brix's optical output (which I am not sure is any good or not). 
 
Is there anything else I could be looking at for around the £30 mark?
 
Thanks.

 

[WarrenR]

Hi.
 
I was just wondering has anyone used a battery pack to power the D3?
 
Cheers.

 

[ianeith]

The sound quality you get from this is comparable to a mid-to-high-tier (depending on the model) smartphone audio chip, which, considering the audio chips in most budget TVs are deplorable, is a stellar upgrade for around €30. Highly recommended for use with a TV.


Best setup for headphones:

Optical toslink> fiio d03k> topping nx1> headphones

Price around €70 excluding headphones

 

[landroni]

FiiO's marketing on the D03K says: "using Line Output directly on headphone is not recommended".

Why? Can this damage the headphones? Or are they merely suggesting that for some hungrier heaphones the amp isn't powerful enough?

I've just tested the D03K with a pair of Grado SR225i, and they work just fine. Should I be worried about using the D03K and SR225i for prolonged periods?

 

[maverickronin]

FiiO's marketing on the D03K says: "using Line Output directly on headphone is not recommended".

Why? Can this damage the headphones? Or are they merely suggesting that for some hungrier heaphones the amp isn't powerful enough?

I've just tested the D03K with a pair of Grado SR225i, and they work just fine. Should I be worried about using the D03K and SR225i for prolonged periods?

 
It just says that because they might not sound the best that way.  The circuit isn't designed to drive that kind of load with low distortion.  Whether you can actually hear it or not will depend on the exact headphones, the volume you you listen at, and a lot of other little things.
 
It shouldn't break anything though.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

FiiO's marketing on the D03K says: "using Line Output directly on headphone is not recommended".

Why? Can this damage the headphones? Or are they merely suggesting that for some hungrier heaphones the amp isn't powerful enough?

I've just tested the D03K with a pair of Grado SR225i, and they work just fine. Should I be worried about using the D03K and SR225i for prolonged periods?

They say this because it is a line out and there often isn't any way of controlling the volume. On a low impedance pair of headphones, it could be deafeningly loud depending on what it is plugged into. I used to use this with the optical output of my PC and I used the line out with the E11. The E11 was very sensitive to volume changes which proved that it the output from the line out was pretty loud. I had no way of controlling the volume until I plugged an amplifier in. On lots of devices that I have used with the D03k, the digital output volume from them has been fixed and extremely loud so again, the only way of solving this is to use some kind of headphone amplifier.
 
It may not be the same if you happen to be able to control the volume on the device that has the digital output.

 

[landroni]

Thanks, all. This clears it up for me.

With my set-up (TV with Coaxial Out), plugging in the SR225i into the D03K yields just about desired sound levels...

 

[ianeith]

Thanks, all. This clears it up for me.

With my set-up (TV with Coaxial Out), plugging in the SR225i into the D03K yields just about desired sound levels...

It may damage an other, more sensitive headphone, however. Therefore, FiiO warns customers not to use without an amplifier, so that consumers don't hold them responsible for damaged headphones (or damaged hearing, for that matter).
 
To be frank, you can order a fantastic Topping NX1 headphone amplifier for around $35, or less, so there's no reason to use this TVdac without an amplifier; gives you that nice element of control, as well as a more well-rounded sound.

 

[Pedro Retador]

Will FiiO D3 (D03K) upgrade my sound with my setup: laptop+chromecast audio+this dac+amp+speakers? Basically I want to use the speakers, only ocasionally the headphones pluged yo the Fiio. But again, will this DAC improve the sound quality or it's basically the same thing? The CCA has a decent DAC.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

  Will FiiO D3 (D03K) upgrade my sound with my setup: laptop+chromecast audio+this dac+amp+speakers? Basically I want to use the speakers, only ocasionally the headphones pluged yo the Fiio. But again, will this DAC improve the sound quality or it's basically the same thing? The CCA has a decent DAC.

If you are using headphones with this DAC, you must get a separate headphone amplifier as it has no amp built in. The line out is very loud and the volume is often fixed from the digital output of whatever you plug it into. Speakers also should be fine if they either have a built in amplifier or a separate one. I used to use this DAC with both my integrated amplifier with my bookshelf speakers and my FiiO E11 amplifier for my headphones. I had the DAC plugged into both my PC and Blu-ray player. It worked pretty well. The main thing I didn't like bout it was the power supply. It introduced a whole load of noise. A USB cable from my computer to the DAC sorted that issue out.
 
I now use this DAC in another room with my TV to convert the optical signal to phono so it can go to my other integrated amplifier and speakers. It works out even better there than it did with my PC.
 
I could easily recommend this DAC for the use you want it for as it certainly was an improvement over the sound card in my PC. However, others on this forum say this DAC isn't the best out there. Well, it is a lot cheaper than most. I have had 2 others that were only a little cheaper than the FiiO D03K and they were rather nasty in comparison. The FiiO is really solidly built for the price.

 

[chaplndave]

OK...so here is my question (hoping people are still monitoring this post).  I have a Samsung UN65JS8500 4K television that connects with a One Connect Mini box (Samsung moved all the inputs/outputs from the back of the TV to a separate external box).  Not too long ago I purchased a Sennheiser RS 170 wireless headphone system to help deal with my hearing loss and a wife who is not too happy with how loud I want to listen to my television.  The problem is there is no place to plug the transmitter from the Senn into the One Connect Box.  So looking at the FiiO D03 to do the job for me.  In this scenario I would run a Toslink from the One Connect into the FiiO then the RCA "Y" cord to a female 3.5mm audio cable  and ultimately to the back of the Sennheiser transmitter.  I have been working on trying to get this thing hooked up for a few weeks now with lots of "failures" with other connection method attempts.  Can anyone tell me if my above scenario will do the trick for connecting my Sennheiser RS 170s to my television?  Please help...I will appreciate it and my wife certainly will as well.  Thanks to all who look...and especially to those of you who weigh in.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

  OK...so here is my question (hoping people are still monitoring this post).  I have a Samsung UN65JS8500 4K television that connects with a One Connect Mini box (Samsung moved all the inputs/outputs from the back of the TV to a separate external box).  Not too long ago I purchased a Sennheiser RS 170 wireless headphone system to help deal with my hearing loss and a wife who is not too happy with how loud I want to listen to my television.  The problem is there is no place to plug the transmitter from the Senn into the One Connect Box.  So looking at the FiiO D03 to do the job for me.  In this scenario I would run a Toslink from the One Connect into the FiiO then the RCA "Y" cord to a female 3.5mm audio cable  and ultimately to the back of the Sennheiser transmitter.  I have been working on trying to get this thing hooked up for a few weeks now with lots of "failures" with other connection method attempts.  Can anyone tell me if my above scenario will do the trick for connecting my Sennheiser RS 170s to my television?  Please help...I will appreciate it and my wife certainly will as well.  Thanks to all who look...and especially to those of you who weigh in.

FiiO would recommend you get a headphone amplifier that you plug into it before you even try it with headphones. Anyway, just a question here, what it the reason you plan using a phono to 3.5mm adapter? There is a 3.5mm output on the D03K. That is if you got this one. The old D3 model does just has a phono output.
 
If your headphones have their own volume control, then you don't need a separate headphone amplifier.
 
If your headphones don't have an amplifier, you will need to get something like this:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-a1-micro-headphone-amplifier
Or any other headphone amplifier will do.
 
The reason for this is because you will no longer be able to control the TV volume by the remote. The volume level coming out of the D03k is at a fixed level so you either need headphones with a built in amp or you purchase a separate amplifier.

 

[coppiman]

Hello guys and sorry for my ignorance but I just bought a Fiio D3 and I am wondering what kind of power supply would be best for it...
It's definitely 5V, but I have 1A, 1.5A and 2A.
What is the one that it needs?
 
Thanks in advance.

 

[lagittaja]

  Hello guys and sorry for my ignorance but I just bought a Fiio D3 and I am wondering what kind of power supply would be best for it...
It's definitely 5V, but I have 1A, 1.5A and 2A.
What is the one that it needs?
 
Thanks in advance.

 
Basically anything.
http://www.fiio.net/en/products/7/parameters
"Power input: recommended DC5V 500mA"
5V 0.5A = USB 2.0 power output.
So, like I said. Basically anything.
If you're using it with a TV and have a spare USB port, use that.
 
But feel free to test all of the power adapters if you want.
Some USB power adapters might not output as "clean power" as some others do and that could theoretically affect the sound depending on how you're using it.
For example driving headphones directly off of the 3.5mm line out (not recommended!) would put a bigger strain on the poor thing and a higher quality and/or higher current output capability could make a difference in some way, shape or form..