Chapter Three: K5
Old users familiar with FiiO know that FiiO's first product is a digital dock-type speaker designed for Meizu M6. Therefore, the dock-type products are somewhat of FiiO's historical tradition and "initial intention". After transforming into portable HiFi products, FiiO has always been attaching great importance to the extensibility and playability of the product. The early E7, E07K, E17, E17K were all equipped with a docked port. We had also researched and developed the E9 and E09K, the desktop dock-type headphone amplifier which were used for connection to USB DAC/Amps. However, the early dock port we used was an 11PIN old-feature phone charging port. It was eliminated for the large size and poor compatibility.
When we were designing the later music players, we also took advantage of the hidden feature of Micro USB. Except for the four pins using for USB data transmission and charging, the extra one had been designed for the LO signal transmission of L/R, as well as recognition and control.
The K5 uses the TPA6120A amp chip with high driven capacity which has also been used in the E9 and E09K. Our hardware engineers have fully dedicated to the innovation of this chip based on the experience of the original technology secrets. Eventually, they managed to do it.
In addition, we have also redesigned the K5's appearance style, parts of which have continually been extended to many subsequent products such as the Q1MKII and M15. The gain has been adjusted to three levels of high, medium and low to accommodate as much headphones as possible.
Overall, the performance of the K5 is still impressive. It has outstandingly completed the mission of matching with FiiO players, enhancing the driven capacity when connecting to headphones to satisfy users' needs. This has contributed a lot to the hot sale of FiiO players.
But it is a little bit embarrassing that there is actually a USB interface behind the K5, which is mainly used when the player is plugged into the K5, so that it can be connected to computers. But the K5 itself has no decoding function. We are often asked by users whether the K5 can be connected to a computer for decoding. And this has created another beautiful story behind.