[Ronnie McCrea]

Unboxing Is Here

 

[NAD Fi]

Where is the lightning to usb cable that should be inside the box?

 

[FiiO]

Where is the lightning to usb cable that should be inside the box?

Dear friend,

It will come with the KA5. But the video does not show it.

Best regards

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO, can you skip tracks using the volume buttons? Will that function work while connected to an iPhone? Thank you.

Dear friend,

Yes.

Volume+button:
A mode: short press once to increase the volume for 1 level;hold for 2s to play the previous track;page up on the settings menu.
B mode: short press once to play the previous track; hold for 2s to continuously increase the volume;page up on the settings menu.
Volume-button:
A mode: short press once to decrease the volume for 1 level;hold for 2s to play the next track;page down on the settingsmenu.
B mode:short press once to play the next track;hold for 2s to continuously decrease the volume; page down on the settings menu.

Best regards

 

[mrgeek]

This will be very exciting, I am very interested, I wonder how this will go versus the Shanling UA5.

 

[ticoss]

Hi!
Does it have an independant volume control?

 

[stormwrx]

Will this be on Amazon US soon?

 

[jjxaker]

Of course I ordered it, but where the hell is MQA support?! was it really so difficult to do it.
Will KA7 also be without MQA?!!! install the FPGA matrix and finally give MQA support.

 

[ticoss]

you have to pay the license, so you know...

 

[duff138]

3.5mm output supports SPDIF output. What type of cable would be needed for this? Can it be 3.5mm to optical, like the google chromecast can use.

 

[ClieOS]

you have to pay the license, so you know...

FiiO is already one of MQA licensee, but that is not the actual issue here. To add MQA decoding ability to any DAC device, there are usually two option. (1) the easy way is to use a DAC chip with built-in MQA decoding, namely ESS chips, or (2) the other, more expensive and difficult way is to use a fairly powerful USB controller chip that can implement a custom MQA decoding firmware. As far as I known regarding USB dongle, only iFi Audio has even chosen the 2nd method on their $340+ Go Bar but goes back to the 1st method on the cheaper $60 Go Link. If FiiO decided to use Cirrus Logic chips, which don't come with MQA normally, then option 1 is the only choice (*which is what iFi does with Go Bar) - but that will likely going to make the end product much more complicated and expensive. Likely FiiO just didn't see the value when designing KA5.

 

[ticoss]

Thanks for the explanation.
I thought that this licence was per device, and so it was not added in order to lower the selling price of the KA5.

 

[ClieOS]

Thanks for the explanation.
I thought that this licence was per device, and so it was not added in order to lower the selling price of the KA5.

There are several type of licenses. FiiO probably has the commercial license that pays a larger sum upfront then a smaller per device fee. Given many FiiO devices already have MQA ability (including the cheaper KA1, which has MQA enable DAC chip), per device fee isn't going to be an issue but rather what hardware and performance FiiO is hoping to achieve and how easy to MQA on such configuration. Currently Cirrus Logic chip is more popular on higher end USB dongle, but to use Cirrus Logic means there is no easy way to implement MQA.

 

[jjxaker]

I pointed out above that a penny FPGA chip is enough for MQA and that's it. KA 5 with MQA, it would cost no more than 5$ more, which is not significant at all.
You don't need a DAC with hardware support for MQA. and you don't need an expensive XMOS usb controller.
Although, personally I would like to see a second or third generation XMOS chip. instead of the cheap CT7601 which all put.

 

[ClieOS]

I pointed out above that a penny FPGA chip is enough for MQA and that's it.
You don't need a DAC with hardware support for MQA. and you don't need an expensive XMOS usb controller.
Although, personally I would like to see a second or third generation XMOS chip. instead of the cheap LUSYA CT7601 which all put.

You will need to convince a manufacturer first, not sure head-fi is the right place to do so.