[FIIO KA5/KA15]FiiO Portable DAC and Headphone Amplifier

[XTF1]

I was wondering the following thing: if I'm using headphones with a fairly low impedance and which can be driven fairly easily, can a usb dongle with high power (much more than theoretically needed to drive a particular model of headphones) cause some kind of audio distortion? I like to listen loudly but I don't want the sound to suffer any distortion caused by too much power.

You are talking about power, not gain (which could be a problem): I can’t think of any issue associated with too much available power… other are welcome to chime in!
It’s like driving a 700hp supercar at 45mph: yes it has way more power than needed as compared to a 100hp econo-car, but then what?

 

[Noveyro]

Does the FiiO KA15 benefit from an external power source when plugged in this way (apart from reducing battery drain)? It seems to draw 5V at 0.2A during playback and 5V at 0.1A when the music is stopped

 

[sarkihalindekal]

Does the FiiO KA15 benefit from an external power source when plugged in this way (apart from reducing battery drain)? It seems to draw 5V at 0.2A during playback and 5V at 0.1A when the music is stopped

If the phone can provide enough power—and most phones can power the KA15 via Type-C—you won’t see any extra benefit.

As a disadvantage, noise from the power cable or charger could be added to the sound.

For example, in the photo I shared, it shows 4.9V and 150mA when connected to the S23 Ultra.

Just to add, the 15 Pro Max was drawing more current (5V 0.2A), and it seemed like the sound was stronger compared to the S23 Ultra.

 

[False Prophet]

Hey all, sorry as I know this question has been asked before…but I don’t really get the answer…if I play 24bit/192khz files from Tidal on my macbook, I can go into the audio setting on the mac and change the output on the Fiio to play those..then it shows correctly on the KA15
But if I play same 24bit/192khz file from my phone (Android) via Tidal then it always show as PCM48k? Is there anyway to change this? I can’t find any setting on the phone..
Tbh, I thought the whole point of the dongle was so that you could play files at top quality by avoiding the inbuilt phone DAC? Sorry for my ignorance…any advice appreciated…cheers

 

[inscythe]

Hey all, sorry as I know this question has been asked before…but I don’t really get the answer…if I play 24bit/192khz files from Tidal on my macbook, I can go into the audio setting on the mac and change the output on the Fiio to play those..then it shows correctly on the KA15
But if I play same 24bit/192khz file from my phone (Android) via Tidal then it always show as PCM48k? Is there anyway to change this? I can’t find any setting on the phone..
Tbh, I thought the whole point of the dongle was so that you could play files at top quality by avoiding the inbuilt phone DAC? Sorry for my ignorance…any advice appreciated…cheers

That's because the latest Tidal app update for Android removed the direct USB DAC support, so the audio has to go through the Android's sample rate converter, which will resample everything to 48kHz. Some phones may actually upsample it to 192kHz (e.g. Samsung).

To solve this, you can use UAPP and load Tidal through the app. It's another app you have to purchase though...

 

[False Prophet]

That's because the latest Tidal app update for Android removed the direct USB DAC support, so the audio has to go through the Android's sample rate converter, which will resample everything to 48kHz. Some phones may actually upsample it to 192kHz (e.g. Samsung).

To solve this, you can use UAPP and load Tidal through the app. It's another app you have to purchase though...

Hey thanks for the reply..yes, I did some googling and found the USB Audio Pro app…everything is working now…thanks

 

[AlexxxAA85]

I've been trying to search in this thread but I couldn't find any explanation so I thought I would ask.
I purchased the KA15 to improve the sound of my portable PC (ROG Ally). The jack has decent sound, but even a small DAC like my FC6 gives a decent boost to sound quality.
So I purchased the KA15 because it also allows microphone input. However now that I tried it, the sound from the mic on my IEMs is extremely low. If I connect the IEMs to the regular jack, the sound of the mic is loud and clear. However from the KA15, you need to talk VERY loud for the mic to pickup the sound. I tried all the troubleshooting ideas on PC, all the settings. But I cannot find a way to improve the mic loudness. The Qudelix 5K at least has a mic gain option in the app the helps with something like this. But I cannot find any option to improve the mic gain.
Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[pataburd]

Just got my KA15 today.
Lots of problems getting the V4.47.0 driver to finish installation.
Finally found the FiiO KA15 on the Windows Mixer board under "Speakers".

Very wonky behavior:
>actual volume keeps cutting back to 0;
>Windows slider is inexorably stuck at 0 even though I can still adjust volume up;
>Windows sound board queue does not list the K15 as an available device;
>FiiO Control Panel still says "no devices detected";
>limited to 24/96 pcm playback;

It does sound quite good, though(!).

 

[XTF1]

Just got my KA15 today.
Lots of problems getting the V4.47.0 driver to finish installation.
Finally found the FiiO KA15 on the Windows Mixer board under "Speakers".

Very wonky behavior:
>actual volume keeps cutting back to 0;
>Windows slider is inexorably stuck at 0 even though I can still adjust volume up;
>Windows sound board queue does not list the K15 as an available device;
>FiiO Control Panel still says "no devices detected";
>limited to 24/96 pcm playback;

It does sound quite good, though(!).

Why did you install this driver? Are you still on W7?
As for the FiioControl webapp, it must run on a Chrome or Edge browser: the app uses a USB API that is only available on Chromium-based browsers.
The 24/96 pcm playback limitation means it is probably set to UAC 1.0 mode.

 

[pataburd]

@XTF1
Thank you for the follow-up.

Am running W8.1|64. Downloaded the driver/FiiO app in Edge.
Only the V4.47.0 [@W7] and V5.68.0 [@W10/11] drivers are available at Jade Audio.

Volume control OK after reboot.
Will change the UAC mode.

Thanks again.

NEXT DAY UPDATE:

Absolutely nothing. Cannot find the KA15 at all now, neither through the Windows [speaker] nor the FiiO panel.
Went through the [re]install two more times this morning.

. . . back to my trusty old Hidizs S9 PRO Plus . . .

. . .

The KA15 works with my Windows 11 computer [no driver install required]; however, the FiiO displays "48" [kHz] even though Windows is set for 384(?).

 

[XTF1]

The KA15 works with my Windows 11 computer [no driver install required]; however, the FiiO displays "48" [kHz] even though Windows is set for 384(?).

What player do you use? Is it, for example, set to WASAPI exclusive? This would bypass Windows resampling.

 

[halfaura]

What are the chances that we could get 2 layer or cascaded PEQ in an update? Currently I use a custom PEQ profile to correct my IEMs, but sometimes I want to add a bit of bass or reduce the treble and bass in a poorly mastered song. Right now I'd need to edit the custom profile in the app or online just for the one listening session, as all three custom PEQ spots are taken by different IEMs or headphones.

 

[HiddenSquid]

Hey
Anyone compared ka15 vs onix alpha xi1?

 

[RynoWeiss]

Is it expected behavior that the user-EQ settings are quieter than the EQ set to off? When I create an EQ profile where everything is set to zero, including the pre-gain, when in theory it should be doing nothing to the signal, it is still a lot quieter than EQ:OFF. The EQ pre-sets (such as Rock, Hip-Hop) aren't noticeably quieter than EQ:OFF.

 

[floeQLY]

Yes.