The Story of FiiO Portable Desktop-Class Amplifier Q7
Chapter 6 FiiO Q series traceability & development of portable DAC and headphone amplifier
It's been a long time since we started to share the R&D story of the Q7. In fact, it’s almost done. What is missing will be a summary.
Today we will talk about the origin of the FiiO Q series and some of the development process of FiiO in portable DAC/Amps.
The origin of FiiO Q Series
FiiO's portable DAC/Amp is mainly used to connect with mobile phones, or work for computers for decoding. It has evolved from the previous E17 to the Q1, Q3, and Q5 series (see picture 1).
This product series runs through the entire period of FiiO from its birth to its growth, and the maturity, performance and serialization of corresponding products are also improving. Starting from the Q1 Mark Ⅱ, the MFi standard protocol for iPhone was prepared for the whole series of portable DAC/Amps.
Especially the birth of the Q5 in 2018, it built up the new image and industry benchmark for FiiO portable DAC/Amps at that time. With its comprehensive functions and excellent sound quality, it has also won unanimous praise from users. Many of our Q5(S) users have become big fans of the Q series. For one thing, it is convenient to use the Q5; for another, we haven't done a major upgrade for this product line, except a limited version released in 2020, the Q5s Type-C.
Actually, the Q7 can also be regarded as the bigger Q5s, since their basic functions are USB, optical and coaxial decoding, and they are designed with both single-ended and balanced headphone outputs.
The development of FiiO's portable DAC and headphone amplifiers
Portable DAC and headphone amplifiers cannot be used independently, which need to be used with a sound source, such as a computer, music player or mobile phone. Therefore, this type of product also develops with the change of the sound source.
The most intuitive ones are the two major changes brought about by the mobile Internet: streaming music and highly intelligent mobile phones.
Nowadays, an increasing number of people are willing to pay for streaming music media for its convenience and high efficiency to access hi-res music, which is better than traditional accessibility. Whether it is popular or classic music, we can find them through online music software with a clearer song classification.
*Our self-developed application, FiiO Music, already supports MQA decoding functions (see pictures 2).
In addition, the performance and configuration of smart phones have been improved a lot. They are enough to work as a front-end sound source for daily music listening, so compact portable DAC and amplifiers appeared, which are also named USB audio adapters. Socializing, entertaining, creating and music listening centered on mobile phones have gradually become daily routines for audiophiles. By installing the FiiO Music App and connecting the USB audio adapter to the mobile phone through the USB port, we can enjoy high-quality music anytime and anywhere.
Two years after the last generation of the Q5s Type-C, FiiO also developed the KA series and the Q3 MQA version in response to the above demands. For high-end listening needs, we reorganized the application and product line of DAC/Amps, so that they are distinctly sufficiently different from players and USB audio adapters (see picture 3).
In the end, the release of the Q7 has two representative significance. The first one is that FiiO will continue the product line of portable DAC/Amps. While completing the product line, we will also adjust the positioning to mainly in mid- to high-end. The second is that we will employ new design notions, including the appearance, interaction as well as platform.
