[Nellie75]

Can anyone confirm how the KA3 works with an iPhone?

Thanks

I can confirm that it sometimes works. After first plugging the KA3 dac in I was not impressed with the thin sound. However, somehow the dac started getting fuller and more robust as the evening went on. Is there such a thing as burn in time on a DAC?

Now, I’ve got an iPhone 12 and I connected my iOS camera adapter cable > USB-A to C adapter (was supplied with the DAC) and finally the Type C cable (also supplied). I figured if they supplied it, use it. I don’t know if this combination of cables and adapters was the cause but the moment after swapping out the supplied cable/adapter and using my own USB-A to C cable, the sounds appear to be gone.

My wife’s old iPhone was a short experiment and ended up being a mistake as I think it’s not supported according to Fiio (iPhone 6). This caused some crazy chipmunk sounds in Apple Music.

However, there does seem to be a correlation to pushing the volume up and it causing problems with the iPhone 12. This was with 30ohm FD5 IEMs.

Another experiment was trying my HD650s (300ohm) to the 3.5 unbalanced output. They sounded great and pretty loud at 80% volume but pushing it up to 100% which was a little louder than I personally like, it was too much current draw for the iPhone as it just stopped the song and started playing out the iPhone speaker instead. I didn’t have an unbalanced cable for my 650s for that experiment. But I dont expect this DAC to push 300ohms.

I’m going to be giving this dac some more time but it isn’t some massive revelation in SQ over a iPhone dongle. Like all things in this hobby, it is a marginal improvement. Something my wife would never notice.

 

[laleeee]

Strong motherf*cker
Works fine on Android with UAPP and on win8 with Foobar

 

[Nellie75]

Update: No issues on iPhone after swapping out the USB cable.

However, the 3.5 output on the KA3 is much quieter than my Kbear lightning Dongle ($16). Now, is this because the KA3 is weak or is it because this Kbear dongle is just freakin’ amazing? Apparently it has a 53a4 amplifier chip. I don’t know, but there is an obvious difference compared the KA3. In fact this dongle nearly matches the 4.4 balanced output on the KA3. The KA3 just edges the dongle in clarity and snappiness. in fact (with 32ohm IEMs) that it took me about 25 A/B tests to notice it. Volume wise it is hard to tell. Now, when I hook up 300ohm sennheisers, then I can tell a noticeable difference.

I’m undecided on this little dac. I want to like it but for $75 more, it’s a tough purchase, at least with 32ohm IEMs.

Kbear Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter [Apple MFi Certified] Copper Silver Wire Lightning to Audio Jack Converter Compatible with iPhone 13/13pro/13 Mini/12 Pro/11/11 Pro/11 Pro Max Silver https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M9M6RW...abc_7SZK38FKSWSQR9WR084Z?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Atek2019]

Strong motherf*cker
Works fine on Android with UAPP and on win8 with Foobar

glad you have it

 

[Perepep]

Strong motherf*cker
Works fine on Android with UAPP and on win8 with Foobar

Also with win7

 

[FiiO]

Yeah, Im getting some really weird crap going on with the 4.4 balanced. It can sound great and then the next time I play the same track Im getting some strange vibrato-phaser-tremolo like effects going on and then a few glitchy cracks, stutters and pops on my iPhone 12. Apple Music streaming over Wi-Fi. I’ve never experienced this on my iPhone or Apple TV ever.

Update: This happening on 3.5 as well. I decided to try my VModa Crossfade headphones (wired). Same issue. Then I tried my wife’s iPhone (older model) and it was going crazy. The song on Apple Music started playing twice as fast and sounded like the chipmunks.

I think I got a bad unit!

Sorry to hear about that. Does the issue happen in certain music file? If yes, would you mind sharing the file to us for check?

Best regards

 

[Perepep]

Trouble. When I connect the KA3 to my mobile (Redmi 8T) I can only play music for 40 - 50 minutes, after that time the device stops working and a "usb failure" message appears. On the other hand, when I use the KA3 connected to the pc in windows7 I can be listening to music for several hours without problem, so I suppose that the problem is in the mobile and not in the device, do you know what it may be due to? Thank you.

 

[complete]

the device gets a little too hot, I use it with my asus zenfone 5 phone, I have frequent power cuts, the phone detects the device as a charger, so it tries to charge..

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

I've also been testing mine KA3 for two weeks already. The sound turned out to be pop and mass-oriented. The sound is bass-heavy but has an unpleasant brightness in the middle(screaming female voise "sssssshhsssssss"). In general, the main disadvantage in the sound is the middle frequencies. They are very weak. Compared to the E1DA3098s, the ka3 has a simpler sound and a lot of MIDbass. Plus: excellent cable and very strong connection usb-C (nothing dangles).
For a lot iems i prefer 3.5 singe, for planar - 4.4. Power really big, thats super

And one more minus Fiio - their support is silent. This is the second time this happens when you write something to them, and in response there is only silence. There is no desire to buy their products in the future.

 

[Narayan23]

I've also been testing mine KA3 for two weeks already. The sound turned out to be pop and mass-oriented. The sound is bass-heavy but has an unpleasant brightness in the middle(screaming female voise "sssssshhsssssss"). In general, the main disadvantage in the sound is the middle frequencies. They are very weak. Compared to the E1DA3098s, the ka3 has a simpler sound and a lot of MIDbass. Plus: excellent cable and very strong connection usb-C (nothing dangles).
For a lot iems i prefer 3.5 singe, for planar - 4.4. Power really big, thats super

And one more minus Fiio - their support is silent. This is the second time this happens when you write something to them, and in response there is only silence. There is no desire to buy their products in the future.

I also thought it sounded bright right out of the box but that went away with further use / listening, I haven´t experienced your issues with female voices, I was listening to Roxette some days ago with my K´s LBBs earbuds and thought to myself how great Marie Fredriksson´s voice sounded, most likely the work of the LBBs but no sibilance detected. Did you try changing the impedance / gain in the FiiO app to match your IEM´s and headphones?

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

I also thought it sounded bright right out of the box but that went away with further use / listening, I haven´t experienced your issues with female voices, I was listening to Roxette some days ago with my K´s LBBs earbuds and thought to myself how great Marie Fredriksson´s voice sounded, most likely the work of the LBBs but no sibilance detected. Did you try changing the impedance / gain in the FiiO app to match your IEM´s and headphones?

there was no difference between switching impedance(se and balance). I also note that the application does not always expose the DAC filter (you click on it, you go out / go in, but it has not been applied). Used iems: 7Hz Timeless, mx500 earbuds, BQEYZ AUTUMN, Shozy Black Hole Mini Steel.

 

[senorx12562]

I can confirm that the ka3 puts out insufficient current (using my crappy Android 8 phone as source) to drive my Sundaras to a satisfying volume level, at least with some of my music. I have music from every decade from the 50s to date, some of which (especially the older stuff) is recorded at a pretty low level compared to newer recordings, and with these tracks, even balanced and on high gain, this set just doesn't get loud enough. What is weird is that I also have an L&P w2, which is rated at 10 mw lower maximum output power balanced (230mw), and while the Sundara is not at its best, the w2 at least gets them loud enough. Don't know if this is a function of a lack of current (vs.voltage) or what, but it sounds good and is plenty powerful for my Elex or any of my iems, the latter being my typical use case for a dongle. Of course the w2 is 3.5x the price, so...you pays yer money and you takes yer chances.

 

[ClieOS]

I can confirm that the ka3 puts out insufficient current (using my crappy Android 8 phone as source) to drive my Sundaras to a satisfying volume level, at least with some of my music. I have music from every decade from the 50s to date, some of which (especially the older stuff) is recorded at a pretty low level compared to newer recordings, and with these tracks, even balanced and on high gain, this set just doesn't get loud enough. What is weird is that I also have an L&P w2, which is rated at 10 mw lower maximum output power balanced (230mw), and while the Sundara is not at its best, the w2 at least gets them loud enough. Don't know if this is a function of a lack of current (vs.voltage) or what, but it sounds good and is plenty powerful for my Elex or any of my iems, the latter being my typical use case for a dongle. Of course the w2 is 3.5x the price, so...you pays yer money and you takes yer chances.

Rated power is the result of voltage x current. Not enough loudness is a direct result of not enough voltage, but not necessary not enough current. The same headphone under the same loudness (because of the same voltage) can receive different current from the source and therefore under different power. Therefore you can't judge power by volume alone.

Also, rated power is typically tested with a PC that has fully powered USB port, and there result could be different coming from a smartphone partially powered USB port.

 

[senorx12562]

Rated power is the result of voltage x current. Not enough loudness is a direct result of not enough voltage, but not necessary not enough current. The same headphone under the same loudness (because of the same voltage) can receive different current from the source and therefore under different power. Therefore you can't judge power by volume alone.

Also, rated power is typically tested with a PC that has fully powered USB port, and there result could be different coming from a smartphone partially powered USB port.

Yeah, I understand the math. That's why I specified the source. But the difference in volume from a pc is marginal, but useful. Still not really sufficient though for music recorded at a low level or music with a broad dynamic range like a lot of classical. I tend to listen at pretty high volumes (according to anyone sitting across the room from my bobbing head), so it may not be an issue for most people. Especially since I believe most will be using dongles otg with iems, for which the ka3 is more than sufficient.

 

[Narayan23]

Yeah, I understand the math. That's why I specified the source. But the difference in volume from a pc is marginal, but useful. Still not really sufficient though for music recorded at a low level or music with a broad dynamic range like a lot of classical. I tend to listen at pretty high volumes (according to anyone sitting across the room from my bobbing head), so it may not be an issue for most people. Especially since I believe most will be using dongles otg with iems, for which the ka3 is more than sufficient.

When you first posted about your Sundara´s not being driven adequately I found it hard to believe, and reading you post about it again made me rethink so I went to the Sundara thread, and there are people in it saying a THX Onyx drives them well, whilst others say they need power (one or two watts minimum) and others are driving them out of their amplifiers´ speaker terminals which honestly felt like "Susvara Reloaded" and made me stop reading. I won´t doubt what you´re experiencing but if a €349 headphone needs that much power to sound properly something ain´t right over at Hifiman.