[senorx12562]

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.

Here's the thing. While high impedance (like 250-300 ohms) make a set of cans harder to drive to a particular volume, they also present an easier load to the amplifier. Planar magnetic drivers in general tend to be low impedance/low sensitivity, (iirc, Sundara are like 37 ohm, 94db sensitivity, while my hd6xx are 300 ohm, and like 103db sensitivity and are a much easier load for an amp. With most amps, the higher impedance means the cans are seeing much less power at a given volume level. They end up at similar volumes at similar volume settings, but because of the lower impedance the Sundaras are seeing way more power (wattage). If the hd6xx was seeing the same amount of power it would be unbearably loud. I'm sure this is an oversimplification, and my understanding could be totally wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. When I was looking at the Sundaras, I knew hfm was full of schiit when they said they were suitable for use with a phone, so I wasn't surprised. I never use them away from home, so it isn't a big deal that they aren't great with a dongle. I think many planar cans are much worse though.

 

[Alex Ulrik]

My KA3 makes a pop sound before and after playing anything on Windows and Android, on Mac is a double pop. Already tried changing cable and low gain. The pop is louder on higher sensitivity iems, should be very faint on anything with more than 32 ohms and 100 dB/mW. It keeps the same intensity on any volume leves. I saw the "POP sound elimination system" in the Fiio site showing the KA3 architecture, I wonder if that have anything to do with this issue. Am I missing something or my device has a hardware problem?

 

[senorx12562]

My KA3 makes a pop sound before and after playing anything on Windows and Android, on Mac is a double pop. Already tried changing cable and low gain. The pop is louder on higher sensitivity iems, should be very faint on anything with more than 32 ohms and 100 dB/mW. It keeps the same intensity on any volume leves. I saw the "POP sound elimination system" in the Fiio site showing the KA3 architecture, I wonder if that have anything to do with this issue. Am I missing something or my device has a hardware problem?

I cannot answer your question, but mine doesn't do this at all, w10 or Android. Is this before and after each song, or before playback begins, then after it ends but not between songs? Or does it only happen when the sample rate changes?

 

[Dsnuts]

My KA3 makes a pop sound before and after playing anything on Windows and Android, on Mac is a double pop. Already tried changing cable and low gain. The pop is louder on higher sensitivity iems, should be very faint on anything with more than 32 ohms and 100 dB/mW. It keeps the same intensity on any volume leves. I saw the "POP sound elimination system" in the Fiio site showing the KA3 architecture, I wonder if that have anything to do with this issue. Am I missing something or my device has a hardware problem?

Does your phone make a sound when you launch apps and change volume and such? Could be amplifying those sounds. You can turn off them sounds and see if that does the same thing. I had to turn off my sound notifications when using KA3 due a similar issue. Basically if your getting a notification via sounds on your hardware the KA3 will amplify that sound.

 

[Nellie75]

Anyone have succes using this dac with planars? It can’t power the Hifiman Deva Pro I just got. I’m using the 3.5” output and once I turn it up to 100% on my iPhone, I hear a loud click and then the song stops. Then the DAC doesn’t work until I unplug it and reconnect again.

 

[senorx12562]

Anyone have succes using this dac with planars? It can’t power the Hifiman Deva Pro I just got. I’m using the 3.5” output and once I turn it up to 100% on my iPhone, I hear a loud click and then the song stops. Then the DAC doesn’t work until I unplug it and reconnect again.

Sounds like you might be having an issue with the iPhone's current draw limitation, which iirc is 100ma. At least with some models. Not an Apple guy, but many dongle users have reported running into problems with this, with different results, sometimes it is obvious distortion, sometimes as you report. My only suggestion would be to play with your gain level and volume setting and see if some combo of settings will allow it to play. See above for a discussion re: Sundara/planars and dongles. Tldr; yes, planars can be a problem with dongles that rely on the source's battery.

 

[Alex Ulrik]

I cannot answer your question, but mine doesn't do this at all, w10 or Android. Is this before and after each song, or before playback begins, then after it ends but not between songs? Or does it only happen when the sample rate changes?

It happens with any audio, including system sounds and notifications, not just when playing music or videos. It doesn't happen between songs or videos if played immediately in sequence. The pop happens a few seconds later on YouTube for example, or when closing the window. I can hear it just by changing the system volume, so not affected by sample rate. Did you check with a very sensitive iem?

 

[Alex Ulrik]

Does your phone make a sound when you launch apps and change volume and such? Could be amplifying those sounds. You can turn off them sounds and see if that does the same thing. I had to turn off my sound notifications when using KA3 due a similar issue. Basically if your getting a notification via sounds on your hardware the KA3 will amplify that sound.

It pops on the phone whenever is supposed to make any sound, including system sounds, notifications and even unlocking. When there's no sound to make it won't pop. I have to say that on Android the pop is very faint, being more noticeable on Windows and specially on Mac. I wonder if its the USB source being more powerful making the pop louder.

 

[Nellie75]

Sounds like you might be having an issue with the iPhone's current draw limitation, which iirc is 100ma. At least with some models. Not an Apple guy, but many dongle users have reported running into problems with this, with different results, sometimes it is obvious distortion, sometimes as you report. My only suggestion would be to play with your gain level and volume setting and see if some combo of settings will allow it to play. See above for a discussion re: Sundara/planars and dongles. Tldr; yes, planars can be a problem with dongles that rely on the source's battery.

If only I could! As an iPhone user I have no access to the settings in thr app. From what I’ve heard, I’m at high gain by default.

Maybe I need to find a better dac option for my iPhone. I’m still in the return window.

 

[senorx12562]

It happens with any audio, including system sounds and notifications, not just when playing music or videos. It doesn't happen between songs or videos if played immediately in sequence. The pop happens a few seconds later on YouTube for example, or when closing the window. I can hear it just by changing the system volume, so not affected by sample rate. Did you check with a very sensitive iem?

Sorry, my most sensitive iem (dk3001 pro) is not really particularly so. But I definitely heard nothing with them, from my pc or phone/tablet. I do get some dropouts of the sound in toto once in a while from my laptops, but that happens with every dongle I have, and sometimes it is hours between occurrences. Happens once in a while even using the pc's internal sound. I presume it is unrelated to your issue.

 

[Nellie75]

Just wanted to confirm that the KA3 has no problem driving HD6XX (300ohm) on the balanced output. They actually sound great with even a little headroom. It was too loud to want to go to 100%. This is using an iPhone with a OTG cable.

However the HifiMan Sundara or Deva (I tried the Deva Pro) do not work with an iPhone.

 

[Nellie75]

Would planars such as the Hifiman Sundara benefit at all from thr 4.4 balanced? It provides more power but does that solve the issue with the Sundaras drawing to much from the iphone?

 

[RuFrost]

Just received this amazing piece of gear!

1) Any advice on how to maximize it's sound quality from the laptop?
win7, laptop, few different type-c cables, foobar. (currently use dsd KA3 output). 3.5 is better than 4.4 in those conditions.

using only earbuds. Currently: Toneking Viridis+Dunu DUW-03 (cable).

2) Is there any way to control KA3 identical to app fiio control on the Andr.? I want to use the same functions of the app on the laptop.

 

[Dtagonkiva]

Dear @FiiO

Is i need to install KA3 PC driver from your website, if my laptop have knowing and installed the driver for KA3 Automatically??

My laptop is running windows 11
i Have trying using your PC Driver and find some issues:

1. Difference in loudness/volume, with your driver my ideal volume is 30 but with Automatic driver im just need 4 or 5

2. popping sound everytime anything produce sound like song and system notification tone its happen very often. with automatic driver its just happen when i start playing song

3. Stuttering, with your PC Driver this is really happen often in the middle of song played. im using apple music web streaming. This is never happen with automatic driver

Hope any solution for this problem

 

[FiiO]

Dear @FiiO

Is i need to install KA3 PC driver from your website, if my laptop have knowing and installed the driver for KA3 Automatically??


My laptop is running windows 11
i Have trying using your PC Driver and find some issues:

1. Difference in loudness/volume, with your driver my ideal volume is 30 but with Automatic driver im just need 4 or 5

2. popping sound everytime anything produce sound like song and system notification tone its happen very often. with automatic driver its just happen when i start playing song

3. Stuttering, with your PC Driver this is really happen often in the middle of song played. im using apple music web streaming. This is never happen with automatic driver

Hope any solution for this problem

It may be a conflict of the PC driver and the KA3 driver. If the PC driver works better, please try to uninstall the KA3 driver for better compaibility. We will also report to the engineer for check.

Best regards