New member. Fee Fi Fiio Thumb.

[TwentyFour]

Yo

New to headphones. New to this forum. Newish to alieexpress. Not new to hifi.. mid fi.. life..

I live in loony England. I have lots of vintage gear. Arcam, NAD, Technics, Denon, etc etc

Recently, fir the first time ever, I started to get more into headphones. I now have HiFiMan HE400SE. And on the way HiFiMan R9 (should arrive in next day or so). I figured these two would float my boat. Analytical.. and bassy and loony.

I have various items in the house, mostly all vintage or near vintage. Main system currently is PC, optical output to one of the first SMSL DACs, RCA out to Arcam Alpha 10 amplifier, Mission M74 speakers and BK Gemini II sub.

Alas, my SMSL has no headphone socket. So I want a new DAC. The Arcam is a little power hungry for me to use juist to power the headphones. I have seen a Fiio K5 on alieexpress for a bargain price (about £76 or $96). Seller seems to be legit. But despite being called the Fiio Audio Store they are not AFAIK the official Fiio store.

Is the deal too good to be true? I don't mind that the DAC is a few years old.. I just hear it can power pretty much any headphone. And well.. I like the sound of that... plus I can output from the RCA to my integrated just like I do with my SMSL.

Anyone?

 

[dunring]

Its a good price so if you buy with a credit card your protected. I'm on eBay all the time and seen those go right in that price range often. The headphones you have don't need an ampzilla to drive them. The U.S. version of the $9 Apple adapter will make them sound good. The EU version has half the power though.

 

[TwentyFour]

I've read that Fiio does suffer counterfeits.. and many of them convincing enough to warrant good feeback.. so I am looking agin!

 

[earmonger]

Its a good price so if you buy with a credit card your protected. I'm on eBay all the time and seen those go right in that price range often. The headphones you have don't need an ampzilla to drive them. The U.S. version of the $9 Apple adapter will make them sound good. The EU version has half the power though.

The Apple dongle uses a USB-C connector. What input do you want for the DAC/Amp, @TwentyFour ? And do you want battery power or mains power?