[Themilkman46290]

Not sure about topping, but I've had the a3 and a5 and both batteries held up well, and were fairly easy to get replacement batteries

 

[Luis Mad]

Not sure about topping, but I've had the a3 and a5 and both batteries held up well, and were fairly easy to get replacement batteries

would you mind sharing, how did yu get replacement batteries for the a5? did you change them yourself or some technical service?

 

[Themilkman46290]

I ordered a battery from ae then I changed it myself, wasn't too difficult, but I am the "diy" type of person

 

[Luis Mad]

I ordered a battery from ae then I changed it myself, wasn't too difficult, but I am the "diy" type of person

Many thanks for the info. I would surely mess it up! Diy and myself are in different galaxies. Fortunatelly my A5 still goes strong but I am using it much more nowadays with the AKG K712 pro that change radically with power. I guess I will have to try with a mobile battery replacement service when the time comes.


The topping Nx7 looks interesting though as an alternative

 

[Ab10]

Wish Topping NX7 comes with a true Balance Circuit.

 

[runssical]

I have never used the xCan. It has a good reputation for sound quality but not for build quality or longevity. A person on Reddit shared with me his ordeal with the iFi and a dying xCan battery. After iFi refused to send him a replacement battery he had to resort to doing his own DIY battery replacement. Fortunately, he had soldering skills and a knack for repairing electronics. He was able to buy a generic $7 battery off Amazon, desolder the wires off the dead iFi OEM battery and attach them to the new battery. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that iFi product owners have to do that just to keep their device working.

What I've described in these comments is known as planned obsolescence. The iFi company wants to sell you an expensive portable amplifier and it intentionally die at predetermined time in order to force the owner to either (A) pay an exorbitant service fee to get the device working again, sort of like a ransom, or (B) buy an entirely new device from them. Both routes net the company big $$$.

With most portable audio device manufactures you are going to run into the same problem. That includes FiiO and Topping. Now, they could, if they wanted to, design a portable amp that uses off-the-shelf round barrel lithium rechargeable battery cells. But of course they would rather you buy a new product from them every 2 years and keep the money rolling in.

 

[Themilkman46290]

I have never used the xCan. It has a good reputation for sound quality but not for build quality or longevity. A person on Reddit shared with me his ordeal with the iFi and a dying xCan battery. After iFi refused to send him a replacement battery he had to resort to doing his own DIY battery replacement. Fortunately, he had soldering skills and a knack for repairing electronics. He was able to buy a generic $7 battery off Amazon, desolder the wires off the dead iFi OEM battery and attach them to the new battery. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that iFi product owners have to do that just to keep their device working.

What I've described in these comments is known as planned obsolescence. The iFi company wants to sell you an expensive portable amplifier and it intentionally die at predetermined time in order to force the owner to either (A) pay an exorbitant service fee to get the device working again, sort of like a ransom, or (B) buy an entirely new device from them. Both routes net the company big $$$.

With most portable audio device manufactures you are going to run into the same problem. That includes FiiO and Topping. Now, they could, if they wanted to, design a portable amp that uses off-the-shelf round barrel lithium rechargeable battery cells. But of course they would rather you buy a new product from them every 2 years and keep the money rolling in.

Been trying to explain this stuff to alot of people, planned obsolescence is a serious issues, few months ago I had saved up to purchase a air of Sundaras, since the he4xx held up so well, I thought it would be my next pair.
But after 2 and a half years, the earpads fell off, then the headband broke, so I fixed it, then after another month I was listening to them through my fiio a5 and I heard a fizzle and one side goes silent.
I realized I was a victim of planned obsolescence. So I did what we all should learn to do, I decided to stop purchasing anything from them again. Bought some custom headphones instead.
Of course the guys in the he4xx thread said the hifiman is a very reliable company and that I was making a huge mistake taking some unknown custom headphone over hifiman top notch customer service, long warranty and great QC, (really laughable, seems they have paid reps pretending to be new headfiers)

When I started getting into headphones, was way back before apple got into audio and "revolutionized" the industries using the finest engineers to incorporate planned obsolescence to every aspect of there product.
There ipod was a hit, nevermind the zune player (that really sounded better) because they were able to make so much from it, the rest of the industry followed there model (increased marketing like crazy, artificially raise the price above competitors and use planned obsolescence everywhere) then companies like I River did the same, so there players were rebranded and the price was inflated to astronomical heights, and using apples model they became astell&kern.
They succeeded because of it.
Ibasso has better products, they don't use as much planned obsolescence, there customer service is better, there players sound just as good (if not better considering AK daps tend to have horrible output impedance compared to ibasso) but AK is winning
So are all of the compa ie doubling down on marketing and planned obsolescence
It is sad that the majority of people don't realize that they are the reason the industry gets screwed......
And let's not start with beats, a company that proved the "audiophile" world that you really can charge 300 bucks for headphones that sound like 20 dollars bass cannons and people would rush to buy them.
It worked and ever since the price of the average headphone has also raised.
That's why I got this fiio a5, easy to fix, powerful and cheap.
If anyone wants to try some seriously good, well made, custom planars
There are 2 Ukrainian companies currently making really good headphones, the ones I got are from a company sash but there is also verum. Both are made very very well, verum being more v shaped and sahs tres being more bright neutral neither of them use planned obsolescence.......

 

[Themilkman46290]

I actually almost bought the ifi xcan, but read about there terrible service and there use of planned obsolescence, it sucks.
It's like we now only get terrible choices. There isn't 1 good strong amp with replaceble batteries.

 

[Zaiden]

Hello. What closed back headphones would have high impedance/pair well with the FiiO A5?

Closed backs typically have low impedance, since that is often a requirement for portability.

And I bought the FiiO A5 without contemplating that I never spend any time away from my desk - HD6XX - so the portable functionality is pretty lost on me.

 

[Themilkman46290]

Hello. What closed back headphones would have high impedance/pair well with the FiiO A5?

Closed backs typically have low impedance, since that is often a requirement for portability.

And I bought the FiiO A5 without contemplating that I never spend any time away from my desk - HD6XX - so the portable functionality is pretty lost on me.

Well, it has low output impedance so it works well with alot.
I use them with my m565c, and with e-mu purple hearts.
It's not all about impedance, sensitivity is also important, my monolith m565c is 19 ohms but need alot more power then my 32 ohm e-mu purple heart (planar vs dynamic)

There's also dt770 and dt1770

Sometimes I boost the sub bass and reduce other frequencies down, then the a5's extra power helps turn the purple hearts into sub bass cannons (don't do this as often as I did in the past, but fun for a few minutes)

 

[KittySneeze]

I actually almost bought the ifi xcan, but read about there terrible service and there use of planned obsolescence, it sucks.
It's like we now only get terrible choices. There isn't 1 good strong amp with replaceble batteries.

I bought the xCAN in September of 2019, and had some issues with the battery holding a reasonable charge after owning it for about 1.5 years, which isn’t great. That said, I’ve had nothing but great experience with iFi customer support. I created a ticket for the battery issue, and they replaced it for free within 2-weeks of me sending it in for service.

All in all, I’m still very happy with the purchase. It’s a hugely versatile amp given its high output power, Bluetooth capability, and relatively small form-factor. Honestly, my biggest issue with it was how easily the chassis showed fingerprints and oils. I solved the issue mostly by buying a Miter case though.

If you want a strong amp with user replaceable batteries though, I’d look into the PlusSound Cloud Nine. It’s got over 1.2W at 32 ohms and runs off two (2) 9V batteries.

 

[lanister]

I have a question. Since this is a only dedicated headphone amp. And my phone doesn't have a dac or a 3.5mm port. Can I use it with an dongle like avani or abigail to connect two of them?

 

[FiiO]

I have a question. Since this is a only dedicated headphone amp. And my phone doesn't have a dac or a 3.5mm port. Can I use it with an dongle like avani or abigail to connect two of them?

Dear friend,

If your dongle has the lineout port, you could connect it to the A5 with the audio cable.

Best regards

 

[Julius Decimus]

I have a question. Since this is a only dedicated headphone amp. And my phone doesn't have a dac or a 3.5mm port. Can I use it with an dongle like avani or abigail to connect two of them?

Yes, can.

Anything that has 3.5mm output. Your computer/laptop also.

 

[Ronion]

I have to admit that I love my e12 Monte Blanc just as much as my A5. The A5 may have technical supremacy, but my e12 is brighter and more aggressive. It brings its own gifts to the table. I bet it goes for cheap used as well.