[cleg]

my initial impressions video

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNQjHnGtMGw[/VIDEO]

 

[FiiO]

my initial impressions video

Thank you for sharing with us! Great!

 

[blackmondy]

How is the soundstage of the A5 ? The E12 was terrible in this regard.

The Voyager has a more airy soundstage.

 

[Dobrescu George]

How is the soundstage of the A5 ? The E12 was terrible in this regard.

The Voyager has a more airy soundstage.

 
E12 had a great soundstage when I tested it... 
 
Interesting that someone didn't find it as such. 
 
What headphones were you using? 

 

[TheoS53]

   
E12 had a great soundstage when I tested it... 
 
Interesting that someone didn't find it as such. 
 
What headphones were you using? 

I'm also quite curious about the sound stage. I recently got the DX80, and just for kicks and giggles I connected my E12A to it. Unfortunately I really didn't like the sound. The E12A felt very congested and narrow in comparison 

 

[Dobrescu George]

  I'm also quite curious about the sound stage. I recently got the DX80, and just for kicks and giggles I connected my E12A to it. Unfortunately I really didn't like the sound. The E12A felt very congested and narrow in comparison 

 E12A can feel like that because of treble smoothness, but E12 has full treble energy, it should be really expansive in soundstage... 

 

[shyamelge]

I got mine today. I am very impressed with my initial testing.
 
Listened to a variety of genre - jazz vocal, instrumental, classical, rock with Fostex T50RP III. I had to put it on hi-gain to listen to most of my music albums since the output from my phone (Motorola E) and A5 (with low gain) at full volume was not adequate to drive Fostex. Currentlly, I am using it at 50-70% of the volume with hi-gain on. 
 
The sound stage is very wide. The sound output is clean and transparent. 
 
At the price I paid at aliexpress, it is a value for money amp. No regrets. A definitely keeper. 

 

[blackmondy]

E12 had a great soundstage when I tested it... 

Interesting that someone didn't find it as such. 

What headphones were you using? 

I'm surprised you find the E12 good with soundstage. Do try the Voyager if you have the chance, it's literally day and night. Even my Teac HA-P50 dac/amp sounds better though not in the class of the Voyager.

I use silver-cabled Audio Technica ESW9,Philips SHP9500 and Beyerdynamic DT990, with IBasso DX90.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I'm surprised you find the E12 good with soundstage. Do try the Voyager if you have the chance, it's literally day and night. Even my Teac HA-P50 dac/amp sounds better though not in the class of the Voyager.

I use silver-cabled Audio Technica ESW9,Philips SHP9500 and Beyerdynamic DT990, with IBasso DX90.

 
E12 and not E12A?... 
 
It's not exceptional with soundstage, but it's the best I heard in it's price range, and an extremely good amp nonetheless. 
 
The brighter treble of E12 makes sound much more holographic to my ears (?) 

 

[fish1050]

   
E12 had a great soundstage when I tested it... 
 
Interesting that someone didn't find it as such. 
 
What headphones were you using? 

The sound stage is really dependent on the music being played.  If the track has a wide sound stage you will perceive the E12 has a wide sound stage.  Iem's vs heaphones will also be a factor for sound stage as well.
 
When I was considering purchasing the E12 I read several professional reviews and most felt the sound stage was okey but not great.  Sound staging has never been an attribute of Fiio products in general.  Their DAP's are not known for a wide sound stage either.  But their units do seem to be getting better with each new version so I am sure the A5 should be an improvement.  Since sound stage is very music centric I prefer to judge by imaging and air vs sound stage.
 
I find my Sony A17 has better air and imaging when paired with my Fiio Q1.  The sound stage also seems a little wider but not very deep adding the Q1 and comparing tracks with and without the Q1.

 

[fish1050]

I am glad to see Fiio is continuing to fix the issues with the X1 II. But given Fiio's previous mention that there really is only one SOC for them to use I think the hardware lag will be very hard to fix.  Going forward Fiio needs to add more on board RAM to improve processing power or at least add internal storage to use as a buffer.  Hopefully Fiio can source a better SOC in the future as well.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Hm... 
 
My music is mostly metal and pop and sharp music in general - lots of cymbals - treble makes a big change in soundstage. 
 
Having listened to over 100 setups so far, one thing that I feel is confusion. I... I don't know anymore... I like Fiio X5ii best from all setups for it's sound and overall experience from all setups I heard, but I use the same headphones and IEMs as I did for a good while, maybe changing those would also change source preference, but it seems I found a sweet spot on headphones. 

 

[Vergil]

Is it worth it to upgrade from the E12A? Since the A5 is cheaper, I could sell my E12A and buy the A5 for about $30-50 extra only.  I have a Beyer T90, which is kinda efficient. The fact that I get a brand new device with 2 year warranty alone seems tempting though

 

[Dany1]

I received my Fiio A5 2 days ago.I had high expectations but i'm left a bit disappointed.However,i'm not entirely sure if it's the dac that bottlenecks the sound quality since i don't own a dedicated dac through which i could connect it on a line out and have only tried it through the headphone out of laptop and mobiles.I tried Fiio A5 with my laptop,samsung galaxy s4 and also on a friend's Lg v10 which i thought has a really good built-in dac so it would make my confusion clear.I tried 2 earphones.Havi B3 pro-I and Trinity delta.
 
Let me highlight the problems i'm facing with the amp:
 
1: On low gain,Even tho i'm using iems i have to turn the volume pot to full to achieve any decent volume and the dynamic range isn't great unless i switch to high gain..It's the same case on all the 3 devices i've tried it on.
 
2: On high gain,i do get more volume but as i start turning up the volume knob it also introduces noise floor,hiss,It wasn't that much present on s4 and v10 but still it was there.On high volume,it starts making things sound harsh,messy and distorted.Even when connected to the lg v10.
 
Also i find it really odd that the hi-res logo print isn't properly aligned.
 

 
Could i possibly have a faulty unit,does anyone else face these issues ?

 

[Dobrescu George]

  I received my Fiio A5 2 days ago.I had high expectations but i'm left a bit disappointed.However,i'm not entirely sure if it's the dac that bottlenecks the sound quality since i don't own a dedicated dac through which i could connect it on a line out and have only tried it through the headphone out of laptop and mobiles.I tried Fiio A5 with my laptop,samsung galaxy s4 and also on a friend's Lg v10 which i thought has a really good built-in dac so it would make my confusion clear.I tried 2 earphones.Havi B3 pro-I and Trinity delta.
 
Let me highlight the problems i'm facing with the amp:
 
1: On low gain,Even tho i'm using iems i have to turn the volume pot to full to achieve any decent volume and the dynamic range isn't great unless i switch to high gain..It's the same case on all the 3 devices i've tried it on.
 
2: On high gain,i do get more volume but as i start turning up the volume knob it also introduces noise floor,hiss,It wasn't that much present on s4 and v10 but still it was there.On high volume,it starts making things sound harsh,messy and distorted.Even when connected to the lg v10.
 
Also i find it really odd that the hi-res logo print isn't properly aligned.
 

 
Could i possibly have a faulty unit,does anyone else face these issues ?

 
A5 is an amp, it sounds best connected to a dedicated line out from a DAC, but not having enough volume is really strange, there should be no such thing with an amp this strong, maybe your unit is broken. Best solution is to take it to the store and have it checked. 
 
The sticker is just a sticker, don't mind fine details so much, but the sound shouldn't have the volume problem at all. As for the hiss problem, someone who owns one of the IEMs you do can tell if it's normal or not.