[FiiO]

This is a refined specialist with compact elegance.



In a tiny space of 40x15x8mm, there is not only a high-quality DAC, but there is also premium audio amplification to match, both carefully tuned by engineers to truly and faithfully reproduce your music the way it was meant to be heard.



Employed in the KA1 is the ES9281AC PRO chip from ESS, which supports 32bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256. You will surely be able to hear even the finest details within your music!



The KA1 combines USB audio interface, DAC, and amplifier into one package. When combined with the multi-layered HDI gold-plated PCB it is on, the result is lower crosstalk, higher efficiency through lower power consumption, and ultimately high quality pure sound.



The KA1 also supports MQA rendering in the DAC chip. Moreover, it has colorful RGB light indicators, which not only feature captivating looks, but also conveniently display the current audio format and sampling rate. iOS, Android smartphones and even Windows and Mac computers are all well handled. Dance with HiFi anytime and anywhere.



Keep features of the KA1 include:

--ES9281AC PRO DAC

--RGB status indicator

--Full support for a variety of devices

--MQA rendering support

--Supports 32bit/384kHz lossless audio

--Supports DSD256



*The KA1 is available on our AliExpress Official Store. Click the link below to take it home right away.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004125819243.html

Best regards,

Guangzhou FiiO Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.[/u]

 

[Ichos]

Subscribed!

 

[537778]

Now you have KA1 and KA3, why not bring this "Dongle DAC with a magnetic battery pack" to reality and call it KA5.

 

[Ichos]

I believe that is going to be their next product...

 

[537778]

I believe that is going to be their next product...

Well I will buy two if it can push 300mW @ 32Ω (BAL) to drive my Sennheisers.

 

[Hyde00]

Can we have some hardware buttons for low/high gain? I read on KA3 you can only access it through the FiiO app on phone. But what if I want to use it on PC and change it on the fly.

Right now I heard you have to plug it to your phone, open the app, change it, let it save, unplug, then plug it back into your PC. And if you want to change again you have to repeat all those steps again. Same with default volume level, apparently it's also saved with the phone app and no way to override it otherwise.

So please have a hardware high/low gain button and high/low impedance button.

It's really the only reason why I didn't buy KA3.

 

[Ichos]

....

It's really the only reason why I didn't buy KA3.

Think twice, you don't know what you are missing...

 

[Hyde00]

Think twice, you don't know what you are missing...

I guess I could just set it once on low impedance and high gain and never touch again........ but does KA3 drive full size headphone well?

But really the lack of hardware buttons and having to rely only on phone app seems a bit tedious.......

Or hopefully they release PC software or something...... will think about this a bit more..... lol. Thanks.

EDIT: I wish they did it like xDuoo Link2 Bal, where just have a few hardware button for toggle and call it a day. Don't even need screen or anything.

 

[Ichos]

I guess I could just set it once on low impedance and high gain and never touch again........ but does KA3 drive full size headphone well?

But really the lack of hardware buttons and having to rely only on phone app seems a bit tedious.......

Or hopefully they release PC software or something...... will think about this a bit more..... lol. Thanks.

EDIT: I wish they did it like xDuoo Link2 Bal, where just have a few hardware button for toggle and call it a day. Don't even need screen or anything.

I leave it at low impedance and high gain.
From the balanced output it runs most of my full size headphones with excellent results.

 

[Hyde00]

I leave it at low impedance and high gain.
From the balanced output it runs most of my full size headphones with excellent results.

Ohhhh that's good to hear, maybe I will give it a chance since I already bought balanced cable for my D5200 and R7DX (both easy to drive).

It's saved at the hardware level right? Then maybe it's not that bad.

By the way would you happen to know what does the low/high impedance setting actually do? Does it change the output impedance?

 

[Ichos]

Ohhhh that's good to hear, maybe I will give it a chance since I already bought balanced cable for my D5200 and R7DX (both easy to drive).

It's saved at the hardware level right? Then maybe it's not that bad.

By the way would you happen to know what does the low/high impedance setting actually do? Does it change the output impedance?

The settings are permanently stored.
I think that the low/high impedance changes the voltage swing of the output.
Full scale for high impedance and lower voltage, higher current for the low impedance.

 

[Capyr]

There are two things that really bug me with my KA3. It drains my battery at about 5 times the rate of the apple dongle dac. The Apple dongle consumes 4% in one hour, while the KA3 drains 19% in my testing at the same volume. You can feel the KA3 getting relatively warm. For mobile purposes that’s not very ideal.

Under certain conditions the KA3 also picks up interferences from my iPhone 13 resulting in that beepbeebebeep sound that we all know from old crappy speakers.

Other than those issues, wich are not minor, the KA3 delivers exceptionally detailed and powerful sound.

 

[XERO1]

The KA1 is exactly what I've been looking for! A compact dongle that, 1: has a hardwired cable with a Lightning connector, 2: can decode high-res music files, 3: has a status LED that can verify if your device is actually outputting high-res or not, 4: is MQA certified. I'll be getting one (and possibly more) once they show up on Amazon.

I would also love to see maybe a slightly larger version of the KA1 that has only a 4.4mm connector with double the output power. That would also be something that would be an insta-buy for me!!

 

[Atek2019]

i need hardware buton for the volume

 

[Ichos]

There are two things that really bug me with my KA3. It drains my battery at about 5 times the rate of the apple dongle dac. The Apple dongle consumes 4% in one hour, while the KA3 drains 19% in my testing at the same volume. You can feel the KA3 getting relatively warm. For mobile purposes that’s not very ideal.

Under certain conditions the KA3 also picks up interferences from my iPhone 13 resulting in that beepbeebebeep sound that we all know from old crappy speakers.

Other than those issues, wich are not minor, the KA3 delivers exceptionally detailed and powerful sound.

The KA3 has separate amplifier stage and is way more powerful, it will certainly draw more power than the Apple dongle.