FiiO K7

[Blorg]

@coolajami except it also has huge reductions in noise/distortion and many multiples of the power. Amir measured the K5 Pro at 990mW @32Ω.

Balanced offers around 3x the power, this does substantially higher power than the single ended, either on this or the K5 Pro. You may not need that, but it's a key difference. It's also convenient if you have headphones already wired for balanced, this would be perfect for me for a secondary setup. An all-in-one with much better noise/distortion numbers, a choice of single ended or balanced out, and 3-4W @32Ω for $199 is pretty compelling. It's a big step up from the K5 Pro in many ways while keeping the same form factor.

You may not need any of this, but you could point to plenty of much more expensive devices that do similar or even less. For that matter even Fiio's own K9 has apparently lower power than this does.

Given the K5 Pro is $199 though, I suspect this is a translation of the Chinese price and it will cost more than this in the West. Chinese domestic prices for most Chinese HiFi stuff is much lower than the Western price.

EDIT: Fiio confirmed on Head-Fi the US price will be $199. That's remarkable, arguably class redefining, it has roughly double the power of the Topping DX3 Pro+, and a choice of single ended or balanced outputs. Although Fiio say the lower 2W power spec is for "output power for long time stable working mode".

If your priority isn't that but is having the optical output, then sure, get something with an optical output.

 

[Blorg]

Unable to achieve -100dB THD+N at 1mW, 32 ohm.
I'll skip.

What full-size full-power all-in-ones at a similar price do better than this?

If you are looking for something to power IEMs there are probably better options, you're probably better off with a dongle.

There are devices that do better at this sort of low power but usually they aren't all in ones, they don't do higher power, or they are much more expensive. The low power performance of this looks to be pretty good to me.

 

[odyo]

This looks like a slightly improved K5 Pro. Practically the same device with the addition of balanced headphone output. I have a K5 Pro, and it works great as a 3-way switch, I think this is its best selling point.

Would the balanced headphone output, as a new feature, help improve Fiio's market standing in this price-point of AIO devices? Fiio seems to think it is, but, personally, I would have jumped from the K5Pro to the K7 if they just added an optical output connector (I don't understand why they keep these features only available on the poor K3). For a balanced headphone output, not really.

Also, RGP lighting: What gives? does it sync with Razer Chroma or something?

This is more like a cutdown K9 pro. Looks impressive at it's price point.

 

[StefanCS]

@coolajami except it also has huge reductions in noise/distortion and many multiples of the power. Amir measured the K5 Pro at 990mW @32Ω.

Balanced offers around 3x the power, this does substantially higher power than the single ended, either on this or the K5 Pro. You may not need that, but it's a key difference. It's also convenient if you have headphones already wired for balanced, this would be perfect for me for a secondary setup. An all-in-one with much better noise/distortion numbers, a choice of single ended or balanced out, and 3-4W @32Ω for $199 is pretty compelling. It's a big step up from the K5 Pro in many ways while keeping the same form factor.

You may not need any of this, but you could point to plenty of much more expensive devices that do similar or even less. For that matter even Fiio's own K9 has apparently lower power than this does.

Given the K5 Pro is $199 though, I suspect this is a translation of the Chinese price and it will cost more than this in the West. Chinese domestic prices for most Chinese HiFi stuff is much lower than the Western price.

EDIT: Fiio confirmed on Head-Fi the US price will be $199. That's remarkable, arguably class redefining, it has roughly double the power of the Topping DX3 Pro+, and a choice of single ended or balanced outputs. Although Fiio say the lower 2W power spec is for "output power for long time stable working mode".

If your priority isn't that but is having the optical output, then sure, get something with an optical output.

From what I understood from their post, the 2W power @32Ω is for low gain. Under the high gain, it doubles the power to 4W:

32 ohm 4W at 1%
68 ohm 2.5W at 1%
300 ohm 600mW

I guess the same is for K9 Pro. It shows 2W/2.1W(ESS version) but this is under low gain. Wonder if someone tested for medium/high gain, how much power it can deliver !

All in all, I think for $199 in US, this is a solid competitor. Can't wait to give it a try

 

[staticV3]

@StefanCS
Fiio claim the K7 can do:
1.22W per channel at 32Ω, SE out, High gain
and
2.0W per channel at 32Ω, Bal out, High gain.

Here's what it could do on the bench:
SE out:

Bal out:

Source
WolfX-700 does all his max power sweeps at the highest available gain, so what you see above really is the limit. At 32Ω, about 2.7W per channel Bal out, and 1.1W SE out.

 

[odyo]

@StefanCS
Fiio claim the K7 can do:
1.22W per channel at 32Ω, SE out, High gain
and
2.0W per channel at 32Ω, Bal out, High gain.

Here's what it could do on the bench:
SE out:
View attachment 240432
Bal out:
View attachment 240431
Source
WolfX-700 does all his max power sweeps at the highest available gain, so what you see above really is the limit. At 32Ω, about 2.7W per channel Bal out, and 1.1W SE out.

That is 4W at 1% for 32 ohm.

 

[Music1969]

This looks fine. Not state of the art but competent.

SINAD 100dB from balanced headphone out is fine.

Need to see channel imbalance though and 50mV SNR

 

[staticV3]

Need to see channel imbalance though and 50mV SNR

Channel inbalance is perfect because the volume knob is digital.
50mV SNR is 87dB:

 

[Music1969]

Channel inbalance is perfect because the volume knob is digital.
50mV SNR is 87dB:
View attachment 241428

So the analogue input is digitised ?

 

[Blorg]

So the analogue input is digitised ?

I don't think so, it's digital control over the volume. My understanding, it's controlled digitally, which allows perfect channel matching, but the actual attenuation is applied to the analog signal. There are plenty of amps without a DAC in them at all that have digital volume controls. I don't know the specifics of the implementation in this Fiio K7 though. From the previous K5 Pro thread which also has a digital volume control:

oh, one correction, i think. the device uses an NJW1195A relay based single chip volume control. njw11985a is a resistance ladder analog domain attenuator, not a digital domain volume control (the ak4493's digital volume control is lossy).

dx3 does have some hiss due to fully digital volume control which doesn't decrease the noise level when you reduce the volume. This k5 pro uses a volume control chip which preserve the SNR changing the volume. I think this is what you are experiencing. You just keep what sounds good to you.

 

[Music1969]

I don't think so, it's digital control over the volume. My understanding, it's controlled digitally, which allows perfect channel matching, but the actual attenuation is applied to the analog signal. There are plenty of amps without a DAC in them at all that have digital volume controls. I don't know the specifics of the implementation in this Fiio K7 though. From the previous K5 Pro thread which also has a digital volume control:

There's usually 2 ways I see where you can have perfect channel balance with analogue volume control.

Either a chip based analogue volume control or R2R relay based.

The latter is usually mentioned in marketing (and usually takes more space) so I would guess it's the former.

But @staticV3 said it is digital volume control. Which means analogue ins are digitised. But the analogue in measurement by L7 looks clean

 

[Blorg]

There's usually 2 ways I see where you can have perfect channel balance with analogue volume control.

Either a chip based analogue volume control or R2R relay based.

The latter is usually mentioned in marketing (and usually takes more space) so I would guess it's the former.

But @staticV3 said it is digital volume control. Which means analogue ins are digitised. But the analogue in measurement by L7 looks clean

If it's like the K5 Pro, it's a chip based analogue control that is digitally controlled.

When Static said it's a "digital volume control" my understanding, he was referring to it having perfect channel matching due to the digital control, not suggesting it was doing the volume attenuation in the digital domain.

 

[staticV3]

From Fiio's website:


So there's most likely a single channel analog pot behind the knob and an ADC behind that with a LUT to translate the resistance into 112 distinct volume steps.
How Fiio then attenuates the signal using those digital steps I don't know.

 

[Jimmy]

From what I understand, at least it's what their website states, the attenuation is achieved by using a I2C controlled NJU72315b IC(1 or 2?), combined with a buffer opamp (one or more). On paper it seems to be similar to the Khada's Tone 2 volume control system.

I think this unit would be almost perfect if for a small price increase, they had included TRS balanced inputs and outputs, since everything else seems to be fully balanced, but I guess that may cannibalize sales of their K9 model.

 

[Fg RAMP]

I think this unit would be almost perfect if for a small price increase, they had included TRS balanced inputs and outputs, since everything else seems to be fully balanced

This is exactly what I’m looking for, as well. They could exclude Bluetooth and MQA to price it between K7 and K9 Pro.

 

[slazyel]

I am torn now. I've bought the topping dx3 pro+ on 11/11 but it still was not sent, so i can cancel the order. Now the question: K7 or DX3 Pro+ for $25 less?

 

[Jimmy]

I guess it depends on your needs, for pure DAC use, they should be interchangeable and audibly transparent, the DX3 Pro+ has a display and bluetooth input while the Fiio does not have any of those but instead has analog input (unbalanced), and a balanced HP amp.

I already have a Fiio K5 pro, it has been working well so far, and I like the form factor and the fact that it has a 6.35mm HP jack vs 3.5mm for the Topping, so if I had to buy something to pair with a PC right now, I would probably go with the K7, but as I said, I think it depends on the functionality that you need.

I am torn now. I've bought the topping dx3 pro+ on 11/11 but it still was not sent, so i can cancel the order. Now the question: K7 or DX3 Pro+ for $25 less?

 

[yandaex]

May I ask if it's powerful enough to drive the edition xs (through balanced)? On the website, fiio stated that at 32 ohms it has 2V output, yet on the review site it says the k7 can reach 4V at 32 ohms. If it's really 4V under balanced output then I'll skip the ef400 as it has 4.4V output.

 

[yandaex]

Srry Im really new to the HiFi world, just learned how to read the graphs and stuff regarding amp today. I currently have a liquid spark with khadas tone board with had600. I just ordered an ed xs from aliexpress and ppl said the planar headphones are quite power hungry which is why I'm planning to upgrade my amp. Im looking at second-hand smsl sp200 (or sh9), k7, and thx aaa789. I know ex pairs well with the ef400 but it's out of my budget... I would be really grateful if someone can help me out with this. The new K7 seems to look really good on specs.

 

[Veri]

Srry Im really new to the HiFi world, just learned how to read the graphs and stuff regarding amp today. I currently have a liquid spark with khadas tone board with had600.

Maybe just wait till you have the XS and try it with your liquid spark? If you really need to upgrade, I would consider the L30 ii.