audition Feiao K5 Pro: an entry-level desktop decoding earpiece with much higher quality than pricing

Although I have heard of it before, I have not played with Feiao FiiO products very carefully. After seeing them launch a new K5 Pro, a relatively small desktop decoding earpiece, I said on my microblog that I would like to hear it. As a result, their staff quickly contacted me and sent me a test machine for audition.

K5 Pro is positioned as the flagship in Feiao's own product sequence. However, from my point of view, a gadget with less than 1,000 yuan (the official price is 998 yuan) can only be regarded as an entry-level product at most. It is not big in size and weight, but it looks a bit like a slightly thicker 3.5-inch hard disk box. The golden HiRes mark on the front of the fuselage is shining, the central large knob is responsible for the switch and volume, and the left and right sides are the signal source/gain lever and the 6.35mm earphone interface respectively;

body has optical fiber/coaxial, RCA Line In/Line Out, power input and a relatively rare Type-B USB port. According to the official, the reason why this shaped port is adopted is to strengthen the connection stability of USB cable, and the official also provides two USB cables, Type-B to Type-A (random) and Type-B to Type-C (new), which are used to connect computers and mobile devices respectively.

Yes, compared with traditional earphones, an important feature of Feiao K5 Pro is the addition of decoding function. Although it uses AK4493EQ DAC chips, the specifications are not low, but there are not many AKM manufacturers' products in the desktop field-we used to see more AK-headed chips on mobile devices (including walkmans and mobile phones). Therefore, I am quite curious about what sound quality the combination of the local AK4493EQ and XMOS XUF208 USB decoding chip (supporting 768kHz/32bit, DSD512 hard decoding) can achieve.

regarding the internal configuration of feiao K5 Pro, you can look at a set of disassembly pictures released by official staff @ feiao Matt. The address is https://weibo.com/3446862224/I7kwXv3cw 。 Although I don't know much about the specific circuit technology, the shape and regularity of these PCBs still look very pleasing to the eye, and I can see the rigor of large factories.

has many different input methods, so I also matched different combinations for Feiao K5 Pro: first of all, of course, I used Feiao K5 Pro to connect the mobile phone, and used Haibei music to realize USB exclusive output (and lock the volume)-usually I use this simple way to access DSD files and regular lossless music on my NAS; Of course, I also tried to connect my notebook computer with Feiao K5 Pro. I can also access the NAS music library or play local music files directly through the computer. In these two modes, Feiao K5 Pro actually acts as a USB external sound card, avoiding the sound card of mobile phones and notebooks that may perform poorly;

In addition, I also searched for Sony's old Blu-ray drive that I haven't used at home for a long time, and connected Feiao K5 Pro in a coaxial way to play the CD in stock. In this situation, the Blu-ray machine actually only plays the role of "turntable", and the actual sound quality level is completely dependent on the performance of Feiao K5 Pro.

, in terms of matching headphones, Feiao officials believe that K5 Pro can mainly be used to promote large headphones: it has an output of 1500mW at 32 Ω, and its power is definitely enough. It suddenly occurred to me that a friend bought AKG K701 at a discount, but because there was no suitable earpiece to push the earphone, he could only put it as a "big hand. Now I think if there is another Feiao K5 Pro at that time, the practical value of "big hand office" will obviously be completely different.

there are still three large earphones left in my family: Baia Power's DT880 is waiting for repair due to its aging rubber due to long-term use. The HIFIMAN HE1000se is usually connected to a 10,000-yuan power amplifier, which seems to be somewhat incompatible with the entry-level Feiao K5 Pro; however, there is also a HIFIMAN Edition X that has been useless for a long time (I also have a Edition X V2 commonly used in the office). Let's match it with Feiao K5 Pro!

HIFIMAN Edition X was actually known as a flat-panel earphone for "easy to push directly" before, but this is only in contrast to those earphone products that must use earphones. In fact, when I was evaluating it, I put forward that even under the slogan of "easy to push", but if conditions permit, I still suggest matching Edition X with an earpiece to better play its timbre, so it is not wrong to use it and Feiao K5 Pro to form a simple desktop combination.

compared with using mobile phone to push directly (the picture is OPPO Reno 10X, but actually I am currently using vivo NEX 3 5G), Feiao K5 Pro can bring obvious sound field and dynamic improvement to Edition X with medium gain and volume knob adjusted to 10 o'clock-please note that this is a change in sound quality itself under the premise that the volume is almost unchanged. The function of the earphone is not to increase the volume of the earphone, but to give the earphone a stronger reserve of strength, making it sound with better levels and details, more extended high frequencies and more flexible, deeper low frequencies.

due to the higher-end earphones, I haven't heard anything from Edition X for a long time, but even with such an entry-level earphone "boost", Edition X's hidden strength can be brought into full play, and its sound quality is more than one or two steps higher than using the earphone hole to push directly! In addition, last night I took out the existing 7. eight thousand yuan (and within one thousand yuan) earplugs in my family and matched them with Feiao K5 Pro. Using the 6.35mm to 3.5mm adapter in the packing box, these smaller and easier to push around earplugs can also achieve the possibility of sound quality improvement under the blessing of the earphones.

, the one that surprises me most is the rambler H297. This earplug priced at 599 yuan (the most expensive earplug for walkers) is of good quality, but I think its high frequency is slightly flat while its low frequency is of average strength although it has a sense of quantity. After listening to several DSDs on NAS with Feiao K5 Pro, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the high frequency of this earplug became brighter, the low frequency obviously had better strength, and the overall texture also reached a new level.

In addition, in order to more effectively indicate the working status, the knob of Feiao K5 Pro will emit blue light during regular playback, green light when decoding DSD, and red light when it cannot be decoded. This setting is simple, effective and has a certain visual aesthetic feeling, but I think the brightness of the light is really a bit too strong at night... It means that Feiao officially said that the product uses the NJW1195A volume control chip (-118dB) of Japanese NJRC, the front stage is Ti OPA1642, and the back stage is Ti TPA6120 (although I don't play DIY, the name of this one is very familiar). Therefore, I also paid special attention to the background noise of Feiao K5 Pro: in fact, no matter using Edition X or earplugs, I can't detect the background noise, which is very clean.

, there is no doubt that I didn't expect such an entry-level desktop decoding earpiece with less than 1,000 yuan to achieve what kind of "leapfrog challenge" in sound quality, but Feiao K5 Pro actually left a good impression on me with its good driving force and quite good decoding sound quality (don't use high gain, the sound will be a little rough at this time). If you tell me that this is a device that costs 2 or 3000 yuan, I will probably accept it gladly.

who is suitable for buying Feiao K5 Pro? It is true that playing HiFi itself is a relatively niche hobby, and the earphone products are far away from ordinary users who are still in the stage of "mobile phone headphones" and "listening casually. However, if you already have certain requirements for sound quality and are no longer satisfied with matching earplugs, you also want to experience higher quality headphones and high definition (high resolution) music. At the same time, you don't want to invest too much "fever funds" at the beginning, and you can't accept the so-called "listen to a sound within 10,000 yuan...

then, I think a 1000-yuan earphone, which is much higher than the price of Feiao K5 Pro decoding earphone, will be a good combination to correctly introduce you into HiFi gate!

spring rollsoriginal10-04 14:14 https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404423674651345003