FiiOJadeAudio KA2 4.4mm Balanced Headphone Amps USB DAC DSD256 32bit/384kHz PCM for Android/iOS/Windows/Mac (USB Type C)

Brought it because I was hearing slight static noise from FiiO F3. This fixed the issue.

I just got it, and connect it to the phone, gave me a huge noise in the left earbud. That leaved me with my leaf ear in pain, and not hearing well for a few minutes. After unpluggin and plugin it in again, the problem got solved. Fine, use it again to compare it with my other dac, and when pluggin it in again, gave me the same issue. My ear hurts and make me hate the product within 5 minutes. I cannot recommend this thing. Could have damage my iems as well as my ears.I wish I could get a compensation due to the damages...

Using my mobile phone, I switched from a simpler DAC to this, and on my NAD system with PSB speakers, I immediately noticed the difference in high bit rate digital streaming. It's really amazing.This does get hot when run for over an hour. It was hotter than the KA1 I use for my headphones.

This is an excellent little value dac dongle. It does the job and does it for a good price. It’s perfect if you have a 4.4mm balanced cable OR a 2.5mm cable using a 4.4mm adapter. You absolutely CANNOT adapt a 3.5mm unbalanced cable to 4.4mm. You will fry the amplifier.Another reviewer mentions the following:- “ after 2 minutes of use, the amp kept cutting out out like a bad Norman Collier sketch and got extremely hot to the touch.”- had to buy a 3.5mm - 4.4mm adapter on top of that- “waste of money”Well, the reviewer stated in their review why the amp kept cutting out and got hot to the touch. They were trying to convert an unbalanced cable to balanced which is not possible. It will ruin your amp… you can however convert balanced to balanced, and balanced to unbalanced.Do your research. If you have a 3.5mm cable, then buy the KA1 not the KA2.

This DAC is a warmish sounding miracle for the sale price I paid. I've had the M7, M11 Pro, other Fiio earlier portable DACS, but this one really peaked my interest. Balanced USB dongle? Man, that takes my mobile setup to the next level. It's great value for the money. BUT that is only when it worked, which was for only 10 listens in the 4 months I've owned this item. It died a couple of weeks ago and I contacted Fiio support earlier this week. Haven't heard back yet. I've always had good experiences with Fiio with warranty repairs, but having this little dongle die within 10 uses is quite disappointing.

Perfect small dongle dac for on the go applications. Sounds great and provides for more than enough volume for my IEMs.

It's hard for me to give a completely fair opinion of the KA2 since it seems I am not a fan of cirrus based dacs. I wasn't that impressed with the Shio but I would definitely recommend that over the KA2. It seems to be a cleaner more balanced option. They have a very similar power output except the KA2 seems to have more power under 32ohms. To be fair I really don't know how factual that is. It certainly has more headroom but if you use the Fiio control app you will see the volume in it is at 120. When I change that to 100 the power output becomes nearly identical to the Shio and it sounds cleaner. After a couple days I set it to 100 permanently and it's much harder to notice a difference between it and the shio.The sound is actually acceptable but it has rough spots that the Shio doesn't. The Shio has a warm tint to it and seems to go for a smooth characteristic. It's a touch less than the warmth the 7hz ak4377 based dongle has. The KA2 seems like it is trying to mix warm and bright with more bass presence but also more upper mid and treble presence. I noticed sibilance is more noticeable and common with the KA2 than it is with the Shio and most if not all of my other dongle dacs. It's not terrible or extreme but there's definitely something there that can make some tracks fatiguing.My biggest problem with the KA2 is the need for the app. If you are fine with how it sounds out of the box then thats great. You don't need the app at all. It's in high gain by default and the volume adjusts well enough to have control over even easy to drive iems. If you notice the "grain" and edginess like I seem to then you need the app. High gain adds noise to some of my iems and the grain/edginess got fatiguing for me. Like previously stated, lowering the Fiio max volume from 120 to 100 solved alot of the issues I was having.The KA2 is actually a good dongle dac. If you make the adjustments I mentioned and also select the filter option that fits you best you will have a good experience. It's very small and portable. I would much rather carry something this size around than something that's as big as the Shio. It does get warm though. I don't know if it will fry itself like the Sonata HD V loves to do but it gets noticeably warm. The Shio never heats up so this getting as warm as it does was a surprise. I fallen asleep with it playing and it was fine in the morning and working perfectly unlike my beloved HD V so that's a good sign.This is where I get very nit picky but the sound quality and priceis stops me from giving this more than 3 stars. The KA2 just doesn't have that "balanced" sound you expect to hear when switching from single ended to balanced. There's and extra width and separation I tend to notice when I switch to balanced that I don't get with the KA2. The KA2 sounds like the single ended side of the Shio except with more power. It's certainly not bad and at the $40 I paid I'm more or less satisfied with it. At $60 I struggle to recommend it though.Even though the Sonata HD V likes to kill itself if left on overnight it sounds much better to me. Despite that the Shio would be recommendation if the KA2 is at $60. The Shio actually has that "balanced" characteristic the KA2 lacks and flat out sounds cleaner when you really focus on it. There's zero heat with it to be concerned about and the physical buttons are great to have. The ability to switch gain with a single press of the buttons is extremely handy. Same with just adjusting the volume.Basically my recommendation is the Shio when the KA2 is at full price. Get the KA2 if it goes on sale at $40 or less and you have a hard cap for what you are willing to spend. Knowing what I know now, I would always choose the Shio over the KA2 though. For me the physical buttons and slightly better quality audio is enough to make up for the price difference when the KA2 is on sale. If you decide to get the Shio I would recommend that you update the firmware so you have proper hardware volume control.

This product is great. It works really well. My music sounds great with this dac.

Don't buy this if you don't have balanced cables. If you don't know what balanced cables are don't buy this. It's infuriating reading all the reviews from people who obviously had no idea that they were buying and complained even though it is right in the title of the product. Be aware that a 4.4 to 3.5 adapter is a sham product. It could fry your dac or worse. It's a product that shouldn't exist. 4.4 to 2.5 is fine because they are both balanced. Balanced audio is superior because signal noise is eliminated. Guaranteed any dac that heated up was used with an adapter.

buen producto

Sonaba bien el dia que me funcionó pero la tercea vez que lo he usado, se recalienta y suena como una carraca. Tengo su version mas barata y de momento dunciona bien

Je ne mets qu’une étoile car il ne possède qu’une seule sortie en Jack 4.4mm, alors que la plupart des casques d’aujourd’hui ont des jacks 3.5.J’ai testé un adaptateur 4.4 vers 3.5, ce fut une catastrophe.

I bought the fiio fh3 and used a cheap usb c dac with it and a 3.5 mm cable and it sounded good but I kept reading that balanced cables and a decent dac would make it sound even better so I took a chance and bought this dac and a balanced cable.Amazing difference in sound quality on an S23 Ultra at least, be warned you need to turn the phones volume down if you're using this on a phone for the first time as it is very loud.Also, if using a phone with this, download the fiio connect app as you can use it to change the low pass filter, change the amount of gain, adjust the overall volume limit as well as change the left and right speaker balance.I really didn't expect to notice a difference between the fh3 iem's with the standard dac I had and this dac, yet the quality improvement is very noticeable and well worth the money for the dac and the balanced cable I purchased at the same time.Please remember this needs a 4.5 mm end on your headphones, in my case iem's, NOT 3.5 mm. If you use a 3.5 mm jack or a 3.5 mm to 4.5 mm adapter plug you will have problems, and possibly damage your dac.It's a very good quality upgrade for any mobile phone user who wants great audio, just make sure you have good audio cables to plug into it. Of course this will also work with laptops etc, I use it with a phone mainly so that's how I'm reviewing it, as an external usb c dac for a phone.The dac itself is tiny, and has a nice light ring on it, and is plug and play, and genuine, at least from the seller I purchased from.How can you tell its genuine? You have a sticker on the back of the packaging box. Scratch that off then go check the revealed number at the fiio website and it will tell you if your fiio product is genuine or counterfeit.Now I have a fiio dac and iem's I can understand better the popularity of the brand, the sound is great as is the build quality. Overall, a good purchase.