Good looks, but a poor sound
FOR Plug-and-play; good build and features for the price AGAINST Disappointing sound
Billed as a portable headphone amplifier and DAC, the Fiio K1 is a tiny plug-and-play device in the same vein as the excellent Audioquest Dragonfly Black and Cyrus soundkey class-leaders.
We’ve heard some decent digital products from Fiio in recent years, especially at the affordable end of the market, and the K1’s extremely low price certainly piqued our interest.
However, the K1 doesn’t come close to making our music sound better. In fact, it achieves the rather unusual feat of actually making it sound worse than the sound straight out of our Apple laptop.
A positive note
The K1 looks promising when we first unbox it. The USB DAC is even smaller and lighter than the Audioquest and Cyrus DACS. Despite weighing a feather-light 11.3g and considering its low price, the K1’s neat ‘titanium grey’ aluminium casing feels well made and not cheap at all.
It’s as plug-and-play as other USB DACS, such as the Cyrus soundkey, requiring only one cable to connect it into your laptop – a micro-usb to USB-A cable that is supplied with the K1. Once you've plugged it into your laptop or computer, a blue LED next to the 3.5mm headphone jack lights up to indicate it’s working and you can start using the K1 DAC immediately.
Our only slight quibble with the build is the plastic clip attached to the DAC. You can’t remove it without breaking it, so unless you want to attach the K1 to your belt or fasten it to your clothes like a pocket protector (we like DACS, but not that much) it feels a bit pointless.
Counts for nothing
Like similar USB DACS, the K1 takes power from your laptop. File support is impressive for a budget DAC at this price – all popular formats and high-resolution files up to 24-bit/96khz (but not DSD) are supported here – and it has the same upper limits as the Dragonfly and soundkey.
But all these great features count for nothing when you start using the K1. Plugged into an Apple Macbook Pro (we also use a Macbook Air) and paired with Sennheiser Momentum over-ears, the Fiio K1 certainly makes our laptop-stored music sound louder, punchier and more solid.
The pounding drums in Marmozets’ Major System Error hit with a hefty thwack, while the crunchy, raucous guitars sound meaty. That added weight and boost in volume is appealing – at first.
But by adding the K1 DAC, you lose openness, subtlety and dynamics. Timing goes out the window. Plugging our headphones back into the laptop’s own 3.5mm port, we hear a more open, detailed sound where the guitars attack with greater precision and agility. The piercing vocals sound clearer, with genuine intent and layers of nuance coming through.
“The K1 achieves the unusual feat of making our music sound worse than it does coming straight out of a laptop”
Masking detail
We try a range of different music, but discover that every song we play times better without the Fiio DAC than through it. Played directly through the laptop’s headphone jack, the dynamic shifts in En Vogue’s soaring ballad Don’t Let Go plunge and rise with excitement – it’s a fun and expressive track. But the K1 saps away that fluid, rhythmic character. Its thicker sound masks the finer detail, and you lose much of the song’s vitality.
Switching to more capable (and more expensive, to be fair) DACS, such as the Audioquest or Cyrus rivals, shows exactly what a USB Dac/headphone amp is meant to do, but at this stage, it has become a pointless comparison. When a DAC doesn't improve every aspect of the sound of the source it's meant to be improving it has already failed at its job, no matter how low the price.
The Fiio K1 DAC may look enticing if you’re hunting for a bargain deal – especially when so many of its sister products are so effective. Sadly, in this instance, we’d stay well away.