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

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.

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...

What am unbelievably FANTASTIC sounding DAC dongle!! I have tried probably 10 plus DAC's from Amazon here, all CLAIMING to sound "phenomenal"...but this is the ONLY one I have tried, of the MANY, that ACTUALLY does sound PHENOMENAL!!! If you try this inexpressive DAC you will NOT be disappointed!!!!!

Obtienes buen sonido con este adaptador pero lo malo ws que el cable del mismo ws pequeño y también frágil así que si lo compras tendrás que cuidarlo ya que lo el celular se te cae o lo jalas con fuerza el dispositivo puede dejar de funcionar

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.

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.

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