FiiO D5 - USB/Coax Sound Card

[dfkt]

FiiO sure are on a roll lately. This thing looks really good, since it has volume and mute buttons - a huge advantage over competitors like the Turtle Beach or Terratec USB sound sticks. It also has separate line-out and headphone-out jacks.

http://bit.ly/oiQTUz

[Marvin the Martian]

If I didn't already have a Turtle Beach, I would jump on this....I love that it has volume control and mute.

[WalkGood]

dfkt, since it has a line back in (mic) you should be able to do a nice RMAA external loopback test easily

Marvin, I can live without the mute (although nice to have) but the volume control is invaluable. With what I use, the POTs great to have and the reason I don't care about mute is because I always use pause so I don't miss out on what I'm watching or listening to.

[gsl]

So this is probably a stupidly obvious question (if I have to ask maybe it means I don't need either), but what would the difference be between this and the E7? Aside from cost, of course. Is it just different levels of quality, or would the two actually perform different functions as well?

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by gsl

So this is probably a stupidly obvious question (if I have to ask maybe it means I don't need either), but what would the difference be between this and the E7? Aside from cost, of course. Is it just different levels of quality, or would the two actually perform different functions as well?

Don't think the cost has been stated yet and yes they do perform some different functions. The Fiio E7 is a USB DAC and portable headphone amp. While the D5 is a dual direction audio input and output, so no amp AFAIK, smaller forum factor and other functions (read the other functions in the ad dfkt posted above), for example dual mic imputs ...

[gsl]

Yeah, I don't think the cost has been mentioned yet at all; I had assumed it might be somewhere in the ~$30 range that the D3 seems to be selling for.

So if I'm looking for a USB DAC that pulls light amp duty as well, the E7 is still the best one to go for, then? And if I just wanted--basically--a USB soundcard for work to bypass my laptop's built-in sound, this D5 might be more worth looking at?

[Adub]

If the price is right i might aim for this as my netbook audio interface

[Confispect]

^1+

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Adub

If the price is right i might aim for this as my netbook audio interface

There are other inexpensive USB DACs/sound cards on the market, I'd wait for someone to do an external loopback test regardless of price to see how it preforms.

[RADo]

I want One

[selectortone]

Got mine today, ordered it from Amazon.co.uk with supersaver delivery and received it in two days.

It's really small - not much bigger than the E5 headphone amp. Nicely packaged in a tin box with instructions and USB cable.

Not much more to say - I bought it as an interface between a laptop running Mediamonkey and my Yamaha home theatre amp, using its coaxial output so I can use the DAC in the amp. I hooked it up and it installed automatically and was working in literally two minutes. The blue LED indicating USB activity is a nice feature.

I'm really impressed with FiiO; I have an E5, an E7 and now the D5 and they have all worked flawlessly and with the minimum of hassle.

edit: Paid UK£29.99 for it.

[nunomig75]

Hi,

I really want one of these, i'm waiting for the E10 to compare prices, but i'm really going to buy one of these, to bypass thr crappy sound card of my laptop.

what i expect is good sound quality without ripp my wallet. the D5 cost about 30 pounds, the E10 should cost about 70-80.
which one will deliver the best sound?

My set up:

Asus laptop with Vista, running iTunes and tons of mp3
Logitech X-230
Goldring DR50

[koolkat]

The E10 has an amplifier section as well as a DAC section, while the D5 functions as an external sound card without the amp section (cmiiw).

[dfkt]

FiiO D5 RMAA tests: http://rmaa.elektrokrishna.com/index...&search_mode=f

The D5 is unfortunately not a great sound card for headphones. The wonky frequency response on the analog outputs and the very high IMD might not be audible, but the D5 hisses extremely much with any low-to-medium impedance phone. It is completely unusable with any multi-armature IEM, the hiss is almost as loud as the music.

Something like the 70 Ohm Koss KSC75 don't hiss with the D5, but the D5 is way too powerful even for them - the volume button at 0 is mute, and at 1 or 2 it is already too loud for regular listening. Using a 250 Ohm impedance adapter makes the D5 volume control usable with the KSC75... of course one could also change the volume in the audio player instead of on the sound card, but then you throw away the bits and lose a lot of dynamic range.

All in all, the D5 might be useful if you want to drive something between 300 Ohm Sennheiser HD6x0 and 600 Ohm Beyerdynamic DTxx0. Not so universal.

The line-out is volume-controlled, not fixed - and it actually works much better for IEMs than the headphone-out. The S/PDIF-out is quite good, as expected from a digital signal.

I'll post the FiiO E10 RMAA results in another thread. The E10 is basically excellent, and if one's in need for a quality USB sound card-slash-headphone amp, save your bucks and get the E10 over the D5.

[WalkGood]

Shame to hear about the D5 poor performance cause at $24.95 it would have been a good contender in that price range.

Edit: I gotta say even if it did perform well, I'm not a fan of the type of buttons they use for volume in a device like this I prefer a potentiometer.

[Marvin the Martian]

Well, I guess we can forgive them for an occasional misstep. I couldn't be happier with the E6.

[dfkt]

[Limp]

http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/11/fiio-d5-dac.html

His analysis seems to correlate well with yours, dfkt, and then some. Looks like a real train wreck.