Fiio A3 Portable Headphone Amplifier (Black)

I tried reading through other reviews before leaving mine to see if I could add a perspective that others haven't already covered. It appears all the positive reviews cover everything I could think of, so in addition to leaving my positive remarks I will address one negative review that almost prevented me from buying this item. First and foremost I am not an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination, however I do really enjoy high-fidelity sound reproduction. I recently purchased Sennheiser's Momentum 2.0 headphones to use mostly when I traveled. I spend about 80hrs a month in the air, and even more time in hotels and was looking to upgrade my travel rig. Despite all reviews saying I didn't need an amp to use the momentum's with my mobile phones (6s Plus and S7 edge) my gut told me otherwise, so I decided to purchase the Fiio A3. In an attempt to be unbiased towards my amp purchase I decided to use my headphones without the amp for a week, my reasoning was if I then used the amp after a week and didn't think it was necessary I would return it. To put things quite simply, in the week I used my momentum headphones plugged directly into my phones I wasn't really moved at all. It was a feeling of meh, it was cool but nothing to write home about. Once I paired up the momentum headphones with the FiiO A3 amp, it instantly put a big smile on my face (WOW). I could not believe such a small, and affordable amp could offer such a night and day performance. For my particular set up this amp is excellent. I have a pretty expensive home entertainment system but unfortunately I cannot play music at enjoyable levels past 7pm as it is extremely rude to my neighbors. My travel rig has now also become my after 7pm in-home music listening rig all thanks to this nifty little high quality amp. There was a review from Leon on April 15, 2016. In his review two things stood out and almost made me doubt my purchase: "It's just that the product itself does not enhance my experience using headphones, certainly not with any headphone that has 50 ohms or lower." "The only thing it's good for is being able to adjust your volume towards any volume that you want, which is nice. But is that worth $55-60 to you?" I am happy I didn't let this review dissuade me from my purchase because that is not my experience with this amp at all. Leon claims that this amp will not enhance ones experience with any headphones under 50 ohms or lower, however my momentum headphones are 18-ohm and I can assure you this amp surely enhanced my experience and does more than adjust the volume that I want.

This is for those who have the V-moda Crossfade 2 Wireless and needed a review on how this FiiO A3 pairs up with this headphone. I'm going to start off to be plain and simple on how the headphones are without this Amp on a iPhone SE. I have never heard other V-moda headphones before, so these are my first Vmodas I have and listen to. Going by other reviews these are between the M-100 and the first Crossfades. On my IPHONE SE in wired mode The bass on the Crossfades 2 is reduced mostly in the sub/ bass area I feel but the bass is tight and doesnt bleed into the mids or highs. I feel the Highs are crisp and on point and imo more enhanced than the bass and mids in wired mode, basically sound neutral into the Hifi audiophile territory in wired. I really felt the iPhone SE wasn't giving my Crossfades 2 the juice it needed to really sound to its best potential. To be honest it actually sounded distorted at times and felt weak. The volume was low and i had it on max all around. The bass was so weak, I almost believed it was the headphones Until I decided to get this baby the Steroids! lol. The Crossfade 2 needed a amp cause the iPhone SE wasn't giving the power the headphones needed. I decided to go with the Fiio A3 after going threw intense research of reviews on the FiiO A3 around the web and seeing how amazing this amp is for the price and quality of it. Once i paired the V-moda's Crossfade 2 with the FiiO A3 amp in wired mode, the difference is NIGHT AND DAY. This amp gives the Crossfade 2 everything they needed that my iPhone SE couldn't which was Power but gave the headphones even more, this amp gave it SUPER POWERS. THE BASS and Sub-bass thumps when the Bass is turned on, they felt and sounded banging too like being in a nightclub, punchy, tight, more booming but controlled especially with trance music such as Sean Tyas, Simon Patterson, Armin, John O'Callaghan and many more. The sound was warm and very detailed about the same as the Crossfades 2 without the amp, they are HiFi too. The volume was also able to increase about 3x the max then what was just given with the iPhone SE with the Crossfades 2. I usually don't review products but i went crazy looking for anyone who had the new V-moda's Crossfades 2 Wireless paired wit this A3 on a iPhone SE in which by the way, Good Luck trying! cause this is probably the only review on this combo. I definitely HIGHLY recommend this combo together if you have the iPhone SE cause the sound source on that iphone is garbage compared to the FiiO A3.

I'm using this headphone amp to drive an Audio-Technica ATH-A990Z. Good sound quality, actual bass boost that just boosts the bass without messing with the volume of the rest of the range, easy to use, and battery life that's good enough for me. I don't actually use this amp on the go; it sits on my desk next to the Steelseries GameDAC that I use for input to the amp. 2 issues: the first is that the included audio in cable is really short. I had to buy a separate 3.5 mm audio cable to properly place it on my desk next to the Game DAC because otherwise I would have to place the DAC and the amp at odd angles for the included audio cable to connect the two. The second issue is that this amp basically cannot be used while charging. When charging, the power system isn't properly isolated from the audio circuitry so I can hear buzzing while the amp is turned on which increases in volume if I turn up the volume. If I disconnect the charging cable, the buzzing goes away. These 2 problems are why I deducted 1 star: because I had to buy additional equipment to compensate for them or they cause an undue inconvenience for me in my everyday usage of the device. Nevertheless, I still recommend this amp as it's sound quality is great (as long as you're not charging it while listening to it) while being simple and inexpensive.

Just got this thing ... WOW. I'm going from a FiiO E5 (which I've loved, but no comparison) to this E11K. I'm using it with a Samsung GS3 and Beyerdynamic DT 770 32ohm cans. I listen to .wav files (some Mp3 and streaming, but only if I have to). I don't use bass boost (that's for kids); have the gain (surprisingly) set on high. This thing sounds so sweet. Don't know what other people are griping about, but I am more than impressed with this little unit. The only thing I can say negatively is that I will have to get used to strapping the unit to my phone, and that is only something that will take a few days of getting used to. For the price? No-brainer ... Plenty of bang for a few bucks. Will update in a couple of weeks. **Update 9.27.14** Have spent a couple of weeks with the E11K now. I still love it. Biggest gripe? The volume dial. It's just too easy to run up the volume while the rig is in my pocket. Phone and amp combined weighs 10 oz. even (yes, I'm a geek ... I weighed it). I wear cargo shorts, and when I sit down, volume sometimes gets jacked up (never down! lol). It doesn't happen fast enough to blow my drums, but I do have to readjust the volume on the amp. I can adjust the volume simply by finding the knob from the outside of my shorts. I don't even have to reach into my pocket. I've listened with Sony MDR-7506 (old version), Senheiser HD-558, and the cans I listed above. All sound so nice. The Sony is way too bright when I pushed the volume, though. When you can listen to music for hours at a time you should know you've got a rig that works very well. Fatigue isn't an issue at all. Strapping the amp to my phone (the amp comes with two straps; I only need one) is no big deal; easy enough. The only downside to the setup is I have to slide the strap up and down the phone in order to interact with the screen. If I really need the screen I take the whole thing apart. Still not a deal-breaker in any way for me. I bought the device knowing how the setup worked. As an aside: If I try to charge the unit with a usb plugged into my PC, I get feedback. If I charge it using a usb cord into a cellphone charger that is plugged into a power strip while running audio through the amp from my PC. NO FEEDBACK. So just don't charge it from your PC if you want to listen to it while charging? I have no issue. I put four of the rubber feet on the side that pairs with the phone. The remaining two feet I put in the middle of the amp on the out-facing side. It's a rock solid pairing, and when I lay the rig down, the two dots on the outside keep it from touching (scratching) the surface. The rubber dots will, at some point, wear out. I think I'll go to felt pads at some point. Battery life is great. I haven't drained it dead yet, and I've had plenty of extended listening sessions with it. Battery is a champ. I've quickly adapted to using this little wonder. It's not perfect but, for the price, I can't complain at all. It makes a good recording come alive, and that's what I wanted.

TLDR: The FiiO Kilimanjao 2, now called the A3 amp, is a product I have had for a few months now. It is a beautiful, small, but powerful amp to add to your mobile rig. It sounds great and has a nice but controlled bass boost. I use it often and it continues to serve me well. Highly recommend! Build/Packaging: The packaging that came with this product contained a small 3.5mm male to male cable, to connect your phone, computer, etc. It also came with some quality rubber bands to connect it to a device, and small rubber bumpers to keep it from sliding around on your desk and/or phone. The amp itself is a stunning brushed aluminum and is nice to hold in the hand The volume wheel on the top is smooth and turns off with a tactile "click." There is also a L/H gain setting and a base boost. On the bottom we find an AUX in and a headphone out. Sound: To my ears, the amp adds a bit of warmth to the sound signature, but I might be crazy. All in all it is pretty transparent. There is a small bit of hiss, especially when charging, but it is not noticeable when playing music. It can drive many headphones past the suggested 150 ohms. I'd say it would struggle with 600 ohm headphones but 250 ohms would be fine. The bass boost is just enough for my taste, the only gripe for me is it actually boosts some of the lower mids as well. So it basically changes the whole sound to a warmer sound rather then just a bass boost. The gain is quite dramatic, and I don't even bother using low gain as it is basically all the way turned up regardless of what headphones I use. On high gain I only need to turn it up to around 3 to drive low impedance headphones, on low 7 or even 8. Gripes: I did not like the rubber bands and the rubber bumpers, as they made my iPod hard to use. A better option is to use 3M dual lock to connect them into a nice, compact unit. This way it stays together without sliding around and pushing the bumpers off the device leaving residue. Another thing to be careful of is to NOT put this in your pocket upside down. Youll be strolling around listening to your sensitive IEMs and suddenly LOUD because you jostled it in your pocket. By the time you got it out you've ruptured your eardrum. The way I got around this is using a nice adhesive belt clip you can find here on amazon and attaching it to the device. This way you can have it in a convenient place to change the volume at all times while keeping it from being turned up accidentally.

I'm an electrical engineer and this Amplifier exceeded my expectations! This thing is a monster! At full gain, it delivers awesome, minimally distorted, pain-threshold volume with my Monster DNA 2.0 Pro Headphones and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ phone. I'd love to get a decibel measurement on this, as I recently saw AC/DC in February 2nd row floor and this is as loud if not louder! The high gain is remarkable throughout a very broad dynamic range. I listen to hard rock/metal and the mid, treble, and bass responses with my Monster headphones are great... The mids are superior and I get a good bass "thump" with the drums and guitar, even with rock, and without saturation. I haven't tried out the bass response to rap, but I have no reason to believe it would be unsatisfactory, but that's got more to do with the speakers/headphones. I'm not sure how well the sound or lack of saturation would be on cheaper headphones, but if you're looking for something that will greatly boost your volume, this is definitely it! It has a Hi/Low gain switch as well as a Hi/Low bass switch and an analog volume dial. The switches seem unnecessary to me as, being an external amplifier, the purpose is to boost gain and bass, so the switch settings could have been "hard wired" and the switches removed. This may have reduced the cost some. It comes with a couple of cables, but they are pretty short (one is unacceptably short), so I would spend a few bucks on longer cables.

This amp works great for everything they describe. It decodes the bass boost really well and makes music sound fuller. The gain switch allows you to really pump up the volume and crush your ears if you so desire. The construction is really solid and it has a nice heft to it. The design is quite pleasing as well. The battery life is pretty long. I haven't measured it, but it is not something that concerns me. I listed to it for a couple days on my bus ride, then I charge it up. This amp only really has one issue. I have tried a lot of amps trying to find a perfect one. This one comes close. I would assume a lot of people using this amp are playing music from a phone. This amp does not pass the Mic or any volume controls from an iPhone. That seems like just an updated connector and an extra copper wire to connect the two ports. I don't really know how to make that stuff work, so that's just my assumption. Normally I wouldn't subtract a star, but I feel in this case, this is a major point. It is a portable amplifier after all.

Ok had to write a review for this one. I have a HyperX Cloud 1 headset that I recently got as a headset upgrade. I didn't really think about it being 60 ohm and I planned use it on my MSI z77-G45MA Motherboard with the on-board audio. To my disappointment, the audio quality was better but the volume only seemed to get about as loud as a conversation. I tried to go through settings and boost the audio as much as possible, but pretty much nothing seemed to help. On a whim, I decided to try a headphone amplifier knowing nothing about what is good in this space and got this one. My audio now gets loud enough that it about hurts. This means that playing games, such as doom, is a lot more startling and enjoyable experience. I've only had this thing for a few days so I cant speak to the long term build quality but can comment on what I see. The device is a nice metal build that feels solid in your hand. It is a little smaller rectangle wise as a deck of cards, but it's about as thick. On one side, there is a line in jack, an output jack, a micro USB charging port and a power on light. On the other end, there is a high/low gain switch, a volume knob that also turns it on, and a bass on/off switch. I find that with my headset, a high gain with bass off provides what I think is the most flat EQ. I think that that the bass boost is supposed to be for a headset with smaller driver that don't deliver adequate bass naturally. I've not used this for portable music playing so I can't speak to that, but if you're looking for an affordable amp that will get you the volume you desire in an over-the-ear headset I would suggest this one.