FiiO’s line of DACs continues to grow in volume
We’ve seen FiiO before, including their K7 in January, and they’re back with a new DAC around $500 called the K9. The FiiO K9 is not simply a headphone amplifier, although it can drive both ear monitors and headphones with an impedance of up to 32 ohms. It has similar inputs to the K9 Pro ESS. including XLR and USB, RCA, 4.4mm balanced, optical, coaxial and even Bluetooth. Outputs are nearly as impressive and include XLR, balanced 4.4mm, and a single-ended 1/4″, which should cover just about any scenario you can imagine.
Inside the FiiO K9 you’ll find SS Saber ES9068AS 2-channel 32-bit DACs, not quite as high-end as the ESS K9 Pro but certainly capable of handling most anything you could throw at it. In addition, two Texas Instruments OPA1612 low-pass filters and two THX AAA 788+ linear amplifiers assist the DACs in providing control over the audio outputs. TechPowerUp has many good things to say about the FiiO K9 in its review including Roon integration, although they would like to see the app include proper parametric EQ.
