Small tail is a product form spawned by major audio manufacturers in order to meet the portability needs of portable music lovers. In order to strike a balance between portability and sound quality, usually this small tail will be designed to be the size of a traditional USB stick, and a typical example is the small tail KA3 of the FeiO Feisheng brand. Recently, they launched the series of entry-level products KA1, which reduces the size to about 35% of the KA3 while taking into account the function and sound quality, holding it in the hand and feeling similar to a 3.5mm to 6.35mm plug. (Note: The volume is reduced to 35% according to the official release of the length, width and height data.) ）
Due to the significant reduction in size and more entry-level positioning, the KA1 is not equipped with a dual interface of 3.5mm + 4.4mm, only a 3.5mm interface. The chip part adopts the ESS home ES9281AC Pro, which integrates USB interface processing, decoding, amplification and other functions, and supports 32bit/384kHz lossless music decoding and DSD256 specifications.
Ka1 is a non-interchangeable design this time, but available in usb-C and Apple Lightning versions, and comes with a USB-A converter. The length of the wire is about 70mm, the texture is very soft, it can be bent at any angle, and it is no burden to hang on the mobile phone.
In terms of styling, it is consistent with KA3, which is similar to the design of metal heat sinks, but adds the color scheme of dark night green that is very popular in 2022 on the basis of the original black. A ring indicator that shows the real-time status of the little tail has also been retained, showing the sample rate of the music being played. Like other Fios devices, blue is 48kHz and below, yellow is above 48kHz, and green is DSD. In addition, a new purple color has been added this time to indicate that MQA rendering is in progress. (MQA is an audio folding technology that can further reduce file size while maintaining high sound quality.) ）
With the release of THE KA1, FeiO also updated the DAC driver that has not been updated for a long time to version 5.3, if you want to use a separate ASIO channel to decode the HiRes or DSD audio source on the PC side, you need to update the driver first. Only after updating the driver and adopting the ASIO channel can the full strength of KA1 be brought into play.
From the product positioning of the KA1 and the design that only retains the 3.5mm interface, it can be guessed that its sound style will be more popular. KA1 can bring more "atmosphere" music to most of the 3.5mm interface headphones, and in the case of a relatively balanced tri-frequency, the energy of the low- and medium-frequency parts will be more abundant, which is very suitable for use on the street. Compared with the 3.5mm interface that comes with most laptops and old-fashioned mobile phones, the biggest improvement brought by KA1 is the clean background, basically inaudible to hear the current sound, bottom mania and other noises that greatly affect the listening experience.
Because the power consumption of its own design is relatively low, the thrust is smaller than that of KA3, and it will not appear that KA3 occasionally pushes highly sensitive headphones out. Overall, KA1 connects to the phone to give a clean, comfortable, atmospheric listening, especially for popular music. In some light music and orchestral music, you can hear the sound of various instruments, but there is still a certain gap between the analytical power and high-end equipment, but compared with the mobile phone direct push or improve significantly. When connecting a mobile phone and using online audio software to play lossless music, the low-frequency dive is deeper, but the energetic low- and medium-frequency parts will be more gripping and bring a more intense sense of atmosphere. The high-frequency part is more detailed, and the extension and overtone parts are slightly inferior.
When connecting the PC, installing the latest version of the driver, and starting the ASIO channel to play DSD files, the soundstage, analysis and high-frequency performance of KA1 have been improved by an ear, and the sound field is obviously larger, especially the details of the high-frequency part will be richer, and some triangles with a small sense of volume and high-frequency electric sound can be captured, and even more complex symphonies can fully display the sense of hierarchy. However, it is still impossible to compete with professional players in terms of timbre and dynamics, after all, the price and volume are placed there.
In terms of headphone collocation, the Jade Sound JH3 and JD3 with standard 3.5mm plugs are very good choices. JH3's sound style and KA1 are more compatible, the same is a popular design, large size dynamic circle coupled with the gain of the high-frequency part of the double-moving iron, can bring a strong sense of atmosphere and clean and clear listening, a relatively closed design can isolate most of the ambient noise, bringing a relatively "quiet" listening environment. The SEMI-OPEN DESIGN OF JD3 can bring a more open sound field in a quieter environment and reduce the pressure of music on the ear, which is suitable for use at home or in the office. As for the higher headphones, I believe that the partners who bought these headphones are also more willing to use them with more advanced front-ends such as KA3 or Q3.
Write at the end
As a small tail that locates the entry, the most eye-catching place of KA1 is that it retains the independent decoding ear amplifier to achieve ultra-small size and better portability. Compared with the mobile phone direct push, the sound quality is really improved, which is a very good choice for friends who want to experience a beginner HiFi.