SUBJECTIVE SOUND QUALITY: There was moderate hiss and noise with my Ultimate Ears IEMs and it was noticeably worse than the Turtle Beach Micro II and about the same as the Syba CM119. The only sample rates and bit depths available are 16/44 and 16/48 as shown to the right in Windows 7 (click for larger). Windows reported it, interestingly, as a “C-Media USB Headphone Set”. WINDOWS INSTALLATION: The D5 installed smoothly in both XP and Windows 7 without needing any drivers. Still the volume buttons could be useful, especially if you use a long USB cable and the D5 is located away from the PC or allowing volume adjustment without turning the screen on or logging onto a “locked” PC. Using the controls on the D5 is no different than using your PC’s volume control which causes a reduction of bit resolution at anything but full volume. So it does not help preserve full 16 bit resolution at lower volume settings. Pressing the up and down buttons on the D5 changes the volume settings for the D5 in Windows (I didn’t test OS X or Linux). Instead it’s really just a remote control for your PC’s volume control. When you consider the D5 has the same $25 street price as the Turtle Beach Micro II, FiiO gives you a lot more features.įiiO D5 VOLUME CONTROL: The volume control isn’t a “local” volume control in the analog domain after the DAC (as in say the NuForce uDAC-2). Plus you get two microphone jacks instead of one, a headphone out, a separate line out, and a coaxial digital output. There’s an LED that shows it’s been acknowledged by the operating system and another for the Mic Mute. FiiO also includes volume up/down buttons and mute buttons for the output and microphone. The build quality is impressive using a full metal enclosure instead of plastic. And, true to their tradition, FiiO manages to include several extra features not found elsewhere at this low price. It doesn’t plug directly into the USP port but instead has a short detachable USB cable using a mini USB plug allowing use of other cables. So how does FiiO’s least expensive USB DAC measure up against it’s peers?įiiO D5 USB DECODER: The D5 is a bit different than the other two C-Media DACs. Like both of those DACs, it uses yet a different version of an all-in-one C-Media chip (the CM108). INTRO: This is another article in a series of inexpensive USB DAC reviews including the Turtle Beach Micro II and Syba C-Media CM119.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |