Today i went down to the Autumn HKTDC Electronic convention show, i was informed by Fiio that they would also be attending and showing off their new E5 portable headphone amp, so i took some time to visit their booth and check out their new successor to their popular E3 headphone amp.

(click to see larger image)

The above two images are taken from Fiios brochure after the convention, i was unable to snap a picture of the E5 that i was able to play with as photography is prohibited in such exhibition shows

Design:

Well, like probably many of you seeing the images, saw a stark similarity to the iPod Nano Shuffle, even the Fiio rep laughed at the similarities. Anyways, the overall design is quite nice, unlike the E3 which is has a plastic body, the E5 has a full metal body, but the top and bottom parts are plastic. The metal does have a bit of rough texture, but felt overall quite nice. There is also a belt clip on the back, making the device more convenient to carry around than the E3.

Some bad parts about the new design are the small buttons, the on/off button it tiny, i mean, there are MP4 players that have a larger reset button than this on/off button. I can’t say it was hard to push down, but i can’t say that the on/off buttons design is exactly convenient. The same goes for the volume button, its small and thin, but again i was able to use it, but some may find it inconvenient.

However i do want to note that i was given a working prototype to play around with, the engineer i spoke to said that some small changes may still happen to the overall design before mass production starts (which should be by the end of October).

Sound:

The overall quality of the amp is very good, just as you would expect from the successor of the E3, the main difference that i felt between the E3 and E5 audio quality is that the E5 retains more clarity in the audio. I was given the E5 to test with a Meizu M6 SP player, the difference in quality with and without the amp was very noticeable, audio quality was louder but without sacrificing the audio quality whatsoever.

The E5 now also has a ’sound effect switch’, which can remove any artificial bass boost that your player may be adding, this way you do not get too much bass distortion with the amp. With it on and with it off, i could only tell a slight difference, but i will chalk this up to the M6 not being set on a hi bass eq.

I think those who are currently using the E3 will notice an improvement in overall sound, but as th E3 is already so good, you probably won’t see any significant difference. The E5 basically has improved on the SNR and lower distortion.

Other new features:

The E5 comes with a built in 200mAh rechargeable battery, a significant improvement over the E3 which required a AAA battery always. The engineer i spoke to told me that it would take 1/2 hour for the battery to get a full charge, after which the battery would last for about 18 hours of use and is recharged via USB. The amp also comes with its own independent volume control.

Overall the Fiio E5 amp looks like a solid portable amp that provides more functionality while improving on the E3s already good audio capabilities. The pricing, well most likely be just below $20 and may be out in the China market by the end of this month.

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