Introduction

FiiO's had a busy, productive year. The company has had more product launch events in 2022 than many companies have products in total in their lineup, and there remains one more launch event to come a few days after I write this review! I've covered five FiiO products this year already, three of which happen to be DAC/amp combo units including the K5 Pro ESS, the K9 Pro ESS, and the more portable Q7. The Q7, incidentally, was announced a couple of months ago in one of FiiO's Autumn launch events and there happened to be another item launched alongside which is the subject of today's review. Thanks to FiiO for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!


The K5 Pro ESS launched at $199.99 and I decided to give it a quick look article, since I was also working on the K9 Pro ESS review at the same time. I thought the K5 Pro ESS was good value for money overall which only got better over the summer when FiiO gave it a price cut to $180. Little did I know that this was to help pave the path for the new FiiO K7, that addresses the lack of balanced headphone outputs and effectively makes for a more powerful desktop DAC/amp without taking up much more room. Indeed, the photo above could be easily interchanged with that used on the K5 Pro ESS article and I dare say most people would think they are of the same product until they pay closer attention. The new K7 also gets an AKM DAC and a THX-AAA 788+ amplifier section, to where there's quite a few things changed. I was originally planning to do a quick look article for the K7 too until I spent some time with it and realized this is a legitimate contender for best desktop audio source for the asking price and thus we have a full review! As usual, we begin with a look at the product specifications below, so be sure to click the image twice to fully open it and go through all the details.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

The FiiO K7 comes in a thick cardboard box with a black base and glossy iridescent printing that changes color depending on the angle of viewing and incident light. On the front is the company logo and product name along with an outline of the product and its salient marketing features. Some basic specifications are on the back accompanied by contact information for the company and an interesting note about the product likely going to be upgraded—this is a generic note found on basically all such FiiO products so don't worry about it. A double flap on the side can be unfurled to access the contents inside which come in the form of two separate compartments, including a whole new cardboard box for the various accessories.


FiiO also includes a handy quick start guide, (online copy here), which is worth going over to better understand the various inputs and outputs as well as setting up the K7 for use. A warranty card completes the paperwork and then we get to the more relevant accessories in the form of a 3.5 mm to 6.35 mm (1/4") adapter, a 3' long USB Type-A to type-B cable, and a two-piece AC mains power adapter cable—I have the UK version here—and power supply that accepts 100–240 V and up to 1.2 A while providing up to 24 W on the 12 VDC rail. This is how you know for sure the FiiO K7 is a desktop source and the smaller size of the unit results in an external power supply. The K7 itself comes safely packed between two thick foam pieces to minimize any mishaps on its way to you.