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The Cassette-Inspired FiiO KA15 DAC Is Small Enough To Fit on Your Keys

11.06.24 | By
The Cassette-Inspired FiiO KA15 DAC Is Small Enough To Fit on Your Keys

Who says new technology has to mean leaving old classic designs behind? FiiO is embracing modern tech and retro design with the new KA15 USB DAC (which means digital to analogue converter), which will turn any mobile device into a high-end audio system, all within a design that gives a subtle nod to the audio tech of the past – the humble cassette tape.

A gaming console, keyboard, and audio adapter are connected on a black surface.

The cassette tape design may look retro and fun, but the device isn’t anything like the size of an actual cassette tape. In fact, FiiO says that it’s small enough to be a keyring, essentially meaning that you can take a high-quality audio converter anywhere you go. Its dimensions sit in at 65mm x 24mm x 13mm.

A laptop is connected to a digital audio converter with "Hi-Res Audio" label, and headphones are nearby on a wooden surface.

Two compact audio devices resembling cassette tapes rest on a wooden surface, next to stacked CDs.

Indeed, it is high quality. The FiiO KA15 offers dual ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chips along with a THX AAA-78 amplifier to deliver clear and rich audio with immersive dynamics. That amplifier is known for its near-zero distortion while still offering high output power, ensuring you’ll get clean audio that preserves dynamics without impacting overall audio response, even at lower and higher volumes. It’s capable of outputting audio at up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM, and it supports native DSD512 along with MQA decoding.

A wooden table with a retro cassette, headphones, books, and a vinyl record player.

Two vintage-style cassette tapes, one black and one light blue, are displayed vertically on a wooden surface with blurred electronic equipment in the background.

Despite its small size, the device has relatively versatile connectivity options. It has a USB-C input, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 4.4mm balanced output. That should allow it to work with a wide variety of different headphones. On top of that, it has three different gain settings: Low, Medium, and High. Along with a low power mode, this lets the user adjust the output based on the impedance of the headphones that they’re using. This can help preserve battery life when the DAC is being used with a mobile device. The KA15 can deliver power of up to 450mW per channel at 32Ω.

Vintage cassette players and tapes on a wooden surface next to books and a beige binder.

The FiiO KA15 is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS. It comes in a variety of colors, each of which has that cassette tape design. It’s available from the FiiO website for $109.

Christian de Looper is a consumer tech reporter based in sunny Santa Cruz, California. Christian has reported on tech for over 10 years, with bylines in many of the largest tech publications, including Digital Trends, Forbes, CNN Underscored, Tom’s Guide, and PCMag. Christian has an obsession with how tech companies balance great design with great functionality, and lives at home with his wife, daughter, and cat.