I use this headphone amplifier to boost the signal from an LG Dare cell phone's music player to my car's aux jack. This phone simply doesn't have the juice in the headphone jack to make listening to it in the car possible. (I like it loud sometimes.)
Pros....Good price for a very compact design that works pretty well. Charges with included mini USB cable, power button, bass boost control, volume control, includes lots of cables so it comes capable to fill a variety of needs. The casing is metal, similar to an ipod. so it's very sturdy. Also has a spring type clip for securing it to yourself or something in the car. It has a two color power indicator, red and blue, to indicate when it's on, when it charging, and when it's done charging. Charges quickly, about 1 hour.
Cons....1. While it does boost the signal, it still does not reach the out-of-box signal strength of my ipod nano. The bass boost control is more like a tone control, no real "boost" of low end but it still sounds good. They could improve the slider itself as it's a little funny about getting brushed up against something and will move too easily.
2. Some posts on this product described a "buzzing" noise through the speakers. I did hear the sound only when the phone was plugged into the car for a charge. Sound quality is excellent otherwise. Pay no attention to the posts where someone is naysaying the sound quality. If you have the ear and the equipment to bring out any flaws in this product, then I'm sure you can afford to buy the really good product for much more $. Come on guys, it's $20. It's not studio quality.
3. The 20 hour battery life that's advertised is wishful thinking, especially if you leave it in the car between uses. It needs to be charged frequently. But on a full charge it will perform on a roadtrip.
4. No auto shutoff. If you don't remember to cut it off when you're done it will be dead when you come back. It would be nice if it shut off automatically when you unplug the source.
5. When the unit is off (or battery's dead), the signal will not bypass. In other words, if it's plugged into your device, the amp needs to be powered on. That's kind of a drawback in my opinion. But, if it had a bypass feature it would probably cost more so no big deal.
I haven't tried to use headphones with this product, but I'm sure this device will do beautifully for that based on how it performs for me. All in all, $20 well spent and no regrets. $20 folks! It's a good deal for a cool little device. FiiO E5 Headphone Amplifier with Micca Y Cable
This headphone amplifier was a very pleasant surprise at an incredible price. It's a very low distortion headphone amp with it's own rechargeable battery in a compact case. The 2 different EQ settings were fine and the sound produced was exceptionally clean. It was able to drive any 2 pairs of headphones I tried with it to any volume level I wanted. HIGHLY recommended.
Headphone amplifier is OK, its only 25$, compared to the iBasso (around 120$) and other hi end brand ranged from 100$ to 500$.
this little thing wouldnt handle hi end cans but makes a great difference with portables headphones, which is i believe what is designed for.
And the bass boost makes a nice addition, however is not always welcome, my Equation RP15 are better without it.
Battery is OK, i charge it about once per week. way better than i spected, because is really tiny.
My complain here is not for this little amp but because the Y clable included in my package is not the one displayed, i went with this and not the 20$ because i wanted the Y cable, and in the photo you can see a very nice one, i recieved a regular black Y cable, and t doesnt say "Micca" anywhere. its not cool to advertise one thing and sell another. for this i cut the rate to 3 stars, would have been 4 and a half at least.
Edit: I've been told this wasnt Micca's fault, my order said:
"Sold by: Pro Ebiz LLC"
-and-
Seller Name
"Bear Motion Tech Mart"
Read the first comment to this review by Micca for an explanation, and make sure your order says "Sold by Micca Distributor and Fulfilled by Amazon"
Edit 2: since it wasnt Fiio's or Micca's fault raised the rate to 4 stars, Im having fun with this and my ATH M50's so far, and they do wonderful things to my Sony XB700.
I'm even considering getting the FiiO E7 or waiting for the E11, but from a REAL seller.
Edit 3:
I left a "poor" feedback in the seller profile, it got removed.
I wrote and complain about it, but they replied 3 days after saying that it was OK now, but it wasnt, the feedback was in my page but nowhere to be found in the seller profile.
I wrote again and recieved a mail 1 week later telling me to write a full mail so they start an investigation and that was it because the results of such investigations were privates.
this is not about a 1$ cable, is about sellers advertising something and selling something else.
no wonder the seller "Pro Ebiz LLC / Bear Motion Tech Mart via Amazon Fulfillment" has 100% positive feedback from over 32000 customers.
Edit: 4: yup, the 1/5 feedback is there now, finally.
I recently bought an Epic 4G Android phone. Great phone, great features, save for one thing -- the volume is too low to enjoy any of the many multimedia features. Watching a movie or video has been frustrating. I even tried putting my phone into a metal bowl to watch a movie (it actually helped), and was ready to "root" my Android to fix the audio properties, when a lucky Google search brought me to this page. After researching the various headphone amplifiers out there, I decided on the FiiO E5. It came today.
After charging up the device with the included USB cable, I connected the E5 to my headphone and to my Android phone, and turned on Pandora. At first I didn't hear anything, so I held down the volume on the E5... louder... louder... LOUDER! Wow! I can hear! Now it sounds like an MP3 player and not this cosmic aural joke that my phone has been until today.
Still have to see how long the charge lasts, and still have to try the Micca cable, but so far I am quite pleased with my purchase! - Amp - Headphone Amplifier - Portable - Fiio E5'
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