Fiio FT1 Measurements & Discussion

Headphones Official Headphone Model Discussion
21

Not sure if this thread is still alive, but I just got my Fiio FT1 today and love them. They were pretty good at the office plugged into a Schiit Modi/Magni stack, but Sylvan Esso curled my toes when I got them home and plugged into my Elekit TU-8200R fed by a Denafrips Ares 2. Now I need to upgrade my office setup and get some tubes in there. Anybody have a recommended budget tube headphone amp pairing for the Fiio FT1? (Up to a few hundred, not a few thousand…)

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22

Hello, @Gabe. Welcome to the forum!

Suggestion: If you haven’t already done so, bring your Modi/Magni stack home and see where the “magic” lies. Try the Modi feeding your Elekit amp, and try the Denafrips DAC feeding the Magni.

The sound you’re after might be due to the tubes, but it might also be due to the more expensive R-2R DAC vs the Delta-Sigma Modi.

Only you can tell, but I could see a Schiit Modi Multibit + Vali 3 playing a pretty decent “poor man’s” version of the Elekit + Denafrips combo.

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23

Just got these yesterday. Here are my initial impressions.

Sound (stock)

  • First impression is dark and muddy with some shoutiness in the ear gain. There’s also some spikiness in the treble.
  • Some pop music can be a bit too bright
  • Overall lacking in detail and background isn’t as black as I would like. There’s a real sense that a lot if information is simply missing.
  • Some sibilance is apparent on female vocals
  • When doing tone sweeps I can definitely hear the peaks/valleys that Oratory measured on his rig. The 5k peak is especially noticeable.
  • I could not use these at all without EQ. They’re simply too muddy and shouty.

Sound (Post-EQ)

  • Oratory’s EQ is pretty bang on for this one, IMO. Reduces shoutiness and improves overall clarity.
  • Soundstage is similar to other closed backs. Nothing particularly impressive.
  • Bass has a nice rumble, but lacks texture and detail.
  • Treble detail and extension isn’t very good. It has a bit of that graininess that seems to plague most cheaper closed-back headphones, though it certainly isn’t bad at all. EQ can’t fix it, unfortunately, though it can alleviate the issue somewhat. If you try to push the treble more, it gets even more grainy and nasty. There’s a weird line where if you push it too far it won’t like it.
  • ​Guitars in metal lack a lot of the bite you expect to hear and can sound a bit dull.You can attempt to correct this with EQ, but again it gets into grainy/nasty territory pretty fast.
  • Even with the EQ, vocal timbre is not quite right
  • Male voices while speaking sound off. I would describe them maybe as a bit “boxy” or whatever it’s called.

Other stuff

  • They feel lighter on the head than the specs imply. I thought they’d be noticeably heavier than my HD650s, but they feel pretty similar.
  • Earpad holes are smaller than I’d like
  • Cable is slightly microphonic. Would definitely want to go for an OpenHeart cable to help with this.
  • I hear a bit better out of my left ear than right, and these emphasize that disparity more than most other headphones.
  • Easy to power. I can switch to low gain on my Midgard without issue.

Overall, I’m not very impressed, especially without EQ.

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