Louis opinions the FiiO JadeAudio GIGAS 1, a compact and ultra-affordable 4.6W desktop headphone amplifier for audiophiles and avid gamers. It’s presently priced at $49.99.
Disclaimer: I acquired this pattern in trade for my trustworthy opinion. Headfonics is an impartial web site with no affiliate hyperlinks or providers. I wish to thank FiiO for his or her help.
Click on right here to be taught extra in regards to the FiiO audio merchandise beforehand reviewed on Headfonics.
This submit follows our present scoring tips, which you’ll be able to learn in additional element right here.
FiiO JadeAudio GIGAS 1 Assessment
Abstract
The compact and super-affordable FiiO JadeAudio GIGAS 1 headphone amplifier is the little big that might. It’s highly effective and clear sufficient to fulfill most listeners besides for many who imagine that for an amp to sound good, it has to price greater than most modern-day autos.
Execs
Large energy efficiency for the worth.
High-mounted, easily operated quantity knob.
Microphone functionality through TRRS connectivity.
Cons
Runs very popular on a 12V energy supply, heat on a 5V supply.
We lately reviewed the reasonably priced FiiO JadeAudio Stage 1, geared toward HiFi lovers; now we’ve got a brand new competitively priced compact desktop amplifier from the identical sub-brand. This time for headphone homeowners, known as the GIGAS 1.
The GIGAS 1 is geared toward avid gamers and audiophiles who want extra driving energy from their desktop rig or one other line supply, however don’t wish to put money into a devoted DAC simply but and are content material driving the amp with their present built-in answer.
Small amplifiers like these are a uncommon breed, and at a retail worth of $49.99, it’s much more of a cut price.
The GIGAS 1 idea is all about bang for the buck. It’s a “the place else are you able to get a lot energy for thus little money” idea with many positives.
So, let’s see the way it performs and compares to different reasonably priced compact amps, together with the Topping NX7 and the iFi audio ZEN Air DAC 2 in my full overview under.
Options
The GIGAS 1 has a few options which are hidden away inside its boxy body.
One in every of them is the power to upscale with a voltage improve, and you should utilize a 5V or 12V energy supply, your alternative. The advantage of utilizing a 12V energy supply is that it’ll massively improve energy output.
The FiiO JT7 planar magnetic headphone is cited because the inspiration behind the GIGAS 1, based on FiiO and JadeAudio. However I believe the GIGAS 1 is a more in-depth match with the brand new FG3 gaming headphone, which has a 4-pole 3.5mm cable and a microphone. I’ll clarify later.
The 4.4mm Pentaconn connection subsequent to the three.5mm connection appeals to those that need most energy with low noise. It appeals to the audiophile in us. Twin connectivity is the norm these days.
One of many different hidden options lies throughout the 3.5mm microphone-capable plug itself. When you use a 4-pole 3.5mm plug on the enter and output ends, the microphone will work, so long as the receiving gear has a suitable 4-pin TRRS audio port.
You’ll be able to all the time purchase a separate Y-cable that separates the audio and the microphone connections.
So, the GIGAS 1 is not only an amp with a top-mounted quantity knob. It has some methods up its sleeve. However at its core, it’s a simple line-driven desktop amplifier.
Amplification
The GIGAS 1 makes use of a discrete class AB transistor present amplifier design with two adjustable achieve settings. It combines OPAMPs plus present transistors in the identical circuitry part.
The novelty side, once more, is that the ability enter determines the output energy. For instance, should you use a 5-volt energy supply, the ability output might be 790mW tops. However should you use a 12V energy supply, then the output aspect will improve significantly to 4600mW per aspect max.
JadeAudio used some Onsemi MJE243G together with some MJE253G silicon transistors which are able to 15 watts at 100 volts for this end result.
With that specification in thoughts, JadeAudio designed this amplifier in a method that’s not pushing these transistors wherever close to their prime output functionality and gave them loads of working headroom.
Maybe that’s why the GIGAS 1 sounds so easy and clear.
Design
The design is fairly tough however not too dangerous. It has a package field look. The general outer shell has some sharp corners and sharp edges, with some tough edges across the edges. It’s not a refined design or development, however it’s sturdy, nonetheless.
The general development materials is aluminum with a black anodized end. The GIGAS 1 is available in three colours, by the way in which. I acquired the black one, however there are additionally silver and inexperienced fashions you may select from to fit your style.
The black one retains fingerprint marks, which I guess occurs at a minimal on the silver mannequin. I’m unsure about how that fares on the inexperienced variant.
Essentially the most novel half in regards to the GIGAS 1 is the massive, top-mounted quantity knob. It’s a smooth-operating knob with no indents, however as I spun mine, I may inform it had a sure eccentricity.
However should you’re not tremendous choosy like me, and don’t measure issues with a micrometer, you most likely received’t discover that.
The quantity knob at its base has white quantity place indicators, with 60 positions, and an influence LED ring across the quantity knob. My solely hope is that these painted-on indicators final and don’t put on off.
I/O
The IO has a neat function, and one thing I’ve been asking for from FiiO and different producers.
Whenever you use 3.5mm connectivity completely, you should utilize a headset with TRRS connectivity with a microphone and use the microphone through the GIGAS 1.
After all, the receiving gear should have TRRS connectivity, plus you’ll must outsource a TRRS cable meeting for the output finish, since there may be none included within the field.
That is what JadeAudio ought to have included to face out additional. That performance usable out of the field would really be a step above the remainder.
I might have gladly paid additional bucks for that cable if they’d included a JadeAudio branded cable. The remainder of the IO is commonplace fare.
Controls
The quantity knob, the ability change, and the 2-position achieve change are the one controls on the JadeAudio GIGAS 1, they usually’re all upfront. Think about that? This small amplifier comes with a front-mounted energy change the place it belongs.
I do like steel toggles, and that’s what’s used on the GIGAS 1 for the ability on and off perform.
The one drawback is that the stiffness of the change forces you to make use of two palms to energy on the GIGAS 1 through that change. However actually, I want rugged over delicate any day.
To elaborate on the quantity knob, it’s an apparent analog implementation that doesn’t have a lot of the dreaded channel imbalance on the lowest quantity setting that some others do.
It’s additionally quiet to function, and I didn’t detect any static noise throughout operation or different comparable anomalies.
Packaging & Equipment
The JadeAudio GIGAS 1 comes with just a few extras. It comes with a USB Sort-C energy cable, however no energy adapter, as all the time. It additionally comes with a fast begin information and a guaranty card.
I already talked about the dearth of any connectivity, and once more, this mannequin ought to have include a dual-tip TRRS cable in an effort to join most of the gaming headsets on the market, or IEMs, with a TRRS 3.5mm connection and a microphone.
Sound Impressions
For the reason that GIGAS 1 was designed with the concept of driving headphones just like the FiiO JT7, I had to make use of a substitute and comparable headphones, since I wouldn’t have the JT7.
So, I pulled out my HIFIMAN Sundara, that are considerably comparable in tech origin, with a 2 dB distinction in effectivity. This combo offers me a great gauge of how a lot energy is accessible.
I used different headphones just like the Sennheiser HD 490 PRO Plus, and IEMs just like the FiiO FX17 and the FH7S to see how well-behaved the GIGAS 1 is with delicate IEMs.
Abstract
Whereas utilizing my well-broken-in HIFIMAN Sundara and on a 5V energy supply, the bass response was considerably dispassionate. However whenever you run the GIGAS 1 off a 12V supply, the 4.4mm port comes alive with harder-to-drive headphones.
The general sound signature is impartial and easy with a barely {smooth} character and a touch of chunk as properly. It’s pretty clear and might produce audio with no coloration on its half.
One of many robust factors of the GIGAS 1 is that it sounds punchy and dynamic with headroom to spare.
More often than not, the quantity place remained decrease than midway on the quantity knob whereas supplying an ample quantity of loudness utilizing planar magnetic headphones.
Being that it’s an amplifier with such a excessive quantity of energy output, it tends to sound managed and well-behaved at medium ranges of quantity, and even at excessive volumes. It’s additionally very quiet with low ranges of distortion and noise, if any in any respect.
The GIGAS 1 doesn’t add something to the general tonality; it simply amplifies the enter sign, and it offers the potential purchaser a way of amplifying any audio supply and the power to drastically achieve quantity and driving energy over all else, and it does it properly.
Timbre
The GIGAS 1 timbre is what I name truthful, whereas some name it pure. It doesn’t try to repair the enter. It simply amplifies, retains the supply’s timbre, and stays out of the way in which.
The general frequency curve can come throughout as impartial with a lean timbre that produces sonics cleanly and crisply. Nothing comes throughout as sounding too chiseled or too searing.
It does produce weight on the backside octave, with a quick assault and fast restoration, most likely as a result of a good damping issue. The bass itself shouldn’t be boosted in any respect, and there aren’t any options to take action.
The midrange is impartial and clear with a pure timbre. It’s a midrange that doesn’t push ahead, however it has an open side about it.
The treble is produced with a refined character. It has an in depth, ethereal persona that doesn’t really feel too brilliant or too strained. The GIGAS 1 even works with soiled sources.
It principally shows the supply. Use a heat DAC from iFi, and you’ll instantly detect the heat. Use the DAC part from the Questyle Sigma, and also you’ll discover the linearity of its AKM DAC. It’s also a revealing amp, however it doesn’t re-cast the audio in any method.
Staging & Dynamics
Amplifiers usually are not the figuring out issue so far as soundstage is worried, however some small traits may be attributed to the amplifier, such because the ample width produced by the GIGAS 1.
The JadeAudio GIGAS 1 portrays a pure soundstage dictated by the supply, however it doesn’t degrade the panoramic view, as I name it. Parts stay distinct.
The GIGAS 1 remained in command of the output always, even at excessive quantity ranges, and by no means smeared the soundstage or prompted sound to grow to be congested. The sound remained centered, properly layered, and imaging on the whole retained what the supply was feeding it.
Click on on web page 2 under for my really helpful pairings and chosen comparisons.
