Fiio E5 headphone amp review

Buying a quality pair of headphones is a daunting enough experience. They tend to be expensive and hard to choose. After all, what really makes a pair of Sennheisers better than a set of Shure earphones, when you really get down to it?

It’s even worse when after buying your fancy 'phones you’re told that you really need a dedicated headphone amp to get the most out of them. Considering these amps often cost more than the headphones themselves, this revelation will often bring more fear and sadness than buyers' excitement.

One solution to this headphone buyers’ angst is the Fiio E5. It’s a headphone amplifier with a built-in battery that’s small enough to fit into any pocket. The best bit is that it costs just a fraction of the price of your average headphone amp, at a shade over £20. Shop around and you’ll find it for even less too.

A common misconception about headphone amplifiers is that their main aim is to make your music or movies louder. In fact, their main purpose is to make your audio content sound better.

While some earphones are fairly happy to be run straight off the limited amplification offered by your phone’s earphone socket, others will be left sounding dull and lifeless. The latter group will generally consist of better, more expensive headphones and earphones too. This is where the Fiio E5 can step in.

It comes with a pair of mini-jack leads to plug the E5 directly into your phone or MP3 player. Then, you just need to connect your normal earphone cable to the other end of the E5. There’s a mini-USB socket, used to charge the amp’s battery, a volume rocker, power button and the all-important bass boost switch.

We tested the E5 with a number of different earphones including the high-end Shure SE530 and Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro sets, and the more affordable Denon AH-C452 and Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket pairs. Just as with any headphone amp, the results vary depending on the sound signature of your earphones, but we were impressed across the board. For such a cheap device, the Fiio E5 performs astoundingly well.

With the bass boost turned off, there wasn’t a huge difference in the sound of any of the earphones tested. Some demonstrated small improvements in separation, but tonally the sound remained similar to when simply plugged into the player.

However, flick the bass boost switch and things change dramatically. Even just calling it a bass boost seems a case of unfair understatement. It does increase the low-end girth, massaging the tight bass beats of the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro and Denon AH-C452 into something much larger, without compromising fidelity.

It also warms up the entire mid-range, expanding what audio nuts call the soundstage to make your earphones sound, well, much bigger. The Shure SE530s and Skullcandy earphones saw less of a dramatic improvement, most likely owing to their already-warm sound, but the effect remained similar. There’s an audible hiss when music’s not playing, but it’s not loud enough to encroach on your listening pleasure.

To make the deal even sweeter, the E5 is a remarkably solid little gadget, especially considering it’s built and designed in China – home to many a piece of cheap and tacky consumer electronics. Its robust metal body is wonderfully slim, while there’s also a solid clip on its back that’ll let you attach it to a piece of clothing with ease.

The Fiio E5 may not be a like-for-like replacement for a headphone amp costing more than £150, but if you’ve splashed out on a half decent pair of earphones, there’s every chance that this cheap and convenient gadget could make them sound significantly better. In short, the Fiio E5 is better than it has any right to be.