Practical testing …
The FiiO E10K simply connects to the computer and is ready to use. No additional drivers are necessary on the Mac. Drivers are available for download for Windows, but we did not need them for Windows 10 and above.
The manufacturer only recommends the FiiO E10K for desktop or laptop computers and not for mobile iOS or Android devices, which is certainly due to the fact that power is supplied via the USB port. However, this didn’t stop us from trying it with an Apple iPad Air 4th Gen.
As mentioned earlier, setup is very simple. No driver installation was required on the Windows 10/11 PC and although the manufacturer doesn’t recommend it, we tried it on the iPad (Air 4.Gen) and it worked straight away. We used an Austrian Audio headset. This has an impedance of 25 ohms, so it’s not too power hungry. It would be quite conceivable to overtax the USB port of the iPad with a more power-hungry headset.
Volume control with on/off switch …
When used on a PC, you don’t really need to turn off the FiiO E10K, since it doesn’t get power when the PC shuts down anyway. However, it could happen that it is not recognized after booting up. Switching it off/on will help in this case.
This did not happen during our test period, but according to various forum posts, this can be related to the respective USB port. So if this problem occurs, just try another USB port.
Bass Boost Switch …
Since an Austrian Audio PG16 headset is used for gaming, which is very neutrally tuned, we turned on the FiiO E10K-TC bass boost switch. This then fits very well for gaming, but also for listening to music.
FiiO E10K-TC Result and general impression …