If you have an Apple iPhone, iPod, iPad or anything else that they decide to dream up with that dock port and you have a headphone amplifier that you’d like to get the best possible sound out of, then the Fiio L1 can be a great accessory to add to your music arsenal. Now you’re asking, but why do I need this? What does it do for me? At its core, the L1 allows you to send a clean, unamplified signal from your Apple media player device to your amplifier. Unamplified is the key here – rather than sending the signal from your headphone out jack of your music player, which introduces its own sound signature and distortion, you’re sending the cleanest possible analog signal straight out of your device.
Now that you know what it’s supposed to do, how well does it do its job? In a word, great. The L1 provides a super clean signal to feed your amplifier (or even a recording device if it’s sitting close enough) and the port connector is very small. The port connector is one of the reasons I would choose this over say, the L9. The port connector on the L1 is almost identical to the one that ships with iPhones and iPods, which is a very good thing especially if you have a hard protective case with a small port opening. A perfect example of this is the Otterbox Defender – this is a very popular case for Apple devices but unfortunately it really puts a squeeze on the port on the bottom of your device. The L1 fits with this case with no problem whereas the L9 simply won’t.
So, if you have an Apple iPod, iPad or iPhone and you’ve got a headphone amplifier or some other device that could benefit from a clean input signal and will be within a few inches of your Apple device, then the L1 will be perfect for you.
L1 Recommended For
- iPhone, iPod, iPad to headphone amplifier connection, such as the Fiio E11
- Ideal if you have a case such as the Otterbox Defender (very popular iPhone and iPod protective case)
