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Review and Measurements of Fiio K3 DAC & Amp

Phalange

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Hey, it's me again. I'm considering selling my K3, because my two headphones, Custom One Pro and X2HR are indeed "easy to drive". So I dont think I need an amp, and a dac won't make much difference for me from an onboard soundscard (Ill be upgrading my pc, so maybe using alc 892 /1220 from msi.)
Maybe i'll purchase a better amp if i own need-to-drive headphones in the future?

Updates: sold
 
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Corvo94

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Hi Amirm I'm google translator and I apologize for my English. I bought a fiio k3 yesterday but I have a doubt. Does the bass boost not work line out instead of the boost gain yes is normal? Instead they are all about headphone output. Can you test also please with headphones only? I've tried everything but bass boost line out doesn't work.
 

iazriel

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Hi and thanks for the review! I have one question. I am about to buy a DT770 pro. Do you think the FiiO K3 will be good or should I go for a FiiO K5 alongside my mother board's dac? I have a Realtek codec S1220A on an Asus rog strix Z390. Half people say it's more than a decent dac and an amp is all I need, the rest say it's no good and in the end I don't know where to spend some hard earned money...
 

Lastmood

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hii great and very detailed review..im newbie also i dont quite understand about components inside dac/amp or electricity but im planning to get fiio k3 for my pc, mostly im using an iem for listening music and i have several iem and custom iem which using multiple driver balanced armature..will k3 suitable for low impedance / balanced armature iem?? i read in some forum (I can't remember which forum is , maybe from reddit) that's the iem especially use BA driver wil blow up if connected to desktop dac/amp , im not sure my iem/ciem have sensitive driver.. from what i know they use some BA from sonion (3000 series) . i dont mind if its not sound good as long as doesn't harm my iem/ciem collection im okay with it, i want to hear your opinion..
thanks in advance
 

zerweast

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Hi, I recently acquired the k3. Some questions and something I noticed.

1st, I think the supplied cable is not bringing enough power to the k3. I changed to an ikea usb-c cable, and it became louder. Seems it requires a reliable quick charging cable and data transfer.

I also tried optical out to another dac and have this horrible occasional crackling sound. Something to do with power savings according to fiio forums. Thats feels like an odd design decision. Could also mean poor engineering planning.

Some other odd behaviours include, auto and unexpected shutdown if connected to a usb hub, many usb c cables dont work, feels like it needs a cable that is capable of charge and data transfer.

Other then some shoddy design decision, its not a bad portable amp and dac. Fairly attractive, the only thing that gets to me is the crackling sound when output through optical toslink. They have some funky instructions on editing the firmware. But Im on a mac and I need to get hold of a pc.
 
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bravomail

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Hi and thanks for the review! I have one question. I am about to buy a DT770 pro. Do you think the FiiO K3 will be good or should I go for a FiiO K5 alongside my mother board's dac? I have a Realtek codec S1220A on an Asus rog strix Z390. Half people say it's more than a decent dac and an amp is all I need, the rest say it's no good and in the end I don't know where to spend some hard earned money...

K3 is weak
 

bravomail

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hii great and very detailed review..im newbie also i dont quite understand about components inside dac/amp or electricity but im planning to get fiio k3 for my pc, mostly im using an iem for listening music and i have several iem and custom iem which using multiple driver balanced armature..will k3 suitable for low impedance / balanced armature iem?? i read in some forum (I can't remember which forum is , maybe from reddit) that's the iem especially use BA driver wil blow up if connected to desktop dac/amp , im not sure my iem/ciem have sensitive driver.. from what i know they use some BA from sonion (3000 series) . i dont mind if its not sound good as long as doesn't harm my iem/ciem collection im okay with it, i want to hear your opinion..
thanks in advance
K3 is not worth buying. It will work with IEMs.
 

zerweast

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I use the k3 with a planar iem. Its not too bad for the price. I like the bass boost and volume knob. But for sure, some odd behaviours
 

Dipypang

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@amirm Hi i just made this account to reply you.
I'm using an old sennheiser momeuntum v.1 with 18ohms impedance. Is it okay if i go with this fiio K3 DAC/AMP?
Or you got any recommendations for my old headphone?
Thanks
 

SK001

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the anemic 2 volt output of the Fiio K3 becomes a limit for high-impedance headphones. Likewise there is not enough current for low impedance headphones to drive them well.

So it can't drive high impedance headphones well, and it can't drive low impedance headphones well either?

I have ath-m40x and m50x are similar. On innerfidelity's measurements of the m50x it states;
Volts RMS required to reach 90dB SPL: 0.042 Vrms
Impedance @ 1kHz: 37 Ohms
Power Needed for 90d BSPL 0.05 mW


I'm uneducated on audio technical stuff so If it's 1.9 vrms and 120mw into 32 ohms why can't it drive low impedance cans well?

My m40x through the headphone jack of the K3 connected to my laptop via usb starts getting uncomfortably loud past the 1 O'clock point on the volume pot in low gain. It's obviously not a powerhouse but surely has plenty enough power to drive low impedance cans.
 
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seadogbiscuit

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Go easy on me...
I had my K3 wired to 2 Anker Flare Plus's. Splitter from Soundmatters. Signal from Mac Mini. I thought it was outstanding! Big non-directional stereo sound! I'll stop now
 

mikenight

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So it can't drive high impedance headphones well, and it can't drive low impedance headphones well either?

I have ath-m40x and m50x are similar. On innerfidelity's measurements of the m50x it states;
Volts RMS required to reach 90dB SPL: 0.042 Vrms
Impedance @ 1kHz: 37 Ohms
Power Needed for 90d BSPL 0.05 mW


I'm uneducated on audio technical stuff so If it's 1.9 vrms and 120mw into 32 ohms why can't it drive low impedance cans well?

My m40x through the headphone jack of the K3 connected to my laptop via usb starts getting uncomfortably loud past the 1 O'clock point on the volume pot in low gain. It's obviously not a powerhouse but surely has plenty enough power to drive low impedance cans.

I find this review quite biased - more on that later (see criticism below). First a bit context/chat or skip to TL;DR below:

I have been thinking of upgrading from my onboard ALC1150 and evaluating a variety of options. I don't have good speakers (small house, so no need anyway) but an ATH-M40 that I like a lot and semi-open Samson SR850 that I like very much, too. These are poor man's good headphones (I don't intend to burn hundreds of dollars for tiny diminishing returns, I barely hear above 15kHz anyway). I love both of these, 32Ohm and 35Ohm headphones, great price/performance ratios!

First, I checked what people say about internal sound cards like Sound Blaster AE-5 (in old days, that was how you got sound from a computer!) My two conclusions: 1) Way too many people are having problems with Creative software/drivers, even very recently. That is quite unacceptable. 2) For all those people who talk about interference within the computer, I have yet to see one piece of reliable of information quantifying this with a modern desktop PC. Still, point 1 is sufficient to move me away from an internal or creative card. I don't game much either and want to have linux compatibility as well, if possible.

Apparently, all these external DAC/Amps are all the craze when you exit the confines of the PC or if you have laptop. They also work with linux and driver dependence is less. All good things. But prices go up quickly because of this "audiophile" thing. The only real-life audiophile I met told me after a very rational chat: "I don't care what science or signal processing or blind tests say, I enjoy listening to my expensive setup over a bottle of wine after a long workweek" Now, that is a definition of "audiophile" I can respect. If people wish to burn money for 0-0.1% objective return on investment but it makes them happy, then I am happy for them :)

Anyway, the review on this website looks scientific but it omits significant things. Firstly, it shows the device does what it promises in terms of THD etc. I don't know what is there to criticise. Secondly, there is more to music than 1kHz sine waves, for example transients, human audio range, etc. None of them are shown/emphasised here. Why should I care how the device behaves beyond audible range? I suspect those are the things that will affect the experience more than meaningless graphs. The main reason I bought Samson SR850 was (in addition to good reviews) that it is semi-open while ATH-M40 is closed. That makes a huge difference practically over long sessions and in terms of low end; sound waves bouncing between my ear and the can vs not! That would not show up in simple graphs like shown in this website. I have read tons of positive things about this Fiio K3 and I might buy one soon (I might post my opinions if I do so). They are cheap enough where I live. Apparently, my options would be different if I were in USA.

TL;DR To answer your concerns as far as I know:
Based on specifications (which is not contradicted in review here), this DAC/AMP combo is more than enough for any 32-35 Ohm headphones like ATH-M40 (or 50). The reason is simple, go to http://www.digizoid.com/headphones-power.html (tool provided by another manufacturer). Enter the specs for your headphone (35Ohm, 98sensitivity for M40) Check the results and compare with K3 specs https://www.fiio.com/k3_parameters Note that unless you want your headphones to be as loud as a plane on a runway, K3 is more than enough for such headphones. Just make sure that you plug it to a port that provides enough power (could be an issue in laptops) and the USB cable is good. End of story!

Criticism (just to spice things up a bit :)
Anyone who says the amp is too weak is BSing. Many comments in this thread are not scientific; they are pure snobbery! K3 is on paper (and based on anecdotal reviews I read) powerful enough for majority of mainstream and enthusiast headphones with <50 Ohms. It is not suitable for anything >150 Ohm anyway as stated by Fiio. I would not buy it if I had a headphone with 100 Ohms. The rest is hard to measure, I suspect transients etc. will matter more and make a difference in what people call "soundscape". A great comment I read on this DAC/AMP business is "the job of DAC/AMP is not to change the signal, but convert digital to analog and boost it with minimal distortion". Rendering the analog signal to audio is the job of speakers and headphones. Graphs seem to support (in a limited way) that this DAC/AMP is doing its job, and anecdotal reviews online support that, too. Therefore, I find the dismissal of this product based on the data presented quite suspicious. I am guessing that the reviewer has a bias for certain manufacturers and presents opinions as scientific conclusions. They are not and behaving like this is not good.
 

BolusOfDoom

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The nicest thing to me about the K3 is that it’s so small and light, I wear it with a lanyard around my neck so the volume’s easy to reach. Long usb cable to source, short headphone cable. I can go almost anywhere in the house with it plugged into a Windows tablet (for foobar2000/MathAudio eq and crossfeed).
 

luxonator

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Would this be an ok dac/amp for a beginner? And when one wants to up his game, could this be used just as a DAC (meaning, is the dac good enough?) and connect this to a better amp? Or would it be better to just get a better dac/amp like Fiio K5 or Topping DX3 Pro+ ?
 

Veri

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Would this be an ok dac/amp for a beginner? And when one wants to up his game, could this be used just as a DAC (meaning, is the dac good enough?) and connect this to a better amp? Or would it be better to just get a better dac/amp like Fiio K5 or Topping DX3 Pro+ ?
The new Fiio K3S looks pretty good to me. It's just a bit lacking in power, but HD600/HD650 etc should be fine.
 

Jim Shaw

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Gratitude. Even if you have no particular interest in this device, read, understand, and remember this paragraph. It can remove a bunch of confusion concerning "balanced" signals:

"...Unusual in this price class is having a "balanced" output which in the case of headphones, just means potential for higher output power. Please don't confuse this with balanced inputs which provides [sic] high level of ground loop immunity. Balanced output doesn't provide such benefit..."
 

Max Payne

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are these SNR measurments at 50mv ?
or it's just the maximum SNR that this device can output ?
 

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