This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of DS3 balanced smart DAC and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $99.99.
No, that is not a control. Everything you see on the front is for aesthetics. The controls are on top which are heavily overloaded. As is, they are the up/down volume control. Push both briefly and you switch gain. Press longer and other effects are activated. Fortunately you don't have to remember all this if you are on a computer (and phone?) as you can point your browser at it and get a very rich interface:
Yes, you have full parametric EQ! What's more, being on the device, they take effect almost instantly with a fast and slight volume reduction (much less than a second). This makes it ideal for turning headphones and performing AB comparisons. In sharp contrast, my Roon player takes many seconds to make these changes, making it quite annoying to use.
The features don't stop there. Apparently there is 7.1 to stereo virtualization built in! I could not test this as it only advertises itself as a 2-channel DAC to Windows. Documentation says it activates when used in USB Class 1 (UAC 1) when connected to a gaming console.
Keep something in mind: Windows volume control starts at around 67 and keeps snapping back to that when you certain cases (plug in/out?). This made testing very error prone when combined with gain settings and balanced/unbalanced. I had to redo many of the tests, late last night, making me quite grumpy.
Part of this I am sure is Windows fault with its own volume control in addition to what the device itself has.
Fosi DS3 Measurements
I started measuring with balanced out but saw quite a bit of distortion (see later in the review). So changed to 3.5mm which cleaned all that up, resulting in some of the best portable DACs I have tested:
Clearly performance is not compromised to get all the aforementioned functionality.
I concluded my brief DAC testing with IMD:
Back to the balanced problem, you see that in our power sweep:
Strangely it does better than unbalanced at very low output levels and switches at the same point to that glitch. Seems to be an issue with high impedance loads (oscillation?) as it almost completely goes away with 32 ohm load:
That aside, this is a ton of power coming out of the little dongle. In both cases you should be able to drive many headphones to reasonable levels of loudness. Reason for this is that output voltage is above 4 volts using balanced which I don't recall seeing in other adapters of its kind.
Noise performance for driving IEMs is exceptional for its class and beats countless desktop products:
We are talking just 1 bit of compromise while outputting just 50 millivolts!
Fosi DS3 Listening Tests
I tested the DS3 using my everyday Dan Clark Core headphone which has less than average sensitivity. The unit had no trouble, in balanced high gain, driving the headphone to very satisfying levels . Granted, when pushed with very bass heavy tracks above volume level 50, you were greeted with static but that was well above the level I listen to as background music or even attentive listening.
Overall fidelity was excellent across the board. As noted, I had fun playing with EQ curve and hearing the effect in real time.
Conclusions
The DS3 is an overachiever, combing almost perfect measurements with superb functionality. There is some kind of glitch in balanced out but otherwise, the performance and functionality plus good looks easily justifies its cost and then some.
I am happy to recommend the Fosi DS3. Engineering excellence squeezed into tiny enclosure that weighs almost nothing.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
No, that is not a control. Everything you see on the front is for aesthetics. The controls are on top which are heavily overloaded. As is, they are the up/down volume control. Push both briefly and you switch gain. Press longer and other effects are activated. Fortunately you don't have to remember all this if you are on a computer (and phone?) as you can point your browser at it and get a very rich interface:
Yes, you have full parametric EQ! What's more, being on the device, they take effect almost instantly with a fast and slight volume reduction (much less than a second). This makes it ideal for turning headphones and performing AB comparisons. In sharp contrast, my Roon player takes many seconds to make these changes, making it quite annoying to use.
The features don't stop there. Apparently there is 7.1 to stereo virtualization built in! I could not test this as it only advertises itself as a 2-channel DAC to Windows. Documentation says it activates when used in USB Class 1 (UAC 1) when connected to a gaming console.
Keep something in mind: Windows volume control starts at around 67 and keeps snapping back to that when you certain cases (plug in/out?). This made testing very error prone when combined with gain settings and balanced/unbalanced. I had to redo many of the tests, late last night, making me quite grumpy.
Part of this I am sure is Windows fault with its own volume control in addition to what the device itself has.Fosi DS3 Measurements
I started measuring with balanced out but saw quite a bit of distortion (see later in the review). So changed to 3.5mm which cleaned all that up, resulting in some of the best portable DACs I have tested:
Clearly performance is not compromised to get all the aforementioned functionality.
I concluded my brief DAC testing with IMD:
Back to the balanced problem, you see that in our power sweep:
Strangely it does better than unbalanced at very low output levels and switches at the same point to that glitch. Seems to be an issue with high impedance loads (oscillation?) as it almost completely goes away with 32 ohm load:
That aside, this is a ton of power coming out of the little dongle. In both cases you should be able to drive many headphones to reasonable levels of loudness. Reason for this is that output voltage is above 4 volts using balanced which I don't recall seeing in other adapters of its kind.
Noise performance for driving IEMs is exceptional for its class and beats countless desktop products:
We are talking just 1 bit of compromise while outputting just 50 millivolts!
Fosi DS3 Listening Tests
I tested the DS3 using my everyday Dan Clark Core headphone which has less than average sensitivity. The unit had no trouble, in balanced high gain, driving the headphone to very satisfying levels . Granted, when pushed with very bass heavy tracks above volume level 50, you were greeted with static but that was well above the level I listen to as background music or even attentive listening.
Overall fidelity was excellent across the board. As noted, I had fun playing with EQ curve and hearing the effect in real time.
Conclusions
The DS3 is an overachiever, combing almost perfect measurements with superb functionality. There is some kind of glitch in balanced out but otherwise, the performance and functionality plus good looks easily justifies its cost and then some.
I am happy to recommend the Fosi DS3. Engineering excellence squeezed into tiny enclosure that weighs almost nothing.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
