This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hiby FC3 portable headphone amplifier and DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $59 on company website.
As you see, this is an attractive dongle. The reverse side is even nicer as it sports a high resolution OLED display that legibly shows the sampling rate and current volume (goes off automatically). Alas, there is a miss in not having auto repeat on up and down volume controls if you hold them down.
Hiby FC3 Measurements
I set the volume to max and here is our dashboard output:
Performance is bound by distortion. Still, the results land in competent category for all portable dongles tested:
Since distortion is the problem, lowering the volume improves things:
Noise is very much under control:
Jitter shows some sidebands but they are not the audible kind:
Power is almost everything in portable devices so let's measure that:
300 ohm measurement is voltage limited so devices that output 4 volts (in "balanced" mode) bean the FC3 but otherwise, performance is good. As noted, more output could be had if the gain was higher as there is no clipping.
Conversely at 32 ohm, we are current limited:
Conclusions
The Hiby FC3 is one of the nicest looking dongles I have tested. Price is reasonable and performance is very good. The only thing that would make it better would have been balanced output of 4 volts.
I am going to recommend the Hiby FC3 portable DAC and headphone amplifier.
------------
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/
As you see, this is an attractive dongle. The reverse side is even nicer as it sports a high resolution OLED display that legibly shows the sampling rate and current volume (goes off automatically). Alas, there is a miss in not having auto repeat on up and down volume controls if you hold them down.
Hiby FC3 Measurements
I set the volume to max and here is our dashboard output:
Performance is bound by distortion. Still, the results land in competent category for all portable dongles tested:
Since distortion is the problem, lowering the volume improves things:
Noise is very much under control:
Jitter shows some sidebands but they are not the audible kind:
Power is almost everything in portable devices so let's measure that:
300 ohm measurement is voltage limited so devices that output 4 volts (in "balanced" mode) bean the FC3 but otherwise, performance is good. As noted, more output could be had if the gain was higher as there is no clipping.
Conversely at 32 ohm, we are current limited:
Conclusions
The Hiby FC3 is one of the nicest looking dongles I have tested. Price is reasonable and performance is very good. The only thing that would make it better would have been balanced output of 4 volts.
I am going to recommend the Hiby FC3 portable DAC and headphone amplifier.
------------
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/
Last edited:
Should have some DC voltage as well.
