Review and Measurements of Fiio K3 DAC & Amp

[staticV3]

It's the dynamic range at full output.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

Listening Tests
As usual, I started my listening tests with the Sennheiser HD-650 representing high impedance headphone class. As predicted in the measurements, there just is not enough power here. Bass notes were weak and almost in hiding.

Switching to Hifiman HE-400i to represent low impedance headphones, performance improved a bit with higher output level but again, bass notes were on vacation and nowhere to be found.

I have a question here. I dont know much about amplifiers.

I thought that expecting a different sound based on the amp / the power is basically a snake oil thing - except from differences based on output impedance.
As long as there is enough power to drive the phone, why should the bass be weaker on the K3 than on stronger amplifiers?

 

[adelaidestevens]

Anyone know how good the line out is on the new K3s? I have a Atom amp so thinking of pairing it with the K3, the obvious choice would be the atom dac but that's like double the price here in australia

 

[staticV3]

As long as there is enough power to drive the phone, why should the bass be weaker on the K3 than on stronger amplifiers?

Equal loudness contours. So the bass isn't physically weak, but sounds weaker due to overall lower volume.

 

[Chowchilla]

I have the new K3 with the latest driver's from the FiiO forums.

Whenever I try to set the sample rate higher than 44100 is just breaks windows. No sound and from anything and if it's YouTube it just stops and starts buffering.

If I go tiger then 48khz then the light goes orange as it should.. but no sound. Don't know what's causing it his issue. Would anyone know? Or is it just knackered?

 

[Chowchilla]

I have the new K3 with the latest driver's from the FiiO forums.

Whenever I try to set the sample rate higher than 44100 is just breaks windows. No sound and from anything and if it's YouTube it just stops and starts buffering.

If I go tiger then 48khz then the light goes orange as it should.. but no sound. Don't know what's causing it his issue. Would anyone know? Or is it just knackered?

i fixed this by downgrading to firmware 2.21.

https://forum.fiio.com/note/showNoteContent.do?id=202207212129388807933&tid=4

its in the link they provided for 2.27