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On the front of the device are the 3.5mm single ended phone/lineout, 2.5mm & 4.4mm balanced outputs and the volume potentiometer that turns also the device on and off. Treble: Honestly seems neutral and very detailed without added boost or harshness, it mirrored the source well. The Q3 is sleek and reminiscent of some of FiiO's earlier DAC designs. The device itself is very light and portable, around the same size as an iPod. On the top panel, you have the three headphone outputs and a volume knob with indicator light. The volume knob feels very smooth and has just the right level of resistance. The bottom controls feature a switch titled "Bass," a gain pad button, a switch that enables USB charging, and a USB-C input/charger port. Overall, the design is very intuitive and simple, yet still provides a sizeable number of customization options. Design The FiiO Q11 is extremely simple to use. Okay, not as much as the KA5, or the iBasso DC03Pro, but still, unless you’re completely dumb (or don’t read the manual, RTFM) you should be up and running in a matter of seconds. On the phone side, iPhone users may want to buy a suitable cable, especially for Hip DAC 2, for it doesn’t provide the cable, but once you get the correct cable, they will work seamlessly too. We instantly prefer the FiiO because of its accessories, so you can hook the device regardless of whether you have an iPhone or Android phone. FiiO Q3 and iFi Hip DAC 2 Battery Life
The FiiO Q3 is a portable USB DAC & Amplifier that is pretty small and lightweight thanks to its dimensions with about 105x59x12.5mm and total weight around 110grams. I don't plan to use it as a standalone amplifier, but for people that do, there's no way to use the 3.5mm output as it it's used for imputing the analog signal to be amplified. That way, you can only use balanced outputs. With the Q1 mk2 we had a dedicated 3.5mm line out/ input, which was replaced by the 4.4mm pentacom in the Q3 If you think about it, every musical instrument has its birth, grows its shape, as it chooses its skin—metal, wood, glass, reeds—and develops its own unique tone / timbre. Though there are various families—woodwinds, brass, strings, keyboard, idiophones, friction instruments, and percussion—that share, within families, similar to overlapping voices. And there are literally hundreds of different instruments with unique voices. Perhaps, the various HiFi and headgear companies in world are much like musical instrument makers, in that they attempt to give a voice—warm, neutral, bright, detailed, Class A, transparent, a combination thereof—and a form—tubed, solid-state, reflex loaded, planar, etc.—to their various creations, recreations. Think of a company. Now think of its voice and its form. They all have voices, they all have forms. This brings us to a relatively new voice and form for me—FiiO. The Fiio Q3 is a upgrade to the very popular Q1 mkII DAC amplifier, featuring a much more efficient chip set and better support for Higher Resolution files. The Q3 is full bodied reaching low enough with good impact and layering while offering adequate levels of resolution and detail without compromising a lot.The lower treble region is slightly more emphasized and detailed compared to the upper treble area, which sound otherwise pretty good in this regarding. The general treble presentation is controlled and well adjusted, so that it doesn’t tire your ears even after longer listening periods. Instruments like hi-hats pronounced and do shows a good level of extension, while crash and ride cymbals are fast and detailed. Treble range has a very good speed in metal and jazz music and shows a good amount of intensity and brightness in genres such as EDM or Pop without to disturb your ears. The usb receiver is XMOS XUF208 the same used at the flagship Q5S supported by dual crystal oscillators. That being said, I'd only recommend the Q3 if you're not planning to use it with sensitive IEMs or use it as a 3.5mm to 3.5mm amplifier. Q3 is a simple wired DAC and headphone amplifier, but if you want to go wireless with your smart devices, I recommend their BTR5 that will offer you wireless freedom and almost the same sound quality.
All in all, a very solid piece of work that inspires confidence and really gives a good impression. Comfort and Specifications Daily use EarMen Eagle : as small as the NuPrime, the Eagle feels equally impressive once you’ve plugged it into your IEM. It cannot touch the Q3 in raw power, but the Sabre Chip seems to retrieve even more details. A great choice if you just need a single-ended DAC/AMP, otherwise, go for the FiiO. The FiiO Q3 shows a good level of subbass depth that will meet the expectations from a DAC/Amplifier. The bass quantity will be quite enough for most listeners and genres, while you have the option to increase the quantity to a next level (about 6dB) with the bass boost switch. But to be honest while the boost doesn’t affected the midrange (with exception of a slightly midbass hump that was somewhat noticeable with male vocals) and treble to much, the bass sounded a bit less controlled and loose to my ears. Regarding the two filter settings they mostly affect higher frequencies with the one sounding more firm and well defined and the other more rounded and soft.
The Q3 sound incredibly smooth and natural. The soundstage places sound tastefully around your head without overdoing it. The 3D image is enhanced only slightly to give a solid yet natural feeling presence that wasn't there before. The bass feels more impactful, especially with the Bass switch in the On position. The mids are slightly smoothed out but in a way, that enhances the overall clarity of the sound and helps it accommodate a variety of mixing styles. The highs are especially crisp and clear, thanks in no small part to the extended frequency range on the Q3. The noise floor is incredibly low and that helped give the dynamics a cinematic feel. Rather than distort or alter what's there, the Q3 subtly enhances it to improve your listening experience exponentially. The FiiO's volumetric cube—sound stage—is quite large and, at times, holographic, in that it spans good depth and height and width and, yet, is intimate when called to be so. Positioning and layering are also quite good as is image solidity and there is very good transparency and thus detail retrieval. Though the best and the more expensive across this category would, no doubt, extract more detail, nuance, and microdynamics. The FiiO Q3 whether placed between iPAD, iPhone, or Mac performed brilliantly and easily with a number of IEMs / headphones—FiiO FH5, iBasso IT00, VISION EARS EVE2020, Meze 99 Classics. For the review the FiiO Q3 was paired, primarily, with the FiiO FH5 and the Meze 99 Classics. At the rear side of the device are two screws, two switches (one for bass and one for charging on/off), the multifunctional button for “Gain” & “DAC Filter” selection and the USB-Type-C port for both data and charging purposes. Labelled with the MasterHIFI blazon, this DAC fits in the upper range of the manufacturer line-up with features like:
The Q3's 1800 mAh battery provides for up to 10 hours of continuous play, with a 2.5 hour charging time to fully refresh the FiiO Q3. The FiiO Q3 has a close to neutral, transparent and bright treble presentation with good level of airiness and extension. I really enjoyed the treble tuning that is smooth but don’t falls short in any register of this region. Every song, from Chopin’s “Nocturn” to Gogo Penguin’s sharp jazz, sounded successful in terms of treble extension, intensity and sharpness, which brings me to the conclusion that the Q3 performs above its price range when it comes to the treble performance. With a 2600mAh battery, I expected the Q11 to outperform the old FiiO Q3 by large. But in reality, both DAC/AMP achieves the same real life numbers, with a full day of listening, or 14h in my case. But, if you were to alternate phone and computer with your FiiO Q11, you shall never need to charge it more than once a week. FiiO’s updated Q3 amp features XMOS new flagship XMOS XU316USB chip and is capable of decoding PCM up to 32bit / 768kHz and DSD up to DSD512 natively as well as Full MQA decoder support and continues to support fully balanced THX amplifier module. Helped by a powerful USB receiver like XMOS XUF-208, Q3 can natively decode 32-bit 768 kHz PCM files and DSD512 material. You can find this exact chipset in most modern DACs, it is a very stable chipset which I never had a problem with.Everything was going great with my tests, I started from the bottom and tested it with the Moondrop Quarks, Tanchjim Tanya, Hifiman HE-4XX and it worked flawlessly with all of them, with plenty of definition and power, even to drive the 4XX to hurtful levels. Bass: The Bass is clear and has a slight lift but nothing too overwhelming to be honest its well done and the boost digs down deep but quite tastefully but does color the mids if used. Short answer, yes… If you want to pair it with big cans on the go. Going from the AKM4452 to the AK4462 doesn’t sound that big of a difference, even head-to-head. It’s slightly more refined, less grainy in the upper range but, honestly, it’s not massively different. The various DAC/Amps were partnered to a MacBook Pro, or an iPAD, or a Samsung S10, all were ROON enabled, with the Meze 99 Classics, the FiiO FH5, and the VISION EARS EVE2020 as selected headphones / IEMs. The FiiO Q3 is the new member of the Q Series Portable DAC & Amplifiers, which offers some very interesting specs like a THX AAA28 Amplifier Module, AK4462 DAC Chip, XMOS208 Chip, 3.5mm Single Ended / 2.5mm + 4.4mm Balanced outputs and Native DSD support up to DSD512.
The same gain button works to change the low pass filters, but there's no way at all to tell which filter is currently being used (not even by looking at the button, there's no filter indication) Lows: deep and powerful. As usual, FiiO really nailed the bass section and there is no shallow echo nor dragging sensation. You can confidently listen at high volume, to never encounter muddy lows, whatever the song.
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FiiO Q3 uses the highly reputed THX AAA Amplifier Technology. Previously used for the replaceable amplification module for the Q5s, FiiO this time they used it at the heart of their Q3. The fully balanced THX amp module has a patented feed-forward error correction topology paired with rigorous OP-Amp components. It helps the Q3 to achieve a powerful output capability. The Q3 also shows low distortion, rich bass, and an overall outstanding music experience.
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