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.įor those IEMs, I strongly recommend either Samsung's or Apple's dongle, witch have silent background and enough power. It might sound good with certain IEMs and it's definitely good with the 4XX, but it screws up with the FH3's amazing region between ~500Hz down to the mid bass (mid bass is where the low-shelf was supposed to begin IMHO) If I had to guess, I'd say the low-shelf now begins at 400Hz. With the Q3, I feel it's a little bit more refined but still exaggerated to my taste. The bass gain was stupid in the Q1 mk2, not in a matter of being an exaggerated gain, but it feels like the low-shelf starts at 500Hz, because a lot of frequencies are amplified instead of just the bass.Also, with the addition of the 4.4mm output, there's no line out anymore.With the Q1 mk2 we had a dedicated 3.5mm line out/ input, which was replaced by the 4.4mm pentacom in the Q3 That way, you can only use balanced outputs. 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.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).The gain switch is not a switch anymore, it's a button, so there's no way to tell the current gain (high or low) unless you directly look at the button, which has an indicating green led. ![]() Also, the switch to toggle charging on/ off is very welcome, as you can control if the host device will charge the Q3, so you can avoid draining a phone's battery, for example.It has more options for balanced output, having a 2.2mm and a 4.4mm pentacom connectors, in addition to the 3.5mm unbalanced one.USB C was an important upgrade over the Q1 mk2.Distortion in high volumes feels lower than with the Q1, but it could be placebo as I don't have the equipment to measure this.It has slightly more power than the Q1 mk2, noticeable when I use it with the 4XX.This ensures there's no channel unbalance, which is a common thing when the signal passes through a potentiometer, specially with low volumes In this case, there's a potentiometer but the analog audio signal doesn't pass through it, it's encoded to digital and then the digital value is used to control the output volume. It has digital volume control, just like the Q1 mk2, which is a must have for me.Well, ok, now that I've shared my disappointment, let me tell you about the good things: It has very low amplitude but it's there and you can hear it, to my disappointment.Įven with the Q1 mk2 the noise was lower, almost unnoticeable, but with the Q3 I don't even had to look for it, it was right there. As soon as I turned it on and connected the IEM I was able to hear the white noise in the background. The problem started when I tested it with my Fiio FH3 during the night, when everything else was quiet. I'll be honest and right away tell you I'm a little disappointed!Įverything 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. It arrived yesterday and I stayed the night testing it with multiple IEMs and my Hifiman HE-4XX. I bought the Fiio Q3 in order to replace my old and loved Q1 mk2, which I was using almost every day.
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