Fiio D3 - Page 10

As far as I know most laptops have combined the S/PDIF out into the 3.5mm analog out port.

If already has a toslink to toslink cable then he needs one of these and it's called optical plug to mini jack (~2$)

Otherwise look for one of these called optical to mini cable (price depend on length, but 6ft ~3-5$)

 

But make sure your laptop actually HAS the optical out!

The 3.5mm analog out port will look like this (read: the led inside the port) if it indeed has an optical out.

Edited by lagittaja - 10/20/12 at 2:37pm

Interesting. Thanks for the replies. Anyway i just bought an E10 for my desktop, the D3 was for my father who has a laptop with no digital or coax outputs....

Hey I almost forgot this little thing exists! But now I'm thinking...

 

Guys, what do you think would be better: D3 + E11 or E17? Considering I only need optical (not USB) and portability isn't a major requirement. The D3/E11 combo is actually cheaper!

So far I am very impressed with the D03K- it has replaced my Audio-gd NFB-15.1 DAC section (sold), feeding my SA-31 amp. No background noise being fed both coax and optical. I cannot think of money better spent at this point in my audio journey.

Realized I haven't put my D3 in between the chain of the audio-Gd DI and the tube headphone amp to test it out.. Really an amazement, it sounded very good! Clean, neutral, no added colour but improved imaging and slight airiness.. No previous high end DAC to compare to but a XiangSheng DAC which has always given me very faithful sounds I thought.. D3 loses out slightly only on soundstage but the better and cleaner imaging left me very comfortable!

Mine was the V2 with gold-plated connectors that supposedly was the worse amongst the lot.. Even using with the supplied power adapter (zero noise until amp was cranked up to 3pm), it just doesn't sound as bad as the few differences could be.. At $30+, I just have to salute its capability for this price point.. Maybe I will get the D03K in the near future to compare and mod the opamp for a more significant audio difference.. But seriously at this level, it will so hard for me to spend many folds more on any other DAC for now for upgraded sounds that will be many folds better than this..

And 24/192 has no problem on my set up with Win7 x64..

For who has a laptop that does not have an optical output, you can use -

Syba USB Sound Card with Mini Digital Optical (SPDIF) Output Sound Cards SD-AUD20101

I got it from Amazon and it worked!

Syba sound card only gets 24/96, but the sound quality is good with D3.

 

 I connect it  to IBM Think pad T41 USB to D3 using

Optical Toslink to Toslink Mini Fiber Optic Gold Plated Digital Cable - 12 feet  

Also got it from Amazon.

 

T41 is running lubuntu 12.04.

 

Connect D3 to T-amp to Ess AMT-1D, sounds great.

 

Connect Panasonic CD player to D3 via coaxial cable, it sounds clean and improved details.
 

Wow, that's minimal to maximal, I like that- I used to have ESS speakers.

I just bought the D3 to connect my TV to a Fiio E5 headphone amp via the optical out. The TVs headphone out had a hiss when fed through the amp so I needed an alternative. Unfortunately the D3 I received has gold connectors, so I assume that means it's the V2 variety. It does remove the hiss (with the proved AC adapter), but I'm not sure about the sound quality. Is there any music or audio that would highlight the failings of the V2? Or would I be best just returning it and looking for a D3K model?

my fiio d03k came in from micca today and i am extremely impressed! the sound is so clear and transparent with my schiit asgard using my ps3. definitely a winner in my books.

 

Does it have a loud background noise? I can hear it pretty well.

 

nope. i don't hear any kind of noise at all. i even tried turning the asgard volume dial past twelve o'clock and no noise at all!

Got a new D03k for christmas to replace my original D3. I think the sound may be slightly better (not sure tho), but it does not have the problem the original one did. The older one would make a crackling sound when my optical was set to 192KHz, and my new one does not. I'm still thinking of switching the opamp inside the old one. Dont want to break it tho. Also I never had background noise with either one.

 

side note: i'm glad they changed the layout of the rca outs. having the power and optical in both on the same side means no more wires wrapping around awkwardly.

Do you guys use it with high impedance headphones? Maybe it's an impedance matter? I'm using with with low impedance iems.
 

i've been using the ad900x which is rated at 38 ohm. noise starts to kick in if i turn the asgard volume dial past 1 o'clock. but honestly no one should even turn a volume dial past 10 o'clock unless they want to go deaf or have a very low volume source.