It has been quite a while since I have used a FiiO music player, the last being the X1 1st gen and with the audiophile scene being too competitive as of date forced companies to follow the traditional smartphone trend of releasing different lines of products annually. One of these recent releases of FiiO is the M3K music player, sent in as a loaner review unit from Holysai Thailand (FiiO’s official distributor) in exchange for an honest review, there were no monetary factors involved. The FiiO M3K is priced at $70 worldwide and 2,490baht in Thailand. You can check it out off Holysai’s official website.
Specifications and Packaging
FiiO M3k Spec sheet:
- SoC (Main processor): Ingenic X1000E
- DAC: AK4376A
- Screen: 2.0 inch IPS display
- Operation: touchpad + capacitive touch buttons
- Dimensions: 90.8mm x 44.2mm x 12mm
- Weight: 77.5g
- Charging time: <2.5hours (DC5V/2A charger)
- Battery life: >24hours
- Standby time: >38days
- Battery: 1100mAh lithium-ion polymer battery
- Storage: micro-SD card (supports up to 2TB)
- Power output: >25Mw (32
- Frequency Response: 5Hz-90kHz (-3Db)
- SNR: >117Db (A-weighted)
- Output Impedance: <1 (32 load)
- Recommended drive loads: 16-100
- THD + N: 0.004%(1kHz/32)
- Noise floor: <2uV
Build quality, User Interface and Handling
With an all-aluminum body and tempered glass combo, the FiiO M3K right off the bat makes its owner engage a premium feel for just $70. The curved sides also aids for easier handling along with a the silicon case which I preferred to use rather than a bare M3K as it still retains some sharp edges along the top and bottom sides. The front of the M3K is where the tempered glass takes its abode which supports the 5 touch pad controls which has white backlights (next/previous track, confirmation, back, and menu keys). Underneath the tempered glass front too is the 2 inch IPS display which gets bright (10 levels) enough when I used it outdoors, there were some struggle with it however it was when the sun is fully out which is where the alternate capacitive touch buttons (lock/unlock, volume up/down and pause/play) plays it role. The decision to place all the capacitive touch buttons on the left side of the M3K worked great for a right handed guy like me and I hope it would work well with a left-handed individual as well.Stability and Connectivity
There were zero instances of UI freezes, sudden shutdown, track stoppage encountered with the M3K when I had it with me which is praiseworthy enough and hits that “raising the reputation of Made in China” aspirations that FiiO has, it’s still possible though that minor UI stability issues will occur which all electronic device eventually encounter every now and then. The stability aspect of the M3K gets an excellent thumbs up for me.Sound Quality and Battery Life
The FiiO M3K supports almost all the lossless formats such as APE, AIFF, FLAC, WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, ALAC, ISO, DFF and DSF. It also made the move to get Hi-Res certification for the user’s peace of mind and for what’s worth, that’s cool. With all the formalities out of the way, the FiiO M3K sounded clean and almost clinical for the duration that I had it me, the clarity of delivery for each frequency is rendered exceptionally with no noticeable changes in tonality. If your mobile phone (assuming the $70 target market) is heavily leaning towards either the warm or bright signature, the FiiO M3K indeed offers a fresh musical experience than you are used to. I wouldn’t recommend the M3K for those looking for specific sonic changes in either the low end, midrange or high frequencies. A different story altogether if you are looking for an affordable clarity-based music player.With an advertised battery life of 24 hours, FiiO indeed meant business with the M3K. For the full month that I had the M3K, I was only able to charge it 3 times! 1 tried pushing the M3K to its limits by charging it at 100% and by playing a 16/44 track until either reaching a battery drain or getting it to warm, getting too warm came 1st at almost 8 hour non-stop audio playback and still managed to clock in at 34% battery status. That’s already an impressive showing although I still believe battery life is still relative to the user’s musical preference and usage behavior. How the M3K performed without issues from its UI flow and battery life performance further reinforces the fact the FiiO is indeed going the right way.
Conclusion