Closer Examination

The cable that comes with the FiiO FD3 is pretty good in its own right, beginning with a 90° angled 3.5 mm TRS adapter with gold-plating for oxidation resistance and a plastic cover for protection when not used. The conductor consists of 120 wires of Litz Type 2 monocrystalline copper braided in four strands and what appears to be PU insulation. There is the expected splitter with the FiiO logo, and a cable cinch in a black finish with a silver trim on either side. The cable then splits into two strands per channel, and closer to the source is where we see a transparent plastic sheath for durability and to retain the memory wire configuration for the cable to naturally fit around and over your ears. Physically connecting the ear buds is an expanded MMCX connector on each end, housed inside a see-through case with blue and red rings to denote the left and right channels. I would have preferred 2-pin connectors myself, but there is still a use case for MMCX paired with a removal tool as compared to some 2-pin cables that can bend the pins easily. The FD3 Pro kicks things up a notch with an 8-strand silver-plated copper core that also comes with the interchangeable connectors we saw on the FH5s stock cable, which alone makes the FD3 Pro worth consideration. The FD3 cable also tangles up more than I'd like, although it is easy to untangle, so perhaps the 8-strand cable with the FD3 Pro will do better there, too.


Aside from the black and gold color scheme on my sample, which again is one of two color options available with the FD3, not much is similar between the design of the FiiO FD3 and FH5s we saw before. The FD3 is much smaller and has more of a spherical form factor, especially with the circular face plate here. There is also the use of a 2.5D (as in curved) glass cover over the face plate, which has also been used on the FiiO BTR5 portable DAC/amp and for better or worse takes inspiration from the mobile phones of today. The shells are made out of an aluminium-magnesium alloy that gets CNC machined, milled, polished, and then PVD-coated for that glossy finish which looks and feels premium in hand. We also see matching blue and red accents on the ear buds indicate the left (blue) and right (red) channels similar to those on the cable itself.


The face plate is where things get more artistic again, with the use of celluloid panels that result in unique patterns on each ear bud. It's still a set of black and white specks behind the glass cover, and we see a FiiO logo on the glass for branding. The trim is a yellow gold color, but can appear rose gold in some lighting situations. Then we get to the shells themselves, which end up looking like a thick puck or even kettlebell owing to the rear cavity that is distinct from the shell and hosts the MMCX connector, enabling the FD3 to be semi-open IEMs courtesy the openings in the rear cavity. This should help with pressure equalization similar to what we saw with the FH5s, which should help with listening fatigue with a tight seal, but also makes me want to do the same long burn-in just in case there's any change/improvement to the sound signature over time. The acoustic chamber terminates in an aluminium nozzle with a notch to secure the ear tips in place, and at the end is a mesh filter to prevent contaminants from entering the chamber.


Remember those sound tube accessories? The tube, which is the nozzle here, can actually be unscrewed from the shell and is replaceable with the other provided set. The default one, at least on my unit, has a red O-ring help secure it and is of a smaller inner diameter than the replacement black tube with a slightly larger inner diameter. What this results in, at least as FiiO puts it, is a "robust bass" for the red tube and "detailed treble" for the black one, which we will test and confirm for ourselves, and I will also say that you need to take care nothing enters the acoustic chamber when doing so.


Fitting the balanced ear tips is easier, and the size M balanced tips are installed by default. The vocal and bass tips have a smaller bore, so you need to stretch them over the nozzle and push down until they fit all around. Even so, these are obviously a tighter fit, as evident in the photos above. The memory foam tips are easy enough to install as the bore is barely smaller than the nozzle's outer diameter and you just have to shape it once done. Depending on which of the four types of tips you go with, the next step is to re-connect the cable by carefully pushing the MMCX connectors back in place. The TRS connector then goes to your source, which in this case is the new K3 we will go over on the next page.


Before we do, here is a look at the two available color options of the FiiO FD3. These are photos from FiiO directly, and I think I prefer how the silver one looks.