Pairing and Customization

Pairing the FiiO FW3 and FW5 is simple given they turn on in pairing mode the first time you open the case and take them out. Okay, you do need to remove the plastic protectors over the pins first and let them charge completely but the point remains. You can also force them into pairing mode courtesy the physical buttons on the earphones. I had no problem getting my phone/laptop to detect both devices and now is where things get interesting in terms of codec support. FiiO has SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX Adaptive/LHDC on both with the latter being a high resolution Bluetooth codec but not commonly found on devices outside of some phones and music players. FiiO promised to test the feasibility of LDAC support on these and earlier this week, as of the date I write this review, released a beta firmware that allowed for LDAC support on the older FW5 whereas the just-released FW3 has yet to get a firmware update. I suspect it will soon get the same LDAC support once people have confirmed no connectivity issues with LDAC on the FW5—at least when it comes to phones that support Snapdragon Sound, aka newer phones. There is also multi-point connectivity on offer with up to two clients being simultaneously connected to the earphones.

[Update (June 27, 2023): FiiO has released a firmware update for the FW3 that adds LDAC support, among other things.]


The FW3 and FW5 are also supported by the FiiO Control mobile app available for both Android and iOS. Adding the devices is simple enough once they are already paired to your phone and I am showing my experience using the app with the FW5 here. The first thing I did was check for any firmware updates and, as mentioned before, the FW3 did not have any new updates at this time whereas the FW5 relied on a beta firmware available here for the LDAC connectivity. You can choose to use it or leave it as-is and wait for the official online firmware update. The home page provides a nice indicator of the battery level of both sides as well as the current firmware version and connected codec. There are also a few useful controls here including turning on/off the indicator LEDs and voice prompts, enabling a game mode that FiiO says reduces latency to under 100 ms, and choosing which Bluetooth codecs to leave on.


You also get EQ support here with three pre-programmed and three user defined presets using 10 frequency bands and +/- 12 dB of gain. I will again complain to FiiO since it claims to provide PEQ (parametric EQ) but really this is just a graphical EQ since we don't have any control over the frequency or Q-factor outside of the set 10-band EQ and the various presets on offer—this is not PEQ and claiming that the FW3/FW5 supports it is misleading to the end user. The audio menu allows accounting for any channel imbalance, choosing between one of four low pass filters on offer thanks to the standalone AKM DAC inside, as well as separately changing the earphone volume outside of the device volume itself. Do be aware that this is saved on the device so it can be good in allowing extra volume granularity as long as you remember having done this yourself. I also appreciated the separate volume control for music and calls and the built-in guide helps make the most of the two buttons even if you are not able to change what they do.


Here's what the app looks like with the newer FW3. You will notice it's pretty much the same experience as the FW5 except the firmware is brand new and the app had only just added support to the FW3 at the time of testing. So this is mostly to let people know to update the FiiO Control app in case they buy the FW3 and do not see the app supporting it.