FiiO D3 (D03K) Digital to Analog Audio Converter - 192kHz/24bit Optical and Coaxial DAC

Well, here is a quickie review on the 3rd gen D03K that may help others trying to research for specific uses. For the $$ this nice little piece is a great, fun DAC. I am a big music library fan, with a nice networked music library ripped in bit-perfect wav files. I had added a Sonos Connect (ZP90) player to my not so bad of shop stereo comprised of some great, mid-fi, mostly outdated components laying around: PSB large format bookshelf speaks, HK analog Pre/Pro, Onkyo discrete stereo amp, decent interconnects, etc. This system has a pretty nice level of fidelity to where you can hear things and I was experiencing one of the only weaknesses of Sonos, their DAC is a little disappointing when playing on higher fidelity setups where you can hear such things. The analog outs on the ancient Sony DVD unit I was using to play CDs was slaying the Sonos in SQ. Enter the FiiO unit. Set Sonos to uncompressed (if your files are lossless), fixed volume out (for full bit depth), coax digital to FiiO/analog to pre. Yes!! The result is blacker background, increased precision, tightened yet solid bass, in this case it did cure the minor dissatisfaction of listening through the onboard Sonos DAC. Since I had both Sonos/FiiO connected to the amp, asked my audiophile in training kid to do a blind A/B (I level matched between switching, so there was a 4 sec delay) he chose the FiiO every time in random selections over a several minute period. So, not saying this will beat a Benchmark, or mod the opamps to TL^%$$^ or anything like that. (it's a shop stereo man!)But it is pretty fun to enjoy a marked audio improvement with this cute, no-brainer install, under $30.00 little DAC. Sure it works great for stereo TV if the set is outputting PCM too.

It performed exactly as I hoped... which was better than I expected for my situation. So, so I setup an outdoor movie theatre for my friends and family and here was my situation: - bluray player connected to a projector via HDMI cable - speakers connected to an amp with only stero inputs and stereo outputs I needed a device to take the digital coax output from the bluray player and preferably convert it into stereo LEFT/RIGHT analog connections or at a minimum just convert it to mono to send to both speakers. I also didn't want to pay for a new amplifier or receiver to do this outside. So, I tried this device. It works great so far. It translated the PCM signal from the bluray to stereo analog signals (RCA) With the location of the player and the speakers to the listening audience, I got lucky and connected the left/right properly as I noticed when vehicles zoomed across the screen. Something I should have double checked before the movie, but it was done correctly, and showed that this little DAC worked exactly as I hoped. ** NOTE: If you're not getting sound, just check 2 things: 1. Change your sound output on the bluray player to PCM 2. Make sure the input selector (located on the bottom of the FiiO D3 is set to coaxial (not optical). I can not attest to it being great with 5.1 or 7.2 surround sound because I used it to feed the digital output from my bluray player and feed into a DAC (digital to analog converter) to make stereo sound for an outdoor movie experience (the HDMI went to the projector so I needed to get the sound out separately). In this capacity, it worked flawlessly. The sound signal appeared to be clean and pure, and I got great sound out of the speakers, which means that the components and cables in all phases went well. I bought this and another cable (a 3' from Monoprice - also has a review) in case 1 had an issue, but both worked beautifully. I expect this cable to last a long time and it works great, but I'd have no problems buying this again should I need another digital audio coax cable.

I have intentionally waited instead of rushing to write a review, wound up waiting for over 1 year. Bought this to connect a $39.99 Kodi box's (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DZOBQ6O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Toslink output to my stereo, hoping to provide reasonable good sound to the cheap-o HTPC setup. (Turned a then 7-yr old netbook into OpenELEC box, but found out it couldn't render 1080p smoothly. $40 seemed a great deal for a Kodi box!) The connected components are from the mid-90s: Conrad Johnson pre-amp, Aragon amp, Martin Logan speakers, MIT interconnects & AudioQuest speaker cables. After living with this little DAC for a year, watching many movies, TV shows & critically listening to music of various genres -- Bossa Nova, classical (symphonic, chamber, piano, aria...), jazz, vocal, Broadway, pop rock, New Tango... I would say that this unit has performed well, just not quite stellar. It's no doubt an improvement over the Kodi box's analog output -- crisper, more dynamic & much improved soundstage. Compared to my CD player's (Micromega, also from mid-90's) sound, however, it provides more presence at the expense of sounding somewhat 'bright' & induces some degree of listening fatigue. Not to the point of ruining instrument timbre, of course, but making some brass instruments and vocals sound harsher than hearing them live. I do wonder, though, if some recordings' intentionally boosted 10K-12K range (some older sound engineers' trick to make tracks sound more 'alive' on average playback systems) may be partly to blame. This DAC may have simply revealed that overcompensating flaws in the sound mastering. With that said, however, occasionally, sibilance in female voice can become overbearing -- 'Summer Samba' from Patricia Barber's 'Night Club' for example, whereas the Micromega CD player presented the sibilance just fine without drawing one's attention away the wonderful piano playing. It may seem unfair to compare this DAC to something 50X its price, but here it is anyway. 8-) I actually did hope that the past 20-yr+ of technical advancements in DAC would have made this unit at least on par with the CD player. To be fair, most recordings do sound wonderful, including remastered older analog recordings. Ella Fitzgerald's 'Nearness of You' simply oozes honey. Pretty awesome. In summary, a very impressive product for the price. I'm quite grateful that the unit allows the Kodi box (with a 3TB USB HDD attached) to become a nice sounding music server, allowing me to program 2 hours of music using my phone from the kitchen while the system is in the adjacent family room. Also, this unit is my first foray into a separate DAC unit, proving to me that perhaps any source of digital music, be it a phone, PC, Android box (with the right digital output of course) can be part of a great sound system with the aid of a modest DAC such as this unit. Maybe one day, I will upgrade to an even better DAC (by FiiO as well?) Either way, I'm keeping this little guy around. If you are looking to use your PC or Android box as a source of music playback, this unit should be on your short list!

This FiiO D3 was the last of 5 different budget-range DAC's that I purchased while setting up my new AV system...and the last one I'll ever NEED to purchase. As I described in the reviews for the other DAC's I bought, I had various issues ranging from bad interference through the speakers when the optical stream was turned off, to crackling during certain sound effects in games. I was getting frustrated because of these issues (especially as the problematic DAC's had good reviews) until I bought this FiiO D3. Immediately out of the box, the quality difference was evident. Instead of having a simple bent piece of sheet metal with a single Phillips self tapping screw holding it on, like some of the other DAC's, or a cheap molded plastic case, the FiiO has a nicely finished fully enclosed metal shell with end caps attached by machine screws, as well as flush-mounted status LED's on the top. Whether it looks like junk or not, however, is less important than whether or not it works correctly. I'm happy to report that the FiiO D3 works perfectly. There is no crackling, no interference, and no weird transient noises after the optical stream is turned off, like another of the DAC's that I had which was otherwise fine: this indicates to me that the signal conversion circuit is well isolated from the power supply circuit. Also unlike one of the other DAC's I bought, the R/L RCA outputs are not reversed, but actually output right and left stereo channels correctly. Please note that, like just about all DAC's in this price range, this device is only designed to handle conversion of a stereo signal. If you switch to 5.1, 7.1, Dolby DTS, or any other format besides stereo, you'll get an atrocious noise from your speakers and nothing else (I learned this early on with previous DAC's when my speakers happened to be turned up rather loud...it was not a good experience). Basically, the FiiO D3 is THE DAC to purchase if you need to convert optical stereo to analog stereo. It costs a few dollars more than the wide range of random off the shelf DAC's currently available on Amazon, but I find that a few extra dollars is more than worth it for a quality device that functions correctly.

I had high hopes for this DAC and it let me down a bit. I was using this for my computer in a near field listening environment and the DAC emits a slight static noise floor when audio comes through which is higher than the noise floor sans audio going through. You can actually hear the differences in noise floors between no signal (which is mostly black) compared to when audio is being played. The DAC is quiet though with no signal, this is a problem for other DACs of this size and price. Ultimately, this little guy is going in storage, it'll probably work well for a listening environment where you are several feet from your speakers or for outdoor monitors. It was under $30, you get what you pay for and it has a place for use. Outside of the aforementioned, the sound quality itself was good, good reproduction of sound, it didn't sound altered at all in my testing.

I'm new to computer audio, but I enjoy the convenience, flexibility, and potential for near-audiophile sound reproduction it promises. I simply cannot afford to drop even $350, let alone $2,000, for an external DAC. I purchased the Fiio Taishan D03 and placed it into the following system: iMac running iTunes files through a mini-Toslink to Toslink optical cable to Fiio D03, then RCA cables first to a PAC LC-1 volume control (roughly $14 on Amazon) then from there to KRK Rokit 5's (self-powered, small bookshelf-sized studio monitors) set at half-volume. Very basic, yet very capable. Result? Very satisfying sound. Period. My iTunes files include much classical, jazz, and ambient electronica music ripped at anywhere from 192 to 256 kbps to Apple lossless, and my ears appreciate a neutral, uncolored presentation. I haven't allowed for a 50-100 hour burn-in period yet, but after 25-hours or so of continuous playing the Fiio Taishan is producing beautiful music through the KRK's. I am surprised, relieved, and gratified to have found a low-cost option that lets me hear my digital music files come alive again. Even if it doesn't improve with further burn-in, at this price the Fiio Taishan is a clear-cut no-brainer for anyone with a computer storing music digitally. If the product lasts, an important void has been filled.

Streaming music from Apple TV. Connected optical output to this DAC, connected RCA out to my audio system. Works perfect! Very good sound quality, since I am using Airplay, resolution is limited to CD quality, which is fine. This little DAC performs and sounds as well as my Schiit Modi 3 DAC, which I use for USB streaming from an IPad. Very easy to install. Note: it does not come with a power supply, just a usb to mini-usb cable, which I connected to an Apple 12 watt charger, I recommend using a quality power supply as it will impact the sound quality. The Apple charger is a quality/clean 5 volt supply.

Bought this to remove computer noise from Sound Blaster Z gaming setup without using an external analog chain device, have been using ART DTI, which does a great job of removing computer noise, though it is still faintly audible and very high volumes, that said I wanted to not have it in chain and also have it available for other applications. The FIIO D3 works perfectly and easily from the sound blaster Z optical connector at 24/96 khz, passing through the Z pro studio effects with no issues (setup the digital out on Z, check pass stereo mix to digital out in the z control panel advanced features, and the default out has to still be Speakers not SPDIF-OUT only trick to it, which i found with a quick google search, if you want the pro studio processing.) It sounds cleaner and perhaps a bit more resolute that the Z on its own, but again the Z suffered from computer noise, and/or the inclusion of the ART DTI in the analog line. I could never have the Z analog by itself in my setup the noise was unlivable, my computer has a lot of stuff and usb devices, etc audio runs to a yamaha mixer and studio monitors. Setup is simple, nothing to do on the D3 except select optical or coaxial little switch on bottom. Computer noise totally eliminated, just do not try to power it from a USB port on your computer or you will get all that noise passed through to the analog outs. Using its included USB power adapter plugged into strip sound is clean, clear, and totally meets or surpasses my hope and expectation. EDIT: I meant to include that it is tiny, elegant, and solidly built. It has the air of a high-end piece of gear, and that is no exaggeration.