One of the dopest albums of all time FACT.
4 Likes
^ true dat
Sooooo I suddenly have a Fiio Q3 DAC/AMP on the way to me. A friend of mine is giving it to me cause heās moving on from IEM and into headphones so heās upgrading to better gear and he knew Iām into IEMs. Anything I should know about DAC and AMPS? 4.4mm or 2.5mm for my FD5? Feels sudden to have this come into my hands. 
3 Likes
Nice score!!
God friend you got 
Bass boost switch is pretty well done and can spare you messin with EQ if you feel like going into fun mode justā¦flip the switch
3 Likes
Yeah, he told me he didnāt felt the need to sell it or put it in the corner somewhere so he rather give it to me so I can make use of it.
I guess I got a decent DAC! Didnāt know thereās a bass switch! Will definitely play around with it. Should be fun to try connect it to my M1 macbook and listen through apple music. I was always curious to know how a DAC/AMP works and how it sounds like since I only have the NW-A55 with me.
2 Likes
@hawaiibadboy What tip and nozzle config did you end up using when you did your music testing on the FD3? Kinda curious if you ended up with a similar setup to what i am now using.
1 Like
Stock nozzle and spinfit CP100 tips(?)
I havenāt fully settled down on my selection, but right now I am leaning towards the replacement nozzle the one with the black O-ring and Azla crystal tips or maybe the stock Vocal ones.
I was mainly curious when I was reading your very long description under the tags and saw the xelastec tips mentioned.
Just tried the FiiO FD3ā¦with PROFESSIONAL CABLES
heh
Well my thoughts are kind of likeā¦theyāre decent. Just very decent. Like a Bā¦as in it can play my stuff with some balanced enjoyment. But then it can be a tad too warm for me at times to really feel well balanced actually.
The search for greatness at cheaper prices continues! Mele?
MELE?!
MELE!!!
Have a nice day 
8 Likes
Nice friend, make sure to pay him a beer next time!
Funny story. 3 months ago I bought an A105 and a Q3 to stacked them. Didnt knew jackshit about it, so this feels familiar. Gonna give you some tips about it:
- 4.4mm and 2.5mm are exactly the same. I prefer 4.4mm any day of the week just because its more robust and solid, soundwise is the same,they are balanced. VS non balanced (3.5mm), the difference is usually the power output only. With 98% of iems it wont make a difference to you, will only matter for some demanding pairs, especially headphones and earbuds with high impedance.
- If you want to try different sound signatures, you can stack them. Q3 has a charging switch, so you turn that off to not drain battery. You need a cable tho. My A105 was usb-c but A55 has a proriatery plug, so you need to search around the web for a cable from sonyās to type C.
- If you dont know already, theres a firmware upgrade from Mr. Walkman to turn your A55 even better!
- As HBB said, the bass switch is amazing if you need it, since itās an hardware switch and not just EQ style software processing. I never used it tho because at the time I was running FD5 which has already more than enough bass for me.
I ended up hating A105. The only reason I got it was the price + android since I sometimes use streaming services. The battery sucked (<6/8h) and I wasnt a fan at all. Maybe the story was different if I had the A55. A105 doesnt let you install a firmware or bypass the volume cap. I returned both and got a Shanling M3X and never looked back. Gotta say I liked the Sonyās and Fiioās (I also own BTR5) sound signature.
3 Likes
On my headphones (he400i 2020 and hd6xx), plugging into balanced improves the sound (more tight and separated). I even have the feeling the sound is better out of my es100 on balanced than single ended out off my topping dx3 pro.
For iems though, I didnāt notice any difference.
1 Like
Well, there shouldnt be a difference, as far as I know, in most of the cases. If you hear a difference, itās because thereās a sound descrepancy between the A/B - it needs to be measure to know how much dbs are you outputting, and this is why iām buying a measuring mic.
There can be differences tho, if the AMP/DAC is using different chips for balanced and SE.
Oh and also cables. If your balanced cable is well built and your SE cable sucks, that might be an explanation.
But in 99% of cases (portable sources) they use one of the same chips for SE and both for BAL output
My M3X can do dual dac on SE, altho I run everything and their mother as 4.4mm so I dont have to think about it
Yeah I know that, but I never bothered getting the gear to measure all these things 
. Especially for eventually expressing a personal preference.
I didnāt test that claim thoroughly either, I must admit.
That being said, I consider the hd6xx and the he400i to be power-hungry headphones. Especially the Hifiman, whose numbers, I discovered, can be deceptive. I have to precise that for me, being power-hungry isnāt defined solely on the volume you get from a certain output level.
1 Like
Just to nitpick: having the same chip doesnāt mean having the same sound. I donāt recall where I read this, but someone estimated the effect of a chip to be 70% on the sound. The rest being implementation.
2 Likes
The integration/selection of LPF and Amp stage can have subtle but audible impact.
The warmist most musical DAP i ever heard is Calyx M which has a Sabre chip.
Famous for Sabre glare/
Total BS made up by reviewers and parroted by everyone who came after.
Calyx is ver much without glare 
1 Like
Sound difference between SE and Bal is mostly if the amp is a balanced architecture and SE is only added for conveniences sake like the LP or modius
1 Like
Honestly i mostly like the increased power headroom that often comes in balanced mode.
Thatās about the only reason I use it.
Powerā¦like moneyā¦
rather have much more than i need than cut it close
4 Likes