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

Cheap hideaway solution for DA converting with low noise.

With this dac i switched from the internal Sony tv dac to this small external dac. Its solid and looks good. The sound improved. No more clipping and the sound is more clear. I cannot hear the difference anymore on my hifi speakers between the chromecast audio dac and this one. I guess the quality is similar.

After using this product (almost daily) for the last 6 months, this is without a doubt - an excellent stereo DAC.As the description and product photos mention, this device can connect unidirectionally from:1. Digital In - Either Optical or Coaxial cable on one end to2. Analog Out - Both Standard 3.5mm (headphones or old 2.1 audio systems) and AV audio on the other end.The old speakers of my 2.1 Audio system could only connect via 3.5mm jack -- because the 3.5mm Output port was not present on the LED TV. Since the LED TV had Optical Audio Out, I interconnected a Digital Optical Audio cable (purchased separately) from the TV end with the 3.5mm jack (from Audio system) using this product and confirmed that the switch on the DAC is set to 'Optical input' in my case.After connecting the DAC, it needed a couple of minor confirmations on TV Software side (actual process differs based on TV manufacturer hence only describing generic steps below):1. Confirm Digital Audio Out in your TV's Sound Settings is set to either: Auto or PCM as this DAC supports PCM only.2. Switch on both TV and Audio system, play any random audio and listen for any lag/echo between the two systems. You may need to manually adjust PCM delay until both sounds seem to merge.After confirming above settings on the TV software side, the resulting audio sounded flawless from both the TV and speakers simultaneously. Audio was perfectly in sync between both systems.Since no power adapter is provided (only USB cable provided), any basic 1Amp power adapter can work. Luckily, the DAC can even be powered by the TV itself (just confirm if TV USB Connection is 1Amp; anything less may lead to static noise heard in audio system)Delivery was prompt (as per scheduled date), packaging was perfectly done and build quality is top-notch. After an initial setup requiring 5 mins, I've almost forgotten about the mini-DAC in the ensuing months.

I'm not a trained audiophile, but I've been around high-quality audio gear enough to know great HiFi from not. Both my systems are driven by "old school" 2-channel analog integrated amps. Back in the day we called them "stereos", and they remain the go-to for modern day audiophiles to get the best music reproduction possible. For years now, TVs have lacked the required analog output to connect to traditional stereo receivers. You were expected to choose between a soundbar or beefy surround-sound receiver that included HDMI or digital inputs to get better sound. So what are the rest of us analog geeks to do? Your HDTV is probably capable of processing better-than-CD quality sound, so why would you run that through a soundbar if you could do better?While I have a high-quality "audiophile grade" DAC on my main system to solve this problem, I didn't want to spend that kind of dough on my basement system and assumed I was, therefore, out of luck enjoying a movie in all its soundtrack glory down there.Then I stumbled on the FiiO D3. It sells itself (no more and no less) as the exact solution to my problem: take that digital audio - or TOSLINK - output that's included on most TVs and often your only option outside of HDMI, and turn it into a left/right analog line-out for your amp/receiver. But can something in the $35 (CDN) ballpark actually sound any good?Yes, it really does. For context, my downstairs system is no slouch. I have an Arcam FMJ A19 integrated amp driving a set of Paradigm floorstander speakers. I tested the FiiO using both CD (via Blu-ray player) and Apple TV music and movie sources and was impressed by its full soundstage, crisp highs and deep lows. I didn't detect any untoward noise or harshness.One of my favourite perks (which it shares with its closest rivals) is it's USB-powered. While some competitors are even cheaper, they lack a power supply while the FiiO D3 includes a small "wall wart" AC adapter. However, if you are like me and loath plugging yet another power-sucking wall wart into your home, you can most likely power the FiiO directly from an available USB port on your TV - another common feature on all but the cheapest sets.I plugged my FiiO directly into my Panasonic plasma's USB port, which is actually rated a slightly lower amperage than the included AC adapter, connected a TOSLINK optical cable to the TV's digital out, and powered-up the TV. The FiiO came right up and displayed the red power and blue "lock" LEDs. The latter tells you that it's getting a proper digital stream from the TV. Be sure to set your TV's audio options to "PCM" or "Stereo". The important part is avoiding any Dolby surround-sound enabled output because the FiiO won't decode it. If your TV won't let you do this, there's a good chance you can disable Dolby surround at the source: i.e Apple TV, Blue-ray, or other devices will often have this option.This little box isn't built to take a beating. Its build-quality does not exceed its price. But in fairness, this is really a "set and forget" device that will sit behind your entertainment unit and do the one job it was born to do. And it does it very well.

Tardonu poco en llegar pero da excelente resultado en audio.

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.

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.

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.