Normally, we don’t have anything to say about cheap earbuds. Good sound is not something you find in the budget class, but Fiio wants to do things differently with the FW3 True Wireless.
They are so cheap that it’s almost unheard of what they can achieve for the money. Fiio themselves say that they have focused on sound quality, and we understand this when we read that they have used Qualcomm’s QCC5141 Bluetooth chip, which supports Bluetooth 5.2, but that’s not all.
The earbuds can also handle LDAC, LHDC, AptX Adaptive, AptX, AAC and SBC, which means they can actually play 24-bit audio files.
In addition, the FW3 also features an AK4332 D/A converter with an amplifier chip that powers a 10 mm carbon fibre-based dynamic driver. Quite exotic, and these are specs we normally associate with much more expensive earbuds.
Unfortunately, the FW3 is not equipped with active noise cancellation at all. Fiio explains this by saying that they have focused on the best possible sound for the price, and that ANC would make the earbuds much more expensive.
The earbuds can play for seven hours and the case can deliver 14 hours of battery life, totalling 21 hours.
The Fiio Music app for iOS and Android provides access to a 10-band equaliser and the FW3 supports low-latency gaming, which promises that audio delays will be less than 100 ms.
The earbuds have small, physical buttons to control the sound and answer calls, and the aforementioned app also allows for balance adjustment, audio codec selection and four filter setups for those who want to customise the sound as much as possible.
The price is listed at 110 euros, which seems extremely reasonable to us. We will definitely be testing the FW3 as soon as we get our hands on a pair.
