Fiio FW3 Review

mmorpg.com:

Fiio has been expanding its catalog over the last few years, and last year, we looked at its first pair of true wireless earbuds with the FW5 . We liked them, but at $135 ( now $125 ), they were still out of reach for many listeners. The Fiio FW3 is the answer to that, promising high-res listening, good battery life, a comfortable fit, and a nearly identical appearance for only $79.99. 

The sub-$100 market is more crowded than ever, and the FW3 isn’t without its trade-offs, but it manages to be a good value where it matters most: sound quality.

Current Price: $79.99 ( AliExpress ) 

At a glance, you might not be able to tell the difference between the Fiio FW3 and the more expensive FW5. There’s a good reason for that: in an effort to keep prices as affordable as possible, the company re-used the same molds as the FW5. They’re not exactly the same, however. The FW3 uses a metallic coating on the faceplate, so even though it’s entirely made of plastic, they look like they could be made of milled aluminum, similar to the FD5 . 

The effort to keep costs low while maintaining sound quality is present throughout its design. Both models maintain the same QCC5141 Bluetooth DAC and AK4332 amplifier, but the FW3 simplifies the driver configuration to a single dynamic driver per side. The FW5 included two balanced armatures per side for a hybrid design, similar to what we’ve seen in many wired IEMs. The FW3 is aimed at the mainstream listener who isn’t likely to care about the drivers in their earbuds as long as they sound good. By shifting to a single driver per side (carbon fiber versus diamond-like carbon in the FW5, the same as found in the FH15 ), Fiio was also able to shift to a lower-cost PCB. Likewise, the packaging is also