FiiO FH3

FiiO FH3 is the newest product from FH series by FiiO, it uses 1DD and 2BA per channel. It is priced at 149USD.

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Packaging

FiiO FH3 comes in a well designed, pretty big box. Fiio always treat the customer with a lot of accessories, and it’s no different with FH3. Inside you can find two cases (soft and hard), four types of tips, standard LC-B cable and obviously the FH3 earphones.

Cable

The stock cable is a standard FiiO LC-B terminated with 3,5mm jack using MMCX connectors. For me it is slightly too stiff and too heavy, but it has very strong standoffs, so I haven’t noticed any slipping out of the ear or discomfort when listening to the IEMs.

Build quality

FiiO did an excellent job with the build quality of these. They feel a little bit cheaper than the FH5, but that’s understandable looking at the price difference. Anyway, they’re nice to the touch, become warm very quickly thanks to the full metal construction. I also like the fact that they removed the shiny frame, they are more discreet looking now. Overally, these are very well made and are quite solid.

Comfort

FiiO FH3 offers a very high level of comfort, they have longer nozzles than FH5, but a little shorter than F9 Pro so they may be better for a lot of people. The only inconvenience I see are stiff standoffs which can disturb people with large ears or glasses users.

Sound

Damn, that’s good. In my opinion, FiiO killed FH5 by releasing FH3, unless the latter is too bassy for your personal taste. The sound signature is very enjoyable, I think I can call them natural with rich bass and high musicality level. Everything is very luscious with very good holography but a narrow soundstage. They are gentler in presenting texture compared to Shozy Form1.1.

The bass is powerful. It is very deep, especially lower and mid bass, the higher part is recessed a little. It is also greatly elastic, it’s jumping in the ears, so for some that might be too much, especially with warm sources like DX160 or Zen Dac. The best option for me is something like FiiO BTR5 or Q5s, holography regains the boost and bass isn’t that clamant. In my opinion, it easily adapts to the music you’re listening to, therefore they are very universal in this regard.

The midrange is full of life, that’s the best words to describe it The main part is set relatively far away, compared to Meze Rai Solo and Shozy Form 1.1. In my opinion, that’s really great, sound might run away from the head. The detail retrieval is first class. There isn’t any sharpness, but it also doesn’t smoothen that hard, I think that part may please fans of both options.

Treble doesn’t have any sign of dryness, it is even gently sweetened. It is more delicate than FH1s, also more detailed. It doesn’t sibilate and is not overly bright on the stock cable. I didn’t try them on the other cable, but I heard that FiiO LC-C is spot-on for more visible treble. But don’t get me wrong, treble is not missing, it is just delicate to listen to.

The soundstage is relatively narrow, but as for its width, it reproduces the depth and height well. I think it is on a barely lower level than the FiiO FH1s, but for this price anyway, it’s pretty good. On some sources, the scene was slightly unarranged, unprecise. FiiO products and Shanling M6 have produced good results from the tested sources.

Summary

FiiO FH3 provides one of the best price to performance ratio I’ve heard. Very enjoyable sound, good imaging, a rich set of accessories, but they definitely need to match the source. For me, neutral or natural sources are the best option, but these earphones are very source dependent, that’s why they will sound differently regarding what source you’re gonna be using to drive them.

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Gear used during this review for the sake of comparison and as an accompanying equipment:

• Earphones– Shozy Form1.1, FiiO FH1s, FiiO FH5, Ikko OH10, Kinera Idun, Final Audio E3000, Kinera Freya, Bqeyz Spring 1
• Source – DX3 Pro, Hip-Dac, iBasso DX160, FiiO M11, FiiO BTR5, Shanling M6