INTRODUCTION

   Although to many people the arrival of the very first smartphones just over a decade ago signified the end of portable music players in my book no smartphone can beat a dedicated high-end music player that can easily surpass the audio performance of even the highest end models. Fortunately although most of the establish manufacturers have left this particular segment of the electronics industry (SONY is among the very few who still haven't and has a good lineup currently in the market) several new ones have emerged in the recent years and so if you're in the market for a high-end music player things couldn't get much better than they are today. FiiO is one such manufacturer and since their audio devices have gathered a huge number of awards both from print and online media today we decided to take a look at their recently released and budget friendly M3K Portable High Resolution Music Player.

   FiiO was established in 2007 and has experience in researching and developing countless portable music products of different types, and sell FiiO-branded products through sales agents worldwide. The brand name FiiO is composed of Fi (fidelity from HiFi) and iO (number 1&0), representing the real feeling and convenient life that digital brings to life. Meanwhile, the Chinese “飞傲” is the transliteration of FiiO, indicating the positive and innovative spirit as thriving as spring. FiiO designs, produces and sells high-quality products at favorable prices to those who love music and style; our high-resolution digital audio players, portable headphone amplifiers, DACs and earphones have all received praise from the majority of users. Several products from FiiO have created record sales in their respective product segments and have received countless awards including iF Design Award, Reddot Award, EISA Award, VGP Award, etc. FiiO places great importance on users' needs and ceaselessly pursues perfection in product design and manufacturing, to supply users with the best audio products at the best prices. FiiO is focused on product quality, adheres strictly to ISO9001 standards in quality management and works hard to attain the lowest repair-related product returns rate.

   The M3K Portable High Resolution Music Player by FiiO (currently available in silver and black) features the low-power X1000E dedicated IoT Processor by Ingenic (MIPS-Based XBurst cores clocked at 1GHz with 64MB LPDDR) which also allows it to be used as a USB DAC (digital output and converter to analog by external circuit) with support for audio sample rates of up to 192kbps/24 bits (SNR: 95dB A-Weighted, THD: -80dB @FS-1dB) and the AK4376A advanced DAC (32-bit with integrated headphone amplifier - 25mW @ 32 Ohm / 42mw @ 16 Ohm) by ASAHI KASEI MICRODEVICES which supports a maximum sampling frequency/resolution of 384 kHz/32-bit (PCM input) with an SNR of 125dB and -107dB distortion (THD+N). The M3K also supports a wide range of audio formats (MP3/WMA/WAV/FLAC/OGG/APE/AIFF/M4A/ALAC/ISO/DFF/DSF) and features an aluminum body with a tempered glass top cover, 2-inch 240x320p IPS screen, five sets of capacitive touch buttons, high fidelity microphone, micro SD card slot with support for cards up to 2TB in capacity (that is when they get released) and an 1100mAh lithium-ion internal rechargeable battery pack thanks to which it can go non-stop for a total of 24 hours (has a standby time of up to 38 days).