CONCLUSION

   As far back as i can remember i really enjoyed listening to music while both away and at home so i always had the best music players I could afford. Just like most people growing up in the 80's and 90's i started by changing several cassette players up until the moment i replaced them with two portable CD players (one was a waterproof Philips model which I still have stashed someplace) which in turn got replaced by a minidisk player (SONY MZ-R501 model - still alive and kicking) which in time got also replaced by several low/mid-end MP3/MP4 players. Still although I’ve had my share of mid/high-end smartphones over the years I’ve never owned a high-end music player and so the M3K by FiiO is actually the very first of its kind to land in my hands. Now i have to admit that at first we were all somewhat skeptical because honestly we were expecting FiiO to send one of their highest-end models over to make sure we'd be impressed but after spending 2 weeks with the M3K i admit that it surpassed not only our expectations but also most of the smartphones we had here at the time of the review (for this review we used the Apple iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S7/S8 and Huawei P9/P9 Lite with the Galaxy S8 sounding perhaps – I think that’s subjective - slightly better than the M3K) in terms of audio performance. Now as I already mentioned we can't compare the M3K to another dedicated music player since to date it's the only one to find its way here but at least when compared to our smartphones the difference was for the most part quite obvious (of course if all goes well this will just be the first of many reviews to come). On top of that let’s not forget that you can also use the M3K as a USB DAC (soundcard) and although it lacks the plethora of settings we usually find with soundcard software again i was impressed with its audio performance (although we used our three headphones for all tests and not speakers). As for battery life we couldn’t hit 24 hours with the volume almost maxed out but we did hit 21 and even that is a great number for a very compact music player. Unfortunately we would had liked to see Bluetooth connectivity along with several other features like bass boost, gain control and why not even a larger display but at this price range we know we’d be asking for much.

   We’ve pointed out several times in this review that the FiiO M3K is an affordable Portable High Resolution Music Player but just how much does it cost? Well currently you can find the M3K for just USD69.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 64Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) and honestly we didn’t expect its price tag to be that low. Bottom line the M3K Portable High Resolution Music Player by FiiO may be far from their top of the line model but it should make most people (including audiophiles) very happy with its audio performance and build quality and that’s is why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Aluminum Housing / Tempered Glass Cover)
- Audio Performance
- 2 Inch IPS Screen
- USB DAC Function
- Supported Audio Formats (MP3/WMA/WAV/FLAC/OGG/APE/AIFF/M4A/ALAC/ISO/DFF/DSF)
- 1100mAh Rechargeable Battery (Up To 24 Hours Of Playback)
- Capacitive Touch Buttons
- Supports Micro SD Cards Up To 2TB In Capacity
- Available Colors (Silver / Black)
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Available Features (Compared To Higher End Models)