Fiio X3 DAC vs Airport Express

[Jonathan Cox]

So background I play both Spotify premium and AIFF through ITunes from iPhone to AEX which is connected with a QED profile to my analogue only amp so AEX been doing DACing. Now have the Fiio between the 2 via mini toslink to optical cable and have been switching between the two setups this evening. Sorry Fiio is D3 not X3!

Without going on too much I could distinguish a difference but I'm talking about around 1 to 5% only. I found I actually preferred the sound without the Fiio on about 60 to 70 percent of my music but differences were minute. Looking at my whole setup could it be that it's not revealing enough ( I don't think so) or simply is the DAC in the AEX very good?

End result Fiio and cables bought for it are going back but I'm glad I tried it. Will abate my tinkering for now and save up for a turntable.

 

[davedotco]

I have used exactly the same setups, my AEX is an early dual band 'plug in' and I bought the D3 for convenience. Differences are, as you say, minimal. Mostly I ended up using the D3 for my Tivo, primarily for talk radio.

Whilst I was in the mood I tried several other comparisons too, quite informally. Both the AEX and the Fiio sounded 'sweeter' than a Dacmagic 2 which sounded 'grainy' in comparison. The rDac sounded noticably less good, fat, bloated bass being the most obvious issue.

I also, on a separate occasion borrowed a Benchmark Dac 1 which was superior to everything I tried, including the Behringer UCA202. The surprising thing was just how close the cheap dacs were to the Benchmark. If you left the room to make a cup of tea say, there is no way you could tell which was playing on your return.

There are undoubtably differences in dacs, even good ones, but I firmly believe this is a result of deliberate voicing or in many cases, simple level differences.