FiiO FT3 headphones review - a powerful debut

[@PortaFi]

Just in case - I know who is the vocalist of Mercyful Fate ;)

[@michaelbytner9346]

And now?

[@diana73654]

hahaha /,,/

[@arthurhaywood2184]

I think that you’re undersell these a bit. When you consider their performance and the accompanying accessories, they’re a bargain. One correction is that the resistance on the FT3 is 350 Ohms. As far as burn-in is considered, I would recommend 45 to 60 hours. On thing worth mentioning is that the back of the driver seems to be relatively heavily damped so sound leakage is greatly reduced as compared with traditional open backs. It might be interesting to play around with that damping. Great value!

[@PortaFi]

Thank you for a correction, mind just used "more widespread" figure. I'm pretty sure that there will be lot of different mods, as FT3 is relatively cheap, and getting more for less money will be a motivator for "explorers" :)

[@jackfein8914]

Lol I was making a joke to my brother saying “there is one review for the Fiio ft3 and I can barely understand him” he said “that’s how you know he knows what he’s talking about” so I bought the Fiio ft3.

[@PortaFi]

Congratulations with your purchase, and best wishes to you and your brother!

[@davelyew4645]

Porta always have excellent reviews but you have to be wide awake for them. Between his relaxing voice and background music it can lull you to a feeling of zen then sleep. 😅 I too ordered one after watching his review to pair with the Fiio R7 dac/Amp he reviewed earlier. Porta is costing me some serious money but his reviews are usually spot on, plus you can replay later on if you want to de-stress 😂.

[@PortaFi]

@@davelyew4645 oh, great, now I can transition to the second phase of the plan and add some NLP messages in the second part of the video. It will be super efficient for the sleeping audience, which will be my way to world domination. I need to go and ask chatGPT for a good supervillain name

[@davelyew4645]

@@PortaFi 😁😁😁

[@syanhc]

How do they compare to the Hifiman XS Edition?

[@longercheese]

Hello, thanks a lot for the early review, and for comparison with Sundara in particular. I definitely need to try them out (as soon as the salary lands my card, of course). Really enjoy your reviews!

[@PortaFi]

Thank you, I hope you'll enjoy them

[@terneuv]

Bonjour, tout d'abord merci pour ce déballage et ce test 👌. Je viens de recevoir mon Fiio FT3 en version 32 Ohms. J'ai un câble légèrement différent , plus court et d'un diamètre plus gros , ce qui le rend plus rigide. J'ai les pads en cuir monté . Branché sur mon Fiio Q7 et avec des fichiers de haute qualité , c'est top 👍. Très satisfait de mes premières écoutes. Je rejoins ton retour 👌 .

[@PortaFi]

Hello, thank you so much for your feedback! I'm really happy you like them. And I must assume it's good that FiiO released 32Ω version

[@lowercasegoat]

I can tell right away that the look is going to be polarizing, but I kind of like it. They're doing their own thing, and it certainly doesn't look like any of the other major contenders in this range. I'm surprised that there aren't more video reviews out yet, so thank you for posting this! Your review opinion is being supported by some of the major hi-fi reviewing sites. I was strongly considering a Sennheiser 6XX series headphone, but I did a u-turn and bought these instead. The accessories are really nice for the price, but I wonder how much more they could have put into the sound if they spent less on what comes with it. I actually expect that it's not that simple. The case and the accessories are undoubtedly less expensive to produce than the additional R&D would have cost, and a lot of people will be swayed as much by the feel and accessories as they will the sound. I see some reviewers calling the soundstage very large and some here and there calling it on the small side. I'm very interested to hear what it sounds like...

[@PortaFi]

thank you for sharing! as for stage, it's a totally subjective thing, so different people percept in differently.

[@robertobuatti7226]

Mercyful Fate is an awesome metal band, also love King Diamond's solo career, his vocal range is so dynamic going low to high in an instant. Speaking about these Fiio FT3 headphones can they be used on portable DAPS or are they too power hungry for portable devices, the reason I ask if I go out for my daily walks for exercise can they be driven with a mid range DAP outputting 760MW of power is that enough to drive them?

[@PortaFi]

Thank you for sharing! I'm constantly thinking that MF is underestimated :) As for FT3, 760 mW will probably be enough, but main question is how player will behave with 350Ω of impedance. Usually modern players are ok with high impedance load, but I can't be 100% sure without a practical test.

[@robertobuatti7226]

@@PortaFi Oh no problem at all, love Mercyful Fate/King Diamond's music as a huge metal lover, thank you for the feedback, yes probably they're too high of impedance for my use case and not to be used on a portable mid-range DAP, maybe it's more of a home headphone, I just wanted to be sure before spending money, I really do appreciate it.

[@PortaFi]

@@robertobuatti7226 well, I can suggest you to take a look at Sivga models, they are low impedance and also offers a good sound, so portable DAP definitely can handle them

[@robertobuatti7226]

@@PortaFi I will definitely look into them, thank you for that, I really appreciate it.

[@PortaFi]

@@robertobuatti7226 always glad to be of help

[@Butser6387]

Good video, would the fiio ka7 with hiby r5 be enough to power the Ft3's ?

[@PortaFi]

Thank you. FiiO didn't release KA7 yet, did you mean KA5 or K7?

[@cyberroller7806]

In your opinion are FT3 suitable for studio monitoring and studio producing? Are they flat/accurate enough?

[@PortaFi]

I'm not a pro in this aspect, but I'd suggest getting something like Austrian Audio, Bayerdynamic, etc. Those are well-known as monitor headphones, and for years proved this FT3 are pretty flat, but at the same time they aren't tuned for a totally monitoring representation

[@AlexFilatov72]

Audient mk 14 mk2 - Is the amplifier power enough?

[@PortaFi]

unfortunately I didn't test this amplifier, so I can't say anything for sure. in local store someone asked about 250Ω headphones, and personal replied that it'll be ok but I won't bet on that

[@kmwong1786]

I still can't figure it out, why do (full size) speakers and IEMs can have many drivers for different frequencies but headphones only have one?

[@PortaFi]

I'd assume that's because for IEMs we have "composable" receivers that are compact and can be accomodated together in shell and tuned to sound OK Full-size can's drivers are big, and put even two of them in one cup is really problematic. All many driver full size headphones were pretty specific. Also, probably, 30+ mm drivers have less shortcomings compared to a small one. If there will be some easy way to put many drivers to full size cans without getting a crappy sound, modern marketologists would've already pushed this idea to market

[@micheledebenedictis3949]

I've appreciated. Good review. Thanks. How about compare to Ath R-70x? Greetings from Italy :-)

[@PortaFi]

thank you! unfortunately I didn't have a chance to try this ATH model. Hello from Ukraine

[@TennessseTimmy]

I just happened to be looking for new headphones. Hifiman sundara, ATH-r70x. How well would ft3 do against those in terms of gaming? I do also listen to a lot of music, from classical to edm, wear headphones like 5+ hours a day

[@PortaFi]

Hello, I didn't test ATH ones. Sundara sounds dryer and more focused on micro-contrast to me. I can't say anything about games, as I don't play anything that relies on audio, but on head-fi I saw a few messages saying that FT3 is good for gaming And FT3 are really comfortable to me, but I saw some complaints about earpads inner size (but I didn't experienced issues)

[@juanrramedina8309]

How do they sound compared to sennheiser hd 600?

[@PortaFi]

Didn't compare with HD600, only 6XX from Drop. Comparisons are at the end of the video

[@elo8181]

Hi . Can you compare with Audio Technica ath msr7b

[@PortaFi]

Hello, unfortunately, I didn't test B version, and I tested MSR-7 a pretty long ago. So take my words with a huge grain of salt. ATH is brighter, with less bass and more energy in the treble, they are more analytical and neutral. But I'm not sure what was changed in B version

[@elo8181]

@@PortaFi Thank You

[@syanhc]

How do they compare to the XS Edition?

[@PortaFi]

Didn't test XS

[@danielfuentes8997]

Como van con el fiio m11s ?

[@PortaFi]

Really good in fact. Maybe not perfect, like with M15S for example, but still good. Especially from the balanced out

[@danielfuentes8997]

Thank you very much

[@Bitwigmitige-db6zw]

The ear pads seems so small it will be problematic for a lot of people. Will they come up with large pads for them ? If not mehehhhh

[@PortaFi]

Unfortunately I don't know about FiiO's plans. I think it's better to ask their support directly As for pads, my average ears fit to their pads ok

[@lowercasegoat]

I read on one of the hifi site forums where a Fiio customer service rep posted that they are working on larger pads also.

[@PortaFi]

@@lowercasegoat yes, they've mentioned that on Head-Fi, but I wouldn't consider that as 100% confirmed, as it was like "we're considering this"

[@The21okok]

I wish them to be headphones version of FiiO FD5 with their signature v-shape tuning. But it seems they are not...

[@PortaFi]

Yes, this model is less forward. It's tuned for a comfortable, long listening sessions. But FiiO has FT5 in their near plans, will be interested to see and hear them. But anyway, I think FT3 is a great offer, so I really hope it'll get the attention it desires, and FiiO will invest more in full-size cans

[@dngsttube]

how compared to meze 99 ?

[@PortaFi]

Meze 99 has more bass, somewhat smaller stage, better refined mids and accent on treble

[@MRFUTURETECHNOLOGYGAMING]

I hope to make a pro version with an all Protein leather Headband Instead of whatever that material was underneath it where it sits on your head for More derability

[@PortaFi]

that pleather would've felt really bad on head, especially for one with short hair/bold.

[@Rob1966x]

Are 350 ohms

[@PortaFi]

yes, thank you for correction

[@prof.rodrigo8039]

FT3 is a nice first attempt from Fiio, but hd650/hd6xx beats it and is cheaper.

[@PortaFi]

Cheaper - yes, because of plastic. “Beats” - definitely not.

[@khetagogoev617]

жаль что русской озвучки нет(

[@AhloiFTW]

While the build is good, the design look like those cheap gaming headset scattering on the markets, fiio should ditch the stupid gamery design i hate it to death.

[@PortaFi]

I don't have such good sense of taste, so for me they are totally ok, especially in real life, when you feel their solid build and a great materials