FiiO SP3 Active Desktop Speakers: Review

FiiO has become a household name in the portable audio space since arriving on the scene in 2007; their first product was an iPod clone before moving on to headphone amplifiers, and desktop DACs.

They then moved into the earphone market, first with the assistance of Dunu, and later building an award winning line-up of their own designs. The brand moved into headphones in 2023 with the FT3 and FT5 models as well as introducing their first near-field monitor the SP3.

The release of the SP3 was timed as a companion to the new R7 desktop DAP which is a very capable do-it-all unit designed to fit on office desks.  It would have been a shame to offer such a capable desktop unit without the speakers to give it a voice.    

The SP3 are small-footprint active speakers designed with the R7 in mind as they definitely share similar design elements but it also fits well in the current trend of computer workstations and near-field powered monitors so it bears looking at both with and without the R7.  

Design

Unboxing the FiiO SP3 HiFi Desktop Active Speakers creates a mix of thoughts as they are only 182 mm H x120 mm W x 132 mm D (7 x 4.7 x 5 inches) and that assumes using the tallest of the base options.  What struck me almost immediately aside from their smaller dimensions was the heft and overall component quality.

The cabinets are die-cast metal made with an aluminum/magnesium alloy and weigh almost 900 grams apiece. This doesn’t sound like a lot of weight but when you consider the height of the speakers are roughly the same as a soda can and the weight about double it puts in perspective.

The metal is horizontally ribbed for both cooling and aesthetics which allows the amplifier circuitry to use the housing as a heat sink. The front face has a white band at the base that houses a color changing LED that offsets the flat black of the main shell. 

Above that is a 3.5-inch carbon fiber mid-woofer followed by a 1-inch dome tweeter; the woofer is exposed while the tweeter is protected by a grill.

Three base options are available offering either a flat rubber pad, a 7º angled pad (matching the cant of the R7), or the speakers can be used with no base which exposes more of the LED.  

The rear panels both have a vent at the top center and a proprietary DIN connector for connecting the speakers at the bottom right.  Those are the only features on the reverse of the secondary speaker, while the primary adds volume and tone controls immediately below the port. 

A row of controls below the volume knob includes input selector, LED control, RCA inputs and a 3.5mm input; below that is left/right switch which as a left-handed user I appreciate, although interestingly the speaker connector on the passive is marked left so there is still some right-hand bias in evidence.

Across the bottom of the primary is the power switch, DC input, and the previously mentioned interconnect.

We would have preferred to see a front volume control, but the bigger ask would be to move the LED control to the front or top as those who want to change the LED color or pattern frequently will find it easy to accidentally hit the input button in the process. 

Luckily with only two options, hitting it a second time cures the issue.   

The provided RCA cable and interconnect cable (6 ft) are both cloth wrapped and fitting of the quality of the rest of the kit, but know that the DIN connector on the interconnect is proprietary so if you need a replacement or extension, your options may be rather limited.

Of course, while the case and LEDs may be quite nice, it is the amplifier and drivers that are ultimately going to decide how well the SP3 performs.  

Amplification is provided by four distinct Class D circuits providing 30 watts to each mid-woofer and 10 watts to each tweeter for a total of 80 watts output. The 3.5-inch mid-woofer was designed specifically for this application to maximize excursion in order to produce more extension and overall impact.   Fi

FiiO’s engineers designed an asymmetric magnet system that creates a 1.2 Tesla flux while still reducing non-linearity and the carbon-fiber cone at only 0.007mm thick increases rigidity while offering lower weight than conventional materials.

The woven fibers also have a higher stress resistance so are less likely to crack or distort due to repeated large excursions. The driver offers good speed and clarity as a result while offering more bass depth than a typical 3.5-inch driver. 

The tweeter is a 1-inch silk dome design which may seem like a pretty standard item in a lot of speakers, but it is more common to see .75-inch tweeters in a cabinet this small.

FiiO went with the 1-inch dome to improve off axis performance and extend range again designing the driver specifically for this application.  

Materials here are a bit more conventional with a CCAW voice-coil and a silk dome, but the damping and suspension are designed to allow the tweeter to reach 35kHz at the top while still being able to drop to 800Hz at the low end. 

Tweeters often perform best in a range that is largely inaudible (15kHz-25kHz) but suffer as they reach the lower limits of their range so extra effort was placed on making sure the SP3 tweeter could reach down to 800Hz without distortion. 

Despite the ability to reach into the sub-1kHz range, the crossover point is set at 3400Hz so its contribution is well above its absolute minimum which also helps ensure good clarity and linearity.  

The frequency response is listed as 65Hz-20kHz which is also interesting since FiiO highlights the tweeter’s ability to reach 35kHz and there is no mention of a cut filter above 20kHz.

SNR is listed as 96bBA with a sensitivity of 85dB.

For a first speaker, it would have been easy for FiiO to purchase drivers from one of the many OEMs in the market, but they instead did all the design work and assembly in-house which should benefit future releases as they build their knowledge.

Listening Notes

I attached the SP3s to the R7 for about a third of my listening, attached them directly to my laptop via 3.5mm cable part of the time, and attached them to a couple of different DAPs along the way as well to get a full measure of what the SP3 could deliver.

I had realistic expectations not so much based on this being a freshman effort, but more on the driver limits and the price point. A 3.5-inch driver is not going to produce voluminous bass and at $299 retail, there are certainly some hard limits created to stay in budget.

That being said, the little SP3s are surprising. No, these aren’t going to replace the KEF LS50s on my desk, but for those looking on a budget, they have more than enough performance to make them a rather serious candidate.

Starting at the low end is unfortunately calling out the weakest suite of the SP3 right up front; the bass trails off below 80Hz and by 65Hz there is little left leaving the sub-bass sounding a bit un-finished and a sub paired with the SP3 will be a necessity for those looking for big low end impact. 

The small speakers simply can’t push enough air to drop into the deep sub-bass.  What is there is clean mid-bass with decent impact and enough texture to keep things interesting. 

This is all you can reasonably expect from any bookshelf and whilst some dip a bit lower, the trade-off of the smaller footprint of the FiiO is welcome if a sub was going to be added to augment the lows. 

For me, a small sub on the floor is a lot easier to deal with than bigger speakers on my already over-crowded desk.

Transition from the mid-bass into the midrange is clean and without bleed showing the acumen of the carbon fiber diaphragm.

The lower midrange has enough weight to sound natural with male vocals and guitar having a nice sharp rasp.  

There is a bit of an upper-midrange and lower-treble push that brings female voices to the front of the mix and adds a bit of energy to higher strings, but it is mild enough that the lower-treble doesn’t dominate the clarity and timbral accuracy of the midrange.

I liked the voicing of the SP3 a bit better for popular genres than for large ensemble pieces as the lift in the upper midrange is better suited to rock, hip-hop, and pop music.

Those prefer warming sounding vocals will find that the SP3 does a good job of delivering a reliable mix of detail and fluidity and is very forgiving of poorly mastered material.

Treble has good detail with percussion having good snap and cymbals having enough energy to sound good if hi-hat falls just a touch short of absolute realism. 

There is some air at the top and the SP3 don’t sound closed in by the box at the top end like a few of the smaller speakers I’ve heard recently so I have to say the work FiiO touts regarding using the larger and retuned tweeter does indeed show in the signature.  

Dynamics were surprisingly strong and cohesive even as we raised the volume and subjected the SP3 to more demanding material.

The SP3 can get up to about 80% of its volume range before starting to lose clarity; levels will cause hearing damage before distortion becomes a problem at normal listening distances.  

Like most inexpensive powered speakers, there is a bit of hiss between tracks but it does not seem to increase with volume increase which makes it more tolerable than some. 

We found that off-axis performance was passable at best though and these really are a speaker that is designed to have the listener placed directly in front of them (with a slight degree of toe-in) and no more than 6 feet back for the best results. 

Conclusions

If nobody told me these were a first speaker from FiiO, I’d be hard pressed to tell it from either the construction or performance. Its shortcomings in the bass range are attributable to the size of the cabinet and mid-bass driver.

Build quality is top notch and the space-saving design will be appreciated by many looking for an upgrade to the typical “computer speaker.”

When paired with the R7, the SP3 make a nice small office system with a lot of capability in a small package. We do wish that FiiO had included a sub-out so be sure your source does if planning to use a subwoofer, and I would recommend it as that is one place all small speakers will always struggle.

Despite the lack of deep sub-bass, what is present is clean and well defined and the overall listen is quite pleasant.

Overall, listeners will discover that the FiiO SP3 offer a slightly laid-back sounding presentation that presents music with less detail and energy of a typical studio monitor, but with enough clarity and smoothness to be an excellent option on the desktop.

From about 80Hz up, these little speakers are as good as anything we have heard at their price point and size. 

Where to buy: $299 at Amazon

Note: For $50 more, the FiiO SP3 BT adds Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connectivity (AAC/aptX Adaptive/LDAC), coaxial, optical, and USB-C inputs. Otherwise they look the same with same drivers and amplifiers.