FiiO Snowsky Echo Mini DAP Music Player Review – Cassette Vintage Goes Small
FiiO Snowsky Echo Mini is a $49 USD DAP Digital Audio Player with multiple colors available, a Dual DAC at the core, long battery life, and a low driving power, best suited for portable earphones and IEMs. Today we review the Echo Mini and also see how it compares to the market.
Introduction
FiiO is a big player, but today we review one of their smallest products, Echo mini being sold and fulfilled under the SnowSky branding, an entry-level, excellent for portability product with a low price, and commercial design. You can purchase FiiO products from everywhere, be it Amazon, Aliexpress, or general electronics shops.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4eY6ixm
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c36tcRFb
Build Quality – Design
FiiO Echo Mini is basically a very small DAP that is stylised like a cassette player. As far as I know, there are no cassettes available on the market that are this small, but this DAP is unique. It has an IPS full color display, retro-style UI and it can show both cover art and lyrics on the display. It supports embedded JPG album covers or LRC lyric files.
Despite being so small, Echo Mini has two headphone outputs, with a 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone output, the 4.4mm being a full-fledged balanced one, thanks to the Dual DAC combo at the heart of the Echo Mini. Max power output is a 250mW of power per channel in balanced mode, thanks to an independent power supply.
While many mini DAPs skip on this feature, Echo Mini can work as a USB Soundcard, both when connected to a phone or a computer. It needs no drivers and it even has bluetooth, with BT5.3 but it has support only for SBC, with no advanced BT codecs. For local media, you have 8 GB of built-in memory, with microSD support for cards up to 256 GB.
Technically, Echo Mini supports DSD, WAV, FLAC, APE, Mp3, M4A, and OGG files, with a SNR of 131 dB, a THD of lower than 0.0004%, and it has a 2″ display, that has a 170×320 resolution, with the DACs at the core being a dual CS43131 combo. It is likely the lightest DAP on the market at 55 grams.
Subjective Usage
Physically, Echo Mini feels so small, too small really. It is insane just how mini it is in person, it has those really nice buttons on the top side, which you use to control it. This is not exactly apparent from the default, but it has no tocuhscreen and you have to use those buttons to browse Echo Mini and they are the only way to interact with it.
I love the details on the back of the mini DAP, and I love that you have the inputs on the left side as you look at it and the outputs on the right side, makes it very intuitive and it does feel a bit like a cassette player, although those were at least 10X if not 30X the side of the Echo Mini.
If I am being raw honest, it just does not feel like a 50 USD product, it feels much more premium in hand. The display is sharp and colorful, it moves snappy, everything works, and it is really a solid product. Even the USB DAC function works nicely, with zero delay, so you can use Echo Mini as a gaming DAC AMP for desktop, laptop or phones. It is really really good for the price.
Sound Quality
Pairings – While the driving power of Echo Mini is mild at best, I have paired it with multiple headphones and IEMS to test its limits, including ThieAudio Cypher, Tin HIFI T6, Faith Audio E1000, Grell OAE2, Lily Audio Genesis One, Palma DHS-1, KBEar Cepheus, Crosszone CZ-10 Enhanced, TinHIFI T7, NFAudio NE4, Sivga Peng, Crosszone CZ-8a Enhanced, Soundz Flame, Dunu Vulkan 2, Moritz Aura, HarmonicDyne Romantic, Hiby Digital Yume, HIFIMAN Audivina LE, Westone Mach 80,BQEYZ Winter II, Fosi Audio IM4, Aune AC55.
At its best, Echo Mini can drive most IEMS, but not all headphones I tested and it generally is best used for easy to drive headphones if you want to go to the big end, as for IEMS, I often reach 60 / 70 out of 100 on balanced and high gain. This means that it will surely struggle with most headphones, unless they are about as easy to drive as an IEM. This being said, the particular voltage/ power gradient allows it to drive with very low distortion and very high control despite not having that much volume and power when things get complicated.
Overall Signature – I would call Echo Mini natural, it has a slightly smoother treble, but not a very bloomy bass, it is balanced and natural, with a bit of focus on vocals and the mids, without feeling forward and punchy. In general, it is toned for a natural bass, natural midrange and a smoother, more relaxed treble.
Bass – At the low-end Echo Mini is natural, a bit gentle and a bit soft. It does not have a lot of sub-bass and can feel a bit lean at times, but it has very low distortion and where it renders bass, it will render a clean and rounded bass.
Midrange – In the middle, Echo Mini has a bit of an upper midrange bias where it renders a bit more upper midrange than lower midrange, female voices have a bit more power and presence than male voices, so most songs can feel a bit thinner and more emotional than what I would call default. It works much better for songs with a female voice than death metal for example.
Treble – Top end is smooth, relaxed and gentle, without a strong treble or a lot of sharpness. It is great for usage with KZ and most entry-level IEMS as it feels very much not stressed, but it can be a bit too lean and relaxed for rock and metal. Overall, it is a good combo for what you find as tunings in the entry-level range.
Dynamics And Textures – Textures are rendered entirely, with a good detail, but dynamic range is on the compressed end of things, bringing both quieter and louder parts together, giving music a more detailed and more present tuning while keeping distortion low. This is a double edged sword, as you can hear in metal and rock music that the loud parts are attenuated slightly to keep distortion low and details more obvious.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Echo Mini can get very loud without sounding distorted. It has a unique tone and takes on sound, with the voltage gradient saturating power before voltage, so it has high control, good resolution, but does not achieve a loud volume early on. This is ideal for the price range and feels much better than feeding power early on.
Soundstage – Staging is natural, both width and depth, as Echo Mini has a natural separation and layering too. Basically, it won’t feel tight or intimate, but it is not a very wide or holographic sounding DAP. It is a good combo of size without feeling limited in any way.
Value – Conclusion
FiiO SnowSky Echo Mini has an insane value. It is cheap, mini, practical, sounds good, works well, has no obvious issue, no flex in the chassis, you can use it and forget about it. It is cheaper than most Chifi IEMS but can drive them well, has no USB DAC delay, and in general will be a good entry-level purchase.
You will not find a DAP that is cheaper, smaller or which has a higher driving power. If you’re in the entry-level price range and don’t want to stretch, you can grab a FiiO Echo Mini, you’ll have the best you could for this money.
PROs
- Practical and made for actual usage, with no flex or points of failure
- Software is solid and snappy
- Long battery life, around 10 hours in actual balanced usage with good volume
- Clean and crisp sound with top control and very low THD
- Consistent user experience, USB DAC with no delay
- Beautiful display that is bright enough and sharp enough
- Good balance of qualities
Cons
- Not a lot of driving power, can approach max even with IEMS on the balanced output
- Only SBC Bluetooth
- No Touchscreen
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4eY6ixm
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c36tcRFb
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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