FiiO FW3 True Wireless Earbud, Bluetooth 5.2 LDAC/aptX Adaptive, 10mm Drivers with Big Bass, App for Custom EQ, 21H Playtime (Grey)

Great sound, not so good comfort, I have issued inserting them in my ears, would love them to get deeper in the ear canal, I can still hear outside noise

I saw a positive review of these and bought them because Amazon had a good deal on them. They sounded clear and lively out of the box, and their more audiophile tuning was to my liking. But bass was a little shy. I downloaded the Fiio Control app (it gets only 2.7 stars on the App Store) for my iPhone 13. Once downloaded, the app would not cycle through the separate pages, and was stuck on the origin page. Hence I could not adjust ANYTHING, including using the equalizer within the app. Of course I removed the app and re-downloaded a number of times, with the same result. Based on other reviews on Amazon, the app apparently works on some phones, though. Overall the FW3s sound good, but one of the reasons I bought them was because they ostensibly had a 10-band equalizer to tune the sound to my preference. The faulty Fiio Control app takes them out of the running with my other in-ears.

Could only connect to my phone on the left ear, right ear wouldn't connect.

I was pleasantly surprised by these headphones. I own many headphones, although none I would call high end. Most of what I use are either budget or mid-tier (HD560s, DT700 Pro X, CCA CRA+, Letshuoer S12 pro, Vmoda CF codex, kiwi ears cadenza, QKZxHBB Khan, Kinera Celeste Gumiho, AirPods Pro (gen 1), Powerbeats pro, jaybird vista 2). These do pretty well in comparison with my other wireless headphones.I am not an audiophile, although I have purchased some audio equipment recommended on audiophile subreddits and forums (fiio btr5, topping E70/L70 stack, smsl C200), so take my opinion with a grain of salt. First, I will start with design and functionality. The FW3s are very lightweight and comfortable to wear all day. This is most dependent on the tips you choose, however, since there are no wings. Once I found the right size tips, comfort was great, as was seal. They isolate less than some of my CNC aluminum IEMs, but sufficient for most purposes. There are two buttons that handle various functions, however they cannot be customized yet. This might change as the firmware is only on 0.5, so I imagine fiio will continue to improve their functionality. The one downside of design is that it sticks out of your ears more than something like the AirPods pros might. This is necessary though due to the button placement. I do not think these are water proof/resistant, so these are mostly for casual daily use, and not any type of exercise.Soundwise, the bass has good quantity and isn't too muddy. Mids seem maybe slightly recessed, but I honestly am not practiced enough to be certain. Treble sounds detailed without being harsh. The FR graphs show this has a slightly more neutral response than the more expensive FW5. I have listened to podcasts, audio books, and many genres of music (country, hip hop, electronic, classical, blues, rock, bluegrass, and folk). So far I think these do well with instrumental music, however the vocals felt a bit more distant that other headphones I use. I did not volume match, so it's possible the differences may be due to that.The bluetooth works great, and in fact seems to be more consistent than the fiio BTR5 amp/dac I used for wired IEMs. I have been able to walk throughout most of my first floor if I leave my phone in the basement. Reconnecting is pretty seamless after walking out of range, although you might have to hit the secondary button to force pairing or open up your bluetooth menu if that fails at times.The fiio app is not as refined as something like apple might offer, but it is very customizable and worked mostly well. The only issue I have had using the app so far was the initial connection. Within the app you can increase the volume (this is separate from iOS volume) which can get very loud. In fact much louder than my apple headphones. There is also a PEQ although this isn't obvious. When you open the EQ you need to touch and hold on the freq you want to adjust, then you will see a greater degree of customization than your typical 10-band eq. You can also change filters. These may sound different, but they are close enough, though I am unsure whether the difference is in my head.All in all I would highly recommend. Better functionality with something like apple's AirPods pros or Powerbeats costs 2x the price, however sound wise it is nearly as good. At $99 or better yet the sale price of $69, these are a no brainer if you want a decent TWS headphone daily use.

Update Jan 2024: the description says it supports LDAC, but it really doesn't. LDAC support is still listed as "experimental" and in practice, it's unusably bad. A LOT of dropouts. At first I thought it might have been an issue with the source's bluetooth, but I tried different devices and they all had the problem when paired with the FW3 using LDAC but not any other bluetooth earbuds/headphones using LDAC. Also, when I turned off LDAC and used aptX or LDHC, the dropouts no longer happened.Back in Jul 2023, I forgave them as they did say it LDAC support was experimental. But now in Dec 2023, I feel they've had enough time to get the LDAC kinks worked out now. Many other earbuds, even cheaper ones than this, have gotten LDAC working fine, so I have to assume it's not terribly difficult to achieve. So I need to deduct a star for still not getting LDAC working yet. I otherwise I quite like these earbuds. Relatively inexpensive, yet still good quality, quite enjoyable sound.Orig review: First and foremost, the sound quality of the FW3 is very good. For the relatively low price, I'd say they're excellent. Very wide, open, airy soundstage, solid, tight bass. Mids are good, vocals sound very nice and clear. The highs are maybe where it's a bit lacking. It's still good, but it doesn't quite have the crispness or sparkle that some nicer earbuds have. However, it doesn't detract from my listening enjoyment. Enjoyment is the keyword here. These earbuds are very enjoyable to listen to. Very musical. Some earbuds and IEMs seem to have the lows/bass, mids and highs all there, but the overall sound feels kind of analytical. That's not at all the case with these FW3. These sound very musical and fun. Simply put, they are a real joy to listen to.For me, the largest eartips worked best. I got a tight seal, the earbuds stayed in place securely and blocked out external sounds sufficiently so I could enjoy the music. Of course, earbuds with ANC would deal with outside noise even better, but I guess they wanted to concentrate on sound quality and keeping costs down. To me, for my typical low noise environment use, the lack of ANC wasn't a big deal.The app is solid and has all the features you'd expect these days (battery level, firmware update, etc) plus some features I've not seen elsewhere: 1. the equalizer covers the most frequencies (32Hz to 16kHz) and has more bands (10) than I've ever seen, 2. toggleable battery protection feature which limits the max charge on the earbuds to 85% to lessen wear on the batteries, 3. independent volume controls for feedback tones, calls and headphones.

these buds sound amazing. but the pair I had received would break up for no reason. I must have gotten a bad pair though. but overall they did sound good and I'd recommend them as a good earbud