Hiby FC3

disclaimer:  The Hiby FC3 was provided for review by HiFiGo.   I have no financial interest in Hiby or HiFiGo, nor have I received any payment beyond the test unit itself for this review.   If you have an interest in learning more about Hiby products, See their website and Facebook.  To purchase your Hiby Products, see the Hiby page at HiFiGo.

 

Packaging:

Packaging on the Fc3 is quite unique in that it uses a triangular slip cover with the name and specs printed on it with the other half of the front being a frosted translucent plastic that shows the unit itself in the package underneath.   Sliding the triangle off one way and then the plastic cover off in the other reveals the tiny little dac/amp nested in a cardboard support.  Beneath the unit are 2 cables, one USB type-C to type-C and the other USB type-C to type-A, along with the instructions and a small case for the unit itself.   No carry case or bag that fits both cables and the unit is provided and a lightning cable is available, but at an added cost rather than being included with the unit.

 

Build:

The Fc3 is tiny at about 1¾ inches in length and ½ an inch in height and width.  The shell is all metal with a name plate on the top side and an LED indicator on the reverse.  Their is a volume +/- rocker on the side along the seam that runs the length of the unit.  Heft is very little as one would expect from device this size.   Oddly the provided cables are 7 inches long (tip to tip) on the USB Type C cable and nearly 12 inches for the Type-A to C cable.  While this may improve the utility of the unit with PCs, I found the long USB-C to C cable tended to disconnect during playback if the phone was moved and switched the cable for another in my collection that was closer to 3 inches long and the problem of disconnects disappeared.    A leatherette cover is provided for those who want to protect the unit, but it does lessen the feel of the rocker switch so use in a pocket is easier without the case installed.  The case is a tight enough fit that the volume button must be pressed for the case to slip into place and it takes a bit of effort to get it on.  Once on, it should stay in place with little slippage though which is a plus as too many of these have cases that are so loose as to fall off after a few months use.

 

 

Internals:

The Fc3 runs the Sabre ES9281Pro System on a chip that integrates USB audio input functions, jitter correction, DAC/ADC functions, PLL (phase correction), and amplifier (Op-amp) into a single chip which saves space and allows the Fc3 to be nearly the smallest dongle I have tested to date (That prize still goes to the DDHifi Tc35b)      The 9281 is often referred to in product literature as a quad dac and is based on the original 9118 pro series chip with 8 channels allowing summing of 4 per channel when used in 2 channel applications.    This allows for lower distortion and better SNR as a result of summing the inputs.      The Fc3 makes the most of the 9281 features with support for 4x MQA unfolding support, up to 32/384 PCM and DSD128 support.    Output power is listed as  70mW per channel which puts the Fc3 in the same basic category with most current generation dongles.    The Fc3 is best paired to headphones with fairly high sensitivity and impedance of  150Ω or lower.   This puts the Fc3 in the same basic category with most current generation dongles.  More information on the ES9281 can be found here.

Controls:

The volume rocker switch on the side was automatically detected and set in Hiby Music and UAPP with a short press raising or lowering volume and a long press operating as next or previous track.    The bottom surface has an LED that displays Red while there is no playback, Blue for up to 48kHz, Green for up to 192kHz/DSD64, Light Green for up to 384kHz/DSD128, and Purple for MQA.

 

Sound:

Its hard to judge any dac/amp as so much of what is heard is dependent on source and headphones in use.   Here we can see the units contribution in the negative sense more than in the positive as it does limit bass impact due to limited power and is best reserved for low impedance/high sensitivity gear in order to mimimize that loss of impact.    From there up, the Fc3 does a good job of letting the headphone and source dictate the sound.    Mid-bass is clean and fast and again slam is well delivered when expectations are kept within reason.   Mids are well presented with no major lifts or recesses in the range and good detail throughout.    Top end extension doesn’t seem to be limited with good air and sparkle.

Stage is reasonable sized and here I find it to be very dependent on what headphone is in use.  I can say the Beam2Se does little to detract from whatever the headphone is capable of, but I’m not certain I can honestly attribute stage dimensions to the DAC/Amp.

 

Comparisons:

Audirect Beam2Se –   the Beam2Se is only slightly larger than the Fc3 and construction is more solid, but it lacks the external controls of the Fc3.   Internals are the same so sound signatures, output power etc are very close with the high gain on the Beam2Se being roughly equal to the gain of the Fc3.   The battle here is the Beam2se is slightly better made and comes with both USB and Lightning cables at roughly the same price as the Fc3 with the added lightning option.  Because of the cable issue with the Fc3, I’d give the nod to the Beam2Se here.

Xduoo Xlink 2- The XLink2 is much larger than the Fc3 but shares the physical controls and all metal construction of the Fc3.  Again price wise the two are about equal if the lightning cable cost is included in the Fc3 package.    Power is roughly equal so that won’t help seperate the two either.    The Fc3 has MQA support while the XLink adds native DSD256, bass boost and atmosphere support but lacks MQA.    These two are close competitors and feature set may well determine the winner as MQA vs DSD256 may well be the deciding factor.

 

Conclusions:

The dongle market is hot right now with everyone wanting to get into the act so it’s no surprise to see Hiby make an appearance here.  The unit itself is solid, has good integration with Android apps, and works well when expectations are managed.  Having said that, plan on buying an after-market cable to attach it to the unit as the ones that come with the unit are not well thought out and are too ungainly for realistic use with a phone.  They may be acceptable to those pairing with a PC where movement will be considerably less but for on the go use, I had connection issues way too often when using the stock cables.  for the price, the little unit deserves a look, but know going in that you will need to foot the bill for added cables.