FiiO Snowsky Disc Portable Audio Player - BLACK (Faulty: a MagSafe attachment is stuck to the back)

The FiiO SNOWSKY DISC is a pocket hi-res music player shaped like a CD, with a round 1.8-inch touchscreen for album art, lyrics and your own screensavers. Behind the playful looks are two Cirrus Logic CS43131 DACs in a fully balanced circuit, 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone outputs, two-way LDAC Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi with AirPlay, microSD cards up to 2TB and up to 12 hours of battery, all in a 68mm-square aluminium body that weighs about 77g.

A CD you can hold in your palm

FiiO designed the DISC to bring back the feeling of holding a CD. The disc-shaped screen shows album art, lyrics and track numbers, with animated interfaces, lock screens and screensavers. You can make it your own: use any picture (JPG, BMP or PNG, ideally under 1000 × 1000) as a screensaver or wallpaper, or a GIF animation of up to 2MB at 360 × 360 as an animated lock screen. The system font size is adjustable too.

A confident core: dual CS43131 DACs

Two Cirrus Logic CS43131 DACs, one per channel, run in a fully balanced circuit with an independent power supply for the headphone amplifier. The 4.4mm balanced output delivers 280mW per channel into 32Ω (125mW from the 3.5mm), enough to drive most headphones to their full potential, with a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 129dB and distortion as low as 0.0004%. It plays PCM up to 384kHz/32-bit and DSD128, and holds both the Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certifications.

A pure music system

A dual-core Ingenic X2000 chip runs FiiO’s own Linux-based system, designed for efficiency, with no clutter between you and your music. Your library lives on a microSD card of up to 2TB, which the DISC scans quickly. Build your own playlists, and import or export M3U playlists to bring years of carefully built lists with you. Each mode remembers its own volume, and the list controls can be customised.

Two-way LDAC Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 5.4 sends music to wireless headphones and speakers in LDAC, AAC or SBC. It also works the other way: the DISC can receive LDAC from your phone and play it through wired headphones, or through an amplifier or active speakers connected to its 3.5mm or coaxial output, turning traditional hi-fi into a wireless system. Wi-Fi brings AirPlay, and FiiO says Roon Ready will follow in a firmware update.

More ways to play

Plug the DISC into a phone, tablet or computer and it becomes a USB sound card; FiiO describes it as plug and play. It also works the other way, sending digital audio out over USB (up to 768kHz) to an external DAC, or over coaxial S/PDIF (up to 192kHz) to a hi-fi system.

With version 4.5.0 or later of the FiiO Control app, your phone becomes a remote: browse and play your library without picking up the DISC, and send a new lock screen picture straight from your phone.

Sound presets and handy extras

Built-in EQ presets, including Retro and Pop, plus a custom EQ and several digital filters let you match the sound to the music. Gain control, screen rotation, a car mode and battery protection are built in, and FiiO keeps adding features through over-the-air updates. A 1,450mAh battery gives up to 12 hours of playback.

Good to know

• There’s no built-in storage, so you’ll need a microSD card for your music.
• Keep it looking new with FiiO’s case for the DISC.
• Matching retro headphones: the SNOWSKY WIND. Smaller SNOWSKY players: the ECHO MINI and ECHO NANO.
• LDAC needs headphones that support it (and, when the DISC is receiving, a phone that does: most Android phones, not iPhones).
• In the box: the DISC, USB data cable, quick start guide, warranty card and sticker.