FiiO SP3 BT Speakers Review: Your Desk’s New Best Friend?

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Let’s be honest. The speakers that came with your computer, or the ones built into your monitor, are probably a bit rubbish. You know the sound. It’s thin, tinny, and when you turn up the volume for that brilliant new track on Spotify, it sounds like a wasp trapped in a jam jar. It’s okay for hearing a notification pop up, but for music, films, or gaming? It’s just not good enough.

For years, if you wanted proper sound at your desk, you had a choice. You could either buy a clunky, old-school hi-fi system with a separate amplifier and big speakers that take up half your room, or you could settle for a plasticky “multimedia” speaker set that promised earth-shaking bass but mostly just made a muddy, boomy mess.

But things are changing. Companies that make amazing gear for headphone lovers are now turning their attention to our desks. One of the best-known names in that world is FiiO. They’ve built a massive reputation for making top-notch digital audio players and headphone amps that don’t cost a fortune. And now, they’ve brought that know-how to desktop speakers with the FiiO SP3 BT.

These aren’t just another set of computer speakers. They are high-fidelity active desktop speakers. That’s a bit of a mouthful, so let’s break it down. ‘High-fidelity’ means they’re designed to reproduce music exactly as the artist intended. ‘Active’ means the amplifier is built right into the speakers, so you don’t need a separate box to power them. And ‘desktop’ means they’re small enough to sit neatly on either side of your monitor.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about them. We’ll dive into the clever tech inside, talk about how they sound, and help you decide if they’re the right upgrade for your home office, gaming rig, or student digs. Prepare for a serious audio upgrade.

First Impressions: Unboxing the FiiO SP3 BT

You can often tell a lot about a product from the moment you open the box. With the FiiO SP3 BT, the feeling is instantly premium. The box is sturdy and well-packed, and lifting the speakers out, you feel their weight. These are not hollow plastic boxes; they feel dense and serious.

Inside the box, you get everything you need to get started:

• The two speakers (one primary, one secondary)
• An external power brick and mains cable (with a standard UK plug)
• A custom cable to connect the two speakers together
• An RCA to 3.5mm jack cable for connecting to a computer or other wired source
• Two sets of silicone stands (one flat, one angled at 7 degrees)
• A quick-start guide

Built to Last

The first thing you’ll notice is the build quality. The speaker cabinets are made from die-cast aluminium. This is the kind of stuff you usually find in high-end, expensive hi-fi gear. It feels cool to the touch and incredibly solid. FiiO chose this material for a reason. Plastic can vibrate and rattle when the music gets loud, colouring the sound in a bad way. A heavy, rigid metal cabinet like this doesn’t vibrate, so the only thing you hear is the sound coming from the drivers themselves. It’s a level of engineering you just don’t see in typical computer speakers.

The design is clean and modern. They are compact, understated little things that look great next to a modern monitor or laptop. They won’t dominate your desk, but they look and feel like a proper piece of audio equipment.

The Tech Inside: What Makes These Speakers Sing?

This is where FiiO has used its audio expertise to pack some seriously clever technology into a small space. It’s this combination of clever parts that makes the SP3 BT sound so much bigger and better than you’d expect.

The Heart of the Bass: The 3.5-inch Carbon Fibre Woofer

The bigger, lower driver on a speaker is called a woofer. It’s the part that handles the bass and midrange sounds—think bass guitars, kick drums, and people’s voices. The challenge with a small speaker is getting a good bass sound without it becoming slow and muddy.

FiiO’s solution is a 3.5-inch midwoofer made from carbon fibre.

• Simplified Explanation: Think of it like a part from a Formula 1 car. Carbon fibre is incredibly strong but also extremely light. This means the cone of the speaker can move back and forth very, very quickly to create sound waves, and it can stop instantly without bending or wobbling. This speed and control are what give you bass that is tight, punchy, and detailed, not just a vague, boomy rumble.
• Detailed Explanation: The rigidity of the carbon fibre diaphragm helps to minimise non-linear distortion, even at high volumes. This means that as you turn the music up, the bass remains clean and composed. FiiO has paired this with powerful asymmetrical internal and external magnetic circuits. This clever design creates a stronger magnetic field, pushing and pulling the driver with more force and control. It’s this precision that allows such a small driver to produce a surprisingly deep and articulate bass response.

Hitting the High Notes: The 1-inch Silk Dome Tweeter

The smaller driver at the top is the tweeter. Its job is to handle all the high-frequency sounds—cymbals, hi-hats, string instruments, and the “airiness” in vocals. Get this wrong, and music can sound harsh, sharp, and tiring to listen to.

FiiO has used a 1-inch silk dome tweeter, a material beloved in the hi-fi world.

• Simplified Explanation: The tweeter is made of a soft silk material. This helps to make the high notes sound smooth, clear, and detailed, without ever getting screechy or painful, even at high volumes. You’ll hear the delicate shimmer of a cymbal rather than a harsh crash.
• Detailed Explanation: The silk dome’s natural damping properties absorb unwanted vibrations and resonances, leading to a smoother frequency response. The tweeter is precisely angled in the cabinet to reduce standing waves, and a special wave-absorbing structure behind it soaks up back-pressure. This all adds up to treble that is exceptionally clean and revealing. You can hear the fine details in your music without any of the listening fatigue that cheaper tweeters can cause.

Breathing Easy: That Clever S-Shaped Port

If you look at the back of the primary speaker, you’ll see a small, curved port. This is a bass reflex port, and it’s a way of getting more bass out of a small cabinet. As the big woofer moves back and forth, it pushes air around inside the box. This port lets that air escape in a controlled way, which reinforces the low-frequency sound.

The problem is, on cheap speakers, this can cause a noisy ‘chuffing’ or ‘puffing’ sound, especially on bass-heavy tracks. It’s called port turbulence. FiiO has designed a unique double-diffused S-shaped porting tube to fix this.

• Simplified Explanation: Think of it as a cleverly designed exhaust pipe for the speaker. The long, curved ‘S’ shape slows down the air and makes it flow smoothly. This gets rid of that annoying puffing sound, so all you hear is clean, deep bass. It’s a simple but brilliant idea that helps the SP3 BT sound much bigger than it is.
• Detailed Explanation: The fluid dynamics of the S-shaped tube were carefully optimised to reduce air velocity and turbulence as it exits the port. This design allows the speaker to be placed closer to a wall without the port’s output becoming boomy or uneven. It significantly lowers audible distortion and allows the 3.5-inch woofer to deliver bass that feels more extended and effortless than would otherwise be possible from a cabinet of this volume.

Design and Everyday Living: Will They Fit on Your Desk?

One of the best things about the SP3 BT is how well they’ve been designed for a typical British desk, which often isn’t the biggest.

• Size and Footprint: Each speaker measures about 163mm high, 120mm wide, and 132mm deep. To give you an idea, that’s a bit shorter and wider than a standard paperback book stood on its end. They have a very small footprint and will easily fit on either side of a 24-inch or 27-inch monitor without any trouble.
• The Clever Stands: Sound from a speaker is directional. For the best sound, the tweeters should be pointing directly at your ears. But when speakers are just sitting flat on a desk, they’re pointing at your chest. FiiO includes two sets of silicone stands to fix this. One set is flat, but the other set tilts the speakers back at a 7-degree angle. This is a small detail that makes a huge difference. It aims the sound perfectly at your head when you’re sat at your desk, which dramatically improves the clarity and stereo image. The silicone also helps to stop vibrations from transferring into your desk.
• Smart Lighting: At the bottom of each speaker is a small LED light strip. This isn’t just for show; it’s a clever status indicator. It glows a different colour depending on what input is selected (for example, blue for Bluetooth). It can also be set to pulse in time with the music, but most importantly, if you find it distracting, you can turn it off completely. A thoughtful touch.

Getting Connected: Wires or No Wires?

The SP3 BT gives you the best of both worlds: high-quality wired connections and the convenience of top-tier Bluetooth. All the connections are on the back of the right-hand (primary) speaker.

The Wired Route: RCA and AUX Inputs

On the back, you’ll find two sets of standard analogue inputs.

• LINE IN: These are the classic red and white RCA sockets. You can use these to connect to a huge range of devices, like a turntable (with a built-in phono stage), a CD player, or a separate digital-to-analogue converter (DAC).
• AUX IN: This is a standard 3.5mm jack, just like the headphone socket on a laptop or phone. FiiO includes a cable in the box to connect this directly to your computer’s headphone output.

A dial on the back of the primary speaker lets you switch between these inputs, and another dial controls the volume. There is also a bass adjustment dial, letting you turn the bass up or down by 8dB to suit your room or your personal taste.

Cutting the Cord: High-Quality Bluetooth 5.0

This is where the “BT” in SP3 BT comes in, and it’s a massive feature. Many Bluetooth speakers use very basic technology that squashes the music and makes it sound lifeless. FiiO has gone all-out and included a high-end Qualcomm QCC5124 Bluetooth chip.

• Simplified Explanation: Not all Bluetooth is created equal. Think of it like your home internet. Basic Bluetooth is like old-school dial-up—it’s slow and can’t handle much data, so the sound quality is poor. The Bluetooth in the SP3 BT is like having super-fast fibre broadband for your audio. It can handle huge amounts of data, so you can stream music wirelessly and it will sound just as good as a wired connection.
• Detailed Explanation: This chip supports a whole host of advanced Bluetooth codecs. A codec is the language that two Bluetooth devices use to talk to each other. The SP3 BT supports:
  • SBC: The basic, universal codec. It’s fine, but not great.
  • AAC: The codec used by Apple devices. It’s a good step up from SBC.
  • aptX and aptX HD: High-quality codecs popular on Android phones and Windows PCs that provide CD-like quality.
  • aptX Low Latency: This one is brilliant for gaming and watching films. It reduces the delay (or ‘lag’) between the picture and the sound, so dialogue and sound effects are perfectly in sync.
  • aptX Adaptive: A clever codec that automatically adjusts the quality to give you the best sound without dropouts, depending on how strong your wireless connection is.
  • LDAC: This is the superstar. Developed by Sony and now available on most modern Android phones, LDAC can stream audio at a quality that is even higher than a CD. If you use a streaming service like Tidal, Qobuz, or Amazon Music HD, this is the way to hear your music in its full glory, completely wirelessly.

Pairing is simple. You just press the input button until the light turns blue, and the speakers appear on your phone or computer’s Bluetooth menu. The connection is rock-solid and the range is excellent.

The All-Important Question: How Do They Sound?

So, with all this clever tech, what’s the result? In a word: brilliant.

For this review, the speakers were set up on a desk, about a metre apart, angled in slightly towards the listener using the included 7-degree stands. This is the ideal setup for ‘nearfield’ listening.

The first thing that hits you is the scale of the sound. It’s big, open, and room-filling in a way that just seems impossible for speakers of this size. It doesn’t sound like the music is coming from two small boxes on your desk; it sounds like there’s a proper stereo image hanging in the air in front of you.

The Overall Vibe

The sound signature is what you might call balanced with a touch of warmth. This is a great tuning for long listening sessions. It means no single part of the music—bass, vocals, or treble—shouts louder than the others. It’s a mature, refined sound that works well with pretty much any genre of music you throw at it.

The Low End (Bass)

Thanks to that carbon fibre woofer and the S-shaped port, the bass is a real highlight. Listening to “Telegraph Road” by Dire Straits, the kick drum has a real, physical punch to it. On tracks by artists like Bicep or Four Tet, the electronic basslines are fast, nimble, and easy to follow. It’s not the kind of overwhelming, window-rattling sub-bass you’d get from a dedicated subwoofer—the laws of physics still apply!—but it is incredibly impressive for a 3.5-inch driver. It’s controlled, musical, and never descends into a muddy mess.

The Middle Ground (Mids)

This is where so many small speakers fall down, but the SP3 BT excels. The midrange is where vocals and most instruments live, and here it is wonderfully clear and natural. Listening to Adele’s “Someone Like You,” her voice is front and centre, full of emotion and texture. Acoustic guitars on songs by Ben Howard sound rich and detailed. This clarity also makes them fantastic for podcasts, YouTube videos, and dialogue in films. Voices are easy to understand and sound realistic.

The Highs (Treble)

The silk dome tweeter really shows its class here. The treble is detailed and airy without a hint of harshness. The complex cymbal work in a Dave Brubeck Quartet track is beautifully rendered; you can hear the stick hitting the metal and the long, shimmering decay. It brings a sense of space and openness to the music. Even on poorly recorded tracks that can sound screechy on other systems, the SP3 BT remains smooth and controlled.

The Sound Picture (Soundstage and Imaging)

This might be their most impressive trick. Soundstage refers to how wide and deep the sound feels, and imaging is how well you can pinpoint where individual sounds are coming from. For their size and price, the SP3 BTs are masters of this.

When gaming, you can clearly hear footsteps approaching from the left or right. In a well-recorded piece of classical music, you can close your eyes and almost point to where the violins, cellos, and woodwinds are sitting. This creates a deeply immersive experience, whether you’re listening to music, watching a film, or exploring a virtual world.

FiiO SP3 BT vs The Competition

How do the FiiO SP3 BT stack up against some other popular choices for desktop audio in the UK?

• vs. Audioengine A2+: The A2+ has been a top recommendation for years. It’s a great speaker, but the FiiO SP3 BT arguably pulls ahead with its more advanced Bluetooth codecs (especially LDAC and aptX LL), more detailed treble, and superior build quality thanks to the metal cabinet.
• vs. Kanto YU2: The YU2 is even smaller than the SP3 BT and has the advantage of a built-in USB DAC, which is handy. However, the FiiO’s larger 3.5-inch driver gives it a fuller, more powerful sound with significantly better bass response.
• vs. Edifier MR4: The Edifier MR4 is a fantastic budget option that offers amazing sound for its very low price. The FiiO SP3 BT is in a different league in terms of build, technology, and connectivity. It’s a definite step up, with a more refined, detailed, and powerful sound, but it comes at a higher price. Think of the MR4 as a brilliant first step into good audio, and the SP3 BT as the upgrade you make when you’re ready for something more serious.

Our Verdict: Are the FiiO SP3 BT Worth Your Hard-Earned Cash?

After spending a lot of time with them, the answer is a resounding yes. The FiiO SP3 BT is a phenomenal pair of desktop speakers that punches well above its weight and size.

FiiO has successfully packed the technology and sound philosophy of proper hi-fi into a compact, convenient, and beautiful package that is perfect for the modern desk.

The Good Bits

• Superb Sound Quality: A big, detailed, and balanced sound that defies their small size.
• Excellent Build Quality: The die-cast aluminium cabinets feel incredibly premium and built to last.
• Fantastic Connectivity: High-quality wired inputs and best-in-class Bluetooth with support for every important codec.
• Thoughtful Design: The included angled stands and customisable LED are brilliant touches.
• Great Value: They offer a level of performance and build that you’d usually have to pay a lot more for.

The Minor Niggles

• No USB Input: A direct USB-C input for connecting to a computer would have been the icing on the cake, but the 3.5mm jack works perfectly well.
• Physics is Physics: If you want bass that shakes your internal organs, you’ll still need a separate subwoofer. For any normal desk or small room, however, the bass is more than satisfying.

Who Should Buy Them?

• The Music Lover: If you spend your day working from home with Spotify or Tidal playing, these will transform your listening experience.
• The Discerning Gamer: The excellent imaging and low-latency Bluetooth will give you a competitive edge and a more immersive experience.
• The Content Creator/Watcher: If you edit videos or spend hours on YouTube, the clear, natural midrange makes voices sound fantastic.
• Anyone in a Small Space: Perfect for a bedroom, home office, or university dorm where you want great sound without a massive system.

The FiiO SP3 BT is a home run. It’s an easy, powerful, and versatile upgrade that will bring a huge amount of joy to your daily listening. They prove that you don’t need huge boxes and a mountain of cables to get truly high-fidelity sound at your desk. Highly recommended.

Further Reading:

• What Hi-Fi?
• AVForums
• Head-Fi.org Speaker Reviews
• The Official FiiO Website