This funky Walkman-esque 'music player' doesn't look like a DAC, but it quacks like a DAC

(Image credit: FiiO)

The FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano is DAC/amp with playback controls
3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone sockets
$59.99 / £59.99 / about AU$117

When is a music player not a music player? The new FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano is being pitched as a music player, but it really isn't.

So what is it? Well the first clue is it having the words BLUETOOTH AMP plastered across the front of its wonderfully Walkman-esque casing, and the words "Bluetooth and DAC Headphone Amplifier" printed on the back. What we have here, I say from underneath my deerstalker hat while puffing on a pipe, could well be a Bluetooth and DAC headphone amplifier.

So it's not a music player. But it is a well-specified amp and DAC that can upgrade the sound of, control the playback from, and make and receive calls via your phone or your laptop.

FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano: key features and pricing

The FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano has a CS43131*2 DAC and supports PCM sampling of up to 16-bit/96kHz. There's Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX, aptX Adaptive and LDAC for streaming from your phone, and there's a little 0.96-inch TFT display that can make it look like you're listening to a very small cassette, which is a lovely touch.

It's very small – 55.1 x 37.5 x 13.7mm, much smaller than a credit card – and very light too, coming in at 28.3g with its removable battery included. That way smaller a lot of the best portable DACs with wireless skills.

Connection-wise there are both 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs as well as USB-C. And the physical buttons enable you to skip tracks, adjust the volume, change the mode and navigate the menu.

You can kind of think of it a way to take the best wired headphones and go wireless, adding playback controls that they may not have built-in.

The FiiO Control app works with both iOS and Android and you can use the device with your laptop via USB. We've been consistently impressed with FiiO's value audiophile gear, from its FiiO FT5 headphones to the FiiO M11S portable music player – and that one is, for sure, a music player, topping our list of the best hi-res music players.

The Snowsky Retro Nano is available now for $59.99 / £59.99 / about AU$117.

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Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.