A while back, for some reason I lost my mind and went back down the audiophile money-pit road. This time I was noticeably more broke about it: no four-figure new releases, no $199 AKG n5005, just a calm little DAC purchase. The reason was simple enough. I had some fairly specific requirements: The DAC has to support a 4.4 balanced output It also has to have a 3.5 headphone jack It has to be portable, suitable for laptop use It needs its own power, a battery, but also an option to toggle between “battery power” and “USB power” It has to be cheap. I know about the Mojo 2, I just can’t afford it Decoding specs shouldn’t be too low Eventually I found this magical thing, the “FiiO Q3S.” Magical because I have no idea when it came out, FiiO’s official store doesn’t sell it anymore, but you can definitely find traces of it on eBay and Mercari. It matched my decoder needs perfectly — everything I wanted was there, the price wasn’t bad either, just 850, and it even supported installment payments, so I got carried away and bought it.