Snowsky Melody Review – New King Of The Budget Dongle DAC-AMPs In Wooden Shell
Snowsky, FiiO’s sub-brand known for quality and budget-friendly portable audio products, introduced the Melody DAC and Headphone Amplifier. Crafted with a North American wooden housing, it blends natural elegance with acoustic character. Inside, a high-performance DSP and Dual DAC chips deliver stunning sound resolution.
Its 10-band PEQ lets you fine-tune your music, with 3.5mm SE and 4.4mm balanced outputs for flexibility. Support for in-line controls and microphones comes with low heat and power consumption. With Hi-Res Audio certification, Snowsky Melody is where craftsmanship meets high-fidelity sound.
Snowsky Melody uses premium aged wood imported from North America, giving each dongle a one-of-a-kind texture and tone, with every natural grain adding character to its sound. The housing is crafted through precise CNC machining, polishing, oiling, and drying, ensuring durability and refined quality. Over time, the wood matures gracefully, its colour deepening and surface growing more lustrous, making the design truly timeless.
Snowsky Melody features dual Cirrus Logic CS43131 DACs, a high-performance USB chip, and an audiophile-grade DSP, all carefully fine-tuned for precision. These components work in harmony to achieve outstanding objective measurements, optimised heat and power efficiency, and ultimately deliver a smooth, detailed, and highly enjoyable listening experience. It’s a perfect balance of engineering excellence and musical enjoyment.
Snowsky Melody’s advanced DSP features a 10-band high-precision PEQ, giving you full control over your audio. In addition to the built-in PEQ presets, there are three customisable profiles that you can freely adjust to fine-tune your music exactly how you like. The Melody also supports the FiiO Control App and web link control, allowing you to save and share your PEQ settings with others for added fun. Snowsky Melody ensures effortless sound customisation for every listener.
Snowsky Melody features an ultra-low-power mode designed to protect your phone’s battery while still delivering excellent audio. With its advanced microprocessor and FiiO’s optimised software, it keeps both power consumption and heat generation impressively low. When playback stops, standby power drops to under 10mA, and with the sleep timer enabled, the device will automatically enter sleep mode after inactivity, so you can rest easy without worrying about draining your phone overnight.
Snowsky Melody supports PCM up to 384kHz/32-bit and DSD256, ensuring that every nuance and detail in your music is faithfully reproduced. With its Hi-Res Audio certification, you can trust that the sound quality has been professionally tested and approved. With this, Snowsky Melody delivers a truly high-fidelity listening experience.
Snowsky Melody comes equipped with 3.5mm SE supporting in-line controls and microphones, and with an adapter cable, and delivers SPDIF and coaxial signals for stable and professional audio. It features a 4.4mm BAL output that supports balanced headphone cables, providing greater power delivery and enhanced detail. Together, they ensure versatile connectivity and uncompromised sound quality.
Snowsky Melody features a detachable cable and broad multi-platform compatibility, working seamlessly with Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and more. It supports switching between UAC1.0 and UAC2.0 modes, with UAC1.0 ensuring smooth operation on non-Android systems like the PS5 and Switch. This helps in delivering a more immersive and enjoyable gaming experience.
Snowsky Melody’s single-ended headphone output supports mic, call recording, and in-line controls to control the device. It offers 60-step quick & 120-step fine adjustment mode to control volume as you prefer. Adding to the experience is an RGB sampling rate indicator, where colours change with the decoding format. Light Blue for PCM ≤48kHz, Yellow for PCM >48kHz, and Green for DSD. This thoughtful combination of features ensures both practical convenience and an enjoyable listening experience.
Specs
- DAC: Cirrus Logic CS43131
- Headphone Output: 3.5mm (Single-Ended), 4.4mm (Balanced)
- Input: Type-C USB
- Microphone Passthrough: Yes
- Adaptive Impedance: PO: 16 ~ 150 Ohms, BAL: 16 ~ 300 Ohms
- Sampling Rate Indication: RGB Ambient Light
- Max Supported Sampling Rate: 384K/32-bit, DSD64/128/256, 384K/32-bit (Coaxial)
- Key Function: USB: Type-C USB, 3.5mm Port: Single-Ended Out/SPDIF Out (Shared), 4.4mm Port: Balanced Out
- Button Functions: Volume Adjustment, Track Switching
- Audio Parameters 3.5mm (Single-Ended): Output Power (THD+N<1%, USB IN): L+R≥116mW+116mW@ (16 Ohms, THD+N<1%, USB IN) L+R≥100mW+100mW@ (32 Ohms, THD+N<1%, USB IN) L+R≥13mW+13mW@ (300 Ohms, THD+N<1%, USB IN)
- Frequency Response: 20Hz~20kHz, attenuation≤0.1dB, 20Hz~50kHz, attenuation≤0.2dB
- THD+N: <0.00066% (0dB, 32 Ohms)
- Peak Output Voltage: ≥2.3V (32 Ohms, THD+N<1%)
- Output Impedance: <0.9 Ohms Crosstalk: ≥76dB (1kHz, 32 Ohms)
- Noise Floor: 1V&1uV”A”
- SNR: ≥123dB (32 Ohms A-weighted)
- Audio Parameters 4.4mm (Single-Ended): Output Power (THD+N<1%, USB IN): L+R≥127mW+127mW@ (16 Ohms, THD+N<1%, USB IN), L+R>250mW+250mW@ (32 Ohms, THD+N<1%, USB IN), L+R≥54mW+54mW@ (300 Ohms, THD+N<1%, USB IN)
- Frequency Response: 20Hz~20kHz, attenuation≤0.1dB, 20Hz~50kHz, attenuation≤0.2dB
- THD+N: <0.0003% (0dB, 32 Ohms)
- Peak Output Voltage: ≥4V (32 Ohms, THD+N<1%)
- Output Impedance: <1 Ohms Crosstalk: ≥121dB (1kHz, 32 Ohms)
- Noise Floor: 1.1uV”A”
- SNR: ≥127dB (32 Ohms A-weighted)
Disclaimer: The Snowsky Melody was kindly provided by FiiO for review.
FiiO App
10-Band Parametric EQ
The Melody’s 10-Band EQ is a fully adjustable parametric EQ, featuring gain controls of up to +/- 12 dB, customizable center frequencies, and Q ranging from broad (0.25) to peaky (8), which I find very useful for taming the peaks on some headphones and IEMs.
There are seven preset and fixed EQ settings, including Jazz, Rock, R&B, Hip-Hop, Pop, Dance, and Classical. And three customizable EQ settings.
Web-App (https://fiiocontrol.fiio.com/)
Sound
The Snowsky Melody is a transparent, clean, and resolving DAC. It does a great job of conveying the sound signatures of the in-ear monitors or headphones you pair it with and does not saturate or color them, which is exactly what you should expect from a good-quality DAC-AMP. It offers a neutral signature.
The Snowsky Melody is very energetic from top to bottom, especially present in the upper mids and treble regions. Also does well in the detail retrieval department, especially around the midrange section.
Lows
The bass region is fast, agile, and has a good texture. The quantity of the sub-bass is sufficient. Bass feels agile and recovers fast, which contributes to the sense of speed, hence enhancing the technical capability of the Snowsky Melody. The control is very good here also, so there is no section overlap of any kind, and the transition between bass and mids feels smooth.
Here we have a neutral bass tuning. The warm bass tonality tends to relax the bass and present it in a tamed manner, but with a good amount of body and low-end extension nonetheless. Bass is fast, and it has a good pace and attack. Bass comes with a neutral amount of body, but it’s punchy and impactful. Bass never feels exaggerated in its presence. Detail-wise, it’s ok, but it’s not the best. Layering, on the other hand, is impressive.
Mids
The midrange takes front and center stage. The mids perfectly connect to the bass with the same presence, body, and impact. The midrange is perhaps my favorite out of the three major regions. The low mids have a good body, are adequate, and do not feel too thick or too thin. The Snowsky Melody is quite balanced in this regard.
The timbre feels accurate, the presentation feels neutral and transparent. It does not feel like it’s throwing details in your way, more like it presents them, and you are welcome to pick them out. What I mean here is that the presentation does not feel forced or artificial; it is rather detailed, articulate, and transparent in a natural way.
The vocals are brilliant with great resolution. The transition between subregions is seamless, the mids feel coherent, and they do a great job of carrying the emotion hidden in the tracks. The upper mids have impressive energy and extension and follow the steps of the remarkable treble.
Highs
The high frequencies also seem to be controlled and slightly timid, somehow held back from crossing over into distortion levels. Perfectly connecting from the mids, the Snowsky Melody is balanced in the overall presentation. The amount of body is the same as before, and what is remarkable here is the liveliness and energy in the delivery.
The top-end spectrum is quite nice. The Snowsky MelodyO has great treble energy. It is not particularly aggressive or bright; Snowsky did a good job of fine-tuning the treble. The quantity feels accurate, and the quality is definitely impressive.
The definition and extension are great; also, highs have good attack/decay, and feel dynamic—lots of space, good air, and spacious positioning on the stage. As I said before, Snowsky Melody reflects quite accurately. Overall, the treble is impressive.
Sum-Up
For just $39,99, the Snowsky Melody is “New King Of The Budget Dongle DAC-AMPs”. Makes me wonder again. This happened to me often with Snowsky’s products. How can they manage to sell this kind of quality product for this price and still profit?
When it comes to the wooden shell, I loved it. The best material for humans to touch, soft and organic. Although it has nothing to do with sound quality (in this case), it looks and feels amazing.