John Darko
If you’re a headphone listener working at a small desk and you’re thinking about an external keyboard, FiiO wants you to know about its new KB3: a wired mechanical keyboard that puts a shock-absorbent Gasket Mount design on an aluminium-magnesium alloy base with Gateron G Pro 3.0 yellow switches hosting semi-transparent swappable keycaps that expose the RGB lighting beneath.
Why would an audio company make a mechanical keyboard?
The answer comes by way of the red ‘step-less’ volume control that sits on the right-hand side of the KB3 — under the keyboard deck sits a DAC and headphone amplifier circuit that outputs via single-ended 3.5mm or balanced 4.4mm headphone sockets on the unit’s left-hand side.
Getting down to the technical nitty-gritty, a pair of Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC chips talk to a pair of SG Micro SGM8262 op-amps, suggesting that FiiO has simply repurposed the audio circuit found in its KA13 dongle DAC.
The upshot of this move is two-fold: 1) up to 550mW of output power – which should be enough for most (but not quite all) headphones – and 2) hi-res audio support for PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD up to DSD256.
Furthermore, FiiO has put a pair of USB-A sockets on the back of the KB3 for it to serve as a hub for third-party peripherals. Think: USB storage devices, a wired mouse or a Bluetooth dongle for a wireless mouse. The Chinese company also reminds us that the KB3 is compatible with Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS.
Price? £139, US$149 or €169. Your choice of Midnight Black or Morning Silver.
Further information: FiiO
