FiiO ECHO MINI BLACK Hi-Res Music Player portable

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Snowsky is FiiO’s latest venture in creating a sub-brand offering a distinct product line. Previously, they’ve created Jade, a sub-brand for their more value offerings. Snowsky is similar in the regard that it offers affordable, youthful, and fun products.

With the Snowsky approach , FiiO is adding a touch of retro in their designs, and the units are just pure nostalgia. We reviewed the first Snowsky unit only a few weeks ago, and that was the FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano DAC/AMP dongle

The Echo Mini is the first portable player or DAP, under the Snowsky brand name. When looking at FiiO however, we know that they are masters of portable audio. They have already designed dozens of portable players and that in all price ranges.

This means that FiiO is bringing a lot of expertise to the Snowsky brand, and with their knowledge and production-line, the Echo Mini has some very high expectations.

With the Echo Mini, Snowsky and FiiO are going back to the early days of portable players. Adding a clear retro cassette look and feel to the player’s design. Even if the look and feel is retro, the Echo Mini is a high-resolution lossless player. It even offers Bluetooth version 5.3 (SBC), and gets around 15h of play-time from its 1100mAh lithium cobalt oxide battery.

That’s quite impressive, though I have to admit I never tested a full battery load all the way to the end. The Echo Mini does not have a replaceable battery design. Snowsky did this in order to be able to install a larger capacity battery. If they had used a replaceable battery, only a 450mAh battery could have been installed.

Unlike your cassette player from back in the 80s, the Echo Mini comes with both a 3.5mm output as well as a modern balanced 4.4mm output. It also sports double CS43131 DACs, and delivers up to 250mW of power.

The FiiO Snowsky Echo Mini supports DSD, WAV, FLAC, APE, MP3, M4A, and OGG formats (No SAC/DTS). The player features 8GB of built-in storage and supports microSD cards up to 256GB.

The Echo mini is very plastic but it is small and incredibly light. It measures about 80 x 54.5 x 14.5mm, weighs only 55g and it sports a 1.99 inch 170 x 320 IPS full-view HD color Display.

The screen houses various dynamic Retro Ul’s, which – according to FiiO – bring back the era of portable cassette players.

The body of the Echo Mini is made of PC + ABS engineering plastic.

Although it is plastic, FiiO has sprayed it with a metal paint, and the texture looks and feels.

From a lay-out point of view, the Echo Mini is a very simple player.

The screen is on the front, both outputs and reset button are on the right. On the left you find the USB-C cable and the Micro-Sd port. On top of the units you will find all the control buttons, in the good old cassette style. You from left to right have the power button, volume and control buttons, play/pause/select button, menu button and return button.

The back of the unit shows a fake battery compartment.

Unfortunately the battery is not replaceable on this unit.

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Technical Specifications

• Bluetooth support: High-quality audio streaming codecs such as LDAC, aptX Adaptive, and aptX Lossless enable wireless hi-fi listening.
• Wired use: USB-C port for use as a DAC and headphone amplifier.
• Headphone connections: 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm jacks offer versatility in headphone selection.
• Retro design: A 0.96-inch color display simulates cassette playback, while physical buttons allow for easy operation.
• Battery life: With a replaceable 3.7 V lithium battery, the Retro Nano offers up to 7.5 hours of music enjoyment.
• Additional features: A built-in microphone allows for calls, and special retro sound presets provide a unique audio experience.
• Dual DACs: Two CS43131 chips ensure precise, high-quality sound reproduction.
• Storage: 8 GB internal storage, expandable up to 256 GB via microSD card.
• Bluetooth 5.3: State-of-the-art wireless technology for lossless transmission.
• Battery life: Up to 15 hours of music playback.
• Supported formats: Compatible with DSD, WAV, FLAC, and other high-resolution audio formats.