Fiio’s $60 Snowsky Retro Nano DAC doubles down on analog nostalgia

Fiio has a new sub-brand called Snowsky, and its first product is the Retro Nano, a budget-priced Bluetooth DAC/amp that’s designed to tug on the nostalgic heartstrings of those with fond memories of the Sony Walkman era. Not only does its look like a miniature Walkman thanks to its shape and a cassette tape animation on the small color display, but it also features an accessible battery compartment and a removable, rechargeable battery — something we haven’t seen in a long time.

Fiio

I don’t personally have any memories from the 80s of festooning my portable tape players with decals, but Snowsky seems to think this is an important part of the experience — each Retro Nano comes with a random selection of stickers so you can personalize it to your liking.

Fiio refers to the Retro Nano as a “music player,” but its Walkman-like looks notwithstanding, this isn’t a standalone device like an iPod — there’s no internal storage for music. To actually hear music, you’ll need a smartphone, or any source device that can connect via Bluetooth or USB-C audio. Still, as a way to enjoy the many charms of wired headphone/IEM listening, this little $60 dongle has everything you need, including dual headphone jacks (3.5mm unbalanced and 4.4mm balanced).

Fiio

Once you initiate playback on your phone, PC, or other device, the Retro Nano’s side buttons can be used to play/pause, track skip, and adjust the volume. There’s also a built-in mic so you can take calls even if your headphones or IEMs lack a mic of their own.

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For Bluetooth connections, the Retro Nano is surprisingly well-equipped codec-wise. In addition to the usual SBC and AAC, you can choose LDAC, or any aptX flavor except aptX Lossless (assuming your source device is compatible). These higher bandwidth options should give you better results when playing lossless sources of music like Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Tidal, but they probably won’t do much for Spotify.

Fiio

But you’ll get the most out of the Retro Nano by connecting it via USB-C. That way you’ll get bit-perfect decoding of PCM up to 24-bit/96kHz, via the dual Cirrus CS43131 DACs with integrated amps. For more control over the sound, you can access EQ settings via the Fiio app, or via the dongle’s own web interface.

When using the dongle in USB mode, you can skip the rechargeable battery, making the Retro Nano even lighter. Just keep in mind that though the included battery may look like a standard AAA cell, it isn’t, and you won’t be able to use one instead. However, with up to 7.5 hours on a single charge, the need to reach for an alkaline probably won’t happen often.

You can buy the Retro Nano right now in two colors (blue or white) from Amazon. You get the Retro Nano, the battery, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a lanyard, and a portable battery case.

If you like the retro-inspired design of the Retro Nano but want a more sophisticated and capable DAC/amp, check out Fiio’s KA15 — it’s smaller than the Nano, yet has the same spinning-tape animation, and supports more digital audio formats, including DSD.

Of course if you want an actual, tape-playing portable, Fiio has you covered there, too.