In this review, I’m taking the colorful FiiO Snowsky Wind headphone for a spin. The unit costs $19,99 USD.
Disclaimer: FiiO and Snowsky are not related to Headfonia. They sent me the FiiO Snowsky Wind headphone free of charge, to be featured on Headfonia.com.
FiiO Snowsky
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 that it offers affordable, youthful, and fun products, but now FiiO sprinkles a bit of nostalgia-bait on them for good measure.
Everyone likes a bit of Retro, right?
Previously we have looked at the Snowsky Retro Nano as well as the Echo Mini. The first being a dongle sized DAC/AMP and the latter being a small pocket-friendly MP3 player, aka DAP.
You can find the previous Snowsky reviews here:
In this new Snowsky review, we are looking at the Wind headphone. A retro styled on-ear headphone that takes us back to the gold old days. Could it be a Koss Porta-Pro killer let’s find out!
Snowsky Wind
The most important feature for me here is the driver and the Snowsky Wind features a 40mm dynamic driver with Japanese diaphragm.
The driver sports a strong N52 custom magnet, combined with a copper clad aluminium wire voice coil. The driver also sits in a special driver housing.
The Snowsky Wind is a semi-open back headphone and this was done in order to achieve a good balance between sound quality and isolation. More on that later.
As time marches on and technology advances, we often find ourselves wanting to experience what made the past so uniquely charming. The new Wind on-ear headphones pay tribute to the classics, but are made with modern techniques for an even more breathtaking sound.
Of course the Retro Style here is also very important, as well as the fact that it weighs only just over 50g, just like in the good old days!
The back-in-time Wind uses a traditional stainless steel headband with swiveling cups as we’re used to seeing from these type of headphones.
What is also nice is that FiiO is shipping these headphones with two sets of pads. I first figured they just had a different color or were a spare set, but they actually offer different tunings.
The black pads give you a powerful sound with bass robustness while the flashy orange set delivers a more relaxed sound. We’ll dive into that later as well.
The FiiO Snowsky Wind headphone is selling for only $19,99 USD and you can find its dedicated web page here. You can buy the Snowsky Wind from one of Fiio’s dealers, or directly from the brand itself.
Accessories, Box, Specifications
At the incredible $20 USD price Snowsky and FiiO are selling the Wind headphone you can’t expect too much and that shows directly when receiving the box.
It is a small, thin and simple box without any foam protection. That said, the box does look nice and the headphone drivers and pads were nicely protected by some type of plastic bags. Besides that, there was little protection for shocks or impacts and the Wind has place to move around in the box.
On the inside of the box you will find the Wind headphone, two pairs of cushions, one quick start guide and one warranty card.
Specifications
- Colors: Silver, Black, Pink
- Driver: 40mm dynamic driver with a Japanese PET composite diaphragm.
- Driver Voice Coil: Japan CCAW
- Impedance: 32Ω.
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz.
- Sensitivity: 116 dB/Vrms @ 1kHz. / 101dB/mW(@1kHz)
- Cable: 1.25m braided fixed cable.
- Plug Type: 3.5mm.
- Design: Semi-open, retro-inspired design with metal faceplates.
- Materials: Headband made of stainless steel, faceplates made of metal, other components made of polycarbonate.
- Weight: Around 55g.
- Inline Control: Mic Support: 3-Button inline control, CTIA standard
Build Quality & Design
The Snowsky wind’s design really takes me back to my childhood when I got my first Sony Walkman and headphones.
We call it a Retro styling nowadays, but for me it seems like it was only yesterday when this was very normal. Ok, maybe the day before yesterday.
I guess you either like or hate this old school design, unless you actually were alive in the 80s and 90s. Then it’s pure sentiment.
The Snowsky Wind is light and flimsy as you would expect from a 55g headphone with a tiny stainless steel headband. In the old days the drivers would simply break from the headband, which I am pretty sure they will still do if you let these be used by an 8 year old kid.
All fun aside, I think FiiO built these as well as they could, taking into account the typical design and the retro styling. Proof are the Ultra-thin housings which were created for the new driver.
I do am still worried about possible cable connector breaks and the cushions tearing up, but only time will tell.
I do know that I am more careful now than when I was a kid. So let’s see how things evolve.
Comfort, Usability & Isolation
With a headphone that only weighs 55g, comfort is high and at the same time basic.
From a usage point of view I was happy to see that FiiO did not implement the Koss headband system. The Koss headband is notorious for pulling out hair, and every Koss user will be able to confirm that. But none of that is present here, your hair is safe.
The Wind is an on-ear headphone and that can always lead to some discomfort after a long listening session. That said, I find the pads and side pressure from the Wind are quite right, and the swiveling cups do a wonderful job.
The swiveling cups and cushions both play a critical role in sound quality as well. But also here FiiO managed to make everything work well, delivering an excellent balance between comfort as well as sound quality.
While swapping the cushions is very easy, do understand that these pads are very fragile. Multiple switches will undoubtedly ruin the pads. Luckily you can buy like 3 new sets for only a few Dollars or Euros.
You can comfortably wear the Wind and use it for a couple of hours without any real discomfort, especially for an on-ear headphone. That’s not always the case and I’m mostly thinking about the Sennheiser HD-25 and the Beyerdynamic T51P in that case.
From a usability point of view, the Wind is easy. Basic but simple and drivable by anything that has a 3.5mm headphone connector. The Wind even supports in-line controls to use with your compatible source.
From an isolation standpoint, the semi open back design offers quite a good level of isolation. While the Wind nicely blocks out a lot of noise, it does also leak sound in abundance. On public transport, your neighbor will get to enjoy your favorite tunes.
With the technology and possibilities we have today, I would never wear this type of headphone when on the go. But you could. I still recommend using these at home, in a quiet environment or in places where you don’t disturb anyone.
Sound – Intro
This is the chapter in which we find out how the companies describe their product’s sound. For the FiiO Snowsky Wind we actually can’t find too much except for a simple “The Wind features rich bass and lush vocals for a truly intoxicating sound”.
We do also have a frequency response graph which was shared by FiiO:
Let’s find out how it really sounds!
The review continues on the second page. Click the links below to go there, or use this jump here.
