Fosi Audio made a splash at CanJam Dubai 2026 with the debut of two new portable DAC/headphone amplifiers: the MD3 Magnetic and the DS3 ($99 at Amazon). Designed with everyday usability in mind, both products aim to strike a balance between audio quality, portability, and real-world convenience, whether you're listening on the go or diving into a gaming session.
Let’s start with the MD3 Magnetic, a super compact DAC/amp that’s designed to attach directly to your smartphone using a MagSafe-style magnetic plate. It’s lightweight (about 20 grams) and small enough to fit behind your phone without sticking out or weighing things down, making it a genuinely pocket-friendly setup.
Inside, it’s built around a ESS ES9039Q2M DAC chip and four ES9603Q amplifier chips in a true balanced configuration. What that means in practical terms is clean, detailed sound without going overboard. It’s not trying to be a mini desktop rig—it’s designed to play nice with IEMs and efficient headphones.
The outputs are what you'd expect from a serious portable: a 3.5mm single-ended jack and a 4.4mm balanced jack. Power output hits 75mW at 32 ohms (single-ended) and 180mW at 32 ohms (balanced). That’s more than enough for your average IEMs or mid-efficiency headphones, but it’s not meant to power hungry planar magnetics or high-impedance studio cans.
On the outside, the MD3 is made from CNC-machined aluminum, finished with a sandblasted anodized coating that feels solid but not flashy. The magnetic system relies on N52 magnets for a secure hold without messing with your phone’s signal, and there’s an aluminum shielding plate inside to cut down on interference.
A 1.28-inch rotating LCD screen gives you access to basic controls right on the device, and you can even upload a custom image to the display if you want to personalize it. Navigation is handled by physical buttons and a “Vista Button” for shortcuts. Fosi also added dual USB-C ports, which means you can charge your phone and listen at the same time, a nice touch for everyday use.
If the MD3 is all about premium portable listening, the DS3 takes a different route. It's a $99.99 dongle DAC/amp that skips the battery entirely and instead runs off an XMOS 16-core processor that Fosi co-developed with XMOS themselves.
Why XMOS? It gives the DS3 precise clocking, low power consumption, and some clever hardware-level tricks. You get plug-and-play 7.1 spatial audio, native DSD512 support, and PCM playback up to 32-bit/768kHz, no drivers or extra apps needed.
Like the MD3, the DS3 uses the ESS ES9039Q2M DAC, and its balanced 4.4mm output can push up to 220mW, which again is plenty for IEMs and portable headphones.
But what really sets the DS3 apart is its built-in Game Mode. It works with UAC 1.0 devices, meaning you can plug it straight into a PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, or gaming laptop and get enhanced positional audio. It comes with three listening profiles: Original, FPS, and Spatial Audio. The FPS mode, in particular, is tuned to bring out subtle audio cues like footsteps or distant gunfire, great for competitive gamers who want that edge.
Fosi is also planning a future firmware update that adds hardware-level parametric EQ with 32 bands of tuning, managed via a browser-based interface. If that update rolls out smoothly, it could make the DS3 one of the most flexible dongle DACs in its class, especially considering its price.
Neither of these devices is meant to replace a desktop amplifier. Instead, they’re optimized for portable use, especially with IEMs or efficient headphones in the 16–300 ohm range, like the recently released Meze 99 Classics Gen 2.
The low noise floor and controlled output levels also make them a good match for sensitive earphones, where hiss and distortion can easily creep in with less refined gear.
This launch also marked Fosi’s first major showing at CanJam Dubai, which took place January 24–26 at the Conrad Dubai. It was the first CanJam ever held in the Gulf region, and it brought together personal audio fans, reviewers, and brands from around the world.
Beyond the MD3 and DS3, Fosi used the event to show off other gear in its lineup, including the IM4 in-ear monitors ($109 at Amazon), i5 planar headphones ($559 at Amazon), ZH3 DAC/amp ($199 at Amazon), and K7 gaming DAC ($199 at Amazon). The company sees a growing market for portable gear that spans both music and gaming, and these new devices reflect that shift.
Fosi Audio’s MD3 Magnetic and DS3 aren’t trying to be all things to all listeners. Instead, they carve out two specific use cases: one for premium portable listening with your phone, and the other for a plug-and-play, cross-platform gaming-and-music combo.
If you’ve got power-hungry cans or you’re looking for a desktop replacement, these probably aren’t the right tools for the job. But if you’re after clean, portable, and user-friendly gear that plays well with IEMs or moderate-load headphones, both models seem like thoughtful additions to the ever-growing portable DAC landscape.
No final word yet on MD3 pricing or release date, but given how crowded the portable DAC space has become, it’ll be interesting to see how these two fit into the market once they land in buyers’ hands.
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