Verdict
A multi - talented digital audio histrion with a barrel load of features , the FiiO M11S entertains with its balanced , consistent carrying out across a mountain chain of source . It ’s a desirable travel companion to go with your smartphone of choice .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
I keep hear there ’s no place for a portable music role player in today ’s world with the smartphone , but someone somewhere must be buy – otherwise you would n’t be reading this review .
If anything , portable music players have become more like smartphones , acquire similar interfaces , touch screen and being just as loose to operate .
The FiiO M11S is a portable music player that engage like a smartphone with its Android UI . Some may still feel their smartphone does everything they need it to , but the FiiO M11S has different ideas .
Design
The best room to report the M11S would be a comparison to a one of thebest phonesaround . It is thicker than theSamsung Galaxy S23(18.5 mm vs 7.6 mm ) , heavier ( 271 g vs 168 g ) and has a smaller screen ( 5 - inch vs 6.1 ) .
But despite its heavy dimension , it is considerably well - built from all angles . The 5 - in IP blind has a 720p resolution , and textbook is sharp and decipherable to read . The projection screen is colorful – album graphics looks great – and it ’s bright , though not vivid enough to withstand the public eye of a gay day .
The M11S come with a unmortgaged display case and the screen already has a protector pre - applied , though these foreshorten the player ’s overall esthetics . The fundament of the M11S is glass which generate the unit a premium finis . Any fingerprint and smear can be easily pass over off .
Operating the FiiO M11S took me a little while to calculate out . There ’s no mastery wheel for loudness like there is onAstell & Kernplayers but a checkerboard - styled rocking chair on the left side . Pressing towards the top bumps bulk up and vice versa at the bottom does . Above the book control is a button for force / screen on / off and beneath the rocking chair is a customisable button . Like an Android smartphone , hold the force and volume button together and you may take a screenshot .
The biotechnology of the M11S in terms of physical body and size suit me holding it in my left mitt ; quarter round on the remaining side , with power , and middle for playback control on the rightfield , and then operating the screenland with my correct hand . I did n’t experience issues shuffle my fingerbreadth about to cover the buttons , the placement of which seems well thought out .
On the ripe - hired hand side are playback buttons , and below that is the microSD one-armed bandit . comment are on the bottom which is the conventional path of doing thing but also intend that the player will be upside down in a air hole during use . I ’m not certain if I favor this agency or the Astell & Kern method acting of putting them at the top – either works really .
Those inputs , before I forget , are USB - snow to USB - A ( for agitate or turning it into a USB DAC ) , along with a 2.5 mm balance out , 3.5 millimetre out / line - out / coaxial out and a 4.4 mm balanced / line output . The M11S only number in pitch-black .
Features
equip with two ESS ES9038Q2H DACs to cover the right and leftover TV channel , the M11S apply FiiO ’s 4thGen FPGA ( Field Programmable Gate Arrays ) with form - locked closed circuit technology . Some digging on-line infers the circuit constantly adjusts to oppose the frequency of the input signal signal it is receiving .
And working in alignment with dual custom femtosecond crystal oscillators , the idea is this set - up offer “ elevated precision ” and low jitter ( digital audio errors ) to produce a sporty audio frequency carrying into action . Indian file support is up to 32 - bit/384kHz and DSD256 , and there are three levels of gain to pick out from low , average , and high : depending on a headphone ’s electrical resistance .
There ’s Android OS funding customised to the M11S ’ needs , and like the FiiO R7 it offers the full Android performance . Having Android is utilitarian in that if you connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones you’re able to download its tally app . Android seems better suited here for portable use than it is on the R7 desktop amplifier .
A swipe down brings the warm menu options , and you could swipe away notifications like you would on a smartphone .
There are unlike menus too , from Android ( for instal apps ) to the complete ( or FiiO ) Music interface , Bluetooth have , USB DAC , andAirPlay mode .
The touch screen offer a fleet response to mechanical press and swiping motion , and navigation is mobile with no slowdown or slowdown . The player comes with 3 GB of RAM and Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon 660 chipset . That ’s a mid - range chip from a few year ago , tantamount to what ’s in theXiaomi Redmi Note 7orSamsung Galaxy A9 .
32 GB of internal storage is leave but that can be extend with microSD cards up to 2 TB . The 1300mAH barrage claim to offer 14 hours of service before recharging . Streaming a play list fromAmazon Musicfor an hour at 50 % mass take the electric battery life down by 7 % and that ’s on target for the 14 - hour total . Should you up the volume the overall battery life will strike to less than that .
Other feature film let in full unfolding ofMQA filesfor honorable quality carrying into action . The Global SRC bypass overrides Android ’s Sample Rate Conversion for routine - perfect playback , and there ’s Roon Ready support as well .
Bluetooth 5.0is include with the M11S able to get SBC , AAC , and LDAC codecs , as well as channelize those codecs along withaptX , aptX HD , LDACand LHDC for higher quality wireless playback . There ’s also Wi - Fi in the form of 2.4 and 5GHz connectivity .
Performance
If you ’ve show myFiiO R7 reexamination , it should n’t be a surprise that the FiiO M11S adheres to a similar approach . It ’s a impersonal delivery , perhaps not the showiest performance , but its balanced glide slope is more than satisfactory .
With a pair ofSennheiser IE 200in - ears and a stream of Academic Decommitment from the Spider - Man : return soundtrack ; the FiiO M11S outputs a wide soundstage that ’s entwine together well , featuring strong storey of detail and an enjoyable impression of the path ’s dynamics .
It ’s a very measured , balanced , and bookish performance – you may feel the M11S ’ deal train playback but not always in an obvious way of life . The FiiO sounds instinctive – neither warm nor peculiarly crisp , music has a solidity to it , and distortion is minimal if there is any at all .
A transposition to a duad ofSivga Robin SV021and the FiiO ’s tone remains coherent . Sticking with Spider - Man – this time the Across the Spider - Verse soundtrack – and that measured approach is noticeable in the opening cartroad ’s percussive note . Bass does n’t predominate proceeding , but the low frequencies have free weight , and track as a whole is energetic and dynamic .
With GoGo Penguin ’s Raven – a run runway favourite of mine – the M11S ’ reproduction of the piano is nicely bright and sharp . I can hear lovely version in the piano government note as they eloquently uprise and descend , standing out with fine lucidness among the fast cadence and cymbal crashes . Even when threefold notes do n’t register a in high spirits level of luminance or edge , they are always described in clean-cut term .
The midrange is presented in informative terms with Mitski ’s Stay Soft , which is relay with packet of detail , definition , and clarity . Mitski ’s soulful voice comes through understandably , swimmingly and with a natural disposal . official document are well defined – the sense of separation between musical instrument is not keenly feel I ’d summate , but not missed either . The sound the M11S creates is a coherent one .
The FiiO ’s sense of governing body of its soundstage is perhaps its most telling trait – there ’s a neat and tidy sense of how it goes about its business , apparently unflustered by whatever information it needs to fee to the auditor . Dynamically it pass from loud to muted and vice versa with calmness , though this area does reveal an aspect of the FiiO that might be a slight letdown .
I would n’t describe FiiO as the most energetic or attacking performer . It can provide an enjoyable sentiency of impulse and drive , but also feels as if it ’s hold back something back . It ’s this area where the hold mitt of the FiiO experience more obvious , and where the Astell & Kern SR35 feel brisk and more energetic .
Connected with a distich of Bluetooth wireless earpiece – theSony WH-1000XM4 – and like the FiiO R7 , the performance is mostly fine . It take the same electroneutral approaching , harden the Sony ’s richer audio but audio is n’t as elaborate or as active sounding as wired earpiece . The volume take raising too , to derive a more energetic horse sense of flow and drive .
The USB DAC performance is an improvement over plugging headphones directly into my Lenovo laptop computer . After some experimentation with the mass , I line up the top end of the frequency was brighter , the soundstage large in size of it , and the FiiO extracting a more dynamic carrying out than my laptop could ; though I found with some data track that the midrange was a petty more elaborated on my laptop than the M11S.
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Should you buy it?
A portable role player , USB - DAC , AirPlay , and Bluetooth receiver in one shape . If you need to improve your music listening experience , the FiiO cover the bases .
The FiiO ’s overall approach shot to vocalise is a metric and balanced one . If you ’re after more sonic firework , the Astell & Kern SR35 might be of more interest group .
Final Thoughts
Like the R7 , the FiiO M11S is a product with an exhaustive specification . It cover moderately much every orbit you could want from adigital audio actor ; its tractability is impressive and if I was to liken it to a smartphone in audio term , it ’s easy the better option .
But will prospective customer desire to have two players in their pockets ? I surmise not , but all that means is the FiiO would sit down in a udder to be brought out when the function calls for it . Its feature film arrange is liberal , and its Android integration make more meaningful sense here than it does on the R7 desktop amplifier .
And most significantly it vocalise good , putting in a balanced and composed public presentation , though I ’d debate for some more punch and Department of Energy in some areas . Nevertheless , the M11S is a likeable personal medicine histrion from FiiO at a more low-priced cost than its Astell & Kern SR35 rival .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every portable music player we brush up good over an prolonged menstruation of sentence . We use industriousness standard tests to compare features properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to review a mathematical product .
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FAQs
The FiiO M11S plump for an extensive list of formats , that include up to DSD256 , 24 - bit/352.8 K DXD , APE format up to 24 - bit/384kHz , Apple Lossless up to 32 - bit/384kHz , AIFF , FLAC , and WAV up to 32 - bit/384kHz , WMA Lossless up to 24 - bit/192kHz , as well as MQA , MP3 , OGG , and AAC .
