FiiO M11

When I first saw the FiiO M11 I was instantly in love with the looks and huge screen. Having only owned a Hiby R5 when it came to recent DAPs, I wasn’t sure what possible improvements I may see over the R5 but I still bought the M11 based off early reviews claiming how fast it was compared to other DAPs on the market. The FiiO M11 also makes use of 2.5mm and 4.4mm pentaconn balanced jacks and a normal 3.5mm single ended jack. For me this was perfect as I’m still working on converting over to 4.4mm so I could make use of all my balanced cables. Lets see how the M11 performs!!

Gear used
IPhone X outputting via bluetooth to the M11, line out to the SMSL SU-8, Ikko OH10, Campfire Audio IO, ADV M5-5D, HEDD HEDDphone, LCD2C and Dan Clark Audio Aeon flow “RT” closed.

Looks and Feel
I think the M11 is quite the looker! The glass on both the front and back look fantastic. The front screen comes with a glass screen protector pre installed. The device itself has a nice quality feel and I love the little volume wheel and its click noises. While multiple colors would have been great, I dig the gold and black accents.

Android performance
The M11 comes stock with android 7 installed. I feel this is already outdated but this isn’t so much FiiOs fault and more of a samsung SoC issue. When I first got the M11 you had to use aftermarket app stores since the M11 wasn’t certified for google play services. This caused weird issues like no youtube app or any other apps that rely on google services being installed. Having written this review well after the release of the M11, a few big changes happened since. With a firmware update the play store and google services are installed by default which really opens up the M11 and had this change not been done I would've considered the lack of the play store to be a con. The M11 is very quick for a DAP in this price range. Still struggles running chrome with multiple pages open but I’ve seen worse performance from DAPs that cost more. I don’t think there is anything out as quick in the sub $1000 range as of this writing. I do hope going forward more midrange SoC options become the normal for DAPs but time will tell. Running apps like Tidal, soundcloud and poweramp are all extremely quick and I never saw any slow downs and I’m fairly happy even if I prefer a slightly newer version of android be installed on the device. The FiiO stock music app is fine and I didn’t run into any issues the few times I used it. I really enjoy poweramp however and like the layout and UI over any other apps I’ve tried. So that's what I continue to use.

Battery life
I got pretty good battery life out of the M11. It lasted about 1-2 days when running wired headphones and 2-4 days off bluetooth. I found this to be very good battery life with how much power it pushes out wired.

EMI noise
Zero!!! I was happy that with bluetooth and wifi turned on, I got zero EMI noise. My R5 most definitely suffers from this depending on where I’m at.

Sound(overall)
These will be my impressions overall with the M11’s sound signature when used with all the headphones and iems I threw at the M11.

Lows
Lows are somewhat lean on the M11. This can easily be fixed via EQ. The only downside is that there's no system wide EQ options so while I was able to get poweramp boosted in the low end, I wasn’t able to do the same with Tidal and Soundcloud. This wasn’t a deal breaker for me and I simply used some of my darker sounding iems to adjust to the M11’s sound signature depending on where I was going out with the M11 and what apps I would be using.

Mids
The mids feel somewhat boosted and come through super crisp and clear. There's a really nice sparkle to vocals I don’t get from my R5 or my iphone with it’s headphone adapter. Nothing gets harsh with vocals and singers are fairly in your face. I prefer the vocals to be a little recessed myself but I still enjoyed the mids overall on the M11.

Highs
The top end has a slight focus and boost just like the mids. This combo makes the M11 sound fairly clinical and clean. There is a really nice sparkle off things like cymbals and other treble oriented instruments. Things can get a little peaky and sibilant depending on the headphones or iems you’re using. I think for those who really like brighter sounding sources that the m11 does fairly well.

Imaging/Soundstage
The soundstage is a little smaller vs my desktop setup. I wouldn’t call the Soundstage claustrophobic but I wouldn’t call it wide and spacious either. Imaging was great as I expect it to be off a DAP at this price.

Single ended output
Using the single ended jack with my sensitive iems didn’t produce any noticeable floor noise and did very well for iems. I don’t have any single ended cables for my over ear headphones I tested the M11 with so I can’t comment on single ended performance for over ears.

Balanced outputs
I made use of both the 2.5mm and 4.4mm pentaconn balanced jacks. My sensitive iems did show more hiss but that all disappeared once the music started playing. I like that they managed to stick both balanced jacks on the M11. The balanced outputs sent more power and while I couldn’t really tell a/b testing a difference in sound quality between the single ended and balanced jacks. I enjoy any extra power I can get and was really happy with the balanced options on the M11.

Power output
The single ended jack outputs 195mW at 32Ω which I find really good for most iems and some easy to drive over ears. The balanced jack outputs a nice 550mW at 32Ω which can get most over ears moving. Some hard to drive headphones still get enough power out of balanced to get to high volumes but you can tell the M11 can't keep up with a desktop setup and that shouldn't be any surprise. I still find the power output of the M11 to be very impressive nonetheless.

Note on Bluetooth
I didn't do a huge amount of testing with bluetooth as most of the wireless headsets I had were sbc or aptx. I can't really say whether the LDAC works well or not. The bluetooth range wasn't terrible but you can't go super far without cut outs. The sound quality in aptx hd was rather good however and the battery life was fantastic when using bluetooth instead of wired. Max volume was a hit or miss on some wireless sets. Bluetooth output from my Iphone to the M11 worked well with no issue. No AAC on the M11 unfortunately but I honestly couldn't tell a difference on the go.

Iem pairing opinions
Ikko OH10- The OH10 pairs fairly well with the M11! The OH10 has a little bit of a warm laid back sound. The M11 boosts the top end a bit and cleans up the OH10's low end fairly well. It calms the low end a bit and barely shrinks the soundstage as well. I think for those who want a little more sparkle out of the OH10, this could be a fantastic pairing.

Campfire Audio IO- I didn’t like the IO on the M11 without heavy EQ. The IO is a little bright and lean with the low end naturally and the M11 just made that way more obvious. I think the IO would pair better with a warm sounding DAP. This can of course be fixed with the M11 if you don’t mind doing some EQ.

Over ear pairing opinions
HEDD Audio HEDDphone- I normally don’t use open backs with a DAP as I use my DAP usually in an office environment or when on a trip(not so much with the pandemic) and sometimes around the house when cooking. I however wanted to see if I could power the HEDDphone with the M11 and see how it sounded while I had it in for testing. While I could get the HEDDphone up to an uncomfortable volume level, it didn’t quite have the same magic all around I got from my desktop setup. This was to be expected and I don’t blame the little M11 as its not really meant to push out globs of power that the HEDDphone needs to sound it’s best.

Dan Clark Audio Aeon “RT” Closed- The closed RT was actually perfect for my use with the M11. I ran the RT in 4.4mm pentaconn and it paired really well with the m11. The low end was a little lean but using the EQ from poweramp I was able to get the sound signature close to what I personally like. The M11 gave the RT enough juice without burning through its battery which I enjoyed. This combo is the one I use most when I’m at my desk or when I eventually start getting on flights again.

Overall thoughts
I used to never care for DAPs as they were either super basic in function or they ran like garbage performance wise next to my 3 year old Iphone X. This changed my views once I had the M11. The M11 is the fastest android DAP I’ve had the luxury to use but It’s still not quite up to that “mid range” android device speed. At $400 I think it does very well in it’s price bracket. I love the look and feel of the DAP and always enjoy using the little volume wheel. I would highly recommend the M11 for pretty much anyone who wants to try a dedicated music player over their phone with a separate portable DAC/AMP. I look forward to what FiiO brings out next DAP wise! Thanks for reading!!!

Amateur Hour
Hey Head-Fi. I am just a regular guy that got into the audio hobby after developing the need to have some kind of noise playing during the day (I try to use white noise/rain sounds but will overlay Lofi off of Youtube). But when I do listen to music, and I will admit I'll really listen to anything, I enjoy the Hi-Fi experience. This review is based off using the Fiio M11 for approximately 40~ hours on Fiio FH5, Tin P1, and Shure SE 215. I played a mixture of Spotify HQ, Youtube Music, FLAC, MP3 320 Kbps, and MP3 192 Kbps. I compared this source to my Pioneer XDP 30R and FiiO Q5S connected to an iPhone 11 Pro.

TL;DR/Summary
I feel that this player does an amazing job at being a source. If your primary goal is to just use the device for music playback, especially locally off of the two SD card slots (tons of expandable storage!), the added features such as a USB DAC, Bluetooth Audio receiver, and range of streaming apps makes this a fantastic player. However, I cannot feel that alternatives can be had for a similar price that provide a better quality of life experience. My only reason for really docking this player is the software and hardware limitations that FiiO implicitly put on themselves for choosing to run Android on it.

However, if you want to get a more feature-filled experience, I highly recommend buying the FiiO Q5S and tethering it to your phone or buying a cheap Android phone in the $200-$300 range. This in total will be slightly more than the FiiO M11 but if you want to have a lag-free, feature rich Android DAP experience, it will be 100x better than what the M11 provides. If you are considering this player because of Android: run away. If you are considering this player for an amazing audio experience without the need for a super fluid UI and the occasional hiccup: this is the player I would choose. I am sadly going to be returning my M11 but hope to return to the DAP scene if FiiO decides to just take a Samsung Galaxy S8 and shove audio into it.

Hardware
Find some pictures of my player below. FiiO's marketing materials on this device are better than anything my iPhone can take so check those out for sure. I will say that my player came with the protective case pre-installed and have not removed it for anything other than inserting my own SD-Card. The device is rather bulky with the case on, about the size of two iPhone's stacked on top of each other. But that edge pushing display and glass body with aluminum trim are undeniably beautiful. Compared to my XDP 30R, this is a premium feeling device and looks great. The 4.4 Pentaconn balanced, 2.5mm balanced, and 3.5mm input are awesome for output capabilities. The device uses USB C for charging and USB DAC. The player supports Bluetooth 4.2 (not the standard 5.0) but has support for LDAC/aptX.

Software
I am a software engineer by profession and I can tell what FiiO did to cut corners on this player. The DAC/AMP chipset is definitely wonderful and will push IEMs to levels that are beyond just enjoyable, however, the real issue is the operating system and the SoC (Exynos 7872) that FiiO put into this device.

Android's optimizations are somewhat poor out of the box, and this box is of course the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The AOSP allows companies to build and run "Android" on their devices but lacks the license agreement needed to install Google Play Services and GMS, two components which will unlock the Android that most people know of. Additionally, the optimizations needed to get this player to play with a slightly modified stock version of Android 7.0 just do not seem to be present. As a result, you are missing out on the Google Play store and are forced to sideload applications from APKPure and FiiO's built in "app store". This is not a fault of FiiO so much as there not really being a need for securing a licensing deal for this player since it is first and foremost a portable DAP and the added benefits of Android are secondary. However, if you are planning on buying this player, I imagine you are somewhat interested in knowing how much of that "Android" can you take advantage of. The lack of Google Play Services means that you will have to also use a "piracy" version of YouTube since YouTube depends on Google specific services.

This, coupled with a lackluster 3 GB of RAM, mean that you are getting a severely laggy device. I'm making an assumption here but arguendo, if you're looking at buying this player you most likely have had some experience with a modern Android phone. And by modern, I do not mean a flagship like a OnePlus 7T or Samsung Note 10+. I mean even the cheap Pocofone, Huawei P30 Lite, Moto Z Play, etc. These phones even with their limitations have amazing performance compared to the FiiO. It's not just a laggy UI that is caused by a lack of RAM, processing power, and optimizations, it's the hang ups. I will be using the player and encounter just random freezing or crashing apps. When trying to skip through a large track (3 hours) I encounter a hang, something that never happened on my Pioneer XDP 30R, a relatively weaker portable. This portable has a subpar UX compared to a "dumb" player that runs a custom operating system.

The worst part is that the FiiO M11 Pro and M15 use the same SoC, and while I have not had the chance to use either, I can imagine the same problems that plague this device in usability will be present on those and feel even more exaggerated for the price. The Exynos 7872 is well known for its use in the budget phone, Meizu M6S. That phone came out in 2018. This device, a device that lacks the cellular radio, telephony components, camera, etc, performs seemingly worse!

To sum it up, this device performs poorly compared to what is possible for Android phones in this price bracket. The fact that FiiO put Android on the device makes me expect at least budget phone performance and this is just laughably bad, especially at the price of some *flagship* products.

Music!
Well that is what the player is for! I had a blast using this player with my IEMs. I took it around for a bit just to see what the experience would be like compared to a phone and Q5S combo and the experience is comparable. I tried a ton of tracks from Tycho, Owl City, Taylor Swift, Iann Dior, Tobu, Juice WRLD, Lofi Remixes, and JPop. All in all, the player handled everything in my library well and only struggled on playback of large mixes that I had compiled -- the player would hang when trying to skip to certain parts of the mix. The FiiO Music app is actually pretty gorgeous for what it is and has tons of customizability with an EQ, Gapless playback, Theming, FiiO link, etc. It is very similar to the FiiO app on the phone. Spotify works flawlessly on the music side but is hindered by the software stutters and lag. YouTube, something that I actually use quite a bit because of the convenience, does not work natively. There is a piracy enabled version of YouTube that *does* work with the player but that does not allow for YouTube sign on -- a feature I miss because of my playlists and the fact that I pay for YouTube premium.

The player supports high-res music files and handled my FLACs of Coldplay no problem. I will say that I found the EQ rather interesting in that it seems to lower the volume as compared to it just being off but it allows for quite a range of customizability and will satisfy most people.

There are music filters! I found no real difference with them on my IEMs but there is the option for those that appreciate tuning the playback. High/low gain present and works flawlessly.

Comfort-review-wise: I loved listening to music on this device. When I got my playlists loaded in and threw in my IEMs for a couple hours of work or reading, I got lost. I really enjoyed using this player when it was just playing music. But the software really hinders it in UX and thus got me thinking that the Q5S+Phone was really enough.

Misc
This might sound strange but I saw that I was able to install Kindle on the player. The player is amazing for music playback but in a strange way was perfect for reading. Since it is so hindered in being used as a regular Android device, I was able to comfortably read and listen to music without feeling the FOMO of a regular phone with notifications pinging every minute. While this is not what the player is meant to be used for, those that want to extract additional functionality out of it for running Android should do some research into the apps that you want to use to see if they require Google Play Services.