[dilpal]

Can you please tell us how the streaming apps like Spotify are working?

 

[misteral201103]

Can't tell you how additional apps work till tomorrow at the earliest. I'm in China, even apkpure seems to be blocked here. Once I get to work tomorrow, my whole internet access runs through VPN so I can go online with the M11 and see what I can get. Might not be your guy for streaming apps though - Spotify is VERY funny for both me and my wife, despite VPNs up the wazoo. It insists we're in a country other than the one we (apparently) registered in and thus cannot access the service till we buy a subscription. Also, don't have Tidal.

For both Spotify and Tidal, you have to bear in mind that the M11 has no Play Store and no access to Google accounts (this is a "Google turning into Apple" issue which is discussed in another thread - not really Fiio's fault) so if those apps are ONLY available via the Play Store, or if they rely on Google to authenticate subscriptions, you're going to be SOL.

However, I will try my best!!!

Slightly addicted to this at the moment, been checking out a wide range of stuff. Only a very few albums (notably Ten Summoners Tales) sound anything other than stunning.
And yes, I have had some "I've never heard that before" moments on tracks I have listened to a million times before.

Tried the 'All to DSD' - hit and miss, depending on the track and, I guess, the encoding. Most high bitrate (over 1000) flacs do not benefit and I prefer them straight. However, for 320k MP3s, it does add a level of polish - more definition to the sound.

There was something else.....oh! Baked in wireless transfer (file management) from PC or phone. Means those SD cards don't need to be popped in and out all the time, which is really nice if you tend to add and remove tracks relatively regularly. Haven't tried it yet - will report back when I do.

Someone asked about Chrome - it's installed out of the box.
Also, got an update today. Not sure what difference it made, but nice to see that Fiio are hot on updates even this early out of the gate!

 

[dharmasteve]

Ok, got it a little while ago. I'll post more detailed impressions in the days to come but here is my first report (single ended to InEars Prophile 8s, comparing to X5iii):

Beautiful unit - really quite lovely.

Fast and smooth - within Fiio's music app it's whizzing around, no discernible lag at all. Especially navigating folders, very quick. Also going from app to app and opening apps.

Sound - hard to say at this point. For one thing, I am accustomed to listening through the XD-05 and thus will have to AB between M11 and X5iii to give meaningful feedback. Best I can say at this point is the M11 is much more refined. There's more detail but not just in high frequency. Like an overall higher resolution, if that makes sense.
Is the soundstage wider? Again, hard to say without ABing and also running through the XD05 to properly compare.
I would say it represents a similar experience to when I tried out the Opus #2 in that it's clearly better (than X5iii) but I couldn't tell you more right now.
Bass - not subdued but not powerful either - EDIT: I was wrong. Bass is as it should be, punches well if it's in the recording, and reaches down nice and deep.
EQ - works very well (within the Fiio app) and does not seem to make the 6db drop that previous versions have done. Definitely an option to those wanting more bass (tried it, sounds good)

@gLer and @Sven2015 had a bunch of questions - I'll answer them here so everyone benefits:

English language - yes, plus a ton of others.
Bluetooth and 5g Wireless - yes, no problem. Bluetooth LDAC to the Mobius sounds good.
Boot-time - minimal. Haven't timed it but we're maybe talking 10 seconds, if that. Quick!
Gapless - haven't tried yet, will be walking the dog after this so will try
Plex - not till tomorrow BUT

When I tried YouKu to test wireless, video and audio I discovered there is no orientation option. The player will not detect when you turn it on its side and there is no setting to enable this. This may mean no landscape video, though some players allow you to set this within the app. We'll see. But this is not a player for YouTube etc...

Overall, at this early stage: am I happy with it? Yes, very much so. Flawless operational experience compared to the X5iii and arguably improved sound quality, plus LDAC, improved battery life. Very happy with this upgrade. Is it a redefinition of sound in the same way my Prophile 8s were? No. But I believe it rivals the Opus #2 which is more than double the price (only my opinion based on memory, pinches of salt recommended) and to really step up in terms of sound I would need to move to a much larger budget and even then, I suspect it would not be a night and day difference (to my ears at least).

Great job @FiiO ! This is a lovely player, a worthy upgrade to the X5 series!!

Feel free to ask me to try things out - I'll keep reporting back as and when.

Sorry but basic question. Does it run Google Play and are all play apps able to run? No whitelist.
Steve

 

[misteral201103]

Sorry but basic question. Does it run Google Play and are all play apps able to run? No whitelist.
Steve

No Google Play, no Google accounts...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/issue-regarding-google-play-service.902226/

If an app does not require Google services for authentication, you can pop the apk on the M11 and install it. But apps like UAPP which uses Google to prove you have paid will not work.

 

[ScottPilgrim]

Can't tell you how additional apps work till tomorrow at the earliest. I'm in China, even apkpure seems to be blocked here. Once I get to work tomorrow, my whole internet access runs through VPN so I can go online with the M11 and see what I can get. Might not be your guy for streaming apps though - Spotify is VERY funny for both me and my wife, despite VPNs up the wazoo. It insists we're in a country other than the one we (apparently) registered in and thus cannot access the service till we buy a subscription. Also, don't have Tidal.

For both Spotify and Tidal, you have to bear in mind that the M11 has no Play Store and no access to Google accounts (this is a "Google turning into Apple" issue which is discussed in another thread - not really Fiio's fault) so if those apps are ONLY available via the Play Store, or if they rely on Google to authenticate subscriptions, you're going to be SOL.

However, I will try my best!!!

Slightly addicted to this at the moment, been checking out a wide range of stuff. Only a very few albums (notably Ten Summoners Tales) sound anything other than stunning.
And yes, I have had some "I've never heard that before" moments on tracks I have listened to a million times before.

Tried the 'All to DSD' - hit and miss, depending on the track and, I guess, the encoding. Most high bitrate (over 1000) flacs do not benefit and I prefer them straight. However, for 320k MP3s, it does add a level of polish - more definition to the sound.

There was something else.....oh! Baked in wireless transfer (file management) from PC or phone. Means those SD cards don't need to be popped in and out all the time, which is really nice if you tend to add and remove tracks relatively regularly. Haven't tried it yet - will report back when I do.

Someone asked about Chrome - it's installed out of the box.
Also, got an update today. Not sure what difference it made, but nice to see that Fiio are hot on updates even this early out of the gate!

Neither Tidal nor Spotify uses Google's payment authentication AFAIK.

 

[loungecat]

Neither Tidal nor Spotify uses Google's payment authentication AFAIK.

PHEW! thank goodness for that.

 

[superuser1]

Or one could use something like the Aurora Store and get their paid apps too.

link: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/galaxy-playstore-alternative-t3739733

 

[misteral201103]

Ok - got some additional apps from APKPure - will look into AuroraStore...

Spotify - works. I don't have premium so I'm listening at whatever godawful settings they have as standard. I would never use this. Haven't tried with bluetooth, since I don't have BT cans here. However, I tried YouKu with BT yesterday and it worked fine. I appreciate that if you are streaming at higher bandwidths you might be concerned, but on regular video plus audio plus BT, it was fine.

YouTube - does not work because of no Google account

Plex - it works and displays in landscape, but then the app remains in landscape. I wouldn't choose to watch a video on the M11 instead of my phone, as suspected. Though of course, for streaming music it would be cool. Don't have music here, but no reason to doubt it would work since movies work.

That's it for now, assuming you don't want to hear about Hooke Audio (which I've downloaded but not installed or tried yet.)

 

[weexisttocease]

Fiio did a mistake by choosing a Exynos SoC since Samsung will never update the chip to recent Android versions. I'm interested in getting my first DAP and the M11 seems to be a good choice but we need long term support.

 

[jmills8]

Fiio did a mistake by choosing a Exynos SoC since Samsung will never update the chip to recent Android versions. I'm interested in getting my first DAP and the M11 seems to be a good choice but we need long term support.

Which dap you have ?

 

[weexisttocease]

Which dap you have ?

None. I use my Essential PH-1 with Hidizs Sonata or Bluetooth via ES100. I'm already using 80gb of ROM mainly with my Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson collection, so I need a lot more space. Also I don't want to destroy the phone's battery.

 

[misteral201103]

Regarding the lack of Google accounts/play store:

I fully recognise that different people will have different expectations and requirements of a DAP. I also recognise that some people find their media app of choice and really don't want to use anything else.

For me, a DAP should be fluid in execution and play music from my SD cards as well as I can afford. The M11 is a definitive step up for me and I'm not looking to add any apps - I have my phone for any extra stuff. I would certainly try uapp on there if I could but I would probably end up sticking with Fiio's player anyway, since it works beautifully and is designed to work with the hardware.

For the price, I honestly think you will be hard pressed to get better sound for your money, on top of all the other pros this player has. Spotify works, I assume tidal will as well. Google music obviously won't but you should be among for higher quality files if you're buying this anyway.

When you can, give it a good audition and see if you still feel Google integration is strictly necessary.

My 2 cents

 

[1000ROUNDZ]

Regarding the lack of Google accounts/play store:

I fully recognise that different people will have different expectations and requirements of a DAP. I also recognise that some people find their media app of choice and really don't want to use anything else.

For me, a DAP should be fluid in execution and play music from my SD cards as well as I can afford. The M11 is a definitive step up for me and I'm not looking to add any apps - I have my phone for any extra stuff. I would certainly try uapp on there if I could but I would probably end up sticking with Fiio's player anyway, since it works beautifully and is designed to work with the hardware.

For the price, I honestly think you will be hard pressed to get better sound for your money, on top of all the other pros this player has. Spotify works, I assume tidal will as well. Google music obviously won't but you should be among for higher quality files if you're buying this anyway.

When you can, give it a good audition and see if you still feel Google integration is strictly necessary.

My 2 cents

Hello, can I ask you to try if Tidal works fine on the M11? I'm traveling to Shanghai this Wednesday for a week, and if it's good then I might pick it up from JD.com. How's the sound? Do you have the Chord Mojo to compare to?

Thanks

 

[gLer]

Regarding the lack of Google accounts/play store:

I fully recognise that different people will have different expectations and requirements of a DAP. I also recognise that some people find their media app of choice and really don't want to use anything else.

For me, a DAP should be fluid in execution and play music from my SD cards as well as I can afford. The M11 is a definitive step up for me and I'm not looking to add any apps - I have my phone for any extra stuff. I would certainly try uapp on there if I could but I would probably end up sticking with Fiio's player anyway, since it works beautifully and is designed to work with the hardware.

For the price, I honestly think you will be hard pressed to get better sound for your money, on top of all the other pros this player has. Spotify works, I assume tidal will as well. Google music obviously won't but you should be among for higher quality files if you're buying this anyway.

When you can, give it a good audition and see if you still feel Google integration is strictly necessary.

My 2 cents

I completely agree. In fact when full Android players were released a while back, I swore I’d never get one because, well, I had my phone (an iPhone) and Android was pointless just for music. But the latest round of players - the M9 specifically - showed me that a customized Android (with Android getting out of the way and stripping the redundant phone features) was actually ideal.

This is maninly because I’ve started using Tidal extensively (and Tidal offline is only available on smartphone platforms) and because the greatest benefit of a Wi-Fi player for me would be to connect directly to my music server using Plex and be able to stream my entire flac library from around the house and around the world.

And just when I almost got the perfect device in the M9...I discovered it didn’t support Plex and many other useful apps that would complement the music player.

Even worse, it didn’t support AAC BT (neither does the M11, oddly), so ‘clean’ BT via iPhone (to play Plex tracks from the iPhone to the M9) was impossible, and M9’s AirPlay support is so patchy it didn’t help either (and in fact doesn’t even support high-res files despite being wireless - an AirPlay not an M9 limitation).

Enter the M11...the dap the M9 should have been in the first place. Now I can finally completely detach music - both locally stored and high-res streamed) from the iPhone, and not even care about Bluetooth or AirPlay, although HWA transmissions to other devices have merit for future uses.

As long as it supports modern streaming apps as they evolve over the next few years, I won’t be needing anything else from a dap for a very long time.

 

[dharmasteve]

Everything sounds better from m9 balanced output not only fh5. Dm6 and kanas pro both sounds much better. Balanced is the only way to go with m9. So i believe m11 will be not worse in this. Only the main interest what sound tuning will be m11. It should share similarities with other m series daps.

Definitely agree. My Tin Audio T2 Pro's with a balanced cable sound considerably better than the T2 Pros from the 3.5 single ended output. Very good, solid yet refined sound.