[rlw6534]

Question re SK-M11 case. Was wondering...when one orders this case it seems that one will likely get the hexagon shaped grille even though most advertise pics of both triangle and hexagon cases. Has anyone ever actually gotten the triangle? I'd prefer the hexagon as it seems more suited positionally to provide battery cooling.

This is what I got from Audio46:

 

[BobSmith8901]

Thanks for everyone's input. I went ahead and bought an SK-M11 case off Amazon as it just had a price drop. I'll take my chances, hope for the hexagon, but either way will provide some cooling vs. the OEM case, which is very nice, but want to maximize in what ever incremental ways I can, battery life/health.

 

[BobSmith8901]

Re SK-M11 case: I got an answer from an Amazon seller that said that the asymmetrical triangle version has not been released in the US and currently only the hexagon design is available. So, looks like I'll get the hexagon version.

 

[zylonk]

Have had the M11 plus for about a week now, and I have married it to the FD7 IEMs. Both need long burn-in
obviously, but it is clear already that the claims made for the quality of the hardware of both are true. I
also use Sony devices, in the ZX range, and have the 507 now, which I play with SE846s using a mid-priced
balanced cable (tried the FIIO silver cable, but too bright to my ears). I don't intend contrasting these
players, both are excellent in specific ways - the M11 more forward, for instance, while the 507 is more
contained, so that each serves different situations and moods.

What I want to do is contrast the software, especially the supplied music apps. Having also tried a FiBy
device, it is obvious that both FiBy and FIIO use the same original music app, and I suspect other Chinese
DAP brands may also use it. The FIIO is especially an unfortunate version, for it more clearly shows the
origin of the player app, most likely designed for use on cheap phones aimed at teenagers, as it retains
much of the flashiness and the limited album and track information display that would suit such a
device, intended to belt out pop mp3s through miniscule speakers. I disabled it after one day, and
replaced with the FiBy version, which at least provides more restrained skins and displays more
information. Now contrast this stuation with the Sony music app, which is rationally designed, with more
detailed information displayed (though not as fully as the ZX300 does) and laid out in a more accessible
manner - and with no teenage flashiness. For the record, what is available otherwise on-line seems either
incompetently stupid and simply weird, none as comprehensive as either the Chinese or Sony apps.

This may seem a trivial complaint, especially in the light of the superb quality of both the manufacture
and performance of the M11, but my initial experience of the FIIO app was such that it negated the obvious
quality of the DAP. After all, the music app is the gateway to the device, and if there is such a negative
experience each time the DAP is used, then that must in the long run affect the enjoyment that it could
otherwise afford.

The final word is obvious: the software can be as important as the hardware for the quality of user's
experience of the device. So, consider a radical re-design of your music app, and should it imitate the
Sony version, then all the better.

 

[MrNailhead]

^Interesting take on the software side of things - I have never really had much problem with the stock Fiio app - but I will say the recent update has made some nice improvements - like actually showing the song length in the library menu - that was my only real gripe. I tried out UAPP a while back but didn't care for it's layout and did not notice any discernable audio difference, like some have stated, so I went back to Fiio. Haven't tried the hiby app though - I did almost buy an R6 Pro II instead of the M11 Plus Ltd. though.

 

[brsdrgn]

@FiiO

M11 plus ess user here.

Why the playback is getting interrupted during the change of a song on spotify? It plays the song and upon going to the next one, no damn sound. I'm checking and it seek bar goes further the app plays the song but your dap doesn't give any output to the headphones.

I have to go back and forth by using buttons to hear the song. Even using buttons doesn't work because it gives output for one and next one no sound at all. Also the sound gets bloated certain frequencies are heard higher. Why?

I checked all the settings. No battery optimization, no background limitation. Simply the dap blocks the output somehow.

I know a user addressed this before here months ago. You still didn't take any action. To play a song, leaving the dap aside expecting it to switch new songs and giving output to the headphones is I believe pretty much an obvious and classic action to perform by users right? Then why am I dealing with this every time? What's the problem?

This started to piss me as hell because every time, every single time the dap does this, especially while trying to rest/sleep. The song comes to the end and I question if I hear nothing or it will play damn next song...

 

[brsdrgn]

@FiiO

M11 plus ess user here.

Why the playback is getting interrupted during the change of a song on spotify? It plays the song and upon going to the next one, no damn sound. I'm checking and it seek bar goes further the app plays the song but your dap doesn't give any output to the headphones.

I have to go back and forth by using buttons to hear the song. Even using buttons doesn't work because it gives output for one and next one no sound at all. Also the sound gets bloated certain frequencies are heard higher. Why?

I checked all the settings. No battery optimization, no background limitation. Simply the dap blocks the output somehow.

I know a user addressed this before here months ago. You still didn't take any action. To play a song, leaving the dap aside expecting it to switch new songs and giving output to the headphones is I believe pretty much an obvious and classic action to perform by users right? Then why am I dealing with this every time? What's the problem?

This started to piss me as hell because every time, every single time the dap does this, especially while trying to rest/sleep. The song comes to the end and I question if I hear nothing or it will play damn next song...

Here I've uploaded a video showing you the issue. What's the sense of using an android dap if your dap can't even function properly, can't handle a simple job?




On the top of this, why it takes so long to implement some fixes to the controls. For example, why I can't swap how music control buttons function? In my ibasso dx160, such change was easily available. Why am I asking for it? Because I use the dap rotated as it took you ages to implement this. You implemented it yet you didn't change how buttons function. In order to increase volume I have press down in rotated mode, in order to go to the next song I have to press up in rotated mode which I would set it as down considering I go down with songs in a Playlist. You must be so careless not to fix these simple mistakes your dap has. Yet you're working on releasing new models instead fixing the others you released. I'll eventually sell this dap and buy from another brand...

 

[BobSmith8901]

@FiiO

M11 plus ess user here.

Why the playback is getting interrupted during the change of a song on spotify? It plays the song and upon going to the next one, no damn sound. I'm checking and it seek bar goes further the app plays the song but your dap doesn't give any output to the headphones.

I have to go back and forth by using buttons to hear the song. Even using buttons doesn't work because it gives output for one and next one no sound at all. Also the sound gets bloated certain frequencies are heard higher. Why?

I checked all the settings. No battery optimization, no background limitation. Simply the dap blocks the output somehow.

I know a user addressed this before here months ago. You still didn't take any action. To play a song, leaving the dap aside expecting it to switch new songs and giving output to the headphones is I believe pretty much an obvious and classic action to perform by users right? Then why am I dealing with this every time? What's the problem?

This started to piss me as hell because every time, every single time the dap does this, especially while trying to rest/sleep. The song comes to the end and I question if I hear nothing or it will play damn next song...

I have the ESS also with the latest FW 1.0.3, using standard SE output to headphones.

I only have a free Spotify account but I played the same album you have in your video and it did go to the next random cut and played with sound.. Ditto with another playlist I have. I'd think it's probably something with the Spotify app that's out of wack but I don't know how far you have eliminated the simple stuff. Does it only do it with Spotify? If you sign out of Spotify and just play the free version does it still do it? Did you try doing a clear cache/storage or just uninstall and reinstall of Spotify? If it was me and I did all the basic stuff I'd try a factory reset.

 

[brsdrgn]

I have the ESS also with the latest FW 1.0.3, using standard SE output to headphones.

I only have a free Spotify account but I played the same album you have in your video and it did go to the next random cut and played with sound.. Ditto with another playlist I have. I'd think it's probably something with the Spotify app that's out of wack but I don't know how far you have eliminated the simple stuff. Does it only do it with Spotify? If you sign out of Spotify and just play the free version does it still do it? Did you try doing a clear cache/storage or just uninstall and reinstall of Spotify? If it was me and I did all the basic stuff I'd try a factory reset.

Not related to the album. It plays just fine on my mobile. The dap has this problem with every playlist on spotify somehow. I don't wanna go through with all installations and I remember another member here was complaining about the same thing.

 

[zylonk]

^Interesting take on the software side of things - I have never really had much problem with the stock Fiio app - but I will say the recent update has made some nice improvements - like actually showing the song length in the library menu - that was my only real gripe. I tried out UAPP a while back but didn't care for it's layout and did not notice any discernable audio difference, like some have stated, so I went back to Fiio. Haven't tried the hiby app though - I did almost buy an R6 Pro II instead of the M11 Plus Ltd. though.

Thanks for reply. I've looked at latest iteration of the FiiO app, but can see no improvement in appearance: same gaudy art work, same restricted titling. You could take a look at the Fiby offering - it is the same basic player - and make your own comparison. I suspect that FiiO may contract out the software side of things, which could explain the mismatch between the quality of the DAP hardware and s'ware. Wouldn't be unusual. Also, the quality of the FiiO implementation of the Android OS is very inferior to that of both Fiby and Sony, which reinforces my suspicion. Tho' I have to allow that the different versions of Android here - Fiby - v7, Sony - v8, and FiiO - v9, might determine what is possible in this case.

Perhaps FiiO will comment on this - if they are still around here.

 

[MrNailhead]

album art issue/question - does anyone on here know how to delete or change the album thumbnail art that appears on the scrolling artist - album list? I have some albums that were old MP3 copies which had artwork empbedded - a few of these albums I have since replaced with FLAC copies and and the artwork has changed (or I just want higher quality ones) - I can change the artwork for the individual songs (I use Autotagger) but i've never had luck changing the thumbnail image - when I replace the old mp3s with flac the individual song will have the correct image but not the thumbnail, which is a minor issue but one that really bugs me lol - I found the cached artwork folder in internal storage - android - data - com.fiio.music - cache - albumart but there's no way (that i've found) to see what each actual file is or corresponds to.
If anyone on here has any tips or tricks for getting those to match I would highly appreciate it!

 

[Voltriant]

album art issue/question - does anyone on here know how to delete or change the album thumbnail art that appears on the scrolling artist - album list? I have some albums that were old MP3 copies which had artwork empbedded - a few of these albums I have since replaced with FLAC copies and and the artwork has changed (or I just want higher quality ones) - I can change the artwork for the individual songs (I use Autotagger) but i've never had luck changing the thumbnail image - when I replace the old mp3s with flac the individual song will have the correct image but not the thumbnail, which is a minor issue but one that really bugs me lol - I found the cached artwork folder in internal storage - android - data - com.fiio.music - cache - albumart but there's no way (that i've found) to see what each actual file is or corresponds to.
If anyone on here has any tips or tricks for getting those to match I would highly appreciate it!

In each folder for an album I have the album art saved as an extra file named "cover.jpg"

This is working for me.

 

[BobSmith8901]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a drivable, nice-sounding balanced capable mid-fi headphone for the M11 Plus ESS?

I prefer the sound of planars at this point but the ESS just doesn't have enough grunt for either of my HiFiMans. I often pair the FiiO with my PA-10 amp but it's nice to just use the DAP by itself a lot of the time. My other DAP, Shanling M6 Pro 21, seems to be able to give enough juice by itself to drive them but the FiiO just can't get there, even at near max volume. It's rather amazing that the FiiO's claimed 660mW@32 seems so underpowered compared to Shanling's 760mW@32 Ohms.

I was thinking in the next 6-12 months of doing another headphone purchase and was leaning towards the lower end of Focal as they seem to be known to be easy to drive; I also realize there's the Ananda on the HiFiMan side.

Any thoughts and ideas appreciated. I really like the DAP a lot, everything else about it is great, and I knew going in it wasn't going to have M15S/M17 output, but I expected a bit more grunt.

 

[BS5711]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a drivable, nice-sounding balanced capable mid-fi headphone for the M11 Plus ESS?

I prefer the sound of planars at this point but the ESS just doesn't have enough grunt for either of my HiFiMans. I often pair the FiiO with my PA-10 amp but it's nice to just use the DAP by itself a lot of the time. My other DAP, Shanling M6 Pro 21, seems to be able to give enough juice by itself to drive them but the FiiO just can't get there, even at near max volume. It's rather amazing that the FiiO's claimed 660mW@32 seems so underpowered compared to Shanling's 760mW@32 Ohms.

I was thinking in the next 6-12 months of doing another headphone purchase and was leaning towards the lower end of Focal as they seem to be known to be easy to drive; I also realize there's the Ananda on the HiFiMan side.

Any thoughts and ideas appreciated. I really like the DAP a lot, everything else about it is great, and I knew going in it wasn't going to have M15S/M17 output, but I expected a bit more grunt.

Sounds like a silly question but have you set the M11 Plus to high gain ?

My LTD will drive my Aeon Noire on balanced just fine, not my preference but it does a good job, and I think most HiFiMan planars are similar specs unless you have a set that are less sensitive perhaps.

One note about perceived power and Shanling DAPs. I have an M3 Ultra which on paper has about half the power of the M11 Plus but it feels like it is more powerful because the volume seems to ramp up much faster initially. That is I might be using say 75 on the M11 Plus versus perhaps 40 on the M3 Ultra for a similar volume. Not sure about the M6 but that might be a factor that is playing into the perceived power difference versus the actual output numbers.

 

[BobSmith8901]

Sounds like a silly question but have you set the M11 Plus to high gain ?

My LTD will drive my Aeon Noire on balanced just fine, not my preference but it does a good job, and I think most HiFiMan planars are similar specs unless you have a set that are less sensitive perhaps.

One note about perceived power and Shanling DAPs. I have an M3 Ultra which on paper has about half the power of the M11 Plus but it feels like it is more powerful because the volume seems to ramp up much faster initially. That is I might be using say 75 on the M11 Plus versus perhaps 40 on the M3 Ultra for a similar volume. Not sure about the M6 but that might be a factor that is playing into the perceived power difference versus the actual output numbers.

Thanks for the response--yeah, it's on Hi-Gain and All to DSD is off. Interesting because the LTD has lower rated pwr than the Plus ESS. My HiFiMans-- HE-X4 and Edition XS-- are in the lower 90's sensitivity-wise. I guess burgeoning hearing loss might be a factor...hopefully not!... When I run higher sensitivity cans the DAP seems loud enough, just looking for recs on what decent cans seem to be driven more easily with the ESS.