[Ichos]

Well, musicality is strange thing. Seems like we all understand it differently. But not going to some philosophies i think m11+ with musical iem will be musical so it will not change these iems nature. So this way we could say the thx here is musical. With other daps musicality is added even to technical, drier iems that are more analytical than musical. And could we say such dap is more musical? Perhaps ....and for exame take ibasso dx160 and m11+ side by side. They will be like night and day for me. Dx160 if even some call it neutral is actually far from it and for my ears it ads musicality, and m11 + for me gives how it is, really more direct, raw without candies sound. And thanks thx for this and fiio enginers ofcourse

Maybe musical because it will not impart the sound with a boring, clinical, analytical and bright characteristics.

 

[whitedragem]

having not yet read the other replies (I got delayed on my way to write this..)

opinions are great/everyone has one (etc/yada yada yada)- but I suppose we are talking subjective vs objective opinion here; which hits the wall as to what anyone has as their ‘point of reference’.
In this regard it is about context.
Sure, I pick on THX amps; but only cause I have met engineers who can read a spec sheet,and who honestly think that their super budget amp is ‘the worlds best’.
Ever seen a high priced THX chip amp? (not THX specced home theatre amps- plenty of them with ‘high prices’)

They revolutionised the ‘budget’ sector. And ‘good on them’/‘glad they exist’.
..but (inhales)
I have access to other amps, and I would never choose a THX amp over any of them.

The reason I downtalk THX amps (when comparing them to other more capable amplifiers) is that for all their ‘spec sheet’ impressiveness; they only get ‘some aspects of musical playback‘ at a level that is amazing. If the music you listen to is within the capabilities of one of these super budget ‘chip’ amplifiers, and you cannot hear the difference: more power to you; enjoy your savings and spend well on headphones or source media to enjoy said music playback system.

Many amps might do well with ‘test tones’; but I don’t listen to test tones to enjoy my amp, I use test tones to ‘understand my amp’. I use my amp to enjoy music.
I like many and varied genres, and some are very hard to playback well.

I will attach some shots of the inside of a burson amplifier, a company that builds brilliant ‘world class’ opamps, who understand that reducing audio to small chips is often detrimental to the ultimate goal of great audio.
The Conductor V2 avoids opamps ‘packages’ and likely has the internals of a typical Burson OpAmp spread out on the circuit board...

(lifted from Burson website)
a different headamp that burson sells has a circuit ‘breakdown’:

Now, to understand further the notion of ‘context’; I pick on the Burson Conductor as ‘not the best’ preamp. (others would likely think it is the best ever!!)
The Burson Conductor, as a preamp, vs my 20 year old Proceed AVP2 (surround processor), is a ‘poor alternative’. (listening side by side makes the Burson a ‘hard sell’)

So I suppose it comes to what we have experienced.
It is fair to say most have never heard anything much better than a THX (chip) amplifier, and that is their basis for ‘reference’. From this perspective: THX amps are great!

Sure we can build complex power circuits and supplementals for any given ‘chip amp’, like the internals of the above Bursons (who do EVERYTHING TO AVOID ‘chips’), but the whole market segment for THX headamps is the ‘budget sector’. They were built to do ‘decent sound’ on the cheap (whilst paying for a patent/‘licensed circuit’)

If I was offered the amp section of the M15 or the THX amp section of an ‘equal amplifier’, I’d probably go the M15 as FiiO had spent a few generations tweaking sound and it might have a sound profile, sure, but would likely be built for ‘audio first’ (and not SPEC SHEET WARFARE).

I learned in the mid to late nineties, after having bought flagship reference surround ampfliers (upgrades from mid tier and entry level parts themselves), and having already ‘cut my teeth’ on a range of older stereo amps, that there was something MAGICAL about an ancient NAD3020.
When I opened it up it was obvious to see the physical size of the tracts that the power amplfier pushed audio through. And those amps could drive 2ohm speakers in ways that modern kit just didn’t... In every amp built before 1988 (thereabouts the introduction of silicon chips into audio amplifiers) there was something to the sound that later amps seemed to render ’thin’ or ‘nasal’.

Having seen this roundabout before (apols italics) I feel I have an internal reference library (in my mind) as to what certain designs yield in terms of audio output.
I try to never prejudge anything (how else do you think I learned to go back decades in time for ‘better’ audio?), the pursuit or chase being ‘the game’; THX amps to me are the thin sounding, digital sounding (this means ‘clean‘ to fans of this), super UNimpressive amplifers that everyone seems determined to promote.

I suppose I go hard to educate others to at least consider ‘other tech’.

If anyone wants to grab some shot of the internal amplifier circuit in the M11+ and compare and contrast it to any amplifier built ’not to a super budget’ size, power consumption AND pricepoint (the three pillars of THX to an implementer no doubt), they might see that what they put their faith in (computer chips are good and always evolving) doesn’t mean jack all to audio quality. -but is great for the aforementioned size reduction of a circuit, power draw reduction through the circuit, and lower total cost to implement (Whilst sounding consumer tre cool).

I like THX amps.
I really like my ‘nonTHX‘ amp experiences more..
If I was trying to get great audio from a DAP, a THX amplifer module (or two ) would make perfect sense and serve the part well. I like a DAP to run on battery power for a long time...
I somehow don’t feel that those above shown Burson amp internals would run for long from a 6000mAH battery. (the dual torroidals look like they’d soak it up pretty quick!)
In this regard, it is why many audiofools, like myself, talk about portable components matching ‘desktop kit’. Desktop kit doesn’t have to do compromises like size and power draw..
If portable kit, with compromises made to total power draw, and size contraints etc can match kit that has no such constraints, then that is a praise worthy fact to draw attention to!

 

[ohrbegd]

Has anyone tried to compare Fiio M11 Plus ESS vs Ibasso DX240 or DX300. I need some opinions. I wanted to upgrade my DAP from Hiby R3 Pro Saber to either one.

 

[Amber Rain]

Has anyone tried to compare Fiio M11 Plus ESS vs Ibasso DX240 or DX300. I need some opinions. I wanted to upgrade my DAP from Hiby R3 Pro Saber to either one.

I don't think anyone has got their hands on the ESS version yet...

 

[ohrbegd]

I don't think anyone has got their hands on the ESS version yet...

I thought there might be some guys here who received early unit for review. I saw the unit on Hifigo.com however could not find any opinion regarding them yet. Thanks for answering.

 

[whitedragem]

Well, musicality is strange thing. Seems like we all understand it differently. But not going to some philosophies i think m11+ with musical iem will be musical so it will not change these iems nature. So this way we could say the thx here is musical. With other daps musicality is added even to technical, drier iems that are more analytical than musical. And could we say such dap is more musical? Perhaps ....and for exame take ibasso dx160 and m11+ side by side. They will be like night and day for me. Dx160 if even some call it neutral is actually far from it and for my ears it ads musicality, and m11 + for me gives how it is, really more direct, raw without candies sound. And thanks thx for this and fiio enginers ofcourse

In the two aforementioned products (an ‘older iBasso dx160’, and the FiiO M11+), a few of the differences MariusAB has highlighted, whilst they can be tweaked and tailored amp circuits are not just a single chip, and factor, per usual, everything from circuit layout and chip orientation, through to power delivery quality/quantity (going into the amp circuit) and of course ‘parts’ used...

I do feel that more of the experienced detail/musicality in the M11+ part is due to the exceptional upstream/frontend aspects of the transport and DACs used; those dual femtosecond clocks, as an EXCELLENT example- do a lot more for the music than many will realise....
(just saying with a lot of these ‘all in one’ Digital Audio Player packages (TRANSPORT/DAC/(PRE)AMP) we are not really comparing apples to apples, and that other elements may contribute more to resultant sound output)

 

[Finger Fish]

@FiiO
I'm on 1.06 and my gain is no longer as powerful as it was before on 1.02. Like significantly weaker now. My Galaxy A52 5g has more power than the M11 Plus on High Gain now, which is pretty unacceptable. Is there a fix in the works for this??

Before the issue my IEMs for example only needed 65-72 volume on L, and now it needs close to 100 on M. Pretty insane nerf.

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO
I'm on 1.06 and my gain is no longer as powerful as it was before on 1.02. Like significantly weaker now. My Galaxy A52 5g has more power than the M11 Plus on High Gain now, which is pretty unacceptable. Is there a fix in the works for this??

Before the issue my IEMs for example only needed 65-72 volume on L, and now it needs close to 100 on M. Pretty insane nerf.

Dear friend,

Would you mind to check if you flash back the firmware to 1.0.2, will you get the same result as previous still?

Best regards

 

[FiiO]

FiiO M11 Plus is on the way to our worldwide sales agents!

Dear respected customers,

Thank you for your kind patience and constant attention for our M11Plus(ESS). Delivery of the M11Plus(ESS) has started from 20th, Jan. Please kindly check this post for a daily updated list of countries / regions and agents we have sent goods to.



Germany: NT Global Distribution GmbH

France: Son Video

Russia:Blade

Canada: Canadian distributor

USA: Office direct

US Distributor: TekFx Inc.

Spain: Zococity

HongKong: Carve Link Company

Switzerland: Portacomp AG

English distributor: Advanced MP3 player

Thailand: Holysai

Australia: Addicted To Audio

Vietnam：Audio Choice

South Korea: HEADPHONE WORLD

Netherlands: Network Media Systems

Czekh : GOTHIC

Italy: Audio Azimuth

Hungary: KriptonIT Kft

Bulgaria: Bestline l.t.d

Malaysia: RedApe

Turkey distributor: Hes Audio

Mexico: Audiofilia

New Zealand: Sound Essentials

Poland: Audio Magic

India: Origin Marketing

India: Headphone Zone

UAE: Smart Audio Electronics Trading L.L.C

English distributor: EA Audio

Croatia: HD-INFO

Indonesia : PT lntium lndo Prima

Singapore: Eng Siang International Pte Ltd

Portugal: TopAudio

Israel : Turtle Voice Amplifiers LTD





(*The shipping to other regions will also follow soon, and we will keep updating this post)

In order to get prompt pre-sales and after-sales service, we strongly suggest you to buy FiiO products from our authorized sales agents (Where to buy).

By our estimate, it would take 5 to 7 working days for the parcels to reach our agents abroad, which means all of you can try contacting the local sales agents on about 27th Jan.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact us or directly contact our local agents.

Happy listening!



Best regards,
Guangzhou FiiO Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.

 

[MVVp]

@FiiO
The Dutch link in that list is just the words Network Media Systems, so the link doesn't work.

 

[SRKRAM]

@FiiO
The Dutch link in that list is just the words Network Media Systems, so the link doesn't work.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=network+media+systems+nl

Seems like quite a few of the links don't work

 

[brianfromspace]

Does someone know if there is an PEQ possible on the M11 Plus LTD? I just got the Meze Liric's and when listen through Roon I have heard a better sound when EQing the Lirics. Maybe a third party app to install on the Fiio? (I don't want to use Roon, just Tidal)

 

[Finger Fish]

Dear friend,

Would you mind to check if you flash back the firmware to 1.0.2, will you get the same result as previous still?

Best regards

How do I flash back to 1.02 without a computer?

 

[theElk]

Does someone know if there is an PEQ possible on the M11 Plus LTD? I just got the Meze Liric's and when listen through Roon I have heard a better sound when EQing the Lirics. Maybe a third party app to install on the Fiio? (I don't want to use Roon, just Tidal)

There was a post about Poweramp equalizer and how to install it (page 96 or 97) It works flawless on my device with Fiio mp and Apple Music.

 

[rlw6534]

Does someone know if there is an PEQ possible on the M11 Plus LTD? I just got the Meze Liric's and when listen through Roon I have heard a better sound when EQing the Lirics. Maybe a third party app to install on the Fiio? (I don't want to use Roon, just Tidal)

I believe the Wavelet app works on the M11 Plus. I only have the M11 Pro, so I can't test. It should work on Android 9 or higher. It has PEQ and also the ability to load AutoEQ presets.

Edit:

It does not have PEQ, but a nine band normal graphic equalizer.