FiiO M15 Audio Player | Dual AK4499EQ | 7490 mAh Battery | 64 GB ROM | $1299.99
Jan 27, 2020 at 11:21 PM Post #706 of 4,083
I have the HD800 (the older one, not the s) and FH7. Small world. The M15/FH7 pairing works quite well, with no impedance issues on the balanced port that I can hear. The flat frequency response with great bass extension but no bass boost that I liked so much in the FH7 remains.

The HD800 as you know is notoriously hard to drive. When first hearing them driven from the M15 (4.4mm balanced) the HD800 sounded thin and uninteresting, as they had with previous DAPs. However on turning on the M15 "Over-ear headphone mode" the HD800 really came alive, as if driven from a decent desktop amp. Very impressive. I just have to be careful to remember to turn off "Over-Ear" before returning to IEMs.

I don't have the M11 Pro and suspect that with IEMs it may be a close race against the M15, but with the HD800s the M15 should be a no-brainer. I'm very curious to hear the results of your listening tests.
Hey Expat,

we must share similar tastes :) well that sells me more on the M15!! When I demo, I’ll need to make sure I turn headphone more in!! Really appreciate the feed back!!!
 
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Jan 28, 2020 at 4:30 AM Post #709 of 4,083
I am stuck with the output impedance thing. Just wanted to collect some data:

SE / (Balanced) impedance

- M15: <1.4Ω / <3.0Ω
- M11: <1.0Ω / <2.0Ω
- M11 PRO: 1.1Ω / 2.4Ω
- Chord Hugo 2: 0.025Ω
- Chord Mojo: 0.075Ω
- Cayin N8: 0.6Ω, 1.2Ω
- Cayin N6II T01: 0.6Ω / 0.9Ω
- SP2000: 1.5Ω / 1.0Ω
- Cube: 1.2Ω / 1.6Ω
- Cowon Plenue L: 0.9Ω / 1.8Ω

Looks like among the portables, Hugo2 and Mojo would be most transparent to the impedance effects of a sensitive IEM. Considering 9Ω is actually has an impedance swing between 3Ω to 26Ω, anything more than 0.4Ω will considerably attenuate its bass response compared to the upper mids and treble.
 
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Jan 28, 2020 at 7:05 AM Post #710 of 4,083
I am stuck with the output impedance thing. Just wanted to collect some data:

SE / (Balanced) impedance

- M15: <1.4Ω / <3.0Ω
- M11: <1.0Ω / <2.0Ω
- M11 PRO: 1.1Ω / 2.4Ω
- Chord Hugo 2: 0.025Ω
- Chord Mojo: 0.075Ω
- Cayin N8: 0.6Ω, 1.2Ω
- Cayin N6II T01: 0.6Ω / 0.9Ω
- SP2000: 1.5Ω / 1.0Ω
- Cube: 1.2Ω / 1.6Ω
- Cowon Plenue L: 0.9Ω / 1.8Ω

Looks like among the portables, Hugo2 and Mojo would be most transparent to the impedance effects of a sensitive IEM. Considering 9Ω is actually has an impedance swing between 3Ω to 26Ω, anything more than 0.4Ω will considerably attenuate its bass response compared to the upper mids and treble.
yeah.. maybe the reason why i cancel my planned m15 pruchase ..
 
Jan 28, 2020 at 7:12 AM Post #711 of 4,083
yeah.. maybe the reason why i cancel my planned m15 pruchase ..

I see you have the N6II. I was actually planning to go for N6II + T01 but I read that the Qobuz application runs somewhat slow on it because of the not very powerful CPU. Especially for the long term M15 seems to be a better bet for its considerably more powerful CPU. Which board do you have for N6II?
 
Jan 28, 2020 at 7:34 AM Post #712 of 4,083
I see you have the N6II. I was actually planning to go for N6II + T01 but I read that the Qobuz application runs somewhat slow on it because of the not very powerful CPU. Especially for the long term M15 seems to be a better bet for its considerably more powerful CPU. Which board do you have for N6II?
A01 , but im planning to get the E01 also , i had the Cowon PL before and really liked that DAC
 
Jan 28, 2020 at 11:23 AM Post #713 of 4,083
I am stuck with the output impedance thing. Just wanted to collect some data:

SE / (Balanced) impedance

- M15: <1.4Ω / <3.0Ω
- M11: <1.0Ω / <2.0Ω
- M11 PRO: 1.1Ω / 2.4Ω
- Chord Hugo 2: 0.025Ω
- Chord Mojo: 0.075Ω
- Cayin N8: 0.6Ω, 1.2Ω
- Cayin N6II T01: 0.6Ω / 0.9Ω
- SP2000: 1.5Ω / 1.0Ω
- Cube: 1.2Ω / 1.6Ω
- Cowon Plenue L: 0.9Ω / 1.8Ω

Looks like among the portables, Hugo2 and Mojo would be most transparent to the impedance effects of a sensitive IEM. Considering 9Ω is actually has an impedance swing between 3Ω to 26Ω, anything more than 0.4Ω will considerably attenuate its bass response compared to the upper mids and treble.

The SP2000's balanced has less impedance than unbalanced??

To add, the iFi Micro iDSD BL has output impedance <1.0 ohm as well (not sure the exact value).
 
Jan 28, 2020 at 11:42 AM Post #714 of 4,083
The SP2000's balanced has less impedance than unbalanced??

To add, the iFi Micro iDSD BL has output impedance <1.0 ohm as well (not sure the exact value).

Yup it does. Even though it is 6vrms output.
Screenshot_20200128-194442805.jpg
 
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Jan 28, 2020 at 12:15 PM Post #715 of 4,083
Yup it does. Even though it is 6vrms output.

Just taking a guess here: SP2000 reserves 2 channels of the 4 channel DAC for SE output and 2 channels for balanced output. M15 uses all 4 channels for balanced (thus the enormous power) and 2 channels for SE. This can be seen in the simplified diagrams. That could be the contributing factor to the higher balanced impedance.

Still, what FiiO seems to have assumed is that the balanced output is for high impedance headphones and it is the right thing for a portable.
 
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Jan 28, 2020 at 5:30 PM Post #717 of 4,083
Manufacturers need to stop quoting output power into zero load.
 
Jan 28, 2020 at 7:00 PM Post #719 of 4,083
I don’t think I see any inducted coils throughout the m15 internal pictures. I also see “possibly” 4 decoupling capacitors being AXV generic caps. I wonder why everything else is KO lines, but decoupling is AXV, the place that matters.
 

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