Fiio's prices have certainly increased as the brand has expanded. I've been pretty satisfied by my past Fiio purchases, but I think they've grown too rapidly and are trying to deliver on too many products. Quality control was never perfect, but it seems to have worsened rather than improved. They've also branched off a couple of subsidiary brands - Jade and now SNOWSKY.
Yep. I am always suspicious of these brands that have odd branding, overly complex product lines, a constant stream of new releases, and weird offshoot brands with cringe inducing names like “SNOWSKY”. I think these companies really need to redo their line up and deliver properly on a few items. It is hard to trust even some of their flagship releases like the K19 DAC/Amp (
https://www.fiio.com/k19). It has an amazing feature set and specifications for the price ($1299) - and reviewers agree on this generally - but its menu/controls feel rough, there are some quirks/bugs that need firmware updates in the future, and it seems like this may end up being something that is just left incomplete since they’ll probably move on to the next big release.
Another example of weird offshoot brands is Shenzhen Foresight Technology (AKA Fosi Audio) trying to go luxury with Mamoritai - oddly, a ChiFi brand using a Japanese sounding name to distinguish their higher priced brand. I have to admit their recent amp release looks very pretty (
https://www.headfonia.com/mamoritai-euphony-review/). But it is just so poorly thought out in many ways. It is very expensive ($2000), has bizarrely few inputs/outputs (RCA in, 6.35 unbalanced out), doesn’t do well with high impedance headphones, etc. I don’t get it.
In contrast, German brand RME has combination DAC/Amps (the ADI-2 lineup like
https://www.rme-usa.com/adi-2-4-pro-se.html) at multiple price points that match the Fiio K19, the Mamoritai Euphony, and also above either. These devices are built solidly, come with incredibly detailed manuals, trustworthy warranties, and continue to receive updates year after year. Sure they are not flashy, and have been on the market for a few years, but they do their job well and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an owner say something negative about them. And since RME keeps updating the functionality for free, you can trust that any issues you run into will get worked out.