INTRODUCTION

   Even though once upon a time cellular phones could just be used for making and answering calls and sending and receiving text messages today, they can be used for a wide range of things such as surfing the web, navigation, video calls, multimedia messages, taking pictures and yes even listening to music. For the vast percentage of consumers smartphones in general provide acceptable audio quality (regardless of connection type - wired/wireless) but there's always a more demanding audience looking for even better (if not the best) possible results and although there are several smartphone models that can achieve very good results the general consensus is that an mid/high-end audio player (even ultra-high-end for some audiophiles) offers a lot more. FiiO is probably the most popular music player manufacturer in the world currently and after testing their mid-end M6 model with us today we have their latest high-end one, the M11.

   FiiO was established in 2007 and has experience in researching and developing countless portable music products of different types, and sell FiiO-branded products through sales agents worldwide. The brand name FiiO is composed of Fi(fidelity from HiFi) and iO(number 1&0), representing the real feeling and convenient life that digital brings to life. Meanwhile, the Chinese “??” is the transliteration of FiiO, indicating the positive and innovative spirit as thriving as spring. FiiO is focused on product quality, adheres strictly to ISO9001 standards in quality management and works hard to attain the lowest repair-related product returns rate. FiiO designs, produces and sells high-quality products at favourable prices to those who love music and style; our high-resolution digital audio players, portable headphone amplifiers, DACs and earphones have all received praise from the majority of users. Several products from FiiO have created record sales in their respective product segments and have received countless awards including iF Design Award, Reddot Award, EISA Award, VGP Award, etc. FiiO places great importance on users' needs and ceaselessly pursues perfection in product design and manufacturing, to supply users with the best audio products at the best prices.

   Since the M11 is the latest high-end model by FiiO its specifications are quite impressive starting by the 14nmm Exynos 7872 hexa-core CPU by Samsung (2xCortex-A73 @ 2.0GHz / 4xCortex-A53 @ 1.6GHz) featuring the 16nm Mali-G71 MP1 GPU (1.2GHz / Bifrost support) and paired with 3GB LPDDR3 RAM and 32GB ROM (roughly 25GB of storage available). Under the hood of the M11 FiiO has also placed two Asahi Kasei Microdevices AK4493EQ DAC modules (32-bit 2ch DAC with -113dB THD+N and 123dB* S/N / support up to 768kHz PCM data and 22.4MHz DSD data), two OPA1642 ultralow distortion & low-noise Op-Amps, two audiophile-approved OPA926 Op-Amps and a 3800mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack (quick charge 2.0 and MediaTek Pump Express compatible - can keep the M11 going for up to 13 hours). The M11 is also equipped with an 18:9 bezel-less 10 finger multiple-touch 5.15 inch IPS screen (1440x720p / 16.7M colors / 312PPI), Bluetooth v4.2 and dual-band Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz wireless connectivity (Samsung S5N5C10B01-6330 module), two micro SD card slots (support up to 2TB capacity cards each), metallic CNC chassis, tactile volume control wheel and 2.5/3.5/4.4mm audio outputs. FiiO has also added support for every audio format (DSD/ISO/DSF/DFF/DST/DXD/APE/Apple Lossless/AIFF/FLAC/WAV/WMA/MP3/OGG/AAC) and bluetooth transmission codec (LDAC/LHDC-HWA/aptX/aptX HD/SBC) in the book and as expected it runs on a customized version of the Android v7.0 OS. Last but certainly not least the M11 is both Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified (among the first of its kind to receive this certification thanks to its LDAC codec support).