CONCLUSION

   Much like every other music player I’ve used and/or tested to date it all comes down to what kind of equipment one can use to test its performance and of course what type of media one uses (16-bit & 24-bit Hi-Res uncompressed FLAC for my tests only). For example, when using the 1MORE Dual Driver ANC Pro Earphones with both the FiiO M11 and M15 hi-res music players it's not very easy to spot any differences. On the other hand, however when using the FA9 and the Periodic Audio C earphones (or even one of the speaker sets) you can certainly tell them apart, if not due to the crystal clear and more accurate audio reproduction (courtesy of the increase in dynamic range) of the latter then certainly from its extra bass levels, more "vivid" vocals and further reduced noise levels. That being said I'm certain that if i had an even more expensive set of speakers I’d probably be able to notice even more differences than i did but even with the ones i did use there's a clear and rather significant gap between the M11 and the M15. Secondary features like Bluetooth and WiFi range and signal strength don't differentiate that much from the M11 (if at all when it comes to WiFi) but i never had issues with these to begin with. As for battery life FiiO claims that the 7490mAh lithium rechargeable battery pack can power the M15 for up to 15 continuous hours but once again my tests came up short of just over an hour which is still a great result, especially for a portable music player with a 5.15 inch LCD screen.

   FiiO has once again managed to impress me not only with the level of quality of their latest flagship model the M15 but also with its audio performance and plethora of features. Of course, these all mean that the M15 does not come cheap and with a current price of USD1299.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 1308Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) attached to it it's certainly a lot more than what the majority of consumers will ever consider to be affordable. On top of that you need a good pair of headphones and/or speakers to really enjoy it to the max so in the end it all could easily take you very close and even over USD1500/1600Euros. Bottom line the M15 is the creme de la creme of music players currently. Yes, it may not be the best of the best out there (i wouldn't know unless i had every similarly priced player here) but judging from the hardware components FiiO chose it should come pretty close to that and since to date i haven't experienced clearer audio from a portable music player the M15 is without doubt worthy of our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Remarkable Audio Performance (Dual AK4499EQ DACs)
- Supported Bluetooth Codecs (LDAC/HWA/aptX/aptX HD/SBC)
- 5.15 Inch Corning Gorilla Glass LCD Screen
- Hexa Core Samsung Exynos 7872 CPU
- 3GB LPDDR3 RAM
- 2.5/3.5/4.4mm Audio Outputs
- 64GB Onboard Storage
- Supported Audio Formats (DSD/ISO/DSF/DFF/DST/DXD/APE/Apple Lossless/AIFF/FLAC/WAV/WMA/MP3/OGG/AAC)
- 7490mAh Rechargeable Battery (Up To 15 Hours Of Playback)
- Micro SD Card Slot (Up To 2TB)
- Customized Android v7.0 OS
- Product Support
- Walnut Wood Case

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Size (For Some)