INTRODUCTION

   MP3 players are dead, smartphones as we've known them for years now have given the final blow to the once popular devices. This is something I’ve read and heard over the years by numerous people and in a way i tend to agree with them, MP3 players indeed haven't been relevant for well over a decade now. The thing is however that MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 - 16bit/320Kbps) as a lossy audio format is also a thing of the past, at least for people who really cherish audio and have thus opted for the more recent lossless FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec - 32bit/192KHz), ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec - 32bit/384KHz) or even DSD (Direct Stream Digital - up to DSD1024 45.2MHz) formats. The latest M11S Portable High Resolution Music Player by FiiO reached the lab just 3 weeks ago and that’s what I’ll be talking about today.

   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 “飞傲” 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.

   The M11S is the latest addition in the already long line of M11 music players by FiiO (M11/M11 Pro/M11 Plus LTD/M11S) and is based on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 14nm SoC (Qualcomm Kryo 260 Octa-Core CPU @ 2.2GHz, Adreno 512 GPU, 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi 4 & Wi-Fi 5 support) paired with 3GB LPDDR3 RAM and 32GB ROM (16GB available to the user). FiiO this time over has used an customized Android 10 OS for the M11S and inside its enclosure we find two ES9038Q2M reference DACs (32-bit 2ch with 128dB DNR, -120dB THD+N / supports up to 32-bit 768kHz PCM and DSD256 via DoP and native DSD1024), two audiophile-approved OPA926 Op-Amps, two NDK crystal oscillators, SAMSUNG S5N5C10B01-6330 chip (Bluetooth v5.0 - SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX HD/LDAC/LHDC wireless codec support) and an 5300mAh 3.8V lithium polymer battery pack with support for quick charge 4.0 which according to FiiO can power the M11S for up to 14 hours. Needless to say, FiiO has also equipped the M11S with an 5" IPS Hi-Res in cell bezel-less screen (HD 1280x720p resolution, 312PPI pixel density, 16.7 million Colors and 10 finger multi-touch support), micro SD card slot (2TB card support), analog volume control and 2.5/3.5/4.4mm audio outputs (USB-C also available). Also, worth mentioning is that the M11S fully supports MQA unfolding, is Roon ready and sports a 10-band EQ (PEQ supported) for complete control over your audio. So, without further delay let's see what the latest M11S is capable of.