CONCLUSION

   Having already reviewed the very good M11 model back in 2019 getting the latest upgraded version in the form of the M11S was a nice surprise for me. Now I don’t still have the M11 in my possession so a direct comparison is impossible but I do have the higher-end M15 (many of you have asked for the M17 lately so I will try and get that too) and that’s what I used for today’s review. Well compared to the M15 the new M11S does fall behind in two things, highs and soundstage reproduction. So yes, the M15 produced more accurate, soft and crisp highs and a wider soundstage compared to the M11S (mids and bass are very close with the M15 producing slightly deeper and softer bass). Needless to say, it matters a whole lot what earphones/headphones you’ll end up using and so even though with the new FiiO FH11 (review soon) there was very little difference between the two I obviously also used something higher end and more specifically the FA9 and FH7 earphones again by FiiO and the OV21 headphones by Thinksound (review soon) all three of which emphasised those two differences (the OV21 slightly more than the other two). As expected even the screens between the M15 and M11S have their differences (the one used with the M15 is brighter and more detailed) but what stood out more to me was the fact that even though the M15 Pure Music mode was able to detect all the lyrics for my audio collection the M11S Pure Music mode was not (strange since this is an app and not a hardware difference). Also strangely enough the M11 (and M15) had two microSD card slots but the M11S only has one and even though it should be plenty i do expect some consumers to have an issue with that. FiiO also claims the M11S has a battery life of up to 14 hours but if you check the parameters page that’s with the volume level set at less than half (37-47) so it’s no wonder I could hardly squeeze just over 10 hours from it (with the volume set at around 90-95). Still let’s face it, even 10 hours from any Hi-Res music player is more than plenty.

   Currently retailing for USD499.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 519.97Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the M11S Portable High Resolution Music Player by FiiO is priced well for what it offers (more or less what the M11 retailed for back in 2019). This is almost 1/3 of the price you’re required to pay for the M15 (and other models similar to it) so it’s no surprise you’ll need to compromise a bit in regards to audio quality. Still the M11S does a very good overall job and definitely delivers on everything FiiO advertises it for which is exactly why it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality
- Impressive Audio Performance
- Supported Bluetooth Codecs (SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX HD/LDAC/LHDC)
- 5 Inch IPS Screen
- Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 14nm SoC
- 3GB LPDDR3 RAM
- 2.5/3.5/4.4mm Audio Outputs
- 32GB Onboard Storage (16GB Available)
- Supported Audio Formats (DSD/ISO/DSF/DFF/DST/DXD/APE/Apple Lossless/AIFF/FLAC/WAV/WMA/MP3/OGG/AAC)
- 5300mAh Rechargeable Battery (Up To 14 Hours Of Playback)
- Micro SD Card Slot (Up To 2TB)
- Silicon Case & Protection Films
- Customized Android v10.0 OS
- Product Support

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Single MicroSD Card Slot (For Some)