INTRODUCTION

   High quality audio has always been a priority for me, first when building a piece by piece Technics stereo (consisted by an amplifier, digital sound processor, FM/AM tuner, dual cassette deck, turntable and a CD player) back in the mid-90's and then both with my PCs (Creative Sound Blaster sound cards with 5/7.1 surround sound speakers) and even my cars (mostly sources by Pioneer and speakers by Focal and Klipsch). Now, i have to admit that time does take its toll on people and so lately i haven't been as enthusiastic about audio as in the past, especially home audio (home cinema excluded). Still this industry never fails to surprise me and thanks to the latest R7 All-In-One Desktop Android HiFi Music Player by FiiO home audio might just be a thing again for me.

   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.

   FiiO has long wanted to release an all-in-one HiFi audio device which could be used as a local streamer, DAC, balanced headphone amplifier (3.6W in this case), DAP and transmitter and well, the Roon Ready R7 is just that. The R7 is currently available in black and white colors, runs on Android10 and is based on the octa-core Snapdragon 660 mobile platform (Kryo 260 CPU, Adreno 512 GPU and Hexagon 680 DSP) by Qualcomm together with 4GB DDR LPDDR4 and 64GB of internal storage (around 46GB available). On the audio end FiiO has paired the SABRE ES9068ΑS DAC (32-bit 2ch with 126dB DNR, -120dB THD+N / supports up to 32-bit 384kHz PCM, 96kHz S/PDIF and DSD256, DSD512 and DSD1024) together with two THX AAA 788+ headphone amplifiers (3650mW maximum output at 32 ohms) and two femtosecond crystal oscillators. Other features include an 4.97" LCD color touchscreen (720x1280), Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connectivity (SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX HD/LDAC/LHDC codec support), WiFi 2.5G/5G (DLNA, AirPlay and Google Cast are supported), front RGB LED rings and an SD card slot (up to 2TB capacity cards supported). As for connectivity the FiiO R7 sports an RJ45 Ethernet port (100M), 6.35mm port, 4.4mm balanced out port, four-pin XLR balanced out ports (L/F), two stereo RCA outputs, optical S/PDIF input/output, coaxial input/output, USB-A host port and a USB-C port (DP mode). Strangely enough even though FiiO also has a remote control available for the R7 (RM3 model) for unknown reasons (can't believe this is due to cost) it's not included in the bundle.