CONCLUSION

    Based on its name the M23 music player by FiiO should outclass the M15 and well, depending on your taste in sound it just might as long as you “feed” it with lossless/MQA/DSD content (not in build quality though, the M15 is in a different class). Even though it lacks the bass intensity of the M15 and sometimes even its detail the M23 ends up producing more vibrant vocals and at times more vivid highs and well, for the most part that’s a good thing. Mids and highs are also smooth and as for bass levels although not as warm and strong as those of the M15 they are still surprisingly good (remember, the M15 was the flagship not long ago). The touch screen is not only large for a music player, but it’s also very responsive so no problems here either. As for battery life according to FiiO you should be able to squeeze up to 10.5 hours using the 3.5mm output or 9 hours using the balanced 4.4mm output and well, at around 40-50% volume those numbers seem to be accurate. Still, you can expect around 1.5-2 hours less if you climb up to 60-70% which again is not a bad number for a music player. Worth pointing out is that the M23 is also going to get updated to Android 12 and even though I did end up delaying my review for a week or two for that exact reason it still hasn’t happened.

    At this time the dark blue aluminum version of the M23 Hi-Res Music Player by FiiO retails for USD599.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 728.36Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which at least on the other side of the Atlantic is better than expected (for such a music player). The stainless steel version on the other hand retails for USD899.99/977.75Euros and although it does look great, I just can’t justify the extra amount (purely from a performance standpoint). Overall, the M23 might not be the best music player out there but it’s still one of the best manufactured by FiiO to date and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality
- Impressive Audio Performance
- Supported Bluetooth Codecs (SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX HD/LDAC/LHDC)
- 5.5 Inch LCD Screen
- Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 14nm SoC
- 4GB LPDDR5 RAM
- Desktop Mode
- 3.5/4.4mm Audio Outputs
- 64GB Onboard Storage (46GB Available)
- Supported Audio Formats (DSD/ISO/DSF/DFF/DST/DXD/APE/Apple Lossless/AIFF/FLAC/WAV/WMA/MP3/OGG/AAC)
- 5500mAh Rechargeable Battery (Up To 10.5 Hours Of Playback)
- Micro SD Card Slot (Up To 2TB)
- Silicon Case
- Dark Blue Aluminum & Silver Stainless Steel Versions
- Customized Android v10.0 OS (Android v12 Soon)
- Product Support

CONS

- Stainless Steel Model Price (For Some)
- EU Price (For Some)