When does a music player become more of an Android smartphone in terms of user experience? With its dual AK4493EQ and Android OS DACs, the Fiio M11 High-Resolution Music Player attempts to address this issue. In other words, though it can resemble an Android phone, this device is very much about the sound. The M11 seeks to be more available by combining the accessibility of a phone having an audio quality of its highest level optical audio players. On the other hand the M11 may not disappoint being a high-resolution digital audio player and the improved hardware below the hood often pays off in terms of software.
FiiO M11
The M11 is slightly wider and heavier than other Fiio audio players. The components that make it up, unlike former M series models, are the IPS display of 5.15 inches, having a resolution of 720p, placing it in the HD category, multiple headphone jacks and USB ports.
The screen on the M10 is brighter, clearer, and has greater viewing angles. We’d say it’s nice enough to watch video on, but let’s get to more on that later.
Product Design & Quality
To make itself stand out ever more, the brand stacked inputs at its bottom. Along with a USB-C slot, there’s a 3.5mm headset jack, a 2.5mm jack, and a 4.4mm jack required for charging the device and playback.
On its left side, there’s a play/pause button, as well as track navigation with volume dial. When you move the dial up or down, it also clicks to give you some suggestions. There are two card slots for micro SD cards around the right side, not just one. Both can support cards with capacities of up to 2TB, with a combined capacity of 4TB.
It’s easy to bring a whole collection of high-resolution audio files, depending on the number of music files you have. However, there is a catch to this setup. Fiio admitted that certain high-capacity cards used for slot 1 were causing problems for users online.
A Lexar 512GB card was in question, and the M11 was unable to identify it or prevent it from making copies of files. Fiio says that the cards used from other companies don’t create the same problem, and we didn’t see anything when we tried a SanDisk.
Despite this, if you only have one card, the company suggests selecting slot 2, and that is what we tried. While there is an internal capacity of 32 GB, 26GB of which is actually usable, we tend to load high-resolution files from a card or use local DLNA storage.
The M11 is powered by a Samsung Exynos CPU, a mid-range chip found in a number of smartphones.
Product Features
- Connectivity
Despite the wired links, the M11 treats Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless streaming in the same way. We were shocked that an audio player at this price point will continue with Bluetooth rather than upgrade to a better version, but it wasn’t a major stumbling block for us.
Fiio supports all of the most common digital audio codecs, including aptX, LHDC and LDAC. What’s notable is the lack of AAC Bluetooth that the Fiio M11 doesn’t accept out of the box.
Regardless, the player supports AAC as just a codec as long as the audio files are saved on the card or streamed. It was not possible to select songs from iTunes Store that we had already downloaded. It was possible to use the M11 in few ways because it accepts Wi-Fi signals of both 2.4GHz as well as 5GHz.
The M11 has become a transmitter for audio from iOS or a Mac machine when AirPlay is activated, which is a function that is hidden in the configuration. It was one of the ways that made it easy to get around software limitations, which we’ll go through in the coming segment.
- Software
The M11 is powered by Android Nougaat, but in a somewhat toned-down version. We claim this because, once again, there really is no Google Play Store from which to routinely import apps.
Instead, Fiio aims to make up for that for its own business known as Applications, that contains a number of streaming software and popular music which can be downloaded immediately. Among them are Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, and Moov.
APK marketplaces and an archive of downloaded APK files are also included. They just use free applications because there is no way to link a Google account to any of these platforms’ apps. We sent alerts for app updates and we could upgrade to a new APK version as it became available.
- Performance
The M11 will potentially cater to even an audiophile seeking for access as well as quality audio, thanks to its extensive support and upgraded features. We discovered that the player always checked both boxes.
It supports common digital audio formats such as WAV, ALAC, FLAC, and AIFF, as well as lower-resolution formats such as AAC and MP3, among others. It has a fascinating feature which transforms every other form to DSD, a module encoder created by Philips and Sony.
Pros
- Provides a good sound interface
- Comes with multiple slots for cards
- Compatible with multiple smartphones and headphones
Cons
- Not suitable for long time use
- Requires to charged frequently
- The bass adjustment might be a hazard when used through speakers
The M11 might seem to be a bit pricey. Even so it is one of Fiio’s best audio players to date. The Fiio M11 is also unbeatable for those who listen to the majority of their music through Wi-Fi or directly downloaded on a micro SD card. The device falls anywhere between an audiophile player and a smartphone, and is all about music. That is where the player shines.
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