Three years later, another upgraded version of the FiiO M11 player, the FiiO M11S is released. This new player is called “a sincere portable HiFi Android player” by FiiO. The FiiO M11S player has dual ES9038Q2M DACs, Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor and Android 10 system. Support up to 384kHz/32bit, DSD256 decoding and other excellent hardware configuration parameters.

• $399 – Check latest price on AliExpress, Amazon US, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries

Appearance Design

Although the FiiO M11S is an upgraded version of the FiiO M11, the two players have nothing to do with the design, and the design style is more inclined to the FiiO M11 Plus. The FiiO M11S uses the latest design language of the FiiO player family, and has more family-style design features. The frame around the player is made of aluminum alloy, which looks like a cold luster. The buttons on the left and right sides of the fuselage adopt the FiiO sixth-generation honeycomb design, which makes the fuselage appear more muscular.

In terms of volume adjustment, FiiO M11S abandons the traditional design of the volume knob, and thus becomes a key adjustment method, which is more convenient to use. On the left are the power button/lock screen button (integrated indicator light), volume button and multi-function button, of which the volume button is covered with carbon fiber. The carbon fiber volume control panel of the FiiO M11S does not support sliding adjustment, but only supports clicking, which is a pity. The multi-function buttons can be customized, such as setting as favorite songs.

On the right side of the player are three playback control buttons and a TF card slot, which supports up to 2TB memory card. At the bottom are 2.5mm, 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone jacks. Among them, the 4.4mm balanced port adds LO output, which is convenient for external balanced port amp.

The front of the FiiO M11S is a 5.0-inch, 720P resolution, IPS material screen, and the display effect is not bad. Although the resolution is not high, it also reduces the burden on the CPU and power consumption in disguise. After all, this is a HiFi music player rather than a mobile phone.

Hardware Configuration

FiiO M11S uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, one of the representative processors of mid-range mobile phones in the past. FiiO M11S is a standard Android 10 system that supports full-screen gestures, which is consistent with the operation logic of Android phones, and there is no difficulty in getting started. The system has a built-in FiiO market, which can install most common or unpopular music and streaming media apps. You can also install other apps through your browser or file manager. Personally recommend not to install more, after all, this is a HiFi music player.

In terms of hardware configuration, the FiiO M11S is in place. Each of the left and right channels of the player uses a high-performance and low-power ES9038Q2M DAC chip. Each DAC independently processes one channel, and the audio details are richer, and the decoding can also support 384kHz/DSD256. Combined with FiiO’s self-developed fourth-generation FPGA clock phase-locked loop technology and two femtosecond crystal oscillators, it provides a unified clock source with high precision and low jitter for the entire audio system. And deeply reorganize the audio data through FPGA to make the audio stream more pure.

The FiiO M11S is equipped with a Bluetooth 5.0 chip and supports LDAC, LHDC, aptx HD, aptx, AAC, and SBC encoding formats. But unfortunately, aptx Adaptive and aptx Lossless only support receiving and not sending. In addition to separating the power supply of the digital and analog circuits, the FiiO M11S also separates the power supply circuits of the amp and the op amp, thereby more effectively reducing power supply interference and improving sound quality.

It is worth mentioning that the balanced output power of FiiO M11S can be as high as 670mW under a load of 32Ω. At the same time, the noise floor is 62% lower than the previous generation, only 1.8μV. In addition, the player also supports low, medium and high gain adjustment in three gears, and each gear supports 120-level volume control. Driven by the FiiO M11S, whether you use low-resistance and high-sensitivity in-ear earphones or high-resistance and low-sensitivity over-ear headphones, it can present a very good sound performance.

Play Mode & Battery Life

Different from traditional HiFi players, FiiO M11S has five working modes, namely: Android mode, pure sound mode, USB DAC mode, bluetooth receiving mode and AirPlay mode. You can turn on the Android mode for entertainment, and can support a large number of third-party applications, so that the excellent sound is not limited to music. When you focus on listening to music and don’t want to be disturbed by other programs, you can turn on the pure sound mode to provide an immersive listening experience. In addition, FiiO M11S also supports FiiO’s self-developed All to DSD technology, which can achieve fewer harmonics and bring softer and purer sound quality.

• Android Mode: Standard mode, you can use third-party apps normally.
• Pure Sound Mode: It will clean up the background and redundant system services to reduce redundant power consumption. Direct access to FiiO music for immersive listening.
• Bluetooth Reception Mode: It can receive bluetooth signals from mobile phones or other devices for listening to songs or watching videos.
• USB DAC Mode: Connect to a PC or laptop via a USB cable, and use the FiiO M11S as an external sound card.
• AirPlay Mode: Airplay audio from Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac) to the player. This function is connected via WiFi, the sound quality and stability are better than bluetooth.

The FiiO M11S has a large 5300mAh battery to support the battery life. In a fully charged state, it can theoretically provide a long battery life of 14 hours. In addition, this portable player also supports the fast charging protocols of QC4.0 and PD3.0, which can be fully charged in only 3 hours.

Acoustic Configuration & Sound Quality Review

In this review, I chose the FiiO FH7S as the main reference earphone. FiiO FH7S is the main mid-to-high end product in the FiiO dynamic+armature earbuds product line. FiiO FH7S has a very strong quality performance, and the tuning is also in place.

For a HiFi player with a price of less than 400 dollars, the sound performance of FiiO M11S not only has a good balance and a deep background, but also the sound information is very sufficient. The sound of the player is very sweet, and it is very catchy when playing vocals or strings. At the same time, it is also very durable, which is very suitable for listening to popular music. Unlike the FiiO M11 Plus, this player has just the right coloration. Of course, for those who pursue direct sound presentation, the FiiO M11 Plus may be more suitable.

In terms of tri-frequency performance, FiiO M11S has a very high balance. When auditioning with the FiiO FH7S, the sound is very natural, without any discomfort. Specifically, the low-frequency extension depth of FiiO M11S is appropriate, the rebound speed is moderate, and there is a certain amount of reverberation, but not much. The performance of the player in the intermediate frequency is also relatively good. The mid-frequency vocal density is relatively in place, the mouth size is relatively moderate, and it has obvious coloration, which will be more friendly to the interpretation of female voices.

The high frequencies of the FiiO M11S are crisp and bright, with a certain degree of ductility, and it has proper handling and good control over the treble of the instrument. The sound performance of the FiiO M11S is very competitive in this price range. The sound quality of this player is very high, and it can accurately restore the sound details of every part of the sound field when playing back classical music. And the sound of instruments at different positions in the sound field can also be clearly distinguished.

• $399 – Check latest price on AliExpress, Amazon US, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries