My video review:

Fiio M3k Mac
Fiio M3k Audio Player
Fiio M3k Mini
Fiio M3k Firmware Update

At FiiO Spring Launch Event held in March 2019, FiiO wowed the crowd with multiple new and innovative devices. As far as I know they embraced first the THX AAA lowest-noise amp module that could be used in a DAP, they introduced a DAP with 3 headphone outputs to impress the crowd, that was never done before, a balanced 2.5 mm and a 4.4 mm AND a single ended 3.5 mm headphone out is a single device? That’s madness, audiophile madness!

Of course, the star and king of that show was the beautiful M11 DAP that everybody drooled about, myself included. Not because it became the new flagship in the FiiO DAP line-up, but because overnight it became most wanted DAP in the portable audio community, it looked great, it had impressive design ‘n specs, it had all the headphone outputs we could wish for and it had an impressive 449 USD price tag! What’s not to like?

The M3K has been engineered to deliver extremely clean, high-resolution audio thanks to the Ingenic X1000E SoC and AK4376A DAC. The Ingenic processor also features low power con Gain the convenience of mobility without sacrificing audiophile-quality with the M3K Portable High-Resolution Lossless Audio Player from FiiO. Fiio claims that no other player in the M3K's segment can be used as a USB DAC and with a Mac computer, the FiiO M3K is automatically recognized when connected with no need to install a separate.

FiiO shown us the legacy it left behind and the new path it is following in terms of design and sound. M11 seems like a direct successor to the X5 MKIII that looked absolutely bonkers for that time but sounded not as impressive.

Before we dig deep into it let’s take a look at the box and its contents.

Unboxing and packaging

FiiO designs, produces and sells high-quality products at favorable prices to those who love music and style; our high-resolution digital audio players, portable headphone amplifiers, DACs and earphones have all received praise from the majority of users. Several products from FiiO have created record sales in their respective product segments and have received countless awards. FiiO M11 Android High Resolution Lossless Music Player with aptX, aptX HD, LDAC HiFi Bluetooth, USB Audio/DAC, DSD256 Support and WiFi Play Full Touch Screen 4.4 out of 5 stars 274 37 990,00 ₹.

The box is fairly small but its thick and feels as a high quality one. Opening up the box reveals the M11 covered by a big and bold FiiO Smart Hi-Res Music Player sticker on the screen, FiiO is learning fast as I’ve seen that sticker multiple times in competing devices. M11 is dressed from the factory in a clear TPU protective case, there is also a glass screen protector pre-applied. Underneath it a small pin that opens the microSD card slot is found and two small boxes that contain an USB type-C cable, a Coaxial to 3.5mm adapter, an user manual and a quick start guide. I hoped to see a faux-leather case, but it’s a pass this time, maybe their next M13 will have one? One could only dream…

Jul 10, 2020.

After I’ve taken everything out, I was impressed by how FiiO used every square inch inside to squeeze-in all those accessories. The package could not be smaller than that, as a result less bookshelf space is needed, cool!

Design and Build Quality

M11 feels absolutely impressive and solid as a brick in hand. Taking out the TPU case which by the way I don’t think does justice to M11 looks, reveals a beautiful machined aluminum device with sharp edges, a huge glass sheet on the back covering a carbon fiber look and a huge bezel-less screen that has the exact same dimensions with the glass on the back. It looks balanced and really thought out. Touching it and carefully checking it revealed tiny little things that sometimes do make a difference like for example the power On/Off button has a soft press surrounded by a cool blue light, on the back there are two Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certifications laser engraved under the glass, gone are the Hi-Res paper stickers spotted on older devices. It has impressive tolerance numbers and just looks as a high-end device and certainly not as midrange one.

Also the tiny lettering on all buttons is machined directly on the aluminum, the small gold curly volume wheel has a nice grip and a wonderful feedback once turned and a very pleasant clicky sound, it reminds me a lot about quality analog stepped volume attenuators like the DACT CT-²⁄₄ as it has almost the same clicky sound and feedback.

As a whole I think it looks minimalist, industrial a bit, feels heavy in hand and makes an outstanding first impression on everybody, even on the street people are asking me what is that?

Buttons & Layout

Speaking about buttons, it has only 4 of them: Power On/Off, volume up and down and the play/pause button and that’s it!

Gold color volume wheel has a very nice tactile feedback and clicks pleasantly. It has a curly design so it will not slip through your thumbs. FiiO added dust resistance to it for a greater durability.

Returning home are those sexy TWO microSD card slots that theoretically are supporting up to 2TB per card so 4TB of memory in total, DSD nerds this is for you!

On the bottom there are 3 headphone outputs to cover all your cables and needs: a balanced 4.4 mm, a balanced 2.5mm and a SE 3.5 mm, in the middle there is your USB type-C for data transfer and charging. It has two quick charging standards: Quick Charge 2.0 (QC 2) and MediaTek’s Pump Express so you can charge it empty to full in about 2.5 hours, neat!

The normal 3.5 mm headphone jack also works as a clean 1.95V Line-out or as a Coaxial output transforming the M11 into a powerful digital transport to another audio source.

Display

The bezel-less 5.15” IPS multi-touch screen is godly impressive to look at and play with. To this day it is the most colorful display FiiO put in a portable DAP. It has a better contrast, so deeper blacks and whiter whites and a very clear image due to that 1440 x 720 pixel resolution. It has an interesting aspect ration of 18:9 so watching a movie or playing a game can become an immersive experience, even few youtubers are already filming videos in this aspect ration (MKBHD I am looking at you 😊). Due to high number of dots per inch, 312 more exactly the image is always crisp and clear to a point where my cover albums became blurry due to low-res cover files, I’ll need to upgrade those to a higher resolution soon. It is also crazy bright even in direct sunlight, I am mostly using it at half brightness to have a better battery life.

Gone is the fat chin and large forehead of the M9 for a much clearer and bezel-less screen that impresses at the first glance.

Battery

M11 has a larger 3800 mAh Li-Po battery inside for up to 13 continuous hours of music playback. My harder to drive HD660S on the balanced 4.4 mm connection squeezed ~9 hours and 30 minutes at 80 volume position (out of 120), well, for me that is really good. With FiiO FH7 and FA7 I was at about 55 to 60 volume wise and squeezed 11 hours on the balanced 2.5 mm port. Since the balanced ports are sounding better to me, I didn’t test out the 3.5 mm battery life as I couldn’t wait to listen to the balanced ports again with All to DSD enabled (more on that later).

Turning wireless radios will decrease those numbers, so use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only when needed.

The best part? M11 can be placed in deep-sleep, basically a stand-by mode for 50 days! That’s 1200 frickin’ hours! The previous champ in this category was M9 with 45 days, followed by X3 MKIII and X5 MKIII at 19 days. I think we have a gold-medal finalist right here as M11 can be forgotten in your purse for a month and a half and it will still wake-up and play an album for you.

Under the Front Glass

M11 is the next device in FiiO’s portfolio that ditched a fully operating Android OS in exchange for a lighter, faster, custom made Android interface finely tuned and polished by the FiiO engineers. It looks almost identical to that of M6, M7 and M9 and very different than the one on X5 MKIII or X7 MKII.

Since M11 offers a big 3GB RAM memory, you can now install basically any App you want but not directly from the Google Play Store but by manually downloading the .apk file and installing the app or through the APKPure app. Gone are FiiO white-listed apps, install everything you desire but

Fiio M3k Dac Mac Download