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FiiO is a name that’s often mentioned as “hi-res audio player” and “Astel & Kern” in the same sentence — and its latest player, the FiiO M15S, is easily the best FiiO player I’ve heard about. Have done your work.
We covered the M15S when it launched in March, but in short: it includes dual desktop-grade ES9038PRO DACs, 384kHz/DSD256 hi-res audio, MQA, Roon, aptX HD, LDAC and LHDC, plus support for 3.5mm single Is. -Ended and 2.5mm/4.4mm balanced headphone output.
And it does all this for $999 / £979 / (about AU$1,800), which is slightly more than the excellent Astel and Kern A&Norma SR25 MKIIs, but far less than the latest A&ultima SP3000. Very. Did I mention the snug protective case, assuredly included with the snappy volume knob protectors?
The M15S Digital Audio Player (often shortened to DAP in audiophile circles) builds on the success of previous award-winning portable audio equipment from FiiO, including the very talented FiiO MS11. They use four D/A converters each with dual DACs (one for both left and right channels), and as you’d expect, the M15S also supports files encoded using MQA, whether they’re Tidal Master offerings. or files in your own Music library.
M15S is able to transmit both And Hi-Res audio thanks to aptX HD Bluetooth, LDAC, and LHDC wireless connectivity—something you won’t find on even some of the best MP3 players (and certainly not on my beloved iPod Classic). This two-way connectivity means not only is there wireless headphones coming onboard, but the M15S can also receive audio from a smartphone, PC or other device, and can be used as a Bluetooth DAC/amplifier.
Oh, and there are plenty more wireless audio options available too if you’re not going the wired headphone route – aptX, aptX LL, aptX compatible to name but a few – while its onboard 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi allows for Apple AirPlay , DLNA Streaming and Roon Ready connectivity.
Opinion: I still like the Brutalist quality of Estel and Kern, but this thing has power and panache in spades
Here’s the kicker for me: By adopting the dual power supply option found on FiiO’s flagship M17 DAP, the M15S operates without using the internal battery in its desktop mode, which means it’s able to produce up to 21% more power. is capable of. And He This means that the Beyerdynamic T5 closed-back cans you see pictured at the top of this article (with their tilted Tesla drivers) are powered with ease, I set the volume to 60 out of 120 when listening to Meat Loafs bat out of hell, And I had to quickly turn it down. shocking.
To drill this down a bit further, the M15S can be manually adjusted to produce five levels of gain, but when using internal battery power, ‘low’, ‘medium’, ‘high’ ‘ or ‘over-year’ gain levels can be selected. When using external USB power, in desktop mode, an additional ‘enhanced over-ear’ gain level becomes available, providing an impressive 1200mW per channel. Thus, all but the most difficult-to-drive planar magnetic designs will do just fine here—and the best over-ear headphones will pair happily with the M15S. My dear Audez Euclid? like a dream.
Also stepping down from the firm’s flagship M17 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, and the M15S runs on Android 10 operating system and features a global SRC bypass, which means music streaming apps such as Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Music And Deezer can be installed. To allow listening in full lossless quality.
Elsewhere, you’re getting 10.5 hours of battery life, a 5.5-inch multi-touch HD display (which is crisp, clear, and very little lag), and 64GB of onboard storage. Want a little more space for all those DSD files? It’s all good – the M15S also has a microSD card slot with support for up to 2TB cards.
Android device owners will feel at home with this layout on some other DApps, operating systems on which can feel a bit cluttered or confusing.
Daniel Avery’s most true is detailed, subtle and enthusiastic; Johnny Cash at folsom prison Textured and three dimensional. radioheads turn Snakes seductively around your brain, never exaggerating Jonny Greenwood’s axe, or Thom Yorke’s upper register. I could go on, but the best way to describe the M15S is simply to say Really good,
