Sound Impressions

The below subjective impressions are made with IEMs including FiiO FA7/ FA1, Final E4000/5000, Er4b and more, 2 days of burnt in are done with earphones attached to the 4.4mm connector.

I am mainly testing under balanced connection for optimized performance and using the default Short delay Sharp Roll-Off digital filter on high gain. Higher resolution /well-mastered tracks with All to DSD mode sounds the best for me on the M11 but it may consume a lot more power than without the function turned on.

Tuning

The tuning approach on the M11 focuses on the mid-range. The bass is meaty and soft, the vocal is swift/not grainy and the treble is fairly extended. I would call it a safe tuning and I prefer pairing with multi-driver IEMs that has stronger bass textures and lighter impacts.

The bass bleeds into the sub-bass and I am eq-ing down some frequencies in the lows to reveal the sub-bass. The in-app EQ on FiiO’s music app could be handy but with strong hardware, you can enjoy advanced EQ tweaks that require more system power say Viper, to give the low end more power and the dynamics more texture that will boost the overall resolution.

Balanced and Unbalanced

All outputs have no noticeable background noise tested with a silent track. Switching from 3.5 (with 2.5 to 3.5 convertor used) to the balanced connection you will notice the treble being tamed, there is better headroom and resolution as well.

Obviously there is more power and quality with the balanced connection and comparatively, the 3.5mm port sounds more aggressive in the bass region and comes with brighter mid-treble frequencies.

I recommend using the balanced connection for the best quality and the 3.5 will still be useful as a backup. You could also link up to other speakers/ DACs with SPDIF out from the 3.5 socket.

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Author: James Tan; From: Headfonics
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