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FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player – Limited Edition Only…

The new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, which the Chinese specialist for personal audio devices FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. is now presenting and which, according to the manufacturer, will be offered as a Stainless Steel Edition and an Aluminum Alloy Edition, will be available only in a limited edition.

FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, as announced, the successor to the FiiO M11 Pro is now available. A successor that the Chinese specialist FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. calls its crown jewel, because it offers great improvements in many respects compared to its predecessor.

However, the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player will probably only be available in strictly limited quantities, as the company now announces.

FiiO M11 Plus LTD Limited Edition Portable Music Player

James Chung, CEO of FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd., had already announced at the beginning of 2021 that FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. will focus primarily on solutions in the premium segment this year.

In the course of this statement, he also outlined the strategy for 2021 and for the first time gave details about the FiiO M11 Plus, which is to replace the FiiO M11PRO Lossless Portable Music Player.

The fact that the FiiO M11 Plus is now being presented as the FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, i.e. it is to be released in a limited edition, is primarily due to the converters used here, which are highly sought-after and therefore very rare due to the current tense situation on the market in this area.

AKM AK4497EQ DAC

It is exciting that a manufacturer explicitly advertises that a brand new product is equipped with a component that is no longer produced. This is exactly the case here, because the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player uses two AKM AK4497EQ DACs. These converters enjoy such a good reputation, however, that one even arouses desires when one can announce that these will still be integrated into solutions. However, since the stock of these essential components is probably very low, even at FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd, the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player is what it is, just a DAP produced in limited numbers.

The beat is set by so-called NDK femtosecond crystal oscillators, which are supposed to offer special precision.

Digital Audio Purification System

The manufacturer promises a new DAPS, a Digital Audio Purification System, for this DAP. It is based on a newly designed FPGA structure and the aforementioned high-precision clocks. The aim is to achieve a particularly clean signal processing free of sound-damaging influences.

THX AAA-78 Headphone Amps

The output stage of the FiiO M11Plus relies, as already announced, on amplifier modules from THX Ltd. Specifically, this is the THX AAA-78, which THX Ltd. also calls the THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier and refers to as the world’s most linear amplifier technology in the field of portable and in-car audio systems. There are two of this module in the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, so that the signal processing is completely symmetrical.

Qualcomm Octa-core Snapdragon 660 SoC

Another essential component is the Qualcomm Octa-core Snapdragon 660 SoC, a high-performance platform clocked at 2.2 GHz, which thus delivers the corresponding performance for intuitive, smooth operation, and which at the same time brings along several essential components, from the graphics processor and memory to data communication.

The manufacturer is talking about a performance that is in no way inferior to that of the most modern smartphones in the premium class, since this is exactly the platform that is also used in these smartphones.

The platform, manufactured in a 14 nm process, offers the Qualcomm Adreno 512 GPU, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage.

WiFi is also on board with it, as is Bluetooth, and the USB interface is also mapped with it.

Google Android 10 as the basis

FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. uses Google Android 10 as the operating system for the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, whereby it should be emphasised once again in this context that the user can switch seamlessly between pure DAP via the FiiO Music App and an almost conventional Google Android device.

The user is thus free to install any app on the FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, and is in no way dependent on apps released by the manufacturer alone.

This means that any streaming provider can be used without any problems, only the appropriate app must be installed via the Google PLAY Store. Of course, you can also install any other apps, for example to control various smart home devices and other hi-fi and AV components in the home.

5.5-inch IPS display

The central control element of the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player is, of course, the display, which is supposed to be a particularly high-quality IPS 5.5-inch 18:9 display of the latest generation and thus a colourful, detailed display with 1,440 × 720 pixels.

Adapted operating concept

The FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player also features a detail improvement in the form of a new controller for volume and playback control. Instead of the usual rotary encoder plus a few buttons on the side of the DAP, there is now a control element that features slide and push controls and is thus intended to enable particularly intuitive control.

Slightly adapted design

There is also something new to report about the design of the entire player, which is based on the sixth generation of the so-called Honeyomb design. The solid chassis made of stainless steel or aluminium, depending on the model variant, is allowed to have corners and edges, which, according to the manufacturer, gives it character.

DXD, DSD and MQA

In the proven manner, the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player is able to play back any relevant data format in all available resolutions.

For linear PCM signals, the spectrum reaches up to 32 bits and 384 kHz, and it can process DSD natively up to DSD256. The new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player can also fully process content encoded in MQA; the manufacturer refers to this as Global MQA 8x Decoding Support.

By the way, a microSD card slot is of course available for your own content, whereby storage media of up to – currently only theoretically available – 2 TByte storage capacity are supported.

In the network…

When integrated into the network, the FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player functions as a UPnP streaming client, i.e. it can directly access the corresponding shares. By the way, it also supports Apple AirPlay, if this is desired. Audio data can be transferred via WiFi Music Transfer.

Bluetooth 5.0

Bluetooth is also essential, whereby Bluetooth 5.0 is used and supports both transmission and reception.

The Bluetooth transmitter supports the codecs SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD and LDAC, and the receiver supports SBC, AAC and LDAC.

Another particularly exciting feature is that the FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player can be controlled via a smartphone using FiiO Link.

USB 3.0 Type C interface

The USB 3.0 Type C interface can of course be used to exchange data with PCs and Macs, but the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player can also be used as an outstanding USB DAC including USB audio.

Data in Linear PCM format with up to 32 bits and 384 kHz, as well as DSD up to DSD256 are processed natively.

Charging also takes place via USB port, whereby the integrated 6,000 mAh battery is said to be fully charged in just three hours via QC4.0/ PD2.0 Quick Charge, thus achieving a playing time of up to 48 hours.

Unbalanced, balanced, digital…

The FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player has plenty of connections for headphones. On the one hand, there is a 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack for unbalanced headphones, and for balanced headphones you can use a 4.4 mm jack or a 2.5 mm jack.

The 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack can also be configured as an analogue line out, and there is also an optical S/PDIF interface as an output – designed as a so-called COMBO connection.

Aluminium or stainless steel housing

A special feature of the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player should be mentioned as the crowning glory. Here, the user has the option of choosing a version in black anodised aluminium or stainless steel.

Both versions have identical dimensions of 136.6 x 75.7 x 17.6 mm, but weigh 310 g in aluminium and 405 g in stainless steel.

No more than 6,000 or even only 1,000 units worldwide

As already mentioned, the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player is a DAP offered in limited numbers. The aluminium version is said to be available in 6,000 pieces worldwide, but if you decide to buy the stainless steel version, you should be aware that only 1,000 pieces will be offered worldwide.

“If you are interested in it, don’t miss it. There will be no more once it is sold out.”

James Chung, CEO of FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd.

The Aluminum Alloy Edition is priced at US$ 749.99, while the Stainless Steel Edition is priced at US$ 899.99.

Getting to the point

FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. officially introduces the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player, the successor to the FiiO M11 Pro, and as expected, it has been improved in many ways over its predecessor, making the new FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player an outstanding DAP that can clearly be placed at the top of the premium class. In addition, you can choose between a version made of aluminium and one made of stainless steel. However, these are strictly limited quantities, especially if you opt for the particularly elegant stainless steel version.

Manufacturer:FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd.
Distribution:NT-Global Distribution GmbH
Price:FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player Aluminum Alloy Edition US$ 749,99
FiiO M11 Plus LTD Portable Music Player Stainless Steel Edition US$ 899,99

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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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