FIIO K11 Compact Desktop R2R architecture DAC and Headphone Amplifier (Black)

I’m pretty sold on this. I’ve tried a few different DACs over the years and had a topping e30 before this one. Which itself is a very nice sounding dac, quite clinical but detailed with a good thump to the bass. I’m still not wholly convinced dacs sound hugely different to each other, that being said, you can quite easily hear a bad one. And this fiio isn’t that. I’ve got it paired with a musical fidelity a1 and Lintons so my whole system is pretty rolled off and “warm”; the fiio fits right in. I’ve been playing music for hours, and doing a lot more streaming than I’ve ever done before, I’ve not put a record on in a few days now. It’s smooth and has enough detail, but really, it’s just musical. I think a great sign of a decent system is when you just find yourself and others, tapping your feet, and I do this a lot when using the k11. I was curious to see if there were a difference between chip and resistor based dacs and I think there is. I don’t think it’s “night and day”, but I don’t see anyone saying they wouldn’t find this dac to be enjoyable. Not tried with headphones yet as have been using exclusively in line out with my 2 channel setup. But I’ll give it a go at some point. Right now, I’m just enjoying putting music on and sitting there with a glass of wine. Build quality is good, I like the knurled dial, feels solid. Only complaint I have is that I had issues pairing with the wiim pro as the fiio doesn’t seem to like playing at 192/24 with a coaxial cable. I tried few different ones and some were better than others, but all gave me brief dropouts. Playing at any other bitrate or using a toslink was trouble free, so that’s what I’m using. I don’t think it’s a fault of the k11 specifically, but perhaps something to do with r2r dacs in general.

This is my first R2R dac, after a line of single chip entry dacs through to multi chip ones, I won't use the "night and day" line because it's overused and I just don't like it, what this is though, is a revelation in sound quality from the, many times the price one it has replaced, I only bought it to see what all the fuss was about, after a few weeks listening I now know, will it suit everyone? No will it suit most people? I think its a resounding yes, it's slightly warmer sounding, but that's not to say any music is muffled because it's very clear to listen to, again this is my preference with my equipment and speakers, but it will sound better than most at probably up to £500 in my opinion

Firstly, I do not use this as a headphone amplifier, so no comment on how good it is at that. But as a DAC to replace the built in one on my pre-amp, this is doing a sterling job. If you have a dull system with 'warm' speakers and like a bright detailed sound, then this is probably not going to be up your street. However if you are looking for a natural, non fatiguing sound with no accentuation or brightness in the top end, good midrange and a solid bass, then this is a very good choice. The soundstage an imaging of this DAC is very impressive with amazing depth and space. The is a lot of snobbery in the audiophile realm and if something doesn't cost as much as your average family saloon, it can't be any good. That is just b......kcs. So many reviewers always say 'at this price point' to emphasise that there are better, more expensive items available. While you can expect pricier equipment to general sound better than 'budget' items, this unit breaks those rules. At around £150, you will struggle to find anything for 10 times that can make music so enjoyable. If you are unsure about R2R DACS and don't want to spend a small fortune to discover if you like the sound, try this one, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Ordered this to feed some Adam D3V studio monitors from a Microsoft Surface Book and the R2R DAC of the Fiio K11 Pro brings a significant improvement in sound. Using RCA outputs to speakers analogue input using suitable cable (not supplied), the sound is wonderful. Clear, precise and more revealing. Great sound from the 4.4mm balanced headphone port on the front to some Fiio FH7 ear phones. Using some Sennheiser HD580 Precision headphones (which are harder to drive), the volume does not go so high but the gain can be increased using the small screen and knob on the front of the device. It comes with a usb-c cable, a 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter and a US power cable. Users in the UK will need to use an international power adapter or acquire a suitable 12v power supply. I happened to have both of these available but would imagine it would be frustrating if you got this and didn’t! I’m giving it four stars rather than five, but only because of the power supply cable problem. Otherwise, I am loving it.

Great DAC easy to set up and makes a big difference to your music, I can hear sounds such fingers on guitar strings back ground noise as though you at a live concert. But in retrospect in my opinion you need a good DAP and head phones, I use a Shanling M3X DAP and Grado SR325X Headphones.

Upgraded from a Creative internal sound card (due to lack of pci ports). Was sceptical if it would make any difference, but I was pleasantly surprised. High quality music is noticeably nicer on my DT880 headphones. Item is easy to set up and documentation on functionality fine. The timeout for RGB and LCD can be a bit hit or miss though.

Looks nice, seems well built, made the sound louder, but I couldn't tell any quality difference (loudness excluded) from the wiim internal dac using Acoustic Energy AE'1s. If there was It was absolutely minor, nothing in comparison to just changing the EQ profile. My ears are 40+ though so maybe it was that. Still at least I have some first hand experience In the whole do DAC's improve sound debate. I wanted it to, really. The SMSL SU-1 didn't do anything either. Maybe I'll try a pricey Denafrips or something one day.

I can't recommend this highly enough! Absolutely amazing sound at any price...the fact it is only £150 is remarkable. My advice BUY one you will not regret it!!

I read about R2R DACs online and felt right away that this is a revolutionary breakthrough by FIIO and their engineers in delivering a DAC this good at this price point. Anything close to this DAC will cost about $ 1,000 or more. I know what a good DAC sounds like since I own two Denon DSD DACs. Wait, the balanced headphone out is an added bonus since its drives my Hifiman Sundara closed back headphones without even breaking a sweat. Wow ! I almost fell off my chair when I listened to the first song on this R2R DAC. It was Diana Krall's Temptation using my Hifiman Sundara closed back headphone bought right here on Amazon. Muddy Waters Album sounds amazing. I kid you not. This DAC is equipped with a 4.4 mm balanced headphone out which drives the Sundara Closed back without breaking a sweat using the balanced headphone output. Obviously you need a balanced 4.4mm cable of which I bought right here at Amazon at a reasonable price. First a few initial house keeping setup chores must be performed prior to using this DAC. I feel that its mandatory to have the initial setup correctly to enjoy this Treasure. Read the instruction manual first, its easy to understand. This is how I set up mine, Gain set to high. Output, switch Output PO: Front Panel headphone out with adjustable volume, SAM or sampling used is NOS, you can also select OS for oversampling for a different sound signature. The NOS gives you a Vinyl sounding unadulterated sound signature. UAC usb working mode for my Mac mini 2024 is UAC 2.0. I honestly don’t use Windows computers but I suspect that it should work fine for Windows. With my Denon DSD DAC I have two separate Headphone AMPs, A Preamp for connecting the two separate headphone AMPS and had to add an EQ to achieve the sound signature that I preferred. Imagine, with the FIIO R2R DAC you just need the DAC only and the biggest bonus is that it has balanced and unbalanced Headphone out both of which which drives the Hifiman headphones without breaking a sweat ! This R2R DAC by FIIO is a game changer. All you need is the DAC with ZERO addons and you are good to go. Don’t be fooled by an Audiophile, you can get Hifi at an unbelievable price in a DAC which punches way above it’s price point. All of this for an insane price of $ 200 Canadian Dollars. Mind you, for very high impedance headphones you will definitely need a separate headphone AMP. Most Audio Enthusiasts don’t usually use very high impedance headphone and this R2R DAC will meet the needs of ninety nine percent of Audio Enthusiasts. Now comes the sound. I am an Audio Enthusiast and prefer not to use the term Audiophile since there is no authorized designation or qualification to address oneself as an Audiophile. I use FLAC or High Res music with Audirvana Music Player and Hifiman Sundara, and a few other really good headphones. I am not loyal to any particular band, I choose headphones which correspond to my preferred sound signature. To my ears, this R2R DAC delivers a warm sound with PERFECT lows, mids and highs with a decent soundstage and excellent instrument separation in the NOS mode. The experience can be described as relaxing. Wait, you don’t have to purchase a Tube AMP. This amp sounds tube like in the NOS mode. If you prefer a different sound signature you can always choose the OS mode and it will still knock your socks off. This DAC is highly recommended and is definitely a Giant Killer. Get yours from Amazon. I am not in any way affiliated with any product mentioned here. This is my honest review and my personal opinion.

Hallo, zunächst zur Einordnung: Ich bin recht neu in diesem Bereich. Musik hab ich bisher hauptsächlich über meine QC35 oder Earbuds gehört. Ich hab mir einen HD660S2 schenken lassen und habe mir dazu den K11 RSR bestellt und zum Vergleich den K7 BT, da dieser auf dem Papier deutlich leistungsstärker erschien. Ich nutze das Gerät im Wesentlichen indem ich mein iPhone per Kabel daran anschließe. Eigentlich dachte ich, dass der K7 mehr Leistung liefern sollte, aber während ich den K7 fast bis zum Anschlag drehen musste, bis es laut wurde, liefert der K11 schon oft ab 50% eine sehr ordentliche Lautstärke (kommt ein wenig auf den Song drauf an). Verglichen mit dem K7 wirkt die Bühne des K11 deutlich enger. Das kann man jetzt mögen oder nicht. Ich persönlich finde aber den Ton des K11 RSR deutlich klarer und präziser als den des K7. Es wirkt für mich alles kristallklar, weniger "matschig" als beim K7. Auch hört man viel weniger Rauschen. Das was man hört, scheint hingegen eher von der Musik zu kommen, als vom Verstärker. Beim K7 war das deutlich ausgeprägter. Der Anschluss an den PC hat wie ans Handy auch einwandfrei geklappt. Nach der Umstellung auf 32 bit und 384 KHz habe ich am PC aber ein Knacken wahrgenommen, das vollständig weg war, nachdem ich auf 24 bit und 192 khz umgestellt habe. Wie mir scheint muss man dafür die Treiber von FIIO installieren, was ich erst hinterher gemacht und seitdem nicht mehr getestet habe. Die Treiber lassen sich einfach über die Website finden und installieren. Sehr gefällt mir auch die Verarbeitung. Man kann blöd finden, dass alles über ein Kontrollrad mit eingebautem Knopf geregelt wird und keine weiteren Knöpfe oder Schalter vorhanden sind, aber es funktioniert. Das Display ist super, was ja beim K7 leider fehlt. Lineout zur Hifianlage funktioniert anstandslos. So, kommen wir zur einzigen Sache, die mir nicht so gut gefällt: Der Klang wirkt wärmer als beim K7, was ich erst einmal weder gut noch schlecht finde, mir gefällt er so wie er ist. Aber scheinbar geht damit einher, dass dieser Verstärker keinen starken, tiefen Bass liefert. Wenn ich meine Kopfhörer an die Hifi-Anlage oder an den K7 anschließe, dann ist bei starkem tiefen Bass richtig zu spüren wie der Kopfhörer vibriert. Beim K11 fehlt dies praktisch vollständig und ich habe es auch nicht geschafft dies mit dem EQ des iPhones zu kompensieren. Das finde ich etwas schade, andere mag es vielleicht weniger stören. Es kommt vielleicht auch etwas darauf an, was man gerne so hört. Ansonsten klingt dieses kleine Gerät wirklich großartig. Der K7 BT geht deshalb trotz Bluetooth und stärken im Bass zurück, der K11 RSR wird behalten. Wenn ich mehr Bass will, gehe ich per Lineout über die Hifi-Anlage, regle den Bass per EQ etwas hoch und schließe dort die Kopfhörer an.

I use this on my computer for a near-field scenario. It replaced a Topping L30 and E30. The amp is unchanged. I knew I wanted an R2R ladder dac, but most of the options were > AUD 1000. I made the right choice, and now I have sound-stage and placement in abundance and an accuracy to the sound that reveals yet more of the music I have in my collection.

Todo correcto.

Works great, excellent value for the buck. Highly recomended