K11 R2R DAC and Headphone Amplifier for Home Audio or PC, 6.35mm and Balanced 4.4mm, RCA, Coaxial, Optical, 1300mW, 384kHz/24Bit DSD256 (Silver)

First the bad. This is not the most user friendly. It can be confusing to cycle through the options. That definitely could use improvement but at this price point that is getting picky considering everything you’re getting here. Personally I could care less about the headphone amp, I’m using it strictly as a DAC with fixed output. Nice option to have though and I’ve read it does fine with hard to drive cans however I have not tried the amp part. I use the headphone jack of my Yamaha Aventage AVR currently but mostly listen to it through speakers both in straight stereo(Pure Direct or 2.1) and also the dts virtual mode which I hadn’t previously been impressed with but with this DAC with these room acoustics it works marvelously. My source is a WiiM mini with an optic cable capable of 24/192. I will eventually connect my Oppo 103 bdp via digital coax. I currently have this surround system set up as a 5.1 in my bedroom. I have this R2R DAC set on NOS, yet to try the over sampling. This is my first non delta-sigma DAC and I’m blown away at the sound quality of this DAC. I definitely prefer R2R(resister ladder DAC) to delta-sigma in general. I was surprised by the clarity, especially the highs. I thought they would roll off more, sacrifice some detail for smoothness yet more than enough is there that I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. It is smooth and more authentically analog-like which is what I like best about this style of DAC yet the highs are clear and present without being overdone of course. The mids are prominent, vocals and guitars etc sound real and natural, not subdued, not overwhelming. They can be more forward and prominent on some tracks depending on how they're mixed. The bass is thick and quite full yet not overpowering the mids and highs. Bass is not especially tight yet very pleasing. Maybe it’s just the honeymoon stage but so far this is the sound I was hoping for. I’m thrilled to have a DAC this good for so cheap. Both acoustic and electric instruments play beautifully through this DAC. For the curious I’m not an audio expert. I am an audiophile on a budget. I don’t care about measurements and other technical jargon. I care about usability and sound quality, build quality and price, then looks and size. Build quality is good here, not spectacular. I think it’s good looking. I like the rubber pad underneath but as others have mentioned due to its size and light weight you still must hold it well to attach/remove cables. No biggie for me, to be expected. Obviously your results will depend on your gear and taste. While I’m not claiming to be an expert I do have a clue. I’m a mid-50s music addict from the rock and roll capitol of the world(though other cities may refute this). Been into sound quality since I was old enough to comprehend music and tv. Always tinkering trying to improve sound since I was a kid. I listen to mostly rock and blues, reggae, metal, folk, a little country, some jazz and classical on rare occasion. I own an expansive collection of DVD-Audios, SACD, Blu~ray music, concert DVDs, vinyl, some HDCDs and of course regular CDs. I stream Amazon Unlimited HD from WiiM minis and a Pro, plus my phones and tablets via camera adapter to DAC. I also use a Schiit Modi 3 with Monolith Liquid Spark headphone amp(my Liquid Spark DAC that I loved died), a Monolith Liquid Platinum DAC with its companion Monolith Liquid Platinum headphone amp(duel tube hybrid), and a Geshelli JS2 with Sparkos op-amp(SE) to my late model Sony ES AVR(7.2.2 set-up) and the Alex Cavelli Drop tube hybrid headphone amp(the Sony has no headphone jack). I love all my gear and I use them in different ways in a couple different rooms. For the moment my FIIO K11 R2R DAC is my pound for pound favorite. Too new to know about longevity yet no issues so far other than learning how to operate it. Edit: one issue although I’m not sure if it’s source. On several occasions the music has stopped. I’m not sure if it’s the DAC or my streamer but I don’t recall this issue when I had the streamer wired directly into the Yamaha(via optic). It starts up again after several seconds to a minute or so. Could be internet too but I’m close to the router and I get upper 400s MBPS. Also for the curious my gear for this set-up is Yamaha RX-A730 AVR, WiiM Mini, Oppo 103, Andrew Jones designed Pioneer towers, center, bookshelves and sub. I just received another K11, this time in black, that I’ll swap out my Schiit Modi 3 to my Monolith Liquid Spark headphone amp to try it with my cans. I own the Sennheiser Drop 6XX, Sennheiser 599, Beyerdynamic dt990, HiFiMan 400i, Phillips Fidelio F3, Monolith M1570, Monolith M650, Status Audio OB1 & CB1, and a few others. Eventually I’ll get around to trying the headphone amp part just out of curiosity, not expecting too much. Update: I’ve since purchased a WiiM ultra for my main set up and linked the K11 R2R to my WiiM Pro with an info Silent power supply in my bedroom via digital coax. Sounds better than ever. Having 2 of these FiiO K11 R2R DACs I tried the headphone amp part. Was not impressed. It was ok and was able to drive my cans but it lost the magic I hear using it strictly as a DAC. Whether listening to speakers or through the headphone jack on my 2013 Yamaha Aventage AVR blew the K11’s amp away. I also compared it with my Monolith Liquid Spark amp and the Spark was way better and with more oomph. The K11 wasn’t lousy just no wow factor. Also of note I think my Schiit Modi 3 actually pairs slightly better with the Spark than the K11. It may be that the Spark is a warm amp and benefits from a DAC not quite as smooth as the K11. Or perhaps it was just my mood that day. The K11 wins handedly paired to my Yamaha. No matter what I love this DAC and for my taste I rank it the best in the $200 range(Schiit Modi best under $150). Now I wonder how a legit high end R2R would sound although m well aware of the law of the diminishing returns. No way a $2000 DAC will sound 10x better. I am curious how this stacks up to the Schiit Modi Multibit($300) and Bifrost($800) which are more or less R2R hybrid DACs. I’ve not heard either.

First things first, good luck trying to find another R2R DAC for under $400, much less $200. I feel like they could've charged the same for a standalone DAC and no one would blink an eye. With that out of the way, let's go straight into how they sound. Within seconds, I knew they were tilted warm. If you're looking for something dead accurate or analytical, this isn't for you. Plain and simple. However, if you don't do any audio mixing, or are using this solely for listening enjoyment, read on. For the moment, I'm using the 4.4 balanced output into either a Sennheiser HD6xx or Hifiman HE5xx. I'll start with the HD6xx since I think it's become a common benchmark in the scene. The warmness is either hit or miss in terms if it sounds better than purely neutral. While not completely consistent, I did notice that some male vocals would sometimes almost sound veiled or muddy. But it's strange because I can definitely hear everything resolving, so I wonder if my ears just needs to get used to the warmness. On tracks where the highs and female vocals are a little too spicy, I did notice that the R2R gave it a much smoother rolloff, basically turning sharp frequency spikes into curves. The HE5xx has it's own character independent of whatever DAC you use, for better or worse. It seems like the R2R keeps all the good and fixes all of the bad. Highs are more reined in, mids are pushed a little more forward, but all the of lows are still preserved. In both cases, I think there was a overall improvement to music enjoyment. Since the sound isn't analytical, I don't find myself straining to listen to details. I instead find myself being able to sit in the music and much less fatigued after longer listening sessions. Power-wise, I'm barely able to get to 40% at high gain on both cans. At 50%, I can put my headphones on my desk and use them as monitors (with no distortion). There's comfort knowing that I could easily drive harder to run headphones with this kind of headroom. Build quality is excellent. The metal has a good weight to it and gives a nice outer finish to the unit. The volume knob is quite nice with some nice knurling. LCD and RGB are plenty bright and adjustable. One thing that surprised me was the size. I don't know why but I was thinking it would be closer to the size of a Mac mini, when in reality I would say its closer to half the size. Only thing that's slightly annoying is that like a lot of recent audio gear, it's a single knob for every function. Volume control, navigating menus, choosing sources, and selecting gain level is all done through that same knob. I would've at least liked at least a dedicated gain switch, but this is a minor gripe since I only change gain if I switch between my IEMs and my headphones, but I tend not to do that too often after I do my initial testing. As mentioned before, the main downside to this unit is that I would not recommend this for anyone who does professional audio mixing or editing in any capacity, especially in NOS (non oversampled) mode. This simply has too much color for that purpose. You can somewhat mitigate this by turning on OS as it'll go a little cooler and more analytical. However, at that point I think you'd be better off with the non-R2R K11 and just save the $30.

This is simply a phenomenal R2R DAC/Amplifier that you're getting at this price point. It sounds full, lush, and natural with a ever so slightly narrow but deep soundstage with no oversampling. With oversampling enabled, the audio sounds similar to a delta sigma chip based solid state amplifier, with a wider soundstage and a more analytical, neutral sound signature. The latter is beneficial for gaming where those extra details are needed. The Fiio K11 R2R is also powerful enough to drive a very power hungry set of planars, the Moondrop Venus, at high gain at 33 percent volume. It also drove my Moondrop Para, HD 600, and vintage HD 545 all with ease which left me very impressed. You also do not need to worry about the volume pot pentiometer. Its implemented inside to have perfect channel balance and every turn is felt step by step rather than needing fiddling to get it right. Compared to the TA-22 dac/amp pictured beneath it, it doesn't sound as holographic or have as an immense of a soundstage that is wide and deep, but the overall timbre and quality of warm, rich, analog-like sound carries across both. Keep in mind that the TA-22 is a $400-500 piece of kit depending on where you get it, whereas this is only $156. The price to performance is simply unbeatable, and as it's not using a massive transformer inside, it dispenses no excess heat like the TA-22 does. This one is a keeper, and you're getting R2R tech for a fraction of the price compared to something like Hifiman's EF-400. I also love how it sounds compared to my Ifi Zen DAC 2/CAN stack. Tl;dr - Don't walk, run to buy this. You will not regret it. I'm very, very pleased with its sound, impressive build quality, and performance at this price. I give the K-11 R2R my highest recommendation and seal of approval at this price point. Edit: If you have a quality amplfiier (like the TA-22 pictured in this review), please use that in tandem with the K11 R2R acting only as a dac. It is pure audio bliss and sounds so much better than using its built-in headphone SE and balanced outputs.

I just got it so I won't give it 5 stars yet. What I can talk about is the immediate differences between this and my much cheaper FX-Audio DAC-X6 which I only paid $52 for. I'm not an audiophile per say, I don't think my ear is refined enough for that yet but I am learning so I will explain things in my own way to try to get things across. Firstly, the FiiO K11 definitely looks and feels way more premium than the FX-Audio DAC-X6. I love the RGB lighting which I didn't even realize was a feature but it's fun, being able to change the brightness and colors is interesting. It's not that much bigger than my previous DAC and sits nicely on my desk. It is a bit annoying to hit the volume knob cus if I have to press it to change the menu, I can't do it with one hand without tilting the device or pushing it across the desk. Setup was pretty simple and it worked right away. Sound wise, I do think this is warmer. I had both devices plugged in and was going back and forth with the same song and I want to do more tests but so far with the K11, everything sounds less mechanic and cold feeling. The FX-Audio device has a bit of this cold distilled hospital feel. It almost gives the feeling of the song slightly sounding like it's being played in a tunnel or a room where the sound is reverberating off the walls, which I never noticed until trying it back and forth with the K11. The K11 also has the instruments sounding much closer than the FX-Audio device has them. I listened to a live recording of an orchestra arrangement and on the K11 it felt like I was standing right in front of the stage getting blasted with sound while on the FX-Audio device it felt like there was some separation between the music and I as if there was a thin wall of foam. The FX-Audio also has the instruments sounding like they're all on top of each other which can sometimes come across a bit muddled on some tracks but the K11 has more instrument separation as well. The K11 also gets significantly louder than the FX-Audio device which got decently loud but sometimes not loud enough for me. So, overall for me, as of now I'm definitely pleased I decided to upgrade. I hope the K11 lasts long cus I've had the FX-Audio device for over two years and about 6 months in, it started having a problem where every now and then the sound just comes out horribly and I have to fully turn it off and unplug it from everything, and then replug it in and turn it back on for it to work properly again. I'll update if I remember.

Just hooked this DAC up and spent a handful of hours with it listening to a ton of music, watching a couple movies, and it is amazing. I'm no audio engineer by any means, but I came from some really old FiiO DACs in 2015, to an Audient Evo 4 that I had been using across multiple PC setups over the years that were driving some HD660S2's, 990 Pro X, and I have to say that there is a very noticeable difference in just the sheer presence of the sound stage and clarity this DAC provides. If you're coming from a cheap, old DAC, or just looking to upgrade and are looking for something in ~$200 or less range, this is it. The performance is noticeably perceptible by the ears, especially if you haven't treated your headphones with a proper DAC or Amp. The functions are easy to navigate once you download the USB driver (if going the PC route), the size profile is exceptional, and the build quality is amazing with a modern contemporary design. If you're looking to spend $200 or less on a solid DAC, this definitely is a great choice.

The sound i was looking for. Warm, full, yet plenty of detail. Any fan of analog sound, this is the dac for you. Great r2r for an even better price. One tip, leave it on, and use the idle feature. R2r dacs sound better warm.

I kinda understand where FIIO was going with this product i saw and read reviews heard everyone saying wonderful things about this. So i bought it and listen to everything from all types of music,movies,tv shows and all types of games.. As for the R2R DAC i wont to thank FIIO for breaking out the checkbook and spending there own money on R&D and engineering..What i think that might happen in the future is they well take feedback from user of this product,refine it and futher develop it more..The only issue i had was that it did not have balance output to pair with another balance amp thats it ...its so close to being perfect in the price range.. Now for the amp it came across to me as a bargain basement reference style amp like FIIO had a budget bracket they had to work in and they tried to make this amp be high end reference amp but made with cheap components...In my listen test i use sandara headphones ,audzez headphones, hyper x and JBL.. i know thats much of a selection but thats what i have with sandara planars in the NOS mode depends on source and how the recorded it i had sibilance, the high end was bright and harsh at times .. the midrange sometimes was overpowerd or soft . the bass was distorted or natural .using planars i had to chase the music all the time to get it balance and sound correct .. As for using dynamic drivers i have to the JBL tour one M2 they are powerd bluetooth headphone but you can switch them off and use a headphone cord to plug them in and now you have a high res headphone ..and the hyper x alpha s or a normal plug in headphones i use them mostly for gaming test .. the jbl in NOS mode the sounded normal on some sources and recording i had to tweek it just a little bit to get the midrange and lower treable to bring out vocals in music...Now in OS mode the sibilance in sandara clam down some but i still had to adjust the treable to tame so it wont be overpowerd the midrange just a small tweek sometimes to give it some life to it.. the bass was natural sometimes boomy .. For the JBL i had to tweek the midrange on some recordings to give it a smoother sound bring vocals forward a little bit.. tweek the bass a little bit to clean it up some .. AS for gaming i did not hear a difference between the NOS and OS mode so i left it in OS mode i use the Hyper X alphs s i know they are not high res headphones so if you using anytype of gaming headphones out there i thought could be a good comparsion to those . the sound was cleaner and clearer. i did have to tweek the treble some so it wont be sharp and tweek the midrange to help with footsteps and people speaking in games. Now i compare this to the Audeze maxwell wireless headphones that have built in dac and amp..The result were this if you are buying this fiio k11r2r just for gaming buy the Audeze maxwell ...they do also a great job music to.. If you are buying this FIIO k11 r2r for muisc then you need to find a EQ to pair it with and use dyniamc drivers headphones but be careful how they are tune or there sound profile is if they are not natural or warm sounding then you have to figure out a way to tame the treable and midrange .. if they are warm sounding then you might tweek the bass a little so it sound distorted.. FIIO thank you for making this product but you really need to give this R2R dac the amp that it need either put in a musical warm slight touch natural amp .. or charge more and put better components in to give it more cleaner,, clearer sound .. If topping can make a headphone amp that does this in the price range then you can to and if this had a dual balance output for the dac and you pair it to a topping or ifi audio zen can amp or iFi Zen CAN Signature then you would have a amazing music experience...

I invested way too much time looking into what I wanted my first "audiophile" equipment to be. The R2R K11 came on top for so many reasons. At this point, I could nerd out and go off on all the cool features this well-designed little box has crammed into it. - Audio quality is amazing. - Build quality is amazing. - Volume control feels perfect. - Being able to switch between the NOS and OS mode is super cool. NOS = More rugged, sharp OS = Elegant, smooth Highly highly recommend. Would give more stars if I could.