I have this. It delivers on the promise of R2R tonality at a surprisingly low price. I've heard DSM dacs at similar prices with better technicalities but they sound more digital. If you remember what really good CD players from the late 90s sounded like, this is it. It's fantastic for a bedroom or relaxed living room system. And if you use HQPlayer to send it upsampled PCM (while the K11 is in NOS mode), the performance goes much higher. It sounds like a different tier product then. This is with the line out. Headphone amp is okay, but not mind blowing.
I've had mine for about a month and gathered various information online to find the best sound. These are my settings and possible recommendations. Use as a DAC only and output to RCA with a fixed output. I wasn't impressed with the headphone outputs nor the USB digital input. Disable RGB display (eye candy, etc). I feel the FiiO sounds best in over-sampling mode, a bit clearer and cleaner in the treble with bass similar in NOS mode. I am also using iFi iPower X 12V power supply instead of the stock unit. I find it easier on the ears and yet musical compared to the Schiit Modius.
I have the modius right now that i use as dac for my bigger speaker because it sounds good. Will the dac mode on this fiio be able to top it or just equal in sounds?
Awesome review, I've had this for about 2 weeks and it sounds beautiful and runs flawlessly. The issue you're having might be related to the data transfer being lower than the required data read. Aside from the firmware for the R2R, this might be from the actual cable itself or the USB driver you're using on your motherboard.
Excellent review. I am a new subscriber but long time in the fun audio world. Making it work without the terrible Windows oversampling curse will be a prime issue for Fiio to fix as everyone should want to bypass the Windows oversampling on PC's. Review was well done sir!
the point of r2r is not to have total clarity. it is old school. like old cd players with burr brown and phillips 151 chips fused to an r2r interface. i use this as a dac alone with preamp and speakers. it will give you in nos an analog vinyl type of sound. best if used with tube amp or preamp. great video.
Also the quality is 100% dependent on the resistor tolerance, which is 0.1% for the Fiio and 0.01%/0.02% for a sorekris unit. This will have an impact on sound if the values are off and can drift with temperatur.
Hart audio cables exist for this reason. You can use any connection to any headphone with interchangeable connections or item at a very affordable price. Nice review, very comprehensive!
I like Hart's approach and their quality in the budget space as well. But even though they are affordable, they are going to add a minimum of $50 to most headphones to be able to use Fiio's 4.4mm output. That must be figured into the value question IMO.
@@wavetheorysound Very true! The value question is answered by how many other amps / sources you will be plugging into. If this is the only one, not worth it. Have a dongle, a couple of DAC/amps, couple of headphones to share the 4.4mm, then it makes sense.
I love the approach and own Hart but that's what pains me to say, I notice some kind of loss of soul compared to (admittedly) much more expensive $150 cables. Your mileage may vary, pairings and so on, but I just can't do it. I even found the HiFiman "catheter" cables sound better so, just my limited experience sharing it.
Had a similar issue with Windows 10 using an SMSL-SU-1 - and an XMOS USB DAC driver. Resolved the issue by setting the Default Format to 32 bit, 44100 Hz in the Speaker/Headphone Properties - Advanced tab. I would have liked to use a higher fidelity format, but that is where I'm at with this issue for now.
I have one of these, I am more impressed with the RCA line out than the headphone outs. It feeds my integrated amp and my Xduoo MT-602. This replaced my Modi3 and I do prefer the sound of both the Xduoo and the integrated headphone amp when connected to the K11 over the modi, I also prefer those headphones outputs over the headphones amp in the K11. It feels more like a good DAC that happens to have a headphone Jack rather than a headphone amp with an integrated DAC.
Your use as an input to an amp via RCA. I have a vintage amp and I want to avoid Bluetooth. So I’d like to connect an iPad via USB to the Fiio then to line in on the amp via RCA. This sounds like what you are doing (maybe at a higher audiophile level). If this is the case and I think it is you seem to be very pleased by the result. I’d be using an older iPad with Plex as my source. I find that this approach (amp connection) is not covered as well as the headphone connection so I’d appreciate your reply. Thanks
Popping and crackling noise most likely comes from UAC1 and UAC2 options just change it and it may fix the problem for windows10 or 11 you have to use UAC2.
hi from the UK, i don't own the Fio but i had the popping & dropout issue with my laptop running windows 10 into my amp's (Mission 778x) dac, i checked out the problem on various forums with various causes & what was flagged up most of the time was it happens when playing tracks with different sampling rates whilst streaming which is about right in my case as it was worse at the beginning of each track & intermittingly during streaming, i've since replaced the laptop with one running Win11 & have no more issues with streaming music. this at least confirmed to me that the laptop was the cause & not the dac so i'd say the Fio is not the problem plus your mac & phone also showed the same results, hope this helps.
have the unit and besides foobars asio bugs i do not have any issues with asio or wasapi. when using roon it works perfectly. also works perfectly connected to a roopieee
I was watching this on my HD58X and perked up when I heard my exact headphone recommended to pair with this haha. Just put in an order, hopefully that USB connection issue is just the one unit as I do plan on using this with a Windows PC.
58X's sound best on old school analogue, just my limited experience. But what's weird is the cheaper cringey 558's sound even better on such things (as long as it's not a bass-centric track.). Sennheiser + analogue = soul, even if you can tell you're losing in other areas.
My first Dac is the SMSL SU-1. I use it with my 20-year-old Sony DVD/CD player. They both sound the same. I was researching this for CDs only as a DAC. Am i paying for a headphone amp i don't need.
Detailed review. However, the Fiio K11 R2R has dual functions: headphone amp and dac. You say the unit sounds pretty good but what are you referring to? The headphone amp or the dac? I am only interested in the dac and would like to know how that sounds as a stand alone function through the rca outputs. Also, please note the link posted to Amazon is for another product, the Fiio K11 not the Fiio K11 R2R.
I'm currently using it as DAC only and run it to a tube amp and it sounds great. The built in amp in this unit is holding it back, but understandably since it's pretty cheap unit. Can't have everything lol.
I watched a bunch of reviews on this and absolutely no one covers the DAC only in proper detail. Every reviewer is fixated on the headphone output. He spoke of the dac portion being better when using the RCA outs to another better amplifier but did not go into detail on the imaging or resolution improvements during that part of the testing.
Thanks a lot for the tremendous review of Fiio K11 R2R. There are two things about this dac/amp that I'm confusing. First part is about the headphone connections, I see there are two different headphone connection ports in the front which are 6.35mm S.E. and 4.4mm BAL respectively, therefore I can use either headphone ports, unless I had made a mistake on this. The other part is about LO, wondering the two front headphone connection ports can also have the option for selecting LO? Thanks again for the great review !!
I'm sure it does, but that's getting up to a price where one should think about a Mojo 2, dac1421, upgraded Geshelli J2S, or Musician Draco is just a little bit more. I'd go that route personally.
I have this DAC and feel that it's too bright for my ears and lacks fullness in my setup. This is via RCA out to my KALI studio monitors. This is this first review that mentions the treble issues while other reviews keep mentioning warmness which I don't hear. My Fozi FD3 with Sabre DAC is more warm sounding and my less than 200 DAC recommendation. Also couldn't hear a difference in NOS vs OS if that helps. The RCA outs run higher Volts from the fiio vs Fozi and the my moniters sound cleaner and quieter with XLR balance connections. Hope that helps.
Hey mate been a long time sub and about to pull the trigger on the 490 Pros! My main use will be gaming and FPS games like call of duty. If you had to pick from there DAC/AMPS which would you choose? where I am there all about the same price. I have fallen on either Topping DX3 Pro+, FiiO K11 or the Zen dac v3 appreciate any advice :)
Thank you for this review. I have ordered this primarily as headphone amp for my desktop Windows gaming and hope, based on other reviews, this will sound reasonable. I'm interested to see if I experience the USB issues you mentioned. I believe the SMSL SP200 is also R2R architecture and roughly the same price as this unit, but rates slightly higher in reviews and measurements. Thank you for your time, efforts, and for sharing this with us all.
For below $200 what dac headphones amp should i go for if my main priority is good imaging, soundstage, etc? (I live in Europe so getting the magni unity seems really hard) I've seen some good reviews for the smsl dl200 but also some reviews talking about bad qc
is it enough to download USB driver from fiio website (btw at least for me english link is broken, had to go through chinese page) or do I need to additionally download this ASIO or some other driver? New buyer, dont know anything.
13:00 Why not just use a 4.4 mm → 3.5 mm (SE) adapter? They are probably cheaper than cables and you also only need one adapter for all of your (3.5 mm cable) headphones..
I got a Lightening to type c on Amazon. I got it to use with the Tone 2 Pro headphone/amp/ DAC. Only drawback is no power supply. Yes i have 4 other 3rd party camera adapters. I stopped using them when I bought my Streamer.
which do u recommend, k11 r2r or hifiman ef 400, given the former one is $100 cheaper than the hifiman? i'm gonna pair either of these dac/amp with ananda nano. thanks
lots of info thanks....newbie question time.......to use the 4.4m balanced input do you need a specific balanced cable or will an adaptor to the 3.5mm jack using the existing cable work?.....I suspect the answer is no but if anyone could let me know that would be great ?
Hey there, I also have this issue that you have with the USB connection. I connect the usb to the back of my motherboard which is a B650e-f AMD platform and have followed every suggested windows 11 and BIOS modification in order to isolate the issue. I also tried Fiio's beta firmware that I recieved from their support desk and it did not address the issue.
I can't hear any difference between this fiio K11 R2R and my mobo audio (Gigabyte amp-up audio ALC1200 chip) using my Fidelio's XH2R. Here's what I've tried: streaming audio, FLAC files, some movies through streaming platform, different cables: crap cables vs SKW cable, washing ears. It's either me, headphones or fiio K11 R2R. Am I expecting too much?
For $160 bucks? Yea, you're expecting a little to much. Good entry into r2r on a budget is something like the schiit modi multibit 2 or a hifiman ef400
I have a motherboard with ALC1200. I don't hear any obvious difference between it and Fiio R2R. If the sound is good, that is, not bad, then it is doing the best. It would probably be unreasonable to expect better. Very expensive products may sound a little better, but it is definitely not worth it.
I bought FiiO K3 6 year's ago and it's sounds the same as my onboard audio, I returned it. Then I bought Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen. The difference and improvements are noticeable this time, much wider soundstage, cleaner, tight and more defined sound. It has a very good DAC for the price but amp section is not great, can only drive upto 200 ohms headphones
Actually I'll be more interested in comparing with the EF499, because at price wise and the parts that they use on EF500 are way more better than that of K11 R2R in every aspect, thus I've no doubt the EF500 wouldn't be the better one. However the EF499 is priced much lower than any other Hifiman's dac/amp products and doesn't use their own award winning Himalaya dac chip, therefore, I personally is very curios about the performance and sound quality could be, especially with the dac chip which being used is an older model from Philips. I hear someone that own the EF499 saying the EF499 is too lay back and warm which make it lack of any dynamic performance, so that I would like to hear a professional's real opinion.
This fiio r2r dac has an RCA output port and a headphone output port. I want to listen to music, connect the jack wire to the RCA port down to the amplifiers, sing karaoke at the headphone output port, connect the jack wire to the mixer then connect it down to the amplifiers, is this setup ok?
@@Mark-fs7ok More expensive should equal better sound but it's not a given. Does one sound 6 times better than the other? Will it last 6 times longer? "Better" should include value and overall satisfaction. The amount you spend and resulting expectations have a huge impact on perceived sound quality .
Buy/make a good quality adapter and every cable will fit? Not as nice as nee cables, but wil suffice in the mean time. And if you dont hear a difference.. done 😂
You have the value proposition narrative backwards. The high end headphones without double ended cables, are a flawed value proposition. Pay $1,000 or more and you are stuck with single ended? That's a bad deal. All my IEMs have pentacon plugs, so do my headphones. I don't buy them if they don't have it or have compatibility issues with after market double ended cables. Bt w, at that price, if you even have imaging and layering and texture of any sort, it's already good. I think I will wait till the specs are a little better on cheap r2rs, like 0.01% variance, at least, in the resistors. This one is 0.1% 😂
if you want better sound, open the dac, and add one more dc input , digital- and analog. use regenerative power for analog,use better streamer like innuos, and the sound just more amazing!!! thats all!!!
@@simonshine8051 I'm glad you haven't been on the wrong side of "QC luck" but it happens and once you ask for an exchange the first thing you get is one off the shelf that someone else returned probably for same QC reasons. In this, the 21st century, if you are super in-the-know and know the 10% of Chinese brands that aren't crap, you can get a best-bang-for-buck in the mid and entry tier products. As long as the QC roulette doesn't come up 00. But while we're talking of timelines, there's a new thing in the 2020's decade where a lot of Chinese products are pricing themselves at the same tier as European and North American products... that is, without even a discount to cover the roulette risk. Topping, SMSL come to mind. This isn't altogether bad because they lose resale value rather harder making them still a good deal if you pick it up used.
Dude, I'm sorry, can u please talk to a Dr. about having that thing removed from under your eye, every time I watch a video from u I sit here and rub my eye !!!
It must be hard being you. Being the type who chooses to publicly demand someone have surgery just to please your sense of aesthetic rather than not consume their content which is voluntary by nature...I feel for ya...I hope you get the help you need.
![ARES II vs D90 vs Bifrost 2 vs ADI-2 vs Gungnir vs Qutest [Mega DAC Roundup & Comparison]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sCP63G8MYOI/mqdefault.jpg)
Man you have covered this one extensively, thank you. I was looking to purchase the k11 r2r.
I have this. It delivers on the promise of R2R tonality at a surprisingly low price. I've heard DSM dacs at similar prices with better technicalities but they sound more digital. If you remember what really good CD players from the late 90s sounded like, this is it. It's fantastic for a bedroom or relaxed living room system. And if you use HQPlayer to send it upsampled PCM (while the K11 is in NOS mode), the performance goes much higher. It sounds like a different tier product then. This is with the line out. Headphone amp is okay, but not mind blowing.
Thank you for this very good review, full of hints for prospective buyers like me! 💙💙💙
I used this dac for a month, sounded amazing
I've had mine for about a month and gathered various information online to find the best sound. These are my settings and possible recommendations. Use as a DAC only and output to RCA with a fixed output. I wasn't impressed with the headphone outputs nor the USB digital input. Disable RGB display (eye candy, etc). I feel the FiiO sounds best in over-sampling mode, a bit clearer and cleaner in the treble with bass similar in NOS mode. I am also using iFi iPower X 12V power supply instead of the stock unit. I find it easier on the ears and yet musical compared to the Schiit Modius.
I have the modius right now that i use as dac for my bigger speaker because it sounds good. Will the dac mode on this fiio be able to top it or just equal in sounds?
DAC hunting is like mushroom hunting, so dubious and uncertain.
@@Äpple-pie-5k stick with tried and true in other words highly rated DAC’s to get into the ballpark of what you may seek.
Then why switch, lol
You should look at stepping up like a Denafrips or the Schitt Bifrost@@renatoforteza1969
Can i use an RCA to USB cable to connect the K11 to my Notebook?
Awesome review, I've had this for about 2 weeks and it sounds beautiful and runs flawlessly. The issue you're having might be related to the data transfer being lower than the required data read. Aside from the firmware for the R2R, this might be from the actual cable itself or the USB driver you're using on your motherboard.
Excellent review. I am a new subscriber but long time in the fun audio world. Making it work without the terrible Windows oversampling curse will be a prime issue for Fiio to fix as everyone should want to bypass the Windows oversampling on PC's. Review was well done sir!
Just ordered my balanced headphone cable for the HD598's I have been using for 10 years.. Thanks.
I have used it with multiple machines from laptops to Linux it works on all of them fine
the point of r2r is not to have total clarity. it is old school. like old cd players with burr brown and phillips 151 chips fused to an r2r interface. i use this as a dac alone with preamp and speakers. it will give you in nos an analog vinyl type of sound. best if used with tube amp or preamp. great video.
With a tube amp.. Good idea!
what's a good budget R2R tube dac/amp?
how do you compare it to Schist Gungnir? the most vinyl-ish sounding of all DACs until we stopped giving a crown for that category a few years ago?
Can confirm sounds great with a tube amp lol.
Also the quality is 100% dependent on the resistor tolerance, which is 0.1% for the Fiio and 0.01%/0.02% for a sorekris unit. This will have an impact on sound if the values are off and can drift with temperatur.
Hart audio cables exist for this reason. You can use any connection to any headphone with interchangeable connections or item at a very affordable price. Nice review, very comprehensive!
I like Hart's approach and their quality in the budget space as well. But even though they are affordable, they are going to add a minimum of $50 to most headphones to be able to use Fiio's 4.4mm output. That must be figured into the value question IMO.
@@wavetheorysound Very true! The value question is answered by how many other amps / sources you will be plugging into. If this is the only one, not worth it. Have a dongle, a couple of DAC/amps, couple of headphones to share the 4.4mm, then it makes sense.
I love the approach and own Hart but that's what pains me to say, I notice some kind of loss of soul compared to (admittedly) much more expensive $150 cables. Your mileage may vary, pairings and so on, but I just can't do it. I even found the HiFiman "catheter" cables sound better so, just my limited experience sharing it.
Another GREAT review!....THANK YOU!👍
Had a similar issue with Windows 10 using an SMSL-SU-1 - and an XMOS USB DAC driver. Resolved the issue by setting the Default Format to 32 bit, 44100 Hz in the Speaker/Headphone Properties - Advanced tab. I would have liked to use a higher fidelity format, but that is where I'm at with this issue for now.
I have one of these, I am more impressed with the RCA line out than the headphone outs. It feeds my integrated amp and my Xduoo MT-602. This replaced my Modi3 and I do prefer the sound of both the Xduoo and the integrated headphone amp when connected to the K11 over the modi, I also prefer those headphones outputs over the headphones amp in the K11. It feels more like a good DAC that happens to have a headphone Jack rather than a headphone amp with an integrated DAC.
Your use as an input to an amp via RCA. I have a vintage amp and I want to avoid Bluetooth. So I’d like to connect an iPad via USB to the Fiio then to line in on the amp via RCA. This sounds like what you are doing (maybe at a higher audiophile level). If this is the case and I think it is you seem to be very pleased by the result. I’d be using an older iPad with Plex as my source. I find that this approach (amp connection) is not covered as well as the headphone connection so I’d appreciate your reply. Thanks
Popping and crackling noise most likely comes from UAC1 and UAC2 options just change it and it may fix the problem for windows10 or 11 you have to use UAC2.
Thank you so much.❤
Professor, thank you for another headphone amplifier review! 👌
I have three FiiO DAC-amps. ✔️
Reverend Dr. Thomas,
✝️ The Vegan Vicar 🌱
hi from the UK, i don't own the Fio but i had the popping & dropout issue with my laptop running windows 10 into my amp's (Mission 778x) dac, i checked out the problem on various forums with various causes & what was flagged up most of the time was it happens when playing tracks with different sampling rates whilst streaming which is about right in my case as it was worse at the beginning of each track & intermittingly during streaming, i've since replaced the laptop with one running Win11 & have no more issues with streaming music. this at least confirmed to me that the laptop was the cause & not the dac so i'd say the Fio is not the problem plus your mac & phone also showed the same results, hope this helps.
I prefer when the lights pulse rather than pulsate. Just my preference.
Good to know about the Windows problem.
Thanks for info..............
have the unit and besides foobars asio bugs i do not have any issues with asio or wasapi. when using roon it works perfectly. also works perfectly connected to a roopieee
I was watching this on my HD58X and perked up when I heard my exact headphone recommended to pair with this haha. Just put in an order, hopefully that USB connection issue is just the one unit as I do plan on using this with a Windows PC.
58X's sound best on old school analogue, just my limited experience. But what's weird is the cheaper cringey 558's sound even better on such things (as long as it's not a bass-centric track.). Sennheiser + analogue = soul, even if you can tell you're losing in other areas.
sennheiser 660S2 comes with both 6.35 and 4.35bal cables
kinda matters if its r2r or not if you use something like hqplayer as delta sigma dacs dont react that well to oversampling and different filters
My Fiio R2r feed by Sotm SPS 500-and 6 pcs lt 3045 . Sound just AMAZING!!!!More holographic, better microdetails, sound stages......My preamp are using regenerative power.Great Job Fiio!!!!!!!!!
My first Dac is the SMSL SU-1. I use it with my 20-year-old Sony DVD/CD player. They both sound the same.
I was researching this for CDs only as a DAC. Am i paying for a headphone amp i don't need.
Just sell the kid to buy gear, problem solved 😇 just kidding, he might be expensive to maintain but he is a hell of a spokesperson already 👍😎
Detailed review. However, the Fiio K11 R2R has dual functions: headphone amp and dac. You say the unit sounds pretty good but what are you referring to? The headphone amp or the dac? I am only interested in the dac and would like to know how that sounds as a stand alone function through the rca outputs. Also, please note the link posted to Amazon is for another product, the Fiio K11 not the Fiio K11 R2R.
Agreed. 41 minutes and we don’t know. 😢
He said the DAC is good and amp is the weaker of the two. Not in those words. Rewatch around 33 min mark.
I'm currently using it as DAC only and run it to a tube amp and it sounds great. The built in amp in this unit is holding it back, but understandably since it's pretty cheap unit. Can't have everything lol.
I watched a bunch of reviews on this and absolutely no one covers the DAC only in proper detail. Every reviewer is fixated on the headphone output. He spoke of the dac portion being better when using the RCA outs to another better amplifier but did not go into detail on the imaging or resolution improvements during that part of the testing.
Thanks a lot for the tremendous review of Fiio K11 R2R. There are two things about this dac/amp that I'm confusing. First part is about the headphone connections, I see there are two different headphone connection ports in the front which are 6.35mm S.E. and 4.4mm BAL respectively, therefore I can use either headphone ports, unless I had made a mistake on this. The other part is about LO, wondering the two front headphone connection ports can also have the option for selecting LO? Thanks again for the great review !!
could you please make a review of new Audio-GD R-28 mk3 r2r dac/amp??? 🫸🫷
If you pair it with an Intona galvanic isolator, that USB connection might actually work well.
I'm sure it does, but that's getting up to a price where one should think about a Mojo 2, dac1421, upgraded Geshelli J2S, or Musician Draco is just a little bit more. I'd go that route personally.
I have this DAC and feel that it's too bright for my ears and lacks fullness in my setup. This is via RCA out to my KALI studio monitors. This is this first review that mentions the treble issues while other reviews keep mentioning warmness which I don't hear. My Fozi FD3 with Sabre DAC is more warm sounding and my less than 200 DAC recommendation. Also couldn't hear a difference in NOS vs OS if that helps. The RCA outs run higher Volts from the fiio vs Fozi and the my moniters sound cleaner and quieter with XLR balance connections. Hope that helps.
For better detail and separation, depth of sound stage get the non R2R K11
Use better power supply for the R2R!!!
I will
How would it sound with linear power supply? That's what we want to know from a reviewer
much the same 😁😁
Speaking of Fiio; do we have a release date for the new Fiio DM 13 cd player? Would this DAC work nicely with it?
I've had popping and crackling on dacs due to a defective USB cable. Try swapping it and see if it helps :)
Hey mate been a long time sub and about to pull the trigger on the 490 Pros! My main use will be gaming and FPS games like call of duty. If you had to pick from there DAC/AMPS which would you choose? where I am there all about the same price. I have fallen on either Topping DX3 Pro+, FiiO K11 or the Zen dac v3 appreciate any advice :)
Hi, which one did you buy and how is it so far?
Thank you for this review. I have ordered this primarily as headphone amp for my desktop Windows gaming and hope, based on other reviews, this will sound reasonable. I'm interested to see if I experience the USB issues you mentioned. I believe the SMSL SP200 is also R2R architecture and roughly the same price as this unit, but rates slightly higher in reviews and measurements. Thank you for your time, efforts, and for sharing this with us all.
For below $200 what dac headphones amp should i go for if my main priority is good imaging, soundstage, etc? (I live in Europe so getting the magni unity seems really hard) I've seen some good reviews for the smsl dl200 but also some reviews talking about bad qc
is it enough to download USB driver from fiio website (btw at least for me english link is broken, had to go through chinese page) or do I need to additionally download this ASIO or some other driver?
New buyer, dont know anything.
Thoughts on using R2R as dac and using a Magni Unity just amp connected to it? would be running the edition XS
13:00 Why not just use a 4.4 mm → 3.5 mm (SE) adapter? They are probably cheaper than cables and you also only need one adapter for all of your (3.5 mm cable) headphones..
With my iPhone 13, I have to use the camera connector to send a signal to the r2r. I tried a few different cables before adding the camera connector.
I got a Lightening to type c on Amazon. I got it to use with the Tone 2 Pro headphone/amp/ DAC. Only drawback is no power supply. Yes i have 4 other 3rd party camera adapters. I stopped using them when I bought my Streamer.
which do u recommend, k11 r2r or hifiman ef 400, given the former one is $100 cheaper than the hifiman? i'm gonna pair either of these dac/amp with ananda nano. thanks
lots of info thanks....newbie question time.......to use the 4.4m balanced input do you need a specific balanced cable or will an adaptor to the 3.5mm jack using the existing cable work?.....I suspect the answer is no but if anyone could let me know that would be great ?
Balanced jacks support each other. For example, balanced 4.4mm and 2.5mm. Otherwise, you may damage your device. Please use a balanced cable.
Hey there, I also have this issue that you have with the USB connection. I connect the usb to the back of my motherboard which is a B650e-f AMD platform and have followed every suggested windows 11 and BIOS modification in order to isolate the issue. I also tried Fiio's beta firmware that I recieved from their support desk and it did not address the issue.
I can't hear any difference between this fiio K11 R2R and my mobo audio (Gigabyte amp-up audio ALC1200 chip) using my Fidelio's XH2R.
Here's what I've tried: streaming audio, FLAC files, some movies through streaming platform, different cables: crap cables vs SKW cable, washing ears.
It's either me, headphones or fiio K11 R2R.
Am I expecting too much?
For $160 bucks? Yea, you're expecting a little to much. Good entry into r2r on a budget is something like the schiit modi multibit 2 or a hifiman ef400
I have a motherboard with ALC1200. I don't hear any obvious difference between it and Fiio R2R. If the sound is good, that is, not bad, then it is doing the best. It would probably be unreasonable to expect better. Very expensive products may sound a little better, but it is definitely not worth it.
I bought FiiO K3 6 year's ago and it's sounds the same as my onboard audio, I returned it. Then I bought Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen. The difference and improvements are noticeable this time, much wider soundstage, cleaner, tight and more defined sound. It has a very good DAC for the price but amp section is not great, can only drive upto 200 ohms headphones
@wavetheorysound
Thanks for video, Can you compare Fiio K11 R2R with hifiman EF500 please? Thanks for answer.
Actually I'll be more interested in comparing with the EF499, because at price wise and the parts that they use on EF500 are way more better than that of K11 R2R in every aspect, thus I've no doubt the EF500 wouldn't be the better one. However the EF499 is priced much lower than any other Hifiman's dac/amp products and doesn't use their own award winning Himalaya dac chip, therefore, I personally is very curios about the performance and sound quality could be, especially with the dac chip which being used is an older model from Philips. I hear someone that own the EF499 saying the EF499 is too lay back and warm which make it lack of any dynamic performance, so that I would like to hear a professional's real opinion.
This fiio r2r dac has an RCA output port and a headphone output port. I want to listen to music, connect the jack wire to the RCA port down to the amplifiers, sing karaoke at the headphone output port, connect the jack wire to the mixer then connect it down to the amplifiers, is this setup ok?
Now it goes closer to 200 USD / 180 Eur. Ordered one today, FOMO is real LOL
did it manage to drive the dt880 through the balanced output?
It’s better than Chord Mojo 2? This is my main question.
No. Mojo 2 is substantially better.
@@wavetheorysound, are they actually for different purposes?
I guess R2R is for laid back listening?
Somewhat like the OG Mojo.
Uh, is the $160 DAC/amp better than the $650 DAC/amp? Sheesh
There are a lot of such examples especially on audio market. @@Mark-fs7ok
@@Mark-fs7ok More expensive should equal better sound but it's not a given. Does one sound 6 times better than the other? Will it last 6 times longer? "Better" should include value and overall satisfaction. The amount you spend and resulting expectations have a huge impact on perceived sound quality .
I have a USB issue as well on Windows 11 - the sound has a delay - around 2 seconds. Quite annoying...
👌👍
Does it auto on by signal when in standby?
how does this compare to the hifiman ef500?
Plastic shell, I thought it was aluminum just like the og k11
It is aluminium / metal.
Buy/make a good quality adapter and every cable will fit? Not as nice as nee cables, but wil suffice in the mean time. And if you dont hear a difference.. done 😂
36:38 bombshell
Fiio K11 or K7?
Used both, K11 is way better value.
SMSL RAW MDA1
You have the value proposition narrative backwards. The high end headphones without double ended cables, are a flawed value proposition. Pay $1,000 or more and you are stuck with single ended? That's a bad deal. All my IEMs have pentacon plugs, so do my headphones. I don't buy them if they don't have it or have compatibility issues with after market double ended cables. Bt w, at that price, if you even have imaging and layering and texture of any sort, it's already good. I think I will wait till the specs are a little better on cheap r2rs, like 0.01% variance, at least, in the resistors. This one is 0.1% 😂
No Bluetooth. I will buy SMSL.
if you want better sound, open the dac, and add one more dc input , digital- and analog. use regenerative power for analog,use better streamer like innuos, and the sound just more amazing!!! thats all!!!
"Sent over to me directly from Fiio" ---- NOOOOO, Chinese QC is a wild one, it's always better to review a random one.
You seem to be living in the last century
@@simonshine8051 I'm glad you haven't been on the wrong side of "QC luck" but it happens and once you ask for an exchange the first thing you get is one off the shelf that someone else returned probably for same QC reasons.
In this, the 21st century, if you are super in-the-know and know the 10% of Chinese brands that aren't crap, you can get a best-bang-for-buck in the mid and entry tier products. As long as the QC roulette doesn't come up 00. But while we're talking of timelines, there's a new thing in the 2020's decade where a lot of Chinese products are pricing themselves at the same tier as European and North American products... that is, without even a discount to cover the roulette risk. Topping, SMSL come to mind. This isn't altogether bad because they lose resale value rather harder making them still a good deal if you pick it up used.
I am selling my Audionote and Accuphase..
29 minutes to get to how it actually sounds. *Sigh..
For a better experience, choose something else. That interface 🤮
Dude, I'm sorry, can u please talk to a Dr. about having that thing removed from under your eye, every time I watch a video from u I sit here and rub my eye !!!
Jeez some people are so easily triggered.😂
It must be hard being you. Being the type who chooses to publicly demand someone have surgery just to please your sense of aesthetic rather than not consume their content which is voluntary by nature...I feel for ya...I hope you get the help you need.
How does this compare to something like a schiit multibit 2 or a ef400 sonically?