Fiio M11Plus ESS and M11S with Roon Ready is fanatasic!

Anyone tried this wonder with Planners yet?

I assume that you meant planar magnetic headphones and, if so, then yes I have.

Hifiman Edition XX (open back), Dan Clark Audio Aeon Flow 2 (closed back), Dan Clark Audio Aeon X (open back) - all used with balanced 4.4mm cable. And the Acoustic Research AR-H1 (open back) - single ended cable

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, as expected all these planar magnetic headphones sounded great when driven by the Fiio M11 Plus, which had no problem driving any the headphones. Like most good headphone amps, the M11 Plus allows the planars to envelope one with their trademark silky smooth sound without giving up any detail or losing any dynamic punch. The Dan Clark Audio headphones are a great match for the M11 Plus.

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Thanks very informative

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I can add in the same comments to Jazzfan_NJ with the HiFiMan Ananda and now the SendyAudio Aiva too. I have a hard time justifying the cost to performance ratios beyond the Anandas, and they remain my preferred set. The SA Aiva are excellent, but a tad warmer, which I love for certain genres. On the M11 Plus, which is a touch on the analytical side, it’s a great balance. On my Doge 10 tube amp setup, it can be a bit too warm.

On the IEM side, the RAPTGO Hook-X are outstanding. Very crisp and clean, great tight and controlled dynamics, without being overly critical. So, enjoyable and “musical”, which to me means that the energy of the music comes through like it’s a live, yet intimate and personal performance.

I don’t know that this changes your therom, but from the US Fiio site, when i click the Buy button, it takes it to the AliExpress US site, and has it listed as $699.99. I paid $639.99 for my M11 Plus when I bought it a while back. So, I think the R7 is a STEAL for what you get.

I have the Uniti Atom, and love it. It is my Living Room setup, so that my wife can run her Roon playlists in a set-it and forget-it way. I LOVE the volume dial. I change the volume all the time, just to use the dial. Of course, that drives my wife crazy :crazy_face: So, for me, what I like about the R7 is the speaker and headphone options. The Uniti Atom had headphone capabilities, just not balanced, as you are limited to the 3.5mm plug.

So, fo me right now, if someone gave me $5K, I’d spend $700 on the R7, and then give my wife $4,300 to patially pay for a Greenhouse modular kit that she would then make me assemble when it was dropped off in the parts in the driveway :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :rofl:

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Good to know :slight_smile:

It would be nice to know your settings

  • Gain - Low, Medium, High?
  • DSP - using DSP (Convolution WAV) or not?

Torben

Nice :slight_smile: so it will work with my aeon 2 noire just as well. And since my Meze Liric are even easier to drive with them too.

Quess I should have saved myself some money and gotten a DAP instead of a bedroom headphone setup.

I have the Atom none HE version it great but found headphone listening on it very thin. I am hardly using it as I don’t get enough solo access to the room and I just prefer the sound of the M11 now as it’s not battling the room and I can go anywhere with it.

I use medium or high dependant on the cans and low for iems. I could just use low and medium but I would be moving volume up and down too much from cans to cans. Switching gain it’s about right for each one.

Don’t use DSP for me it robs them of fun and why I chose the cans in the first place. Which is he opposite of speakers where I use it all the time. But that’s to combat the room.

@Michael_Harris when you joining us with an M11 Plus ? You know you need/want one.

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Very tempted but spent about £8k in December and need to pay some of that off first.
My list of sins included
LG C2 TV, Full Sonos ARC, Sub and surrounds (for TV and concert listening in the living room)
New living room furniture coming in March.

Hard to believe I spent nothing on 2 channel audio, but that is to come.

(Oh yes I ordered an extension for the back of the house, so my biggest month oof spending in the 26 years since I moved into my current house)

Funny enough I have a Fiio M7 or M9 (can’t remember which, but had it a few years now) loaded up with a couple of 500GB micro SD cards with about 40% of my library on. I have pretty much given up using it since ARC came along (and maybe a hundred plus albums downloaded on each phone), so when I get my finances sorted again and Roon ARC support’s bit perfect I am along for the ride. Already been tempted, but my sensible head has won out so far (which is no bad thing).

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I keep the gain on high for most of the headphones.
I also use convolution filters for all my headphones, except the Focal Bathys.

The Aeon Flow 2 are very similar to the Aeon 2 Noire so I would think that you would get results using them with the M11 Plus

I don’t find that convolution filters take any “fun” away from the headphones nor do convolution filters make all headphones sound the same. convolution filters are designed to bring the frequency response of the headphones as close as possible to the Harmon Curve. So on some headphones, especially headphones whose unfiltered (for lack of a better term) frequency response is quite far the Harmon Curve, using a convolution filter makes a very noticeable difference but for headphones that closely align to the Harmon Curve the change is very subtle.
Ultrasone headphones, loved by bass heads, still have lots of bass when used with convolution filters. Planar magnetics still sound like planars when used with convolution filters.
But hey, to each their own. They are your headphones, on your ears, so do what sounds best to you and gives you the most enjoyment. Happy listening!

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I know what it’s for and does I just find it robs all of mine of life and alters the signature of them too much from why I bought them. Tried all the different ones on AutoEQ and always end up turning them off. The only one that is ok is for the Focal Elears but it’s not changing much at all so likely that’s why but I don’t feel the urge to use it. I love the sound of my 99 Classics as they were designed as soon as I use EQ they lose the boogey factor. Same goes for my iems for me I just dont gain anything from using it. Also due to headroom have to ramp the amp up so it’s using more power and less battery. I get why some might like EQ for phones but I am not one of them.

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Convolution filters or PEQ really improved the meze Liric alot. Can’t even imagine using them without for serious listening anymore.

But I’m fine with the Aeon Noire without altering the sound.

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Very good point and that’s probably the main reason I find myself always using the high gain setting on the M11 Plus when listening to Roon with convolution filters.

This would worry me as to why I bought them. They are nearly 2k and should perform out of the box. I certainly would not buy anything that didn’t sound very good to me without having to use DSP. This just seems like you bought the wrong pair of cans for your system.

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Or it just means I prefer the Harman curve. :slight_smile: no idea why someone shouldn’t use DSP to improve performance of whatever item.

I used to calibrate my projector, monitor and TVs as well.
Or if I had the option to use Dirac with my loudspeakers I would do that too

Convolution filters and PEQ great options to adjust the sound. Before that people used to mess around with tube amps, different DACs and stuff.

If it’s to much for a DAP that’s just fine .

I use it with my Astell & Kern Pathfinder and Meze Rai Penta :slight_smile: It makes great IEM’s a bit better :slight_smile: Fine tuning :slight_smile:

Even better with the whole “range” :slight_smile: and crossfeed.

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Improve yes, but not fix, which was what you seemed to imply as you said you can’t listen to them without DSP. All for making something great even better but I would I hope at that price nothing should need to be done. I would personally find a set that performed more naturally to the signature you want in your case the Harman Curve and not what the OEM prefer.

All relative. Once you improve something it’s difficult to go back . But everyone hears different and has.a different taste.

I very much prefer them with DSP.

And the noire are fine with or without filters but there isn’t much room for improvement either. :slight_smile:

I imagine you seek out masters of CDs that you prefer as well. Because it’s more to your liking than what someone else provided

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