FiiO - Q11

I have chosen Fiio-Q11 over anything else because it has a battery and the sheer amount of power it can deliver. Be it an IEM or full-sized headphones, it drives them with ease. I have tried this with my truthear hexa, Final E3000, and Sennheiser HD-600. In all the cases, Q11 provides more than enough power to drive them. The sound is absolutely flat, neutral, and un-coloured. Though the soundstage is not that wide, it is definitely not a dealbreaker. The battery life of Q11 is excellent. Till now, I have not been able to completely drain it even with the power-hungry HD-600 using the balanced output. Overall, Q11 is a pocket-friendly, pocket-sized, great-sounding beast.

It's more than i expected

I am not an audiophile but based on my limited experience I can say that this is the best portable desktop dac. When used with a laptop/desktop it gets charged automatically and you can also use it with an android that supports usb out audio. The audio output is well balanced and it can drive high impedance headphones smoothly like my Audio Technica R70x, which I listen at 50% volume max.

Churning out 650mW @ 32 Ohms this is a powerful DAC n AMP on paper. I have it paired with the CCA PLA13 IEM and generates a decent result. With a 2600mAh battery, it's a no-drainer on the smartphone power and gives +13 hours of listening on a single charge. It's size challenges portability but the in-package silicon accessory band comes in handy. The Q11 won't give you an out of the world experience, but the price at which it is being offered, it's a very good buy for beginners.

Haven't seen the Fiio Q11 get a bad review! Excellent battery life and a super DAC too!

First off lets start with the gear I used to test
Hifiman Sundara, Tin Hifi P1 max, Sony nw-A105, Fiio M11 Ltd(for comparison), Tri Star sea, Kato

The single ended is really underpowered. I mean even for IEMs I needed high gain to get some body.
Vocals are not as, to put it simply, beautiful as on the Fiio M11 Ltd. Perhaps this is not a fair comparison, but this is what I had at hand.

On balanced I needed 90% to 100% volume to power Sundara, which left no headroom and did not sound as good as M11 Ltd.

Earlier I had Xduoo 05 basic, which was 500mw in 32 ohms, and it was plenty powerful to drive Sundara with headroom, granted it had some distortions.

So the power spec is either wrong or there is very little current output. not sure of the technicalities.

Another odd thing is that I found no battery indicator, even with Fiio control app. I don't know if this is missing.

In conclusion, I will not be keeping the device.

Got it a few days ago and have been testing it with IEM's and headphones alike, neat little device works like a charm, and especially useful for headphones. The fact that it has an internal battery, is a big plus since it doesn't drain your phone. This has become my GOTO recommendation for portable AMP and DAC. 10/10 would recommend to someone who travels with headphones.

P.S: It's smaller than it looks in pictures :)
The devices I tested with are
1. Salnotes 7Hz Zero
2. DT990 Pro (250 Ohm)
3. Samson SR850 (32 Ohm)

Was genuinely surprised to see how well it could run my Beyerdynamics (they are modded to use the balanced cable), so safe to say this Fiio Q11 is pretty worth it.|

TLDR: Go for it, 10/10, absolutely worth it especially for travelling with headphones.

Just got this, very handy and looks super cool!!! As for sound i am using for salnotes zero for now ,soon this little one will get chance to play dt770 80ohm/M50X then will update review again

Need to check battery back up and coming to sound, oh boy after plugging into this half of my phone(X80) sound bar is enough to drive the earphones at full volume...highly recommended:)

Impressed

soo good

Great value for money!

I bought Fiio- Q11 after going through a lot of reviews available in public domain and then taking the plunge. The primary objective was to pair this with Meze 99 classic ( purchased along with this) to bundle with S23+ and Tab S8 Ultra primarily along with occasional usage of iPad Pro.
Pros- Strong Built.. very sturdy like a brick. 3.5 mm and 4.5 mm audio outputs ate neatly laid out and are always inspiring when you plug in and out ( Unlike ifi Hip Dac2, where there is a slight play of ports in the unit I received and eventually returned due to a Volume knob issue). The volume knob is firm and tight in Q11 which will not allow you to accidentally increase volume levels.
LED Indication- Nice touch to identify easily high-low sampling rates
Battery- Stellar Battery that lasts 11-12 hours and does not put any strain on the source device.
Sound Quality- It's a bit on Darker side and that is every evident with Meze 99 Classic, which is too much otherwise on brighter side when connected with with out Dac-amp. Fiio Q11 has given a nice laid back sound and enhaced Sound stage with Meze. It's less tiring and with Balanced output, it leaves a slightly different impression, with Vocals being more detailed and clear. Fiio Q11 definitely lacks details if I compare it with ifi Hip Dac2 ( being more bright too), but the overall impression is quite soothing and you can enjoy the mild and sweet thumping of Bass.

Cons:-
3.5 mm Output is very noisy and jittery. You will always hear popping sound when you are going through apps in Phone/ Tablet. 4.5mm is more poised in this aspect.
Extremely short Cable for connecting to phone/tablet. Surprisingly it does not work even with longer cable which I separately purchased ( FiiO - LT-TC4 (USB-C to USB-C Data Cable)) as strangely it just cuts out the audio at every 1 hour or so and Q11 starts charging/resetting from Tablet/ Phone ( even though is fully charged)- Quiate a waste of the purchased cable in that aspect.
Phone attachments are the biggest joke since I will nevery pair my S23 plus in that way.

Overall a good buy and I will keep toggling between Hip-Dac 2 and Q11 to enjoy 2 different sound signatures.

FiiO - Q11

It's not been long but I like it.
It doesn't drain the phone battery and the biggest Pro is that there's a volume control knob.
Great for the price.

Good sounding DAC

Q11 has enough power and the availability of both balanced 4.4.and SE 3.5 mm ports are great plus. The output is quite flat and is worth the money spent.

Couple of drawbacks are the short usb type c to type c and type c to lightening cables. If using with Android phones, please make sure that Dolby Atmos sound setting is turned off from the phone as it spoils the sound entirely.

I was excited to have a portable amp for my phones and iPad when I ordered the Q11. I’ve got few points to share which might be of use if you’re planning to buy them.
DACs compared with - Apple Dongle, 7hz DAC, Fiio BTR1K, HUD100MK2 + Ifi Zen Air Can stack.
IEM - S12 with W1 tips, vr3000, Aria Snow, Zex. Headphones - Hifiman Deva Pro, m50x

Out of all the DACs, I’d rack them in the following order overall for headphones - HUD100+ifi>7hz>Q11>BTR1K>Apple Dongle
For IEMs -7hz>Apple Dongle> HUD100+ifi>BTR1K>Q11

Since portability isn’t high on headphones stack priority, I haven’t considered it there. In IEM criteria, the loss of convenience has to make up with sound quality and power delivery.

Basically q11 can get shouty, specially with planar magnets and the low end impact is soft. With all that power on paper you’d expect it to have a lot of thump , but it doesn’t deliver. The different filters in the app seem to help a bit with decay, but that’s up for debate since it is so subtle, you’d almost forget it.
Mids are clean, maybe too clean like it’s transparent, lower mids are emphasised a bit.
Apple Dongle is clean throughout unlike q11 which picks and chooses what can be clean.
HUD100 is character filled, smoothing every input it gets, doesn’t get shouty at any point, but demands battery from the source to an extent where you’d think twice before using it in a portable device. Q11 losses everywhere but the battery issue (iPad disagrees, more on that later)
7hz, for the power it uses and outputs there’s a very good balance. The sound signature is balanced , maybe a bit on the warmer side, not super clean, really good nonetheless. No complaint here, just that the cable could’ve been detachable.
The q11 charges when connected to iPad, same with a Mac Air. It could’ve had a toggle to turn charging on or off like the xduoo systems.
The headphones must be driven either at high volumes or in high gain, there’s lack of low end in any mode for that matter.
Overall, if you think it’s too good to be true, it probably is. I’m not difficult to impress, given my collection of devices, it should’ve been easier. I don’t recommend buying this for headphones and iPads at all. The 600 mw is useful for the few hard to drive iems ( do they even exist?) on balanced(jk). For a 1m distance, balanced options are the most ridiculous ideas commercialised yet, I just laugh at myself for using balanced cables, which in an ideal world could’ve been obtained in a SE if the market demanded.

Thanks to Headphonezone gurus - Mr. Virendra, Mr. Anik and Mr. Danesh. The valuable inputs yielding better results for me. Q11 is being elevated my harmonious musical experiences to the mesmerizing planes. I'm using it with Audio Techica ATX m40x and 7hz salnotes zero iems. Being a avid music enthusiast I love to listen variety of music genres with balanced sound signature. Indian classical, fusion, wstern classical, symphonies, Film ... I keep on immersing myself in it...