John Darko
Move over WiiM, FiiO has announced the SR11 streaming transport which receives Roon Ready and AirPlay streams over Ethernet or dual-band wifi before sending them onto a DAC connected via TOSLINK, coaxial, USB-A or USB-C. The CD-sized unit is wrapped in a tidy aluminium alloy body with a front-panel LCD display screen showing the incoming sample rate.
The SR11 houses no DAC of its own and is designed to be connected to an outboard DAC or – for a superior visual match – FiiO’s identically-sized K11 DAC and headphone amplifier. That means a desktop-friendly headphone setup can be had for US$198 – US$99 for the SR11 and US$99 for the K11 – with the option of connecting the K11’s analogue output to a hi-fi system always at the ready.
Swapping out the US$219 WiiM Pro Plus for FiiO’s SR11/K11 combo, we trade in the WiiM unit’s far more extensive streaming suite for up to 1.4 Watts of headphone power, twin LCD displays, aluminium (not plastic) casework, USB connectivity and a Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chipset with support for PCM 32bit/768kHz and DSD256.
On the FiiO combo, we also have the choice of silver or black finishes.
Further information: FiiO
