FiiO K11 Desktop 1400W Headphone DAC & Amplifier

Picked up a new set of Senn HD599se that were on sale and needed a proper DAC AMP to drive them for pc and ps5. My setup:

Sennheiser HD599se 50 ohms open back
Fiio K11

I ended up picking up a balanced cord for the headset to use the 4.4mm balanced port as that can push almost 3 times as much power than the standard headphone port on the k11. Search amazon for hd599se balance cord – the one I got was around $30 and has a wooden casing around the 4.4mm jack.

PC music and games – for this cans specifically – I use medium gain at around 55 – 70 volume and it is perfect.

PS5 I use High gain with low volume (around 40). This is due to the PS5 and the way it is designed. Also note use UAC 1 usb mode for ps5 and UAC 2 for pc.

Overall – nice clean sound. Easy the use. The RGB is nice touch (multi colors and can be turned off).

For around $100 the K11 is perfect for my needs.

Looking for a combo DAC/amp for your cans? Look no further. The FiiO K11 has clean sound and oodles of power all packed into a sleek form factor, outperforming its brothers K5 Pro and K7 in cost, and in my book, appearance as well, being a snazzy addition to any desk. With both a 1/4″ unbalanced and 4.4mm balanced output at $130, it is a considerably better deal than the $200 K7, unless you need… Whatever it is that the K7 has over this. A little bit more power, or a bigger knob, I guess.

I’ve tested the K11 with a suite of Sennheisers (598, 600, 660S2, 800S) as well as the Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X. Regardless of whether the balanced or unbalanced output is used, there is no noticeable noise floor, no noticeable coloration of sound, and everything gets as loud as it needs to with plenty of headroom to spare, even accounting for -10dB of preamp for EQ.

The K11 has an easy-to-use menu you control via the volume knob and the screen on the front. But if you don’t want any visual clutter, you can configure the screen timeout period to be anywhere from infinite to as short as 1 minute, meaning you can make it always remain dark as long as the volume knob remains untouched. The K11 also has RGB capabilities via the FiiO logo on the top, but if you find RGB stuff gaudy, it’s easy to disable RGB entirely via the menu. That leaves only the FiiO logo itself, which looks fine as-is, but you could always pull a Zeos and cover it up with an anime sticker.

There is one important caveat that must be mentioned: *If you connect the K11 to a Windows PC via USB, the Windows OS volume control will not work for this device!* The Windows volume OSD will pop up, but it will not actually change the volume, with volume control only being possible via the knob on the K11 itself. Now, this *would* be a dealbreaker for me, but thankfully, this issue is not present when connecting the K11 via optical cable. With optical, the Windows volume control works as expected and the K11 volume and Windows volume can be controlled independently. I emailed FiiO support about this issue and they said they would pass it along to the engineering team, but it remains to be seen if anything will ever come of that. So, if you can only connect the K11 to your PC via USB, beware.

That’s all that needs to be said. As long as the USB issue doesn’t bother you, this is a DAC/amp that can power essentially any headphone, has best-in-class looks, and doesn’t break the bank. What more can you ask for?

Quality construction and works well with my Sennheiser HD600 and Hifiman Sundara.
I enjoy the lighted logo on top and options how it is displayed.
Sound quality is outstanding.
Good price for what you get.
I would highly recommend this item.

Really well made and sounds amazing. It maxes out at 384kHz at 24 bit. You do have to do some fiddling to figure out the controls. The volume knob is used for everything. You can turn it to change volume. Pressing the volume knob lets you select the input, Double tapping the volume knob lets you switch between the back rca output and the the front headphone jacks, and holding it for 2 seconds lets you access the settings. And holding it for 4 or 5 seconds turns it off. It took me a while to figure all that out. If you use windows or mac with it you have to go into your sound settings and select the resolution it uses manually. It is really good and well made its just more complex than I would have liked.

Réglage du volume numérique, le potentiomètre est sans fin, affichage du niveau sonore sur l’écran de 0 à 99,qui ne correspond pas à un niveau en dB. La sortie coaxiale ne fonctionne qu’en mode USB. En mode optique, la sortie coaxiale ne transmet aucun signal.
L’entrée coaxiale ne fonctionne que si vous l’avez sélectionner, qui est la seule à fonctionner en entrés/sortie.
Sortie casque OU sortie ligne arrière, mais pas les deux à la fois, volume réglable.
Présence de filtres numériques à 6 position, mise en veille réglable de l’écran ou pas…
La marque FiiO sur le dessus s’illumine de la couleur et de l’intensité de votre choix…ne sert à rien à part faire joli, ainsi que l’intensité.
Présence aussi d’un sélecteur de gain, pour l’indépendance de tout types de casque, à 3 positions faible/moyen/élevé.
Le dac conserve tous les réglages, même lorsqu’il est débranché de la prise murale.

Pour ce qui est de l’écoute, rien à dire c’est parfait, j’utilise un Sennheiser HD 650, en revanche je sais pas à quoi peuvent servir les filtres numériques…