FiiO M11S + FiiO FH9 as a first set

[GeezEU]

What do you guys think? My budget is 1200 euro.
Genres: metal, folk, classical guitar.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Hard to tell without knowing what your actual requirements are (where it is supposed to be used, how much music in what formats you have, what specific features you need etc.). All I know is that I have never spent that much money on a portable player or IEMs in my entire life. At least the M11S doesn't have runtime in the single-digit hours like a bunch of other "high-end" DAPs, if at the expense of a battery that would make a mid-sized battery bank proud. No wonder given the available output power - it can probably deliver 1000 times as much as the FH9 (a nominal 18ohm, 108 dB/mW IEM) will ever need. I wish they still made the M3K, I'm rocking one with Rockbox (fortunately I did buy a spare after seeing what happened with the Sansa Clip+). Now that AKM's production has been back up for a while, they could probably relaunch it with an AK4377A (which I bet is little else thana renamed AK4376A), but I guess there is more money to be made with these big fancy players.

 

[Wunderphones]

I'm very happy with the M11S. I wanted a Roon Ready DAP, and it's by far the best value among that group. I don't know how it stacks up against other pure DAPs for value, but FiiO generally gets good marks for bang-for-the-buck.