FiiO R9 Android Media Streamer, Network Player, HDMI/MQA Full Decode, USB DAC, DSD512 PCM768kHz/32Bit Bluetooth 5.0, 6’’HD Touchscreen

I bought this primarily to use as a desktop style transport. I wanted something with a touchscreen and a remote that I could load my entire 1TB music library onto, without hard drives or connecting to a NAS. Self contained and convenient, so I don't have to plug my phone or my DAP into my DACs/AMPs.I wasn't expecting the built in headphone amp and DAC to sound very good, because I bought a FIIO M17 and absolutely hated the sound. It was bright, harsh, fatiguing, boxy, narrow soundstage, and nasty digital glare, so I returned it.But I was pleasantly surprised that the R9 sounds better, despite having the same ESS9038PRO DAC chips and also sharing the THX788 amplification modules.The R9 indeed has less of the glare of the 9038 chip than typical, but some of the glassiness and lack of dimension is still there. I actually prefer the 9018 implementations ive heard to the 9038. The soundstage is wider than the M17, although not the widest. The sound is neutral, articulate and fairly well textured across the spectrum, but It is on the cold, sterile and clinical side overall, bordering on lifeless sometimes, and it seems to be lacking a little in bottom end heft and impact.It pairs well with Arya Organic and HE1000SE, although I didn't like the pairing with the HEDD audio HEDDphone OG.After more time with this unit, i find myself always preferring to run the digital outputs of this device to my external DAC/AMPs. It's good for what it is sonically, but not great. I wish it sounded more like my DROP THX 789, or my EF400, or my Cayin N3 Ultra, or my Cavalli Liquid Carbon X or CTH, or my FLUX FA-12. However, if you like the clinical and sterile type of sound signature, you'll probably like it. I still give it high marks because it is great to have an all-in-one desktop unit that can play my entire music library off an SD card and have remote control and a nice display.The amp section has a ton of power to deliver impactful transients to large inefficient planar headphones.The build quality looks and feels exquisite.The interface is slick and smooth. BT remote works well, although it takes a moment after boot up to pair.Highly recommended for an all in one. It's a lot more convenient than having to connect my phone to a DAC for playback source.The excellent USB Audio Player Pro app runs well on it, unlike my experience with the M17.It doesn't sound as good as my EF400 in terms of organic sound and the extra vibe in the bottom that the EF400 has, but it is quite good. If you like the clinical and crisp type of sound signature with fast attack, you'll probably enjoy it, and you can always connect it to higher end outboard gear with the plethora of connections on the back.I think it sounds best on the slow roll minimum phase filter with the 2nd harmonic regulation setting at 2, although i find the sonic differences between filter settings to be less significant than the AKM DAC chips due to the sound quality limitations of the ESS chip.I'm not a huge fan of the all-to-dsd feature. It does smooth the upper mids and treble nicely, but seems to kill what little amount of holography this unit is capable of presenting.

It's an amazingly flexible streamer/dac/amp that is let down by some major bugs. Currently I am using the optical in to output from my TV to the R9 which works quite well. I also have the USB input connected to a USB-C hub, which I am planning on replacing with a thunderbolt dock soon. It doesn't have the same issues with latency as the R7 and many of Fiio's DAPs when used as a USB DAC since it has an xmos chipset like many desktop or dongle DACs. Using standard android music apps works very well too.I have run into several irritating issues however. The Fiio Roon app(used by Roon Ready mode) crashes every few minutes when I use my standard 2.4/5GHz WiFi SSID on my TP-Link BE-95 mesh network. If I switch to the "IoT" network it works, presumably because that network forces 2.4GHz only and allows less secure versions of WPA. At some point I will have to finally terminate the CAT6A cable I have sticking out of the wall and try the R9 with ethernet instead. The Fiio Roon app also runs into issues where if I skip a track it will skip several at a time and often if I manually try to play the skipped tracks it fails to play them and skips anyways.Another problem I've run into is with the Bluetooth remote. It works great in general but because switching the R9 to Bluetooth receiving mode disables Bluetooth in the OS you can no longer use the remote while in Bluetooth receiving mode. It sucks because the remote is actually really useful.To get around the remote issue I was hoping to use Fiio Cast to remotely control the R9 from my phone or tablet but it is completely broken. My R9 isn't autodiscovered and I'm not able to connect via IP. I'm only able to connect 1 out of 5 times I try using the QR code and then there is NO way to reconnect without attempting to add the device again via QR code. I see the R9 and its IP has been added to devices in Fiio Control but tapping on it does nothing.

I've only been using it for the last few days both as a streamer and as a desktop dac for the PC. So maybe take this review with a grain of salt since I haven't begun to try using all the features yet like HDMI ARC, etc. I'm not going to go over the tech stuff just my use case. I bought this cus I lost everything in a fire months ago and wanted a one and done setup for the desk.Overall, this unit has everything most hifi enthusiasts would appreciate. High quality components, build quality, and of course sounds great when plugged into some speakers too not just headphones and iems. Pretty much does everything you could ever want from a desktop perspective. Could probably HDMI arc this into a receiver to use in the home theater system (haven't tried this yet). 2 sets of RCA outs cus why not? The RGB is ok, thankfully it's partially customizable to tone it down a bit. I have it set to 10% brightness and it's definitely noticeable.My R9 is plugged into a 5" set of bookshelf speakers/sub thru balanced XLR and it sounds great on the desk. It switches between Andriod/USB dac mode instantly, which is my main use for this. When using this as a dac it gets pretty warm - almost hot after a few hours of use. The temp does get pretty warm I don't know if temps are even a concern, but you probably want to put the R9 in a place that doesn't restrict any airflow.Remote control is convenient and a nice little bonus. I don't need to use the touch screen every time to skip a track or change volume. The R9 is a major fingerprint magnet. Just leave the microfiber cloth it comes with right next to it cus you'll be using it a lot.Using Android for anything can be a clunky experience sometimes, but I just installed Tidal and plugged in some speakers and went on my way. Headphones work just as easy. Playing games, watching youtube, etc there are no sync issues like with the R7.This thing is honestly almost perfect, but..My only worry or concern about the R9 is Android updates. Right now it's using Android 10 with plans to upgrade to 12 sometime this year. If using this as a streamer years from now will it still work with newer versions of Android? Will it be secure and will apps like Tidal still work on this? Longevity is a concern for me and this is a flagship product from Fiio. I hope they continue to support future releases of Android.

Wanted something that could power planar magnetic near the bed and I discovered this wonderful little tool. Allows me to power great headphones (DCA E3 & Hifiman Arya both have plenty of headroom) with any source I choose from Roon to Tidal and it sounds fantastic. The combo brought tears to my eyes for the first hour at least of listening. For by the bed use, know that you can color select and dim the running lights on board (they are on 5% brightness red in the photos). Will add the linear power supply done the road, but was massively impressed with it just plugged into the wall. The eq is a little hard to use, but it’s great to have it for headphones that need a little tweaking.Edit: dropping a star as the remote is completely non functional. The internet suggests it functions through Bluetooth but didn’t arrive pair and doesn’t seem discoverable. A real bummer as it’s the only significant drawback.

For $1,500 this thing is disgraceful. It sounds very good. But actually using it is a nightmare. I feel like a grocery store employee designed it. Everything about it is difficult. It took me 2 hours to get the first sound from it. The EQ does nothing. The 36 page PDF manual online makes no mention of an EQ existing within it's 36 pages. I've joined Facebook groups trying to learn about it and I still know nothing. The remote is Bluetooth and it only works when it wants to. Each input selection is like a completely different app. If you're using it in USB DAC Mode, or HDMI Mode, or any other mode, and you want to do something like mess around with the EQ or literally anything, it says "are you sure that you want to exit HDMI Mode?" And you have to click yes if you want to do anything. Then, the audio stops, and it backs you out of HDMI Mode. I feel like aliens developed the interface. Nothing on it works in a way that human beings are accustomed to. I'm just so frustrated and blown away at how terrible this thing is to use. How anyone could ever give this 5 stars is so wild to me. I've had it for 2 days, I have struggled the entire 2 days for many hours at a time trying to use it, and I would return it in a second if I knew that it wouldn't fall on the seller as a loss.