Introduction

At this point FiiO needs no introduction. The Chinese audio brand has made a strong name for itself by offering pretty much everything in the realm of personal audio including in-ear monitors, such as the recently tested FH7S hybrid driver set and also portable DAC/amps such as the BTR5 and BTR7. The company is popular for desktop DAC/amp combo units including the K5 Pro and the K9 Pro. Somewhere in the middle lies this quirky mix of portable sources that can best some desktop DAC/amps, portable sources are a growing market today thanks to people working from home and not having a lot of desk space for larger units, as well as for those who commute a few days and would like to take their trusted headphone chain with them. The iFi micro iDSD Signature falls squarely in this realm and today we take a look at FiiO's latest offering competing directly against it.


One look at the FiiO Q7 and I already know there are people getting ready to type comments about how "gamery" it looks with the RGB LEDs and the relatively aggressive design. But perhaps the missing context is in the form of FiiO's current flagship DAP—digital audio player, such as the HiBy R5 Gen 2 we saw before—in the form of the FiiO M17. Notice how the Q7 takes a lot of cues from that unit, to where FiiO says straight up that it made a lot of sense to simply use the chassis that is designed for common hardware already. Indeed, I'd say the FiiO Q7 can be considered as a slightly cut-down version of M17 without the Android section. It also shares a lot with the excellent K9 Pro ESS, to where this certainly has desktop-class hardware inside in a portable form factor. Thanks to FiiO for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp, we begin with a look at the product specifications below. Be sure to click the image twice to fully open it and go through all the details.

Specifications