FiiO's R7 is a mini system from the 90s brought bang up to date. For those not old enough to recall the Midi and Mini systems of the late 80s onwards, these offered an all-in-one system that mimicked somewhat a 'proper' separates tower. The Midi systems were larger to accommodate a turntable; however, those who migrated to CD could get a neat little mini system that still included a tape deck, a radio tuner, as well as a CD player.
The FiiO R7 offers a compact all-in-one system with a touchscreen-controlled digital music streamer, balanced headphone amplifier, up to 2TB onboard storage (64GB + SD card) for your digital library and support for a wide range of hi-res audio formats, including MQA. You can even add powered speakers to make it a full desktop hi-fi system.
In fact, FiiO's SP3 Active Loudspeakers (above), which are set to launch later this year, will be the perfect partner for the R7. Alternatively, you can plug in some headphones or even go wireless with Bluetooth.
Wired cans are treated to 6.3mm, 4.4 balanced, and four-pin balanced XLR connectors. FiiO tells us that, thanks to the system's five gain levels and 3.6W output at 32Ω, the R7 can drive anything from sensitive IEMs to power-hungry over-ears.
The FiiO R7 boasts dual ESS Sabre ES9068AS DACs and high-power THX-788+ desktop-grade amps, supporting hi-res audio playback up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512 files.
Bluetooth is handled by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 chipset and supports a wide range of codecs, including AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC and LHDC. In addition to pairing Bluetooth headphones with the R7, you can also squirt music to it from your portable device.
The compact R7 has ports aplenty with optical and coaxial inputs and USB connectivity. Cable-free options include 2.4GHz and 5GHz wi-fi and Bluetooth 5.0 support. You also get optical, coax, line level and balanced XLR outputs.
Being based on Android 10, the R7 hands you access to your favourite streaming services, including Qobuz, TIDAL, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify. Furthermore, it's Roon Ready as well! Not yet subscribed to Roon's sweet set-up? Fear not; you can play your audio files from the R7's local storage, an attached SSD, or wirelessly via DLNA or AirPlay.
This range of features at the R7's price point certainly makes it stand out from the crowd.
The FiiO R7 is available now, priced at £649.99.
Visit FiiO for more information
Posted in: Hi-Fi | Headphones
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