Stuff Verdict

You don’t have to be a sound quality snob to appreciate the FiiO M23’s extensive repertoire. There’s enough here to please every mobile music fan.

Pros

Superb sound from all sources

Slick looks and clear screen

Can pull double duty as a desktop DAC

Cons

Battery life isn’t exceptional

Hardly a featherweight

Buy Now

Introduction

Smartphones might’ve put the iPod out to pasture, but demand for dedicated players never went away in high-end audio land. FiiO’s latest is the M23, an evolution of the already excellent FiiO M11S. It’s packing new DAC chipsets from AKM that bring even more nuanced sound, along with increased power to run the most demanding headphones.

It feels wrong to call a $700/£650 music player mainstream, but competition is now largely limited to Astell&Kern‘s pricey players, along with a few Sony models still flying the flag for the Walkman brand. That puts the M23 into an audiophile sweet spot – not an all-out flagship DAP, but still fully-featured, and at a price that won’t set off fraud warnings at your credit card company.