div> Hi-Fi brand FiiO has recently released its incredible R7 desktop streaming device. Priced at $699, the device does the job of several separates, in all-in-one compact, stylish unit, that will sit on your desk and bring you unadulterated audio joy every time you switch it on.
Ready for me to rhapsodize endlessly about the FiiO R7? Well, I’m about to begin, so pop your headphones on, then we can get down to business and review this miniature marvel.
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Editor’s Choice
FiiO R7 Desktop Streamer
The FiiO R7 is a catch-all device that does the job of three separate devices. A desktop streamer, the Android-powered R7 delivers many features, including music playback or streaming, digital to analog conversion, and headphone amplification. Backed by two high-powered THX amp chips, the R7 is good for driving even the most demanding of headphones and offers an unrivaled desktop solution in its price bracket.
Manufacturer
FiiO
Type
Desktop Streamer/DAC/Amplifier
Color
Black or White available
Brand
FiiO
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.0
Wi-Fi
2.5 GHz/5 GHz
Weight
1.2kg
Dimensions
160x110x134 mm
SOC
Snapdragon 660
DAC
ESS ES9068AS
Amplifier
THX AAA-788+ (2)
Storage
64GB internal, expandable to 2TB with microSD
Compatibility
Roon Ready, AirPlay, FiiO Link, Android Apps
Phone Output
XLR4, 6.35mm, 4.4mm (3.5mm via an included adaptor)
The FiiO R7 comes in a lovely presentation box made of rigid cardboard. You’ll find your R7 nestled inside moulded foam to reduce the chance of damage in transit. Inside the box, you’ll find:
FiiO R7 Desktop Streaming Player
Power cable
USB Type-C cable
Two rubber bases (one flat, one angled) with double-sided tape
Spare fuse
6.35 to 3.5mm adapter
MicroSD card adapter (in card slot)
Dust cover for front face headphone sockets
Device literature and warranty card
So, quite a few bits and bobs are in there.
FiiO R7 Desktop Streamer: Unboxed
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One (admittedly subjective) design feature I noticed when removing the FiiO R7 from the box, is just how cool it looks. I mean, the box has a 3D wireframe illustration of the R7 on the front, giving you a clue, but this futuristic cool transitions to the device itself once you pull it out of its housing.
It is an all-black design, with a sturdy aluminum chassis to give it a nice, premium feel. In fact, most of the R7 is aluminum, even down to the volume/multifunction dial and analogue output level dial. These are located to the front of the device, on the right-hand side of the face, with RGB light rings surrounding each dial.
To the left, and dominating most of the front face, is the 4.97″ 720 x 1280 touchscreen. Below are the capacitive controls for navigating the screen menus, and the FiiO logo, all in silver. At the bottom right, you will find three headphone outputs; XLR4 (balanced), 6.35 mm, and 4.4 mm (balanced).
Both sides of the FiiO R7 have honeycomb air vents, which serve to add to the cool, futuristic aesthetic that FiiO is presenting here. Around the back you’ll find a huge array of inputs and outputs. These are:
So, yeah, a HUGE number of options are available to the discerning audiophile.
In terms of dimensions, the FiiO R7 measures 160 x 110 x 134mm, and weighs only 1.2 kg, so it doesn’t take up much room at all (even on a small desk) and is certainly not heavy either. Because of its portrait orientation, it takes up even less space, too, in terms of footprint.
In all, I think the R7 is a great-looking little device. Smart, clean lines lend it a sharp look, which matches well with the overall futuristic appearance of the streamer.
A Super Specced-Out Streaming Device
On to the specifications, then, and we’ve got a powerful desktop DAP (digital audio player) here, particularly in this price range. Especially for a single device that does the job of three separate devices.
It serves as a DAP, utilising a Snapdragon 660 SOC running a customized version of Android 10, which is more than enough for your needs, here. It is also a DAC (digital to analog converter), packing in an ESS Technologies ES9068AS chip for full MQA unfolding and decoding. Finally, it performs the job of a headphone amplifier, with two THX AAA-788+ chips to power even the most demanding of over-ear cans.
There’s 64GB of onboard storage, but you can expand this up to 2 TB with the MicroSD slot and the Type-C in (if you attach an external SSD, for example). You have 4GB of RAM at your disposal, and my experience with the device tells me you don’t need any more; it runs perfectly with these specs.
The R7 supports all your lossy file formats—like MP3 and so on—and a wide range of lossless formats. These are (alongside their maximum supported sampling rates):
DSD: DSD64/128/256(“.iso”,”.dsf”,”.dff”),DST iSO
DXD: 352.8K/24bit
APE Fast/High/Normal: 384kHz/24bit
APE Extra High: 192kHz/24bit
APE Insane: 96kHz/24bit
Apple Lossless: 384kHz/32bit
AIFF: 384kHz/32bit
FLAC: 384kHz/32bit
WAV: 384kHz/32bit
WMA Lossless: 96kHz/24bit
DTS: 192kHz/24bit
MQA: Full Decoder
You can also use the device in a number of different modes. As it is Android, you can use it like any other Android device, like a smartphone or tablet, in Android Mode. This offers access to any app available from the Play Store, so you are free to add Plex, Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, or any other app (music or otherwise) to the device.
Further modes include Pure Music Mode (which uses the proprietary FiiO player), USB DAC mode (for use with your own music files on a storage device), Bluetooth receiving mode, AirPlay, optical mode, coaxial mode, and with Roon, as the device is Roon Ready.
The R7 also offers five levels of gain; Low, Medium, High, Super High, and Ultra High. The various outputs offer different levels of performance. The XLR4, using ultra-high gain mode, can output up to 3650 mW per channel, with a signal-to-noise ratio of ≥122 dB.
Jack into the 6.35 mm socket and, using ultra-high gain mode again, you’ve got 1850 mW per channel, with a signal-to-noise ratio of ≥124 dB. So, as you can probably tell, the FiiO R7 is a powerful headphone amp.
Given that this is a device capable of dealing with audiophile-quality music files and streaming services, it obviously comes with Hi Res Audio and Hi Res Wireless Audio certification, so you can enjoy all your insanely high-quality FLAC files with the device, or play MQA from Tidal.
Finally, for wireless, the R7 supports both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels, and it comes sporting Bluetooth 5.0.
The FiiO R7 is an incredible device, with fantastic sound reproduction to match. With the THX AAA-788+ chips, the R7 treats you to an incredibly clean sound across all frequencies, and irrespective of the headphones or speakers you are using (obviously, pair it with a decent set of speakers or cans or you won’t get the benefit of Hi Res audio).
The R7 sound retains impact, and it is an expressive piece of kit, with bass flowing smoothly into the midrange and a perfect interplay between the mids and the treble. Detail separation is excellent, and it offers a broad soundstage with fantastic imaging. I paired the R7 with several devices to experience what it has to offer in terms of sound capabilities. These were:
Moondrop Aria wired IEMs
FiiO FW3 wireless IEMs
Audeze LCD-5 planar magnetic headphones
Edifier S3000 Pro Active Bluetooth speakers (wired and wireless)
The R7 worked impeccably with all devices I paired with it. Where performance lacked in some areas (like with the Moondrop Aria), the R7 lifted the sound where it needed to, offering a much better experience. Let’s deal with the timbre first…
Bass
Bass extension with the R7 is excellent, and it is capable of reaching lows as deep as 5Hz, so great news if you decide to throw a sub into the mix. Bottom end is, therefore, Marianaic in its depth. I noticed this most with the LCD-5 and the S3000 Pro, both of which already perform very well in terms of bass and sub-bass. Bass is well-controlled and doesn’t muddy the mids at all.
Kick drums are punchy, and the low end in general is well-defined throughout the frequency range. Liquid Stranger’s Dub Missile, from The Intergalactic Slapstick album, offered a suitably breathtaking bass whomp when the R7 delivered it, causing me to pull all manner of faces conveying my satisfaction with the throbbing lows.
Midrange
Thanks to the detailing, midrange elements sound brilliant. Vocals really shine, whether male at the lower midrange or female at the mid to upper midrange. Musical instruments sound fantastic, with guitars shimmering and sparkling in the mix. The R7 is great for all manner of different musical styles.
I went to prog-rock gods Pink Floyd to showcase the mids, during testing. Sheep, from the album Animals, is an exhilarating experience, which will absolutely have the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention. So Clear from Hyd’s album Clearing is stunning anyway, but the R7 really brings Hyd’s vocals to the fore without over-representing them.
Treble
Sibilance free, the treble from the R7 is fantastic. Paired with the S3000 Pro’s silk tweeters, the sound was clear and hiss free. There is no fatigue to speak of, and even if your ears are sensitive to the upper register, you can modify the EQ to suit your own hearing. There is plenty of presence in the treble, although it does not overstep the mark, and the treble is nice and airy.
I fired up some classical music to see what the treble from the R7 sounded like. Louis Couperin’s Pièces de Clavecin, music written for and performed on a harpsichord, was an excellent choice, given that the harpsichord dwells around the top end. The harpsichord is an acquired taste, and can naturally sound quite harsh, yet I did not feel overwhelmed by the top end when I listened with the R7 via any of the test speakers or headphones.
In general, the R7 is an absolute delight to use. So much so that I have become quite obsessed with it, often champing at the bit to get to my desk and start listening to music. On several occasions, I was playing PS5—a (reportedly) incredibly immersive experience—but was in another world, thinking that I couldn’t wait to get back to the beloved R7 again for more musical delighting while my game sat on pause wondering what I was doing.
The experience is smooth and hassle-free. Menu navigation is very easy, and literally my only minor quibble is the omission of FiiO’s R7 remote control in the box. However, given that this is on my desk anyway, I don’t need the remote, so this is pretty moot for me, but worth mentioning if you plan to put it up on a shelf or something. You’ll need to buy the remote separately.
There are a number of nice features that improve the experience further. All-to-DSD, for example, will upscale your sound to DSD quality. So, if you are playing PCM files (like me, I was predominantly testing with FLAC via Roon Ready, with my computer as the Roon Core), you may well notice the difference in sound quality when you use this special DSD function.
FiiO’s R7 also has the aforementioned RGB rings around the volume and output dials on the front of the device. These double up as indicators, showing you the sample rate of the music you are playing. So, you’d see blue for lossy (MP3 etc), cyan for standard quality, yellow for high-resolution, green for DSD, and magenta for MQA.
Overall, the R7 offers a fantastic user experience that I will continue to enjoy for many years to come (or until FiiO drops the R8…).
Comparisons
Comparing the FiiO R7 to other devices is a little difficult, because it is pretty unique on account of its qualities and feature set. If you want to compare something that is very similar or almost the same, you are looking at spending a lot more money and, oftentimes, for less flexibility.
Sure, similar devices exist, but you will compromise either by spending a fortune, getting less features, or having to buy separates, with all the wire fuss and additional space they entail. The FiiO R7 is an incomparable device at this price, and I hesitate not to give it a perfect score because of this.
Would I Recommend the FiiO R7?
Yes, to the power of ten. I would not hesitate to recommend the R7 to anyone looking for a desktop media solution. Throw in the fact that it is a headphone amp, a DAC, and an Android streaming device, and you are on to a serious winner here. With som many connection options available, it does pretty much everything for $699. A steal.
With fantastic musicality, powerful Class A amplification, a wealth of classy features, and a gorgeous design typical of FiiO’s products, this is one device music afficionados should NOT pass up on. Go and get yours now and I promise you will fall in love with it, even at the expense of your other mod-cons. If you don’t, I’ll eat my RCA leads.
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I am Yemeni and I am 29 years old. I hold a bachelor’s degree in English, a high diploma in computer science, and a diploma in computer applications programming. I have been working in the field of website design for about 3 years, during which I have gained a lot of experience, experience, and knowledge in many aspects. Very interested in knowledge and learning about everything new in the world of programming, design, marketing, and working through the Internet. He follows and is interested in everything related to the world of communications technology and the Internet in general. I read constantly in many fields, especially in the field of programming, design, marketing, and online work. I research carefully before writing any topic in pen and number, and I choose my sources carefully and carefully based on diversity and quality. My goal is to provide real value that is worth the time of dear readers and helps them succeed. My motto in writing is always quality, no matter how much time and effort it costs me.
