Fiio’s punchy S9 digital speaker comes under the MP4Nation microscope for a grilling.
Find out if it gets burned or is cooked to perfection in the review below.

Build

The FiiO S9 is a solid piece of kit. The build is a simple, sleek and modern design that’s sturdy and with a satisfying weight that means once it’s down it’s not going anywhere but is still light enough for portability.

Functions

These are confined to a simple row of four buttons along the top of the player - power, volume up and down and auxilery. The EQ control is down to the player or device itself but see below to read how responsive the S9 is to settings.

The Sound

The first striking thing about the output of the S9 is the boldness of the music, meaning just how full the sound is. It completely sidesteps the thin and trebley audio some budget portable speakers tend give out.

The second thumb comes up for just how loud this seemingly unassuming thing is. Every corner of a room can be filled with sound at even moderate volume and another nice touch is that it can be maxed out without distorting.

The high end is defined but not overbearing, the mid tones are spot on and the bass is thick and ever present, making the sound as satisfyingly chunky as speaker itself.

Acoustic music comes out sounding suitably warm and close, rock music kicks with all the necessary balls out force and dance beats are as heady as they should be.

It’s incredibly responsive to player EQs too, with each change making a huge difference to the sound meaning the S9 is as versatile as the device playing through it.

Power

It takes 4 standard AA batteries for portability or can be powered by USB, making it perfect for desktop listening.

The Verdict

In short, I love it. It’s the perfect kit for that pocketful of music you carry around on your media player but I’d also even suggest it as a desktop companion to a laptop for anyone stuck with the terrible hiss of their built-ins or even to double for a desktop PC.
To this music snob and borderline audiophile, the S9 is a shocking success for its versatility and excellent sound.

(Tested with the Ramos T11RK)

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