Winston Churchill once said: To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often. If I’m looking at FiiO as a brand, then I’m happy to see them change in the direction dictated by the community, not their engineers. The change from the FiiO K19 to the K17 was substantial, with no THX-AAA circuitry in sight, replaced by a classic transistor sound, biased into class AB operation, drawing power from a linear transformer. Top-grade ESS Sabre converters were swapped with flagship-grade AKM silicon, and from a somewhat clinical-sounding unit, we arrived at something truly special. FiiO changed many other things, and they finally have R2R ladder DACs in their portfolio, and even vacuum tubes could be spotted in one of their newer products. The K17 is their best All-in-one yet, but at $999, not a lot of folks could afford it, and that’s where the K15 comes in to save the day with a $599 asking price. Grab some popcorn and let’s check it out in the usual fashion.
