Fiio JM21 DAP's Review - Unbeateable Value!
General/Packaging
Fiio is no stranger to the audiophile community, they released a slew of great products with high price performance ratio and also some high end products of course. I personally have reviewed quite a number of their products and liked them a lot. The M23, Q15, K9 AKM and many more. Today I have the JM21 from the brand itself, a budget DAP which packs very good specifications at a very attractive price.
The packaging is the usual Fiio’s kind of presentation. Within the box, it consists of the JM21 itself, a pre-applied PET film(screen protector), a transparent silicon case and USB cable of course.
The unit itself is very slim and light, very very pocketable and the buttons arrangement are on two side of the device, the left being the power buttons and the volume, right being the buttons to control the tracks(play, pause, next), the 3.5 and 4.4 outputs are located at the bottom of the device along with the USB C Port, it does support quick charging so recharging is really not an despite the small battery capacity.
Specification
DAC: Dual Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs
Processor: 6nm 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 680
Storage: 3G RAM+32G ROM
Amplification: 700mW + 700mW output power
Screen: 4.7-inch high-resolution display
Battery Life: 12.5-hour playback time (Single-ended), 9.5hours ( balanced)
Battery Capacity: 2400 mAh
Operating System: Android 13
Outputs : 4.4mm balanced+3.5mm single-ended headphone jacks, SPDIF
Bluetooth Version: 5.0
BT Codecs: SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX HD/LHDC/LDAC
Headphones/IEMs used
Aune SR7000
Dunu DK3001 BD
Fiio FP3
Fiio FT3
7Hz Timeless II
Dita Mecha
General Features
Android 13 and overall quite smooth user experience
Throughout the period of me owning the device, i have gotten 3 firmware updates which fixes some of the quirks that JM21 had, kudos to the Fiio’s Engineering Team
Battery capacity is on the lower side in terms of numbers, but recharging it is very fast, and playing offline files with a mix of DSDs and FLACs, looping through the night from 100% battery life, after 8 hours i am left with 10%, which is considered quite good, gain is at high gain, with the volume set to 30/120, balanced output to Dita Mecha
There are various mode to choose from, Android mode, pure music mode, bluetooth receiving mode, AirPlay as well as USB DAC Mode, they all worked well and i managed to use the AirPlay with the SR11 streamer as well, one issue that i noticed with the pure music mode is that, it is unlike iBasso’s mango os which is essentially stripping off everything else leaving just offline music, Fiio’s implementation is that it is just restricting you/prompting you a prompt if you attempt to switch/minimise the Fiio’s Music Player asking if you want to leave pure music mode
Sound Impression with Default Digital Filter and High Gain
Upon first listen, JM21 sounded slightly warm with good note weights and musical to my ears. I would say, sonically, they are not that colored and very very enjoyable. Good dynamics and lush sounding. On the highest gain outputting 700mw, it is more than enough to drive non demanding headphones as well as IEMs, The FT3 sounded full with very good control in terms of dynamics
Bass
The JM21 exhibits a clean and balanced bass response, and doesn't sound boosted to my ears. Bass has got decent resolution and body to it, never thin sounding and to my ears, they are reproduced in a fairly accurate manner. Sub bass has got good extension but that also depends on the ability of your IEM to reproduce it as accurately as possible, mid bass has a good body and impact to it. Listening to some bass heavy songs with the Mecha, the bass coming from JM21 rendered to Mecha is nothing but amazing, very full sounding and pleasant to your ear, most of all, it is clean sounding. In some complex songs such as Slipknot’s People = Shit, it exhibited excellent control over the bass region.
Mids
Midrange on the JM21 is smooth and transparent to my ears. The lower to upper mids transition is done fairly well and there isn't any harshness at all. Vocals for both male and female has got a good body to it. Timbre sounds natural to my ears. The mids are never thin sounding.
Treble
Treble on the JM21 has quite good extension and non fatiguing, doesn’t sound boosted to my ears. Decent detail retrieval capability, at the same time it doesn’t present itself as being too analytical.It exhibited quite an airy atmosphere on live recording tracks such as Toto’s Africa Live and it is very enjoyable.
Technicalities
Soundstaging and imaging is where I find the JM21 is slightly lacking, but I am just nitpicking here. Considering the price of JM21, i would say it has tremendous value and actually punching above its price point
Comparison (iBasso DX180)
In terms of device size, both DX180 is thicker and packs higher battery capacity, JM21 is a lot more portable
Using the same processor as JM21, 1GB more ram and higher storage capacity compared to JM21, user experience both are more or less similar but DX180 is slightly more fluid, and the screen is sharper on the DX180, but that is of course considering the asking price is so much higher
In terms of sound, DX180 sounds a little more energetic with bigger soundstage, a little boosted bass on the DX180 to my ears but other than that and some minor nuances, i would say for majority of the people out there, there are not much differences in terms of sonic performance, perhaps maybe a 15-25% kind of minute differences
Battery life is slightly better on the DX180
Both DX180 and JM21 has pretty good shielding and are not prone to RF interference
Some design annoyance from the DX180 is the positioning of the volume knob, very easy to accidentally trigger volume change, i personally prefer the top positioning if it is knob or button based like the M23
Final Thoughts
After using the device for approximately 2 weeks+, it is safe to say that I like it a lot and there won’t be any issue in recommending it to anyone who is looking for a DAP with streaming capability that won’t break their bank, the price it’s just no brainer and it is very hard to not recommend it, by just looking at the specification, the price performance ratio is really high, i can confirm that after 2 weeks+ of using it, the performance is good overall and it is a very capable device.
Of course, some corners had to be cut in order to be able to sell it at this price point, lower ram and storage capacity, cheaper display panel, a mix of plastic and alloy housing, but then again, if you are looking solely at the sonic performance, JM21 is definitely unbeatable in terms of value. Highly recommended!
*A big thanks to Fiio for sending this over for the purpose of this review. I thank them for the opportunity as always.
Fiio JM21 Official AliExpress Store Link - Non Affiliated
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