Having secured a Warmer sample from its 1st production run, by then John Darko's review had long come and gone. To extrapolate, "countering my expectations, this isn't a buttery euphonic DAC; not like the aforementioned Pro-Ject CD player… True to its name, the Warmer R2R runs physically warm: 50°C… Who should buy it? Anyone whose current DAC sounds thin and reedy; who listens to a lot of 80s music, is deep into 90s and 00s indie rock and loves analogue VU meters. Who should look elsewhere? Anyone already running a warm-sounding amplifier or rich-sounding headphones or loudspeakers. Stacking warmth on warmth rarely ends well. Anyone wanting headphone outputs. The Warmer R2R has none. FiiO's K11 and K13 which use the same in-house developed R2R architecture serve that need better and sell for less… This tubed-up R2R DAC won't be everyone's flavour but it will be someone's flavour. Think of it as a lens for your mirrorless camera with a permanently affixed diffusion filter. The filter softens the clinical edges and adds a touch of warmth to the image. FiiO's Warmer R2R offers a 'tube' infusion that isn't common at its price point. For listeners frustrated by the ectomorphic¹ sound of their current streaming setup, €379 buys a meaningful tonal correction and some genuinely lovely meters." Would my ears sign John's findings with 'as he said'? My desktop's Topping monos are the antithesis of warm and rich. They emit no fireside vibes. It's my Polish Viper speakers with their long-throw carbon mid/woofers plus V-twin passive radiators which dial up the warmth in my office. How would FiiO's own temps bed in versus my Audalytic DR70's 1-bit modulator receiving DSD256 through Audirvana's r8brain resampler? Again, both that and the fixed-out FiiO in PCM mode would output to the Audalytic HP70 pre/headamp with analogue volume control and XLR outputs. I bypass the built-in MeanWell SMPS of both baby Gustards with 15V DC feeds off a LHY Audio LPS-80 Dual linear power supply.

¹ "Ectomorphic describes a body type characterized by a naturally lean slender build with long limbs, small bones, narrow shoulders and low body fat often associated with a fast metabolism that makes it difficult to gain weight or muscle mass."

For an encore in a most price-inappropriate 'hood, enter my bigger upstairs system. Here FiiO's own R7 plays offline SD card transport into a Soundaware D300Ref USB bridge. That usually feeds a Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe I²S which resamples to DSD1'024 on the fly. The Warmer would replace that getting the same digital signal via coax off the same ultra-cap powered bridge. Analog volume here uses Hattor's premium passive-magnetic linestage with a quad of multi-tapped silver-wired autoformers. Those dispatch attenuated balanced signal to a Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box II analogue crossover set to 70Hz/4th-order hi/lo-pass. The amps are Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos, the speakers ModalAkustik MusikBoxx with outboard xovers. The sub is a Zu Method. The jumper wires between these monitors and crossovers alone weigh rather more than FiiO's total tariff. The Korean Hifistay rack would buy, I don't know, twenty-five Warmer DACs? You get the idea. On cashet, our budget visitor would be entirely out of its depth. Hence my assumption of an encore. It's usually a short piece to wrap up the main concert whilst some audience members already scurry out to beat the parking-lot jams. Would such disinterested departures be premature though?

FiiO transport powered by iFi/Silent Power outboard 12V power supply.

Speaking of departures, once my package underwent its Hong Kong export scan, it sat in Hong Kong for a solid 10 days during which I promptly settled the import charges into Ireland. The Chinese New Year's celebration ushering in the Year of the Fire Horse seemed to have temporarily overloaded the FedEx transit system. Then Warmer departed for Taiwan only to touch down in Shenzen a day after, then Bengaluru/India. Seeing that India sits west of China, that finally felt like progress in the right direction. "Delivery is getting warmer" I thought. Once in Köln/Germany, an "emergency situation or extreme weather" notice incurred further delays. But eventually my door bell rang.

Warmer's prophesy of potential tubular viscosity and sunniness didn't manifest as expected. What I heard first was a reduction of resolution, insight and layer specificity when contrasted against my usual Audalytic DR70 with its own 25-bit fully balanced discrete R2R ladders plus 1-bit DSD decoder. I heard Warmer's presumed name-sakeness—is that even a word?—not so much as elevated colour temperatures or more exploded teased-out dimensional imaging. Instead I honed in on thicker minorly congealed textures and blunter tonal beginnings. As such, my ears thought that tubular virtues remained more in the background whilst their vices gathered in front. Because of it, I wondered. What buyer would fancy a medium-res modestly featured DAC just because it runs invisible tubes for whose MIA glow backlit meters must play stand-ins? Imagining myself as a valve newb, I didn't hear a dead-obvious reason to hook up with my first tube component other than dancing needles and running warm to the touch. By holding back on going 'deeper tube', were FiiO underselling this deck's self-declared raison d'être? Were my expectations unrealistic? After all, I'd never come across a fully balanced discrete ladder DAC with balanced tube outputs for this price before. Whilst the whole concept is rather outré, I soon appreciated that the sound from it had to be more of a modest mensch than mystic miracle. With that attitude adjustment in my bag, what would emerge from Warmer's bag after courting me on a daily basis for a week in the office? After hours I set a playlist on endless repeat with the amps turned off. Warmer would spend long nights working out in the dark. With those unturnoffable meters, it wouldn't be that dark after all.