Fiio BTA30 Pro Bluetooth Transmitter and Receiver + DAC - Review

[Moderate Dionysianism]

No reply from Fiio support so far
Si I updated the conclusions.

Bummer, I was really close to ordering one of these. Any chance you could lay your hands on another LDAC-capable smartphone and re-test the 24-bit handshake in near future?

 

[Rja4000]

Bummer, I was really close to ordering one of these. Any chance you could lay your hands on another LDAC-capable smartphone and re-test the 24-bit handshake in near future?

I got an answer from Fiio support with instructions to test further.
I'll try to do it later today.

 

[Rja4000]

Measurements with Fiio support proposed work around have been added to the "Part III - Receiver mode"
I also updated the conclusion, which is now final.

This then closes my review.

 

[Romario]

What a great review and willpower to carry on. Much appreciated.

 

[Atanasi]

Bummer, I was really close to ordering one of these. Any chance you could lay your hands on another LDAC-capable smartphone and re-test the 24-bit handshake in near future?

I have tried another Samsung, S20 FE, which also didn't negotiate 24-bit LDAC. There may also be garbled sound at first, which requires reconnecting the phone or changing the codec to AAC. These bugs are unfortunate.

 

[Rja4000]

I wrote to the support again, asking if they could foresee a firmware update to fix this.

 

[Asking Dumb Questions]

Can this Device convert wired USB C Audio to Digital Optical Out?

 

[Romario]

Can this Device convert wired USB C Audio to Digital Optical Out?

Allthough I haven't tested that there's something to consider. The USB is also the power fed in to the device. When changing from usb to " bypass" ( toslink in to toslink out) it will lose the usb connection to the pc/ chromebook/ telephone.
But there's also a coax out. Maybe that is " on" all the time? I doubt it, but I can give it a go tomorrow.

 

[Viriato]

Can this Device convert wired USB C Audio to Digital Optical Out?

The plain answer is yes. I have mine in the car, using an iPhone as source. I linked it with a Lightning to USB adapter from Apple, which is also linked to the power source. I get both analog and optical outputs (the analog goes to the car's stereo aux input and the optical goes directly to the DSP/amplifier). It does the same if you use Bluetooth as the input and not the USB. It is really the swiss knife of receivers. Sounds perfectly fine, too.

 

[Romario]

Fiio.com/ bta30 pro
There's a lot of features memtioned on the product page, but this is not mentioned explicitely. So I too was somewhat second guessing.

 

[Rja4000]

I have tried another Samsung, S20 FE, which also didn't negotiate 24-bit LDAC. There may also be garbled sound at first, which requires reconnecting the phone or changing the codec to AAC. These bugs are unfortunate.

I gave a try to a Alternative A2DP driver for Windows.

I get the exact same limitation to 16 bits, while the driver works perfectly with the Topping BC3 and the Topping D90LE.

See my measurements here.


BC3

BTA30 Pro

 

[Viriato]

Fiio.com/ bta30 pro
There's a lot of features memtioned on the product page, but this is not mentioned explicitely. So I too was somewhat second guessing.

The Topping D10s does the same trick with USB audio in: analog and optical out simultaneously.

 

[thetrystero]

just purchased this to pair with my sony xm5 BT headphones. there's a slight delay in the sound which is enough of an annoyance when watching videos. has anyone else experienced this and have tips on how to alleviate this issue? with the same video when watched on my phone there is no such delay. i tried both SBC and LDAC with same results. The other protocols are inaccesible for some reason.

 

[TonyJZX]

isnt a reasonable solution to this a set of headphones that supports AptX-LL?

i know its shit solution because you're throwing hardware at the problem.

 

[carat]

The BTA30 Pro has a dirty little secret that doesn't seem to have been mentioned in this thread: In BT Tx mode, here is some kind of noise gate in place that cuts out the audio altogether if it goes below a certain level. For example, very low ambient noise in a film (wind, distant city, etc.) will be replaced by dead silence. The only codec not affected is LDAC, so if you only use that, you'll never notice the problem. This is not the only BT transmitter with this problem as it seems to be a Qualcomm feature. FiiO knows about the issue but claims they cannot fix it in firmware. https://forum.fiio.com/note/showNoteContent.do?id=202205081250236941466&tid=4

There are a bunch of kluges people suggest to mitigate the issue but none of them constitute a real fix.

 

[Rja4000]

The BTA30 Pro has a dirty little secret that doesn't seem to have been mentioned in this thread: In BT Tx mode, here is some kind of noise gate in place that cuts out the audio altogether if it goes below a certain level. For example, very low ambient noise in a film (wind, distant city, etc.) will be replaced by dead silence. The only codec not affected is LDAC, so if you only use that, you'll never notice the problem.

Actually, this is described in the review :

"Attempt to measure Dynamic range

I tried to measure noise and dynamic range.
As per AES, a -60dBFS signal is to be used, and then you measure the remaining SNR and add the level difference to 0dBFS.

With all Codecs but LDAC, it seems the signal is completely muted below -54dBFS.
There is simply no signal.

EDIT (2): I re-tested with the smartphone sending a test signal at -60dBFS to the Topping BC3 receiver, and it worked.
So the Fiio BTA30 pro seems to be muting its output when the level is below -54dBFS, for all CODEC but LDAC.


So I used -54dBFS as a level to measure the dynamic range for each CODEC (except for LDAC)."

But you're right:
I updated the conclusion to highlight it

 

[carat]

Actually, this is described in the review :

"Attempt to measure Dynamic range

I tried to measure noise and dynamic range.
As per AES, a -60dBFS signal is to be used, and then you measure the remaining SNR and add the level difference to 0dBFS.

With all Codecs but LDAC, it seems the signal is completely muted below -54dBFS.
There is simply no signal.

EDIT (2): I re-tested with the smartphone sending a test signal at -60dBFS to the Topping BC3 receiver, and it worked.
So the Fiio BTA30 pro seems to be muting its output when the level is below -54dBFS, for all CODEC but LDAC.


So I used -54dBFS as a level to measure the dynamic range for each CODEC (except for LDAC)."

But you're right:
I updated the conclusion to highlight it

My bad, I must be blind.

I really wish FiiO would release a new version without this horrible feature. For me it completely ruins what is otherwise a very capable product. I had to get a Sennheiser BT-T100 instead, which is far less flexible than the BTA30.

 

[CedarX]

New Fiio BR13 has been just announced. I assume it will replace the BTA30 but not the BTA30 Pro. Certainly interesting—I like the EQ (and PEQ?)

One think I’m curious about is Fiio’s “Black Technology” (that’s the name!) upsampling lower rate audio inputs up to 24bit / 96kHz: if I’m not mistaken, the ES9018K2M DAC used on the BR13 already has a (bypassable) internal upsampling. What could make Fiio’s proprietary upsampling “better” than ESS one? How would one compare two upsampling algorithms objectively? What kind of measurement?

 

[staticV3]

How would one compare two upsampling algorithms objectively? What kind of measurement?

Take a look at this website and click through the different Test result graphs: https://src.infinitewave.ca/