Fiio BTA30 Pro

[PaperBoat]

I'm looking for a good Bluetooth receiver and I see the Fiio BTA30 Pro is probably a good choice. But I'm seeking clarification on the volume control method of the Fiio BTA30 Pro so I reached out to Fiio support and asked about the volume control method. The Fiio site tells that "the BTA30 Pro is among the very few Bluetooth desktop devices to incorporate pro-level audio volume adjustment methods (Potentiometer ADC Sampling). ADC curve reconstruction results in precisely controlled and balanced volume. Both analog and digital volumes can be easily and quickly adjusted. And the FiiO Music app acts as a remote control for the BTA30 Pro, allowing access to many functions such as setting a fixed volume", their Customer Service says that the BTA30 Pro volume control is Digital -

,
but I don't understand if the digital volume control has the potential to persist the sound quality at a low volume when it's compared to the Ifi Zen Air Dac's analog volume control. Please help.

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

I was literally just about to post a review of my BTA30 Pro use case. I personally only use the volume control when I use it in DAC mode (my primary use is as an LDAC Bluetooth transmitter that is PEQ compatible), but I've never noticed any sound quality degradation from using the included volume knob. Overall I consider it a pretty awesome, multi-functional little piece of kit. Has the added bonus of a very small desktop footprint.

 

[PaperBoat]

I was literally just about to post a review of my BTA30 Pro use case. I personally only use the volume control when I use it in DAC mode (my primary use is as an LDAC Bluetooth transmitter that is PEQ compatible), but I've never noticed any sound quality degradation from using the included volume knob. Overall I consider it a pretty awesome, multi-functional little piece of kit. Has the added bonus of a very small desktop footprint.

If I use the Fiio control rather than the volume knob will it reflect the same result?

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

What's you're planned use case? Regardless, I think you should be fine. I believe that BTA30 Pro's DAC operates at a much higher internal bit-depth than is necessary to reproduce any Bluetooth transmission, and that extra bit-depth should allow you to significantly decrease the volume without impacting sound quality at all. (Tl;dr, Bluetooth will be the bottleneck in the sound quality)

 

[PaperBoat]

What's you're planned use case? Regardless, I think you should be fine. I believe that BTA30 Pro's DAC operates at a much higher internal bit-depth than is necessary to reproduce any Bluetooth transmission, and that extra bit-depth should allow you to significantly decrease the volume without impacting sound quality at all. (Tl;dr, Bluetooth will be the bottleneck in the sound quality)

My use case will be: RX mode (Bluetooth in - Line out) and DAC mode (USB in - Line out).

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

I can't think of any reason why you'd have any issues. The only thing I can think of is that the Fiio app can be kind of buggy.

 

[Rja4000]

Some basic measurements
(quite confusing though)

FiiO BTA30 Pro high fidelity Bluetooth transceiver review

The FiiO BTA30 Pro is a Bluetooth transmitter and receiver ... and it even lets you choose the codec that you want. We dig in to how it performs.

addictedtoaudio.com.au

EDIT: Device in hand, I now understand why the measurements of the BTA30 Pro as a transmitter in the attached article are screwed.
Both Dynamic range and Noise (SNR) figures are wrong, since, except in LDAC, the BTA30Pro just mutes the transmission below -54dBFS. (Edit: Or is it the receiver ?)
As Dynamic range is usually measured (as per AES-17) with a signal at -60dBFS, this just doesn't trigger it.

 

[ceausuc]

How can be controlled the volume when in USB-DAC model? Only with the front knob? Is it possibile to adjust volume with the phone app also? Too bad that it does not have a remote control...

 

[Romario]

How can be controlled the volume when in USB-DAC model? Only with the front knob? Is it possibile to adjust volume with the phone app also? Too bad that it does not have a remote control...

In the app you can control the volume or when your source has a volume control ( like a chromebook) you can switch to fixed volume in a variaty of steps.

If you use spotify on your chromebook then you can use the spotify app on your phone to change tracks and volume. I still have to test it with Tidal.

Digital input (other than USB) volume control starts at about 30% of the volume on my unit. For a bluetooth headphone or a headphone with a seperate BT receiver without volume control it's quite high.
Someone else encountered that as well?

 

[Rja4000]

Some basic measurements
(quite confusing though)


EDIT: Device in hand, I now understand why the measurements of the BTA30 Pro as a transmitter in the attached article are screwed.
Both Dynamic range and Noise (SNR) figures are wrong, since, except in LDAC, the BTA30Pro just mutes the transmission below -54dBFS.
As Dynamic range is usually measured (as per AES-17) with a signal at -60dBFS, this just doesn't trigger it.

I published a review here, where you may now find proper measurements.
Comments welcome, of course

Fiio BTA30 Pro Bluetooth Transmitter and Receiver + DAC - Review

Hello Here is a review of a special device: This device is a Bluetooth Audio Transmitter, Receiver and DAC. This is the Fiio BTA30 Pro. The BTA30 Pro is about half the dimension of the (1U / half 19") RME ADI-2 Pro fs R in all directions: Half width, half height (without the antenna)...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Romario]

Great measurements. Impressive as BT transmitter ( so far)