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Fiio BTR5

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I love my Moondrop Starfields, which I have driven either with my Moto G6 phone, or my desktop 887. I was wondering how much improvement in sound quality you think something like your Fiio K3 or a BTR5 might give.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how good the Starfield's sound staright from my phone.
That's because phone headphone jacks are quite good these days. Many resist this notion but it is no less true. Steeply diminishing returns thereafter. Plus the Starfield are not power hogs.
 

Malin

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No. The btr5 is much more practical, doesnt get hot, uses type c, much lighter and smaller. The mojo is only worthy if you want extra power and optical, but then i would choose the Q5S.
Hi there. why not BTR5 instead of Q5s? Better battery on the Q5s or?
 

Reinhold

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what about Shanling UP4 for 99$?

http://en.shanling.com/product/257
  • Dual ES9218P DAC; 3.5mm Single-ended and 2.5mm balanced output
  • Bluetooth 5.0 Qualcomm CSR8675 chip; 91mW@32Ohm Single-Ended; 160 mW@32Ohm Balanced output
  • High gain / Low gain / Dual DAC mode; Battery Life Up to 15Hours (Unbalanced) / 10Hours(Balanced)
  • 120dB of SNR, <0.003% of THD+N and 24Bit/96KHz of Sample Rate
 

Magnifico

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BTR5 is clearly superior, but the price.
more power better channel seperation.

Other than that it is identical if we ignore the VERY HELPFUL Oled Display of the BTR5.
Interesting...same hardware twice the running time ?!

If price beats out the somewhat worse specs...it may be the better deal for you.
 
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Berwhale

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The BTR5 has a separate USB control chip (Xmos XUF208) and can therefore handle higher bit rates and bit depths when used as a USB DAC. The UP4, UP2, BTR3K, etc. are limited by the USB capabilities of the CSR bluetooth chipset. The BTR5 also supports DSD format.

However, the Xmos chip does consume additional power, which is one of the reasons for the lower battery life.

In the UK, the BTR5 is actually cheaper than the UP4 (£90 vs £100) when it's in stock. The only reasons I see to buy the UP4 over the BTR5 would be battery life and the wheel controller.
 
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MalinYamato

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The BTR5 has a separate USB control chip (Xmos XUF208) and can therefore handle higher bit rates and bit depths when used as a USB DAC. The UP4, UP2, BTR3K, etc. are limited by the USB capabilities of the CSR bluetooth chipset. The BTR5 also supports DSD format.

However, the Xmos chip does consume additional power, which is one of the reasons for the lower battery life.

In the UK, the BTR5 is actually cheaper than the UP4 (£90 vs £100) when it's in stock. The only reasons I see to buy the UP4 over the BTR5 would be battery life and the wheel controller.
Why does Xmos have to tax the battery instead of using USB power?
 

r31ya

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I own BTR5 and Dragonfly Red. I have tried Shanling M0, BTR3, and Cayin DAP if forgot the series.
One thing about Xmos chip in the DAC is to reduce the lag in high-bitrate USB-DAC mode or you could go with Dragonfly that limits bit rate to ensure seamless audio.

older shanling like M0 sound lags like crazy with you use it as USB-DAC.
It hampers watching video or gaming as its causing and unsync audio
Considering i use my DAC for my phone and laptop, its a no go for me.
I was going to buy BTR3K for the AKM chip, but since i can't try it first in covid-seasons, i can't risk the fact it doesn't have xmos chip so i bought BTR5.
 

Califmike33

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I'm wondering how this btr5 would compare to the lgv40 or lgv50 quad DAC that's in the phone which is quite good I'm wondering if this fiio is better than that?
 

r31ya

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I'm wondering how this btr5 would compare to the lgv40 or lgv50 quad DAC that's in the phone which is quite good I'm wondering if this fiio is better than that?

Its using the same dac tough the rest of the setup might be different. Sound signature should be similar.
Nut the clarity, soundstage and the rest could be easily affected by the rest of the parts.
 
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Berwhale

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older shanling like M0 sound lags like crazy with you use it as USB-DAC.

Did you install the ASIO driver and try set the buffer size appropriately...

1591026147702.png


I'm watching Youtube right now and it's working fine with no lipsync issues (even on Extra Safe, tbh)
 

Eddie_Vanjovi

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Has Audioscience done a review on this unit yet? I want to grab one to have balanced on the go. S8 just isn't the same. I'm a bit scared of the E1DA PowerDAC v2 on the go with IEMs. All it takes is one slip and there goes my ear drums.
 

Veri

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Has Audioscience done a review on this unit yet? I want to grab one to have balanced on the go. S8 just isn't the same. I'm a bit scared of the E1DA PowerDAC v2 on the go with IEMs. All it takes is one slip and there goes my ear drums.
Nope. I thought @amirm was getting one, though? That was quite some time ago, maybe it didn't happen?
 

reallyoldcob

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I had one. Returned it since the Fiio app wasn't updated yet for BTR5 on iOS. I also found it didn't sound any better than my macbook's output at work which was where I'd hoped to use it. It does have a lot of features if you need them..

Hey Veri, did you end up finding a good replacement? Something portable that's a step up from the Macbook output?
 

Veri

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Hey Veri, did you end up finding a good replacement? Something portable that's a step up from the Macbook output?
Well, at work I always use my meizu dongle now. It sounds great, it's not expensive and easy to replace should I ever lose it. It's not BT or anything though, just a little usb-c dongle. Very happy with it but it's not the same kind of product than the BTR5.
 
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