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Fiio BTR5

I think it's enough, the volts required are on par with my hd 600. you will have plenty of volume
 
the more I enjoy the mighty btr5 driving effortlessly the hd600, the more the fear to not hear differences grows and fight with the will of improvements
 
I have a BTR5 and works fine with my Samsung Galaxy A71 5G when in BT mode.

My question is: Am I able to use this as an AudioQuest DragonFly if you will, where I connect the mobile to the BTR5 via a USB-C to USC-C cable?
Or is the USB-C port only to be used via laptops and to charge?

I ask because I tried, and there is zero sound coming in, the BTR5 app does not recog the device unless I turn on BT.
Works in BT mode as mentioned, but I was wondering if maybe I am doing something wrong and if its possible to use as non BT DAC/AMP with the mobile as well.

Thank you,
 
Impressions about BTR5 from Fiio!

For home use, I use M500 (MQA) from SMSL with ES 9038 Pro -- On the go, I have been using E1DA 9038S 3d gen Susumu which according to my ears beats Dragonfly Red and most of what's out there wrt portable USB Dac/Amps. After a year of hesitation, I finally got myself a BTR5 last week because of its versatility and when I plug it into my Demon headphones it sounds equally well as my beloved E1DA. In fact, It sounds damn good, better than expected. It's a perfect USB DAC on the go for me and as well it manages to play 92 Khz 32-bit Tidal MQA streams as a USB DAC/Amp.

bitmap.png


My earphones: Sundara, AH-D7200, AH-D9200, Sennheiser Momentum 2. Previous Dac/Amp: Oppo HA-2 SE, SMSL M2, Elecom LBT-Par500. My phone: Galaxy S20.

Cons:
  1. cannot get it to play full LDAC at 990 bits/s without distortion, only about 660.
  2. It drains the battery from the phone when in USB DAC mode.
  3. It has no MQA final fold decoder and thus can not play MQAs beyond 92Khz.
  4. It has a 2.5 jack and not a Pentacon 4.4.
 
Last edited:
MalinYamato said:
Impressions about BTR5 from Fiio!

For home use, I use M500 (MQA) from SMSL with ES 9038 Pro -- On the go, I have been using E1DA 9038S 3d gen Susumu which according to my ears beats Dragonfly Red and most of what's out there wrt portable USB Dac/Amps. After a year of hesitation, I finally got myself a BTR5 last week because of its versatility and when I plug it into my Demon headphones it sounds equally well as my beloved E1DA. In fact, It sounds damn good, better than expected. It's a perfect USB DAC on the go for me and as well it manages to play 92 Khz 32-bit Tidal MQA streams as a USB DAC/Amp.

View attachment 118648

My earphones: Sundara, AH-D7200, AH-D9200, Sennheiser Momentum 2. Previous Dac/Amp: Oppo HA-2 SE, SMSL M2, Elecom LBT-Par500. My phone: Galaxy S20.

Cons:
  1. cannot get it to play full LDAC at 990 bits/s without distortion, only about 660.
  2. It drains the battery from the phone when in USB DAC mode.
  3. It has no MQA final fold decoder and thus can not play MQAs beyond 92Khz.
  4. It has a 2.5 jack and not a Pentacon 4.4.
Click to expand...
It has a self power mode even when used with the cable. In the menu select charge off
 
majingotan said:
1% SINAD?? That's unacceptable. Even the $9 Apple dongle has 0.001% SINAD. No wonder Veri perceived this as not sounding any better than an on-board integrated chip.

f51416c9-9133-4e8d-971f-d98a9b7e0bf7.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg
Click to expand...
It's the price of the power in a so portable design. I can confirm that the distortion is audible. Try to play the bass shaker sine from mynoise headphone test album on spotify. It's powerful but not clean but it's very hard to detect the distortion in the music.
 
Cylphio said:
It's the price of the power in a so portable design. I can confirm that the distortion is audible. Try to play the bass shaker sine from mynoise headphone test album on spotify. It's powerful but not clean but it's very hard to detect the distortion in the music.
Click to expand...
for how long have you used BTR5?
 
There are measurements of the Fiio BTR5 here. It is in chinese, but google translate does a decent job.

TLDR: Unbalanced measures poorly, balanced measures decently. Very sensitive to USB jitter/noise, and measurements improved after using a USB isolator.
 
I use BTR5 and I am OK with it but is there a better alternative to it?
I also have E1DA 9038S G3 Susumu but I use BTR5 more often because of convenience.
 
sand_bit said:
TLDR: Unbalanced measures poorly, balanced measures decently. Very sensitive to USB jitter/noise, and measurements improved after using a USB isolator.
Click to expand...
A USB isolator probably helps with unbalanced connection due to removing ground loops. Ground loops can mess up a measurement and make it unrepresentative for ground-free headphones.
 
MalinYamato said:
I use BTR5 and I am OK with it but is there a better alternative to it?
Click to expand...
Atanasi said:
A USB isolator probably helps with unbalanced connection due to removing ground loops. Ground loops can mess up a measurement and make it unrepresentative for ground-free headphones.
Click to expand...
does that mean if I use balanced I am fine and won't get distortions?
 
Looking at the measurements:
SINAD
BAL - 103.5 dB
UNBAL - 83 dB

THD+N
BAL - 0.00067%
UNBAL - 0.007%

Dynamic range (weighted - probably BAL out, no voltage specified)
BAL (? not labeled) 124 dB

THD+N vs freq (? not labeled - probably BAL out? )
Generally below 0.001 - decent

IMD vs level
ESS hump, but common in many DACs

Multitone
BAL - over 19 bits of distortion free
UNBAL - 15 bits ~ 16 bits

I personally doubt there are audible flaws as long as we use the balanced output (with LDAC or a "well behaved" USB input), but if anyone disagrees please let me know!

Edit: This is where they discuss the badly behaved USB input on the BTR5, and adding an USB isolator helps.
 
Last edited:
MalinYamato said:
does that mean if I use balanced I am fine and won't get distortions?
Click to expand...
I have not noticed a significant benefit for USB isolation when using a balanced connection. Ground loops don't happen anyway when you connect headphones, because they don't have a ground connection of their own, so this may matter when you connect an external amp with its own power supply.
 
I'd like to see Amir put the BRT5 through his testing process, esp in USB DAC mode. Would be surprised if he hadn't already.
 
Atanasi said:
I have not noticed a significant benefit for USB isolation when using a balanced connection. Ground loops don't happen anyway when you connect headphones, because they don't have a ground connection of their own, so this may matter when you connect an external amp with its own power supply.
Click to expand...

you very much can be effected by ground loops, even with headphones. headphones are indeed floating, 2 terminal devices, in that they are balanced by design, but if you connect them to a single ended output, you are connecting them to ground. while that connection is not likely to cause any issues with ground loops, any ground loops and the associated noise currents that are already present, will directly connect to your headphones.
 
My BTR5 2021 pooped the bed half an hour after I got it.
 
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