FiiO BTR7 Review (Portable DAC & HP Amp)

[Dzhaughn]

what is a low jitter battery?

It's Magic. Transformative. And much more expensive.

 

[DonR]

what is a low jitter battery?

One that drains your wallet faster than it drains itself.

 

[amirm]

Is that balanced out for headphone use only or could it be used with breakout adapter to xlr and use powered speakers?

Sure, you can use any headphone out as a line out (reverse doesn't work out as well).

 

[xaviescacs]

Hi @amirm. Why don't you measure (or take from specs) the weight for portable devices?

Great review!

 

[Lukino]

Thank you Amir for the good work. The measurements help us a lot in the selection. Even though some of us like dirty plates, we always realize that we want to eat from a clean plate.

 

[ZolaIII]

Amazing you can get that quality, with a screen, for that price.

Actually you can get more and for rather some time in form of full blown DAP and with rather similar performance and better software for the same price (HiBy R3Pro CS43131 version for example).

 

[amirm]

Hi @amirm. Why don't you measure (or take from specs) the weight for portable devices?

Great review!

You don't need me for that. Company specs are there and others who own product can chime in.

 

[xaviescacs]

You don't need me for that. Company specs are there and others who own product can chime in.

I see... I was sure you were measuring weight of headphones and thought it could make sense for portables too. My mistake, seems that this memory was from another folk's site focused on headphones and lazy people

 

[xaviescacs]

By the way, I've checked the specs and the weight is "about 68 g".

 

[JSmith]

By the way, I've checked the specs and the weight is "about 68 g".

It's quite light then isn't it? G5 is 265g.


JSmith

 

[Veri]

Sure, you can use any headphone out as a line out (reverse doesn't work out as well).

4.4mm maybe. But 2.5mm balanced can give problems because of the lacking ground return path. @IVX's 9038S for example should not be used as a line out, could kill the dongle in unfortunate situations.

 

[Atanasi]

what is a low jitter battery?

The battery circuit does effectively have an SMPS in order to convert from the cell voltage to the device operating voltage. It wouldn't be totally unexpected if someone tried to mod these to provide "cleaner" power.

 

[amirm]

I see... I was sure you were measuring weight of headphones and thought it could make sense for portables too. My mistake, seems that this memory was from another folk's site focused on headphones and lazy people

Well, I stopped measuring headphone weight for the same reason. It was extra work and redundant.

My value to you all is in unique work I do such as using an audio analyzer. For stuff that you all can do, I prefer that I don't get into and save the resource to test more gear.

 

[amirm]

4.4mm maybe. But 2.5mm balanced can give problems because of the lacking ground return path. @IVX's 9038S for example should not be used as a line out, could kill the dongle in unfortunate situations.

I am assuming if balanced out is used, then it will be for balanced connection to the target device. That issue only occurs if you take balanced to unbalanced/RCA.

 

[xaviescacs]

Well, I stopped measuring headphone weight for the same reason. It was extra work and redundant.

My value to you all is in unique work I do such as using an audio analyzer. For stuff that you all can do, I prefer that I don't get into and save the resource to test more gear.

Makes sense.

 

[juliangst]

Which one would be a better match for the Aeon 2’s? G5 or BTR7 (only going to use the SE output)? I love the power of the G5 but Fiio has a lot more experience on the firmware / software side that make me a bit gunshy on the G5.

G5 easily. I have the NX7 which is even more powerful and it’s barely enough to power them

 

[Phorize]

Feels like Fiio have aimed squarely for portable use here and and made the compromises in the right places, ending up with 'absolutely good enough' for most headphone use cases (is anyone really going to use a stealth or heddphone by the pool?!) but bringing eq and a lightweight form factor which matter far than more than the last 20db of sinad when it comes to real world portable use.

 

[TabCam]

I think the Fiio is an unnecessarily large device just for iems. An Apple dongle can power most iems already.

The BTR7 is perfect for headphones that need more power than a normal dongle can provide.
For power hungry planars I would definitely get the Topping. My Topping NX7 is the only portable device that is capable of powering my Aeon Noires

The ddHifi TC44 drives my Dan Clark Audio Aeon2 very well. I have to lower from the maximum so it is both capable, noise & distortion free and small

 

[TabCam]

@amira To me it would add a lot of value to separate headphone dacs and amp into portable and desktop devices. Currently it is difficult to discern the best portable devices.

 

[DanielT]

Well, I stopped measuring headphone weight for the same reason. It was extra work and redundant.

My value to you all is in unique work I do such as using an audio analyzer. For stuff that you all can do, I prefer that I don't get into and save the resource to test more gear.

I am assuming if balanced out is used, then it will be for balanced connection to the target device. That issue only occurs if you take balanced to unbalanced/RCA.

Good job Amir! I agree with you, let others weigh the stuff, so they see that it matches the stated spec.

To mix balanced with unbalanced. It can cause problems/challenges. I only understand half of what the knowledgeable people in that thread (link below) are talking about.
Even the knowledgeable get confused. Answers from Loxjie will probably be needed to proceed with the case:

Balanced Line Output from MiniDSP 2x4HD (help!)

Having a problem with my first balanced set-up and could use some advice from the more experienced folks. I have a Loxjie P20 headphone amp, which features balanced XLR 3-pin inputs and balanced 4-pin output. I'd like to feed the balanced inputs by fabbing a custom cable and driving with a...

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