[FIIO BT11] Portable High-Res Bluetooth Transmitter Is Officially Released!

[bmazzeo]

I just received my BT11 and attached it to my iPhone. I'm confused on how to attach the Bluetooth iem. The directions say put the BT11 and the IEM in pairing mode but nothing happens.

The BT11 was added to the App and paired with my iPhone15 without an issue. When you pair it with the the Bluetooth earphone is the device suppose to be appear in the App? I finally paired my Devialet Gemini directly to the iPhone using the iPhone Bluetooth menu in Settings and it and the BT11 are now listed as connected in the iPhone Bluetooth menu. The light on the BT11 is purple (AptX). So it the Gemini paired to the iPhone through the BT11 or directly to the iPhone using its AAC protocol?

 

[helmutcheese]

The Dongle does not care about your phone just that it has power (even a powerband would work) so you can disable your phones BT after you have initially paired the BT11 to your phone and can see it in the App then get your earbuds in pairing mode and then unplug/plug back in the BT11 and it will enter pairing mode after a few secs.

After that if you unplug/plug it back in it will look for the a paired device and if none are found it will again enter pairing mode.

You can enter pairing mode from the App but that means you needs your phones Bluetooth enabled and this may connect to the earbuds preventing the BT11 initially pairing with them.

On Android for now the App is very bare/basic and you also probably will not see any paired devices, only the option to enable/disable Codecs the same as us on Android but you will be able to update the FW when they are released (current is 1.07 AFAIK) as we have to wait 1-2months on Android.

 

[NYanakiev]

Where did UK folks purchase the BT11? Not seeing it in stock anywhere. Cheers!

 

[helmutcheese]

FiiO's AliExpress store.

 

[Dimitry188]

The white light is actually light blue on mine.

+1

 

[bmazzeo]

I paired the BT11 with my Go Pods which announce the codex used. I learned the following:
Initially the Go Pods paired using AAC even after the BT11 was paired with my iPhone. If the device is listed as connected on the iPhone BT settings menu, it is not connected through the BT11. After “forgetting” the Go Pods, they paired with the BT11 using LDAC (after I deleted the other codex using the BT11 menu). The pairing light became light blue not white as observed by others here.
Subsequently, the Go Pods are automatically pairing with the BT11 if it is plugged in and in pairing mode.

Turning off BT on the iPhone after the BT11 is paired, kills the iPhone connection to the BT11. It’s not necessary to do this for a device to pair with the BT11 as long as it has been forgotten on the iPhone BT settings menu.
Although the BT11 pairing works, it would make it a whole lot easier to understand what is going on if the Fiio App explicitly listed what was connected to it like in the iPhone BT settings. It would be nice if Fiio added this in a future version of the firmware.

 

[FiiO Willson]

We will add Connected product list in next firmware.
But you know we need time.
The BT11 is also listed for sale to identify more issues, as well as to determine future directions。

 

[FiiO Willson]

 

[LoryWiv]

We will add Connected product list in next firmware.
But you know we need time.
The BT11 is also listed for sale to identify more issues, as well as to determine future directions。

Respectfully, this sounds as if you are using paying customers as beta-testers. I do respect your honesty in this regard, however.

 

[helmutcheese]

Something that I actually missed and never crossed my mind until the other day was why does the BT11 not have LHDC the same as the UTWS5 (or did the ear loops not get this added later like LDAC) and FW3's/FW5's as it is the same chipset and they have all the other Codecs the same on each devices

 

[XTF1]

Something that I actually missed and never crossed my mind until the other day was why does the BT11 not have LHDC the same as the UTWS5 (or did the ear loops not get this added later like LDAC) and FW3's/FW5's as it is the same chipset and they have all the other Codecs the same no each devices

Same chipset family, but strictly speaking, not the same chip…

AFAIK, LHDC was developed by Savitech: encoding LHDC (BT11) may involve different license/royalties than decoding LHDC (UTWs5, FW3, FW5).
And this is assuming the HW is capable of encoding LHDC…

 

[rlw6534]

Same chipset family, but strictly speaking, not the same chip…

AFAIK, LHDC was developed by Savitech: encoding LHDC (BT11) may involve different license/royalties than decoding LHDC (UTWs5, FW3, FW5).
And this is assuming the HW is capable of encoding LHDC…

Generally, encoding is free of licensing fees. It's the decoding that requires them.

 

[bqqhuy]

I also think it would be great if Fiio could add the LHDC codec. LDAC is great but it's mostly Sony devices. LHDC is much more popular, it would be great if the iPhone could connect to headphones/speakers that support LHDC.

 

[sg2k]

The white light is actually light blue on mine. I have gotten LDAC from my BT11 to my FW5 on my iPhone 15 Pro, but it took several tries to pair and connect (and actually play music). I did verify the light blue light on my Q5K, where I can check the codec with the Chrome extension.

Actually a turquoise one if you ask me. At first Time I was really confused what that Colour means now I know

 

[bqqhuy]

I have used a similar product before, LHDC One. It is great except that it only allows iPhone to connect LHDC device codecs, and the downside is that it is quite large. I have used both Creative BT-W5 and Sennheiser BTD-600, they only support Aptx***. Fiio bt11 is quite compact, supporting both aptx and ldac.

I really hope that Fiio BT11 can update LHDC in the upcoming firmware. As I understand it, LHDC is related to copyright and software licensing issues, not hardware limitations.

In addition, I think Fiio BT11 needs more improvement and has some flaws:

- Signal stability. The truth is that Fiio BT11 signal will sometimes drop even though the distance is only 1 meter and there are no obstacles, not really smooth.
- I find that Aptx HD, Aptx Adaptive connection is quite good, however I have not seen it reach Aptx Lossless level (I have tried connecting with Bose soundlink max).

for anyone who wants to know more about the LHDC One I used:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_om8rclp