[megabigeye]

A retail price is only a suggestion. FiiO could decide not to use distributors who don't adhere to the suggested retail price, but they're playing in a pretty small market and they probably don't have a lot of leverage to enforce the suggested price, especially outside of their native market.

I agree that MSRP is a suggestion, but it's in the best interest of a retailer to sell an item for as much as they can while also not being more expensive than other retailers. MSRP is often a convenient balance. Any discount hurts a retailer, but a lost sale hurts more, so it really wouldn't be in B&H's best interest to sell something that could be easily found elsewhere for less. Anytime I've bought anything from B&H they've always had competitive prices, which is why I wonder if FiiO is offering different prices to different outlets.
... On the other hand, it's not in a vendor/manufacturer's (e.g., FiiO) best interest to screw retailers in that way, for fear of losing that account. So I'm a little confused what exactly is going on.

Anyway, I don't want to sidetrack the thread too much... And this is all speculation on my part.

@hmscott, yes, I saw that price (maybe it was a bit more) when I bought from B&H, but decided to go for the more expensive option anyway. I figured I'd give my money to a company I know and like during these tough times... And I was a little unsure about the status of international shipping during the pandemic.

 

[hmscott]

The correct conversion is 698 CNY ~$98.xx. I misread the BTR5 with some thing else from FiiO. Here is the link: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=604099078511&scene=taobao_shop&sku_properties=5919063:6536025

Hey, that's great, and there are other bundles, wow the "Sky Edition" ¥ 908.00 = 127.85 USD

The FiiO M15 in their FiiO Store on Taobao is $1266 USD equivalent, so pretty close to $1299 MSRP in US: 8998 CNY = 1266.95 USD

 

[hmscott]

@hmscott, yes, I saw that price (maybe it was a bit more) when I bought from B&H, but decided to go for the more expensive option anyway. I figured I'd give my money to a company I know and like during these tough times... And I was a little unsure about the status of international shipping during the pandemic.

I'd add that you might ask BH customer service (cs@bhphoto.com) for price consideration in that situation, show them the links to competitors prices.

Shipping from China to the US (west coast) has improved over the last month or so, my last order took 3 days via DHL from Hifigo.com.

Several orders on Aliexpress have been shipping for weeks, and still nothing... sigh.

I've canceled several other orders on AliExpress as I found the items here in the US cheaper and delivery in a few days - while the AliExpress orders hadn't even shipped yet. The other AliExpress orders that have shipped are still in transit, and I don't have US local tracking for them yet.

It will depend on how savvy the vendor is dealing with the ever changing shipping situation in China. Hifigo staff really have done a great job so far taking care to offer the fastest route - like when DHL was backed up even worse, packages backing up at the docks - and offered faster Fedex shipping - and I was happy to pay the Fedex cost to get the items sooner.

I only wish AliExpress's higher cost shipping options made sense for the smaller $ purchases, even if you spend a few $XXX's on an item the costs are just too high for other than the AliExpress branded shipping options.

In FiiO's AliExpress store the higher priced items I've checked include DHL shipping in the price.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000316761086.html

For less expensive items FiiO asks the buyer to pay the shipping:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000953553499.html

I have learned that when buying on AliExpress to always double check the default shipping cost and cost options for faster deliver - and select the delivery I want before adding the item to my cart, or before clicking Buy if I want to skip the cart.

 

[HipHopScribe]

I agree that MSRP is a suggestion, but it's in the best interest of a retailer to sell an item for as much as they can while also not being more expensive than other retailers. MSRP is often a convenient balance. Any discount hurts a retailer, but a lost sale hurts more, so it really wouldn't be in B&H's best interest to sell something that could be easily found elsewhere for less. Anytime I've bought anything from B&H they've always had competitive prices, which is why I wonder if FiiO is offering different prices to different outlets.
... On the other hand, it's not in a vendor/manufacturer's (e.g., FiiO) best interest to screw retailers in that way, for fear of losing that account. So I'm a little confused what exactly is going on.

Anyway, I don't want to sidetrack the thread too much... And this is all speculation on my part.

@hmscott, yes, I saw that price (maybe it was a bit more) when I bought from B&H, but decided to go for the more expensive option anyway. I figured I'd give my money to a company I know and like during these tough times... And I was a little unsure about the status of international shipping during the pandemic.

I doubt B&H will drop their price until the BTR5 is available consistently on Amazon with quick shipping. I might be wrong, only did a quick search, but it appears that if you're in the US and want the BTR5 quickly from a US based retailer, B&H is currently the only option, which is likely why they've raised their price

 

[Regans]

I’ve just returned my brt5 back to Amazon. I’ve used it for the past 2 weeks both 3.5 and balanced on my Tin t2 and fidelio x2 using my galaxy s8 and 2020 iPad Pro on Spotify Apple Music and tidal. And also hooked it through my Little Dot mk2 amp and I really struggle to hear any difference using it through anything i have. Maybe it’s because I’m using cheap headphones/earphones.?

 

[ClieOS]

I’ve just returned my brt5 back to Amazon. I’ve used it for the past 2 weeks both 3.5 and balanced on my Tin t2 and fidelio x2 using my galaxy s8 and 2020 iPad Pro on Spotify Apple Music and tidal. And also hooked it through my Little Dot mk2 amp and I really struggle to hear any difference using it through anything i have. Maybe it’s because I’m using cheap headphones/earphones.?

There can be a number of reasons why you can't hear a difference. But as a general rule of thumb, you should always invest you money on headphone first as this usually gives the biggest bang for buck on upgrade.

 

[Luke Skywalker]

I think that Tidal MQA is only up to 96/24 https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TIDAL-MASTERS

Hey dude I’ve found up to 24/192 Tidal MQA. Been playing it on my HiBy R6 Pro now that they added full MQA support.

Here’s a playlist I found just googling

https://tidal.com/playlist/1cbce60c-2412-451e-a1e1-39faf87b617b

 

[Luke Skywalker]

ES100 is great. Get it if you need a BT amp now.

Agreed. The 2.5mm balanced sounds awesome with JH Lola

 

[d73b3e]

I’ve just returned my brt5 back to Amazon. I’ve used it for the past 2 weeks both 3.5 and balanced on my Tin t2 and fidelio x2 using my galaxy s8 and 2020 iPad Pro on Spotify Apple Music and tidal. And also hooked it through my Little Dot mk2 amp and I really struggle to hear any difference using it through anything i have. Maybe it’s because I’m using cheap headphones/earphones.?

Why returning it? At least you should see the difference on the same volume level between 3.5 and balanced

I can't tell the difference in sound as well but I know for sure BTR5 does not produce hissing noises as cheap as other bluetooth products. Your headphones are not cheap but you can't hear unless you've been trained to spot the differences. Just enjoy music as you see fit and convenience with your gears. Save money to support your fave artists and producers

Also, Spotify does ruin the music badly. I would recommend you stay away from it (the app, not the web player) if you can.

 

[MrRegan]

Why returning it? At least you should see the difference on the same volume level between 3.5 and balanced

I can't tell the difference in sound as well but I know for sure BTR5 does not produce hissing noises as cheap as other bluetooth products. Your headphones are not cheap but you can't hear unless you've been trained to spot the differences. Just enjoy music as you see fit and convenience with your gears. Save money to support your fave artists and producers

Also, Spotify does ruin the music badly. I would recommend you stay away from it (the app, not the web player) if you can.

I tried balanced and 3.5 but couldn't really hear difference if I'm honest. I think I'll will buy some new earphones as suggested as that's the upgrade I'm probably seeking.

I've been reading up on the fiio fh7 and they seem to be decent.

 

[Kentajalli]

I tried balanced and 3.5 but couldn't really hear difference if I'm honest. I think I'll will buy some new earphones as suggested as that's the upgrade I'm probably seeking.

The only difference in sound quality between balanced and unbalanced (save for more power in balanced) is the stereo image, to my ears at last.
The tonal balance and resolution does not change - HOWEVER!
that stereo image thingy already mentioned means, instruments are better spaced in your head, so psychologically they are easier to hear - this gives the impression of better resolution or maybe my definition of "Resolution" differs from others .
It might also (not sure) affect the output impedance, and that can have sonic effects on some headphones.
Over all for £90 I can not grumble that much - it is a good little gadget - not really serious boutique HiFi .

As for investing in better headphones, ofcourse, always.
But some of us who are a little older, and do remember the the days of Linn/Naim HiFi (late 70's)- it was well demonstrated then, that a top flight source with a top flight amplifier fed into an average pair of speakers, sounds much better than, a top flight pair of speakers, driven by average amplifier/source systems.
Topflight headphone/IEM's are more difficult to drive and show up flaws in the previous chain much better than average ones.
So partnering a £1000 IEM with a £90 amp, may not be wise!

 

[Kentajalli]

Update to Possible Bug Report:
Since so far nobody has investigated this issue, I did the following.
I connected the device to my laptop's BT (only SBC - anyone knows how to do hi-res out of win 10?) - I checked the volume, and then connected it through USB and checked again.
There was no level discrepancy I could detect.
By process of elimination, I would say, it is a phone problem - either Android or Huawei or both.
Still would like someone to recheck this using an Android or even on an iPhone.

Final Report There's no bug
At last I got to the bottom of this. BTR5 remembers its volume settings for USB and BT independently!
Meaning, if you play some music using BT at say volume level 40, and then try to do an A/B comparison with USB mode, the device reinstates the last volume settings it was used for that mode - so if last time you used USB at volume 45 - it jumps to that!
That was what threw me off.

 

[MrRegan]

The only difference in sound quality between balanced and unbalanced (save for more power in balanced) is the stereo image, to my ears at last.
The tonal balance and resolution does not change - HOWEVER!
that stereo image thingy already mentioned means, instruments are better spaced in your head, so psychologically they are easier to hear - this gives the impression of better resolution or maybe my definition of "Resolution" differs from others .
It might also (not sure) affect the output impedance, and that can have sonic effects on some headphones.
Over all for £90 I can not grumble that much - it is a good little gadget - not really serious boutique HiFi .

As for investing in better headphones, ofcourse, always.
But some of us who are a little older, and do remember the the days of Linn/Naim HiFi (late 70's)- it was well demonstrated then, that a top flight source with a top flight amplifier fed into an average pair of speakers, sounds much better than, a top flight pair of speakers, driven by average amplifier/source systems.
Topflight headphone/IEM's are more difficult to drive and show up flaws in the previous chain much better than average ones.
So partnering a £1000 IEM with a £90 amp, may not be wise!

I agree about the Naim/Linn thing. I'm into projectors and reference TV's and they are only as good as the source material they are fed. At the other end my Oppo blu ray player makes the cheap LG TV in the bedroom look stunning for what it is.

I've never took headphones and iems seriously until now, which is weird because I use iems for at least 6 hours per day..

 

[hmscott]

Final Report There's no bug
At last I got to the bottom of this. BTR5 remembers its volume settings for USB and BT independently!
Meaning, if you play some music using BT at say volume level 40, and then try to do an A/B comparison with USB mode, the device reinstates the last volume settings it was used for that mode - so if last time you used USB at volume 45 - it jumps to that!
That was what threw me off.

Yup, I noticed this right away as I use the BTR5 / BTR3k hooked up simultaneously via USB DAC and BT to my PC, so that when I disconnect the USB cable a couple of seconds later the BTR5 reconnects with the PC via BT - and any volume differences are immediately noticeable.

You can set the BTR5 / BTR3k in the FiiO Control (or Music) App to prioritize BT first or USB first - for the above functionality I have it set to USB DAC as first priority.

 

[Psikyo]

Also, Spotify does ruin the music badly. I would recommend you stay away from it (the app, not the web player) if you can.

What are you referring to exactly when you say Spotify ruins the music badly? In my experience at the same bit rate from Tidal there wasn't much difference.