[boodado]

So I attended CamJam NYC this year and had an interesting conversation with a couple of other attendees. It made me rethink consumer audio. General consensus was we should be supporting the artists and purchasing songs and albums (e.g. CD / LP) to ensure the legacy of the work. When we only subscribe to streaming services we are at the mercy of the streaming vendor. They will only procure the rights to songs that are profitable to them. Instead of providing full albums they have the ability to only license popular songs. That's why streaming services and MQA are not truly benefiting music as an art form but more as a service based on profit. Just a thought. Okay men in black will be tracking me now...

 

[big45-70]

So I picked up a cheap balanced cable of ebay for my T60RP Argon's and as soon as I plugged it in the music sounded very hollow. I then did a small channel test and it appears when I'm using a balanced cable I loose stereo sound and what should be coming through only left or right is always center. It appears as if I have lost all imaging whatsoever. Any suggestions on what the problem is?

 

[Kentajalli]

I loose stereo sound and what should be coming through only left or right is always center. It appears as if I have lost all imaging whatsoever. Any suggestions on what the problem is?

Well you said it, CHEAP cable, more probably faulty cable.
The effect you are describing happens when the "common" connection to an unbalabced cable is disconnected. (have you pushed the jack firmly in ?)
Or perhaps the cable is wrongly wired to the jack.
It is the cable wiring for sure.
Again, have you pushed .......

 

[IEManiac]

So I attended CamJam NYC this year and had an interesting conversation with a couple of other attendees. It made me rethink consumer audio. General consensus was we should be supporting the artists and purchasing songs and albums (e.g. CD / LP) to ensure the legacy of the work. When we only subscribe to streaming services we are at the mercy of the streaming vendor. They will only procure the rights to songs that are profitable to them. Instead of providing full albums they have the ability to only license popular songs. That's why streaming services and MQA are not truly benefiting music as an art form but more as a service based on profit. Just a thought. Okay men in black will be tracking me now...

I use Spotify as an audition service, to look for music to buy.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

I use Spotify as an audition service, to look for music to buy.

That is me with Amazon Music.

 

[IEManiac]

I have bought more music after signing up for Spotify Premium than before.

 

[boodado]

Excellent - great to hear. Made me go hmmm... Hate to lose the story of an "album" as opposed to a song.

 

[d73b3e]

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.

A specific song "Theme from Lazarus" performed by Federico Montoya gives rattling noises to my gears. And only mobile/desktop app from Spotify does this. If you play the song in a browser there is no such noises.

 

[Kentajalli]

I am sending my Fiio back
My BTR5 is about two weeks old, I am still within my window to return it.
Don't get me wrong, it is terrific piece of gadgetry - it pretty much does everything! from CD to DSD - USB and BT - good battery, cute etc.
But ultimately the sound quality is not good enough for me - you see I managed to get a Chord Mojo - I know they are two different items and Mojo is 4 times the price with no BT!
But once you listen to Mojo, others just pale into background noise.
Anyways, this not a Mojo thread - but there is a lesson to learn here - an old one.
Jack of all trades is master of none!
Fiio has tried to jam too much into a low cost device perhaps it was wiser to focus on less but at better quality.

 

[ClieOS]

...
Anyways, this not a Mojo thread - but there is a lesson to learn here - an old one.
Jack of all trades is master of none!
Fiio has tried to jam too much into a low cost device perhaps it was wiser to focus on less but at better quality.

I think the real lessen to learn here is that you (and in fact all of us) just need to know how to prioritize what you want. FiiO does make really good DAC/amp (*Q5 series) as well, just that BTR5 isn't it. It is ultimately a really good BT adapter, but not the best DAC/amp there is because there is a size limitation. The opposite can be said to Mojo - really excellent sounding, but otherwise not the best for convenience even if it has BT function. In the end it is just a case of picking your own poison - if you want the best SQ, you are not going to find it in a small BT adapter; If you just want something small to carry around, the a full-sized just won't make you happy.

 

[Kentajalli]

FiiO does make really good DAC/amp

Couldn't agree more.
I am all praise for Fiio. I had an E17 KUNLUN that I was very happy with, but somehow it refused to connect to my new phone, hence my new purchases.
But think about it for a minute - as lovely as BTR5 is (no doubt) in reality it is a good BT adaptor first & formost.
I bet one can get a BT earphone/headphone for about same money, with very comparable sound quality.
Cheap BT dongles serve a purpose, superb BT dongles also serve a purpose.
Similarly cheap USB DAC's serve no purpose, neither do average ones.
BTR5 is not sufficient (on BT) for a Hi-res pair of IEM's.
In my opinion at this price range, omitting the USB input (and DSD) and spending more on the BT and the amp would have resulted in a device that I could go for.
I am still in market for a tiny BT dongle that sounds anything like Mojo.
Don't tell me, I am not spending £600 on a Poly - I am not that desperate!

 

[HipHopScribe]

Couldn't agree more.
I am all praise for Fiio. I had an E17 KUNLUN that I was very happy with, but somehow it refused to connect to my new phone, hence my new purchases.
But think about it for a minute - as lovely as BTR5 is (no doubt) in reality it is a good BT adaptor first & formost.
I bet one can get a BT earphone/headphone for about same money, with very comparable sound quality.
Cheap BT dongles serve a purpose, superb BT dongles also serve a purpose.
Similarly cheap USB DAC's serve no purpose, neither do average ones.
BTR5 is not sufficient (on BT) for a Hi-res pair of IEM's.
In my opinion at this price range, omitting the USB input (and DSD) and spending more on the BT and the amp would have resulted in a device that I could go for.
I am still in market for a tiny BT dongle that sounds anything like Mojo.
Don't tell me, I am not spending £600 on a Poly - I am not that desperate!

- Someone could buy a $120 pair of bluetooth headphones, but they're not gonna be very good and the whole point of buying a BT dac/amp is that you want to be able to use the wired headphones you already have with it, so clearly we've all decided a $120 pair of Bluetooth headphone is not a good alternative before buying a Bluetooth dac/amp

- Cheap USB DACs absolutely do serve a purpose, not everyone wants to spend a lot of money on different devices and sometimes having something small and portable that is also a bluetooth device is useful.

- Plenty of people are happy running high quality IEMs from the BTR5 because they recognize it for what it is, which is not a Chord Mojo+Poly

- The USB functionality is a feature of the components they're using that also process the Bluetooth signal, so omitting the USB input really doesn't save any component costs on FiiO's end and probably very minimal development cost, but it does take away a feature that some of us do use. There's no reason that omitting USB would make the BT sound better

- Your expectations are just unrealistic if you expect a $120 BT dac/amp to sound like a $500 DAC/Amp. That's fine, maybe it's not for you, but the BTR5 is competing against other Bluetooth dac/amp, not against the Chord Mojo

 

[tracyca]

I for one think the btr5 sounds great with my collection of IEM. Although my q5s sounds more resolving and dynamic the tiny package and build quality the btr5 has is amazing.

 

[jsmiller58]

As they say, different horses for different courses... A good BT adapter at a good price should be counted on to be at most an OK USB DAC/Amp for portable on the go. If you want a good USB DAC/Amp, you need to get something that is dedicated to that. We all WANT a cheap all-in-one, and a few years from now $120 will buy something freakingly amazing... just not right now

 

[Kentajalli]

As they say, different horses for different courses... A good BT adapter at a good price should be counted on to be at most an OK USB DAC/Amp for portable on the go. If you want a good USB DAC/Amp, you need to get something that is dedicated to that. We all WANT a cheap all-in-one, and a few years from now $120 will buy something freakingly amazing... just not right now

Well my last thoughts on the matter.
I actually reviewed the BTR5, and you can see that I liked it, indeed I preferred the USB to BT functionality .
so in no way was I bashing the Fiio.
it is just that in my opinion, my £90 ($120) was spread too thinly on many facilities that frankly Fiio managed to perform just adequately . I just wished (for my use) they would have picked BT and concentrated on that alone.
no USB hence no DSD or multi sample rates, no balanced output - but with far superior Sonic's, as far as BT LDAC could allow.
going back to your first line analogy:
you wouldn't put a working horse, to run the Derby! do you?
either a work horse, or a race horse , lets throw in show jumping and movie work on top!
I don't think so.
Poor thing is trying to pull too many tricks.
Is it a good product, absolutely .
does it look good, sure.
is it value for money , you bet.
is there anything out there that fits my requirements - please tell me. up to $200.