[LoryWiv]

Sorry for the double-post but I have a VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION, you guys:

Is there any way to force the BTR5 to use APTX-LL instead of standard APTX on Windows 10? It's driving me nuts; I love this thing as a USB DAC but it's pretty much useless to me for Bluetooth when it comes to watching videos due to the standard Bluetooth lag/latency that's enough to be extremely noticeable in video-content. I paired the BTR5 with my phone and used the Fiio Control app; I tried to deselect all the audio codecs besides APTX-LL so that the BTR5 will be forced to only ever use low-latency, but instead of applying that setting, it automatically selects both APTX-LL AND normal APTX. I have found no way to force the BTR5 to only operate in low-latency mode.

Unfortunately, as we all know Windows 10 is really stupid with Bluetooth audio, and won't send low-latency signal to the BTR5 unless I can find some way to force the BTR5 to only run in APTX-LL. Unless I'm wrong about that; is there some way to force Windows to use APTX-LL? My laptop has an Intel Bluetooth chipset that I'm pretty sure supports ALL codecs including APTX-LL, but that's useless to me if I can't get it to actually transmit using the codec I want.

If I can't resolve this issue then I will return the BTR5 and just get the Fiio K3 instead, since the BTR5's Bluetooth feature (which is supposed to be its main selling-point) is completely useless to me if I can't stream videos on Windows 10 with low enough latency to make them watchable.

As you point out, Windows BT implementation is next to useless. An easy solution for me was 1Mii B03Pro BT trransmitter. Connects to PC out and then to my BTR5 with AptX-HD or AptX-LL codecs as selected. I also use it to BTR5 for 24 bit music listening and to a pair of powered speakers. Right up there with the most useful $55 dollar purchases I've made, and I know there are other similar devices that may work as well for even less.

 

[Ichos]

@goodyfresh

I don't think that Windows 10 support aptX LL and that is why you can't connect with BTR 5.
You have to buy a separate usb transmitter dongle.
Windows bluetooth is totally useless.

 

[goodyfresh]

So guys, I now have both the BTR5 and K3, and I have to say that while the K3 does sound better with full-sized headphones than the BTR5 when volume-matched and with both used as USB DAC's, the BTR5 as a USB DAC manages to come shockingly close to the K3's level! I'm very impressed with it. I'll be keeping both, as my budget now allows it; I will be using the BTR5 when I need IEM's for isolation and when I travel, and the K3 as my main desktop unit for my full-sized cans (not that the BTR5 can't power them just fine). I also figure it's good to have both just in case one of them dies/craps-out on me, since while we love their products we here all know that Fiio is pretty infamous for hit-or-miss quality-control and for generally not honoring their so-called "warranty" coverage, lol.

I also plan to get a 2.5mm balanced cable for my headphones so I can make use of the full potential of both the K3 and BTR5 from their balanced outputs

But overall I have to say that the BTR5 impresses the hell out of me with both my Fiio FH3's (for which it's better than the K3 since the latter is a bit overpowered for the FH3's and has a TINY bit of background hiss) and with my Fidelio X2HR's which it drives with NEARLY as much headroom as the K3 does and with sound-quality NEARLY as good as they get from the K3. I also find its bluetooth and microphone feature useful to me for listening to music from my laptop while doing stuff around my apartment and for staying in Discord chat with my buddies when away from the laptop

 

[moorashj]

Hello all,
Looked around but couldn’t find an answer. I have a hiby r5 and was wondering if the Fiio btr5 would add anything to the r5 in terms of sound. I can pick up one for 50 bucks. Thanks

 

[sebek]

I played around with the BTR5 filters for a while and can't remember which was the default, APOD 1 or APOD 2?

And which one do you use?

 

[goodyfresh]

I played around with the BTR5 filters for a while and can't remember which was the default, APOD 1 or APOD 2?

And which one do you use?

I'm not sure if I can even hear a difference between the filters, but the default is APOD 1.

This raises a big question I have though: *What is the difference between the filters, anyway? Especially in USB DAC mode?* I have not been able to find ANY info online as to frequency-response graphs for the different filters, how they handle aliasing, if any other measurements like THD change at all between them, etc. Does anyone here know that information? What is objectively the "best"/"most hi-fi" of the filters?

 

[moorashj]

I'm not sure if I can even hear a difference between the filters, but the default is APOD 1.

This raises a big question I have though: *What is the difference between the filters, anyway? Especially in USB DAC mode?* I have not been able to find ANY info online as to frequency-response graphs for the different filters, how they handle aliasing, if any other measurements like THD change at all between them, etc. Does anyone here know that information? What is objectively the "best"/"most hi-fi" of the filters?

Do you use this with a DAP?

 

[goodyfresh]

Do you use this with a DAP?

As a USB DAC for my phone and sometimes my laptop. It sounds better than my Hiby R3 DAP does. Why, does that have something to do with how the different filters perform?

 

[moorashj]

As a USB DAC for my phone and sometimes my laptop. It sounds better than my Hiby R3 DAP does. Why, does that have something to do with how the different filters perform?

No lol. Was just trying to see if anyone uses it with a dap. Just wondered if it would benefit my hiby r5.

 

[NallyFace]

Has anyone compared the BTR5 with the M-DAC Nano?

 

[ThePeave]

I have a BTR5 I use on the go with my iPhone. I recently got an iPhone 12 and have been running into an issue I wasn't having with my old iPhone and wanted to see if anyone else is having a similar problem (sorry if this has been brought up before, I searched but didn't see anything).

I listen from the Tidal app and have the iPhone volume set to max and adjust volume with the BTR5. After around 45-60min, I get a notification saying that I have exceeded my 7 day audio exposure limit and the phone turns the volume down to 50%. There is no setting I can find to disable these notifications. It seems that the iPhone thinks the BTR5 is a bluetooth headphone and that I'm constantly listening at 100% volume. Has anyone else had this issue and found a work around? Only to options I have are to keep turning up the volume (the notifications become more frequent when I do this) or keep the iPhone volume at 50% and turn up the volume on the BTR5, which seems suboptimal.

 

[SenorChang8]

I have a BTR5 I use on the go with my iPhone. I recently got an iPhone 12 and have been running into an issue I wasn't having with my old iPhone and wanted to see if anyone else is having a similar problem (sorry if this has been brought up before, I searched but didn't see anything).

I listen from the Tidal app and have the iPhone volume set to max and adjust volume with the BTR5. After around 45-60min, I get a notification saying that I have exceeded my 7 day audio exposure limit and the phone turns the volume down to 50%. There is no setting I can find to disable these notifications. It seems that the iPhone thinks the BTR5 is a bluetooth headphone and that I'm constantly listening at 100% volume. Has anyone else had this issue and found a work around? Only to options I have are to keep turning up the volume (the notifications become more frequent when I do this) or keep the iPhone volume at 50% and turn up the volume on the BTR5, which seems suboptimal.

This has basically killed my use of BTR5 with iPhone and pushes me another step towards android. The iPhone is obviously smart enough to detect what kind of Bluetooth device it’s paired with and stop restricting volume.

This issue affects streaming to speakers as well. I do think they’re deliberately overlooking it in an effort to push more users to AirPods and Apple ecosystem.

I have found this workaround on Reddit but yet to implement it. Let me know how it goes if it works for you.

 

[vmiguel]

This has basically killed my use of BTR5 with iPhone and pushes me another step towards android. The iPhone is obviously smart enough to detect what kind of Bluetooth device it’s paired with and stop restricting volume.

This issue affects streaming to speakers as well. I do think they’re deliberately overlooking it in an effort to push more users to AirPods and Apple ecosystem.

I have found this workaround on Reddit but yet to implement it. Let me know how it goes if it works for you.

Me too...

 

[ThePeave]

I have found this workaround on Reddit but yet to implement it. Let me know how it goes if it works for you.

Thanks for the Reddit link, I wasn't having any luck finding any kind of solution for this. I haven't used shortcuts on the iPhone before, but I will play around with it and give it a shot and follow up here with how it works.

 

[ThePeave]

I have found this workaround on Reddit but yet to implement it. Let me know how it goes if it works for you.

So update on this, this solution worked for me and has made my iPhone —> BTR5 usable again. I created a slightly different shortcut that works a little better for me and then set it to run automatically when my phone connects to the BTR5 over Bluetooth. If anyone is interested in using the shortcut I made, here is a link.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/0a474bba3151430ea9ac974cae94f17f