[Omifi]

Anything can break. And when it happens to us it is natural to draw the conclusion it is a common problem and can happen again to us. In reality, most of the time that person was just incredibly unlucky - if something is going to break, even if only one in all of existence is going to break, that one person is going to be impacted and maybe draw a larger conclusion.

Research this. If it truly is a widespread problem - MANY failures - then hard pass on the replacement. Otherwise, if you really liked the product, take the replacement. My opinion, only.

Hi,

I'm a 45 years old system engineer, i know a thing or two when it comes to bugs. This is not a randomly broken device or a DOA case, this is a serious flaw and it'll happen to every owner who will use the EQ often.

Dear friend,

So sorry about that. We must admit we got a few this feedback for BTR5 2021 as well. But comparing with the numbers of BTR5 2021 being sold, the issue of this problem is small percentage. The seller you mentioned is not our authorized seller. If you would like to get more convenient after-sale service, please get our product from the local sellers next time: https://www.fiio.com/wheretobuy We apologize for any inconvenience in the meantime!

Best regards

Hi,

Of course, you have to admit it. It's a hard flaw on the device, not one, nor two, every single device of that revision have the issue, the moment the user will trigger it will vary depending on the way they use it, i'll give you that, but it'll happen.

Are you seriously dismissing a case because it was not bought from one of your “Authorized Seller”, are you kidding me ?, it was bought brand new from one of the few online shop that's sells it. I'm speechless.

I think you just helped me to ask for a refund and never come back to one of your product, but you probably don't care at this point.

So i wish you a good luck with the time bomb you have on your hands i guess.

 

[Nas Volokin]

Are you seriously dismissing a case because it was not bought from one of your “Authorized Seller”, are you kidding me ?, it was bought brand new from one of the few online shop that's sells it. I'm speechless.

Hello
It may not be in any help to your current issue, but...recently I did order a dac/amp from HiFiGo and it was a complete brick! Had to return it and ask for a refund 'cause I didn't want to receive another defective product from them!
When I ordered from an "authorized seller" I didn't have any problems for both BTR5/FD5 and now KA3. So my point is probably this doesn't matter much but what are the odds?! 3 products from authorized seller which working perfectly fine and 1 that was delivered defective

 

[Omifi]

Hello
It may not be in any help to your current issue, but...recently I did order a dac/amp from HiFiGo and it was a complete brick! Had to return it and ask for a refund 'cause I didn't want to receive another defective product from them!
When I ordered from an "authorized seller" I didn't have any problems for both BTR5/FD5 and now KA3. So my point is probably this doesn't matter much but what are the odds?! 3 products from authorized seller which working perfectly fine and 1 that was delivered defective

Hi,

HifiGo is not the culprit here, the device was in perfect working order when i received it, sealed box and genuine product . It stopped working after using the EQ same known problem than the OG BTR5 have but here you can't restore the firmware. It's a device issue. I'll also send it back for a refund, but i'll stay clear from FiiO for a while, sad because on paper it's an excellent device and worked quite well minus the battery life nowhere near to what was announced.

 

[Nas Volokin]

Hi,

HifiGo is not the culprit here, the device was in perfect working order when i received it, sealed box and genuine product . It stopped working after using the EQ same known problem than the OG BTR5 have but here you can't restore the firmware. It's a device issue. I'll also send it back for a refund, but i'll stay clear from FiiO for a while, sad because on paper it's an excellent device and worked quite well minus the battery life nowhere near to what was announced.

Okay sorry to hear about your problem, I never really had that issue cause I use another program for eq (Poweramp eq for Android and boom3d for windows btw, they surve me pretty well). Usually this integrated EQ's are trash, so I never really used it myself. But I have read about this current issue in some forums and it's really annoying, hope they can take a note and fix it soon

 

[jsmiller58]

Hi,

I'm a 45 years old system engineer, i know a thing or two when it comes to bugs. This is not a randomly broken device or a DOA case, this is a serious flaw and it'll happen to every owner who will use the EQ often.

Well, I am a 60 year old silicon and systems engineer and can assure you I too have seen many product bugs in my life and can relate that some are random/unique with a very low AFR/dppm, others create higher AFR, and still others are systemic and result in atrociously high failure rates. The only way to know for sure is if you have the failure statistics available to you to draw a generalized conclusion, or you have conducted the root cause debug of the specific failure and can thus conclude a design failure that will occur under normal usage conditions.

I am not saying you are wrong. In fact you might have one or the other of the above two, and I simply misunderstood what you wrote. I rarely follow this thread, and who knows, maybe there are many similar sightings. What I am pointing out is that humans have a tendency to extrapolate from their singular experience. That may still give the right answer, but arriving at the right answer in the wrong way is usually not reliable. But if you have reports of widespread issues, or have concluded the root cause debug, then I yield to your insights!

Peace out.

 

[Omifi]

Well, I am a 60 year old silicon and systems engineer and can assure you I too have seen many product bugs in my life and can relate that some are random/unique with a very low AFR/dppm, others create higher AFR, and still others are systemic and result in atrociously high failure rates. The only way to know for sure is if you have the failure statistics available to you to draw a generalized conclusion, or you have conducted the root cause debug of the specific failure and can thus conclude a design failure that will occur under normal usage conditions.

I am not saying you are wrong. In fact you might have one or the other of the above two, and I simply misunderstood what you wrote. I rarely follow this thread, and who knows, maybe there are many similar sightings. What I am pointing out is that humans have a tendency to extrapolate from their singular experience. That may still give the right answer, but arriving at the right answer in the wrong way is usually not reliable. But if you have reports of widespread issues, or have concluded the root cause debug, then I yield to your insights!

Peace out.

jsmiller58​

I didn't drop my age and function just for the fun of it as you can imagine, being in the same field you know now that i assessed the issue with a rational methodology to remove any bias, i of course did not opened the device nor did i poked or reverse engineered the device (i have to return it). The device have no pulse in DFU mode, that i checked, good luck to flash a new firmware without specific tools. With the Old BTR5 you could recover from the EQ issue with a flash. Again It's a well documented bug by FiiO, the only difference is now with the 2021 revision you'll not be able to recover.

You want to test it yourself ? (do not do it with the 2021 ! or you'll have a nice paper weight). Connect your BTR5, first version only, as a DAC on your PC, play some media, and use "FiiO control 2.6" on your phone and play with your EQ for some time (the time seems to be different in each cases - i have about 30 cases collected in a few days for the 2021 revision). Be ready to re-flash your device.

 

[Omifi]

Double post*

 

[Gioacchino]

Hi everyone, I need some big advice. I am quite happy with the smartophone (honor 10 has a good dac) and Sony XBA-N3 combination. My question is this, does it make sense to buy btr5 if I use spotify and iem ?. I am looking for a substantial improvement.Thank you very much

 

[jsmiller58]

jsmiller58​

I didn't drop my age and function just for the fun of it as you can imagine, being in the same field you know now that i assessed the issue with a rational methodology to remove any bias, i of course did not opened the device nor did i poked or reverse engineered the device (i have to return it). The device have no pulse in DFU mode, that i checked, good luck to flash a new firmware without specific tools. With the Old BTR5 you could recover from the EQ issue with a flash. Again It's a well documented bug by FiiO, the only difference is now with the 2021 revision you'll not be able to recover.

You want to test it yourself ? (do not do it with the 2021 ! or you'll have a nice paper weight). Connect your BTR5, first version only, as a DAC on your PC, play some media, and use "FiiO control 2.6" on your phone and play with your EQ for some time (the time seems to be different in each cases - i have about 30 cases collected in a few days for the 2021 revision). Be ready to re-flash your device.

I read your Reddit post, though I may still be missing something.

(Edit: wrote up a longer post, but it is not really going to add to the discussion, so I will retain only the last paragraph)…

You have serious doubts about this device, so maybe it is time to move on. In the end, you might want to look at the Qudelix 5K. Other than lacking MQA support (let’s not open up that can of worms) I think that the 5K is a superior device to the BTR5 variants (incredible app, superior BT range) - I say this based on owning the 5K and original BTR5. If you are primarily looking for a dongle device and BT is not essential, I would suggest the L&P W2. The latter does not have an app, and thus does not have the built in equalizer (it does have some provided presets, but, once you’ve used EQ then presets are too primitive), but if you are using Android you can always use the free Wavelet app. I have other dongles I can also help you consider if you wish to discuss them.

 

[Nas Volokin]

Hi everyone, I need some big advice. I am quite happy with the smartophone (honor 10 has a good dac) and Sony XBA-N3 combination. My question is this, does it make sense to buy btr5 if I use spotify and iem ?. I am looking for a substantial improvement.Thank you very much

Well, substantial hardly, but if you're looking for something on the go because of the BT function then yes it does make a difference. Also is good for iems, they are the ones that makes a difference, not that much the btr5. You can take a look at KA3 if you don't need the BT function. It's portable dongle and it's better sounding than this. The only downside is that it doesn't have a battery so it will use your devices battery, it doesn't support MQA either but I find it overall better

 

[hmscott]

Are you using the Tidal app Android version?

Best regards

Yes, but the old FiiO BTR5, I don't have the new 2021 yet. Thank you! - Scott

 

[Omifi]

I read your Reddit post, though I may still be missing something.

(Edit: wrote up a longer post, but it is not really going to add to the discussion, so I will retain only the last paragraph)…

You have serious doubts about this device,...

I don't have serious doubt about the device, there is a critical flaw period. The PSA was made to warn owners not to use a specific function, that's about it. Passed that i'm not advocating anything else.

After the answer i got from the FiiO rep here, i will for sure go for something else, but that's just me. Indeed the Qudelix was on my radar, i got the FiiO because first it wasn't in store @ HifiGo and second for the specs. Anyway, the device is packed and back to China.

Have a nice day.

 

[jsmiller58]

.

I don't have serious doubt about the device, there is a critical flaw period. The PSA was made to warn owners not to use a specific function, that's about it. Passed that i'm not advocating anything else.

After the answer i got from the FiiO rep here, i will for sure go for something else, but that's just me. Indeed the Qudelix was on my radar, i got the FiiO because first it wasn't in store @ HifiGo and second for the specs. Anyway, the device is packed and back to China.

Have a nice day.

Best of luck to you!

 

[BobSmith8901]

I don't have serious doubt about the device, there is a critical flaw period. The PSA was made to warn owners not to use a specific function, that's about it. Passed that i'm not advocating anything else.

After the answer i got from the FiiO rep here, i will for sure go for something else, but that's just me. Indeed the Qudelix was on my radar, i got the FiiO because first it wasn't in store @ HifiGo and second for the specs. Anyway, the device is packed and back to China.

Have a nice day.

Thanks indeed for the heads-up and sorry you had to find out about it the hard way. I've got the original BTR5 which has performed well in BT and DAC mode and I only briefly tried the FiiO Control App's EQ, but I'll certainly avoid it entirely now in either mode.

 

[C4PPY]

Will there be a "BTR6" as kind of replacement for the Q5 but more in line with the BTR story?