[FiiO BTR17/BTR7] True Lossless Bluetooth, Portable Bluetooth DAC and Headphone Amplifier BTR17 Is Officially Released!

[Surf Monkey]

No one's come out with a clip case yet for this?

Not that I’ve seen. The plastic one for the 5 was perfectly functional. Why not just make one like that for the 7?

 

[Nas Volokin]

Interesting. I hadn’t upgraded the firmware so I didn’t experience that bug.

I agree that the BTR5 is a great device. It’s been a real work horse for me. It handles everything I throw at it and has enough power for most of my sets. I like the slim and small form factor too.

The BTR7 does look like a nice upgrade and that’s why I ordered one right away. I’d been thinking about the upgrade anyway so the accident with the 5 simply forced my hand.

I’m still surprised I managed to shatter the screen. It’s so light weight that it doesn’t have a lot of momentum. But it only takes one sharp edge to hit it just right…

BRT7 here I come!

Nice, you can share your thoughts about it when you have it. I'm still considering it BTW that bug was not reported by anyone else I suppose and guess the firmware is irreversible, so I'll just wait for a reply

 

[rlw6534]

Of course I'm sure, i own it. The EQ is available in both USB wired and Bluetooth LDAC modes

I can confirm that @Guy Fawkes is correct. I tried it myself after the comment. I do wish there was a way to switch profiles or turn PEQ on and off without the app. And, of course there is the the 96 kHz upper limit... not that I can hear the difference.

 

[Surf Monkey]

BTR7 in hand. It’s a solid unit. It feels much the same as the BTR5 only with corners.

I can see why there was some momentary controversy about the size. It isn’t “a little bigger” than the BTR5. It’s almost twice as big. I think someone calculated that it’s about 85% bigger than the 5? That seems right to me. It’s longer, thicker and wider than the BTR5.

That said, the size isn’t an issue for me. It’s very lightweight and totally pocketable. A clip would be nice, but I didn’t use the clip on the 5, so I don’t miss it. I like the feel of it in hand and the OLED screen is very nice. I like the little faux leather case it comes with too.

As to the sound, so far so good. It’s significantly more powerful than the BTR5, and I’m really noticing that with the OH10 Obsidian, which is giving me a richer and more detailed sound than with the 5. The profile seems about the same, maybe just a touch warmer.

Finally, I haven’t tried it in Bluetooth mode yet but I’ll get to that soon. Overall I’m really pleased with it out of the box.

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Can the btr7 be used as a wired dac/AMP if it's out if battery? USB powered?

 

[Nas Volokin]

Can the btr7 be used as a wired dac/AMP if it's out if battery? USB powered?

That's how I mostly use my BTR5, I don't think it will be any different on BTR 7

 

[Nas Volokin]

BTR7 in hand. It’s a solid unit. It feels much the same as the BTR5 only with corners.

I can see why there was some momentary controversy about the size. It isn’t “a little bigger” than the BTR5. It’s almost twice as big. I think someone calculated that it’s about 85% bigger than the 5? That seems right to me. It’s longer, thicker and wider than the BTR5.

That said, the size isn’t an issue for me. It’s very lightweight and totally pocketable. A clip would be nice, but I didn’t use the clip on the 5, so I don’t miss it. I like the feel of it in hand and the OLED screen is very nice. I like the little faux leather case it comes with too.

As to the sound, so far so good. It’s significantly more powerful than the BTR5, and I’m really noticing that with the OH10 Obsidian, which is giving me a richer and more detailed sound than with the 5. The profile seems about the same, maybe just a touch warmer.

Finally, I haven’t tried it in Bluetooth mode yet but I’ll get to that soon. Overall I’m really pleased with it out of the box.

Thanks for your impressions. I might soon go for the same train too

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

That's how I mostly use my BTR5, I don't think it will be any different on BTR 7

14. If the BTR7 is used as a dongle DAC with the charging switch off, how long is its battery life?
It has about 4.5 hours for the 3.5mm output, and about 4 hours for the 4.4mm balanced output.

15. Can the BTR7 be used as a dongle DAC when it is out of power?
No. It needs to be charged.
If the charging switch is turned off, the BTR7 will not be charged even when connecting to a USB cable. At this time, it will consume the power of the built-in battery.

That doesn't seem to be the case? so does this mean it can't be used as a Desktop DAC/AMP / USB Powered? anyone with a BTR7 can confirm? @FiiO

 

[Deathman666]

Hi,
I currently have a BTR3K, is the sound from the BTR7 over bluetooth much better? If so, will I recognize it even if I only listen to MP3 320kbps? Please note that I really only listen via BT. My headphones are Custom Art FIBAE 7. Thanks

 

[scracy]

Hi,
I currently have a BTR3K, is the sound from the BTR7 over bluetooth much better? If so, will I recognize it even if I only listen to MP3 320kbps? Please note that I really only listen via BT. My headphones are Custom Art FIBAE 7. Thanks

Bottom line yes you will hear a significant improvement in overall sound quality even with 320kbps MP3 with the BTR7 vs BTR3K

 

[Deathman666]

Thanks, and between BTR5 and BTR7?

 

[Pretardo]

I've had my BTR7 for a week and just wanted to share my surprise and impressions.
It's totally worth it for my use case. I'm able to drive Arya SE, Aeon 2 Closed and Fostex TH900's using the 4.4mm balanced connection. The sound quality is excellent for such a small and convenient device. It's great to be able to plug in IEMs and full-sized headphones and walk around the house without bothering anyone. The connection with an iPhone 11 is very stable and provides good range via Bluetooth. I've tried the wired connection but didn't notice much of a difference. My hope is that the battery will last a few years.
The only thing that I think would make this the perfect device, is an SD card slot so you can use an app to play lossless on the device itself, like a poly/mojo combo, and run streaming and YouTube audio wirelessly from your phone.
Kudos to Fiio on building a great little player BT DAC/Amp.

 

[scracy]

Thanks, and between BTR5 and BTR7?

I have owned BTR3K and BTR5 (pre 2021) and there is a significant difference in sound quality between BTR3K and BTR5. However the BTR7 is superior to both largely due to the THX AAA-28 amps. As far as using MP3 320kbps goes really there is not a huge difference between that and a FLAC file in terms of sound quality at least not to my ears.

 

[dsonance]

That doesn't seem to be the case? so does this mean it can't be used as a Desktop DAC/AMP / USB Powered? anyone with a BTR7 can confirm? @FiiO

The charging switch needs to be set to ON for the battery to charge from the USB port. I just tried this with my BTR7, and got it to go from 80% to 100% charge while playing an MQA-encoded album as a USB DAC from my Android phone.

I think, in the desktop amp scenario, the play time limits mentioned in FAQ 14 can be ignored, as long as the charging switch on the BTR7 is set to ON, the laptop or mobile device it is connected to has sufficient power output over the USB, and the battery is getting continuously recharged. However, I'm not sure what effect this would have on the battery's long term health.

I have to say, I haven't tried this with the battery being out, as per your original question. I suspect some initial charge might be necessary. Perhaps, that's something @FiiO could address.

 

[Deathman666]

scracy:​

I can't hear any difference between MP3 320kbps and Flac
But I thought that the THX AAA-28 amp is mainly for large headphones, because of the performance. So can you hear the difference even when using IEMs yes? Thanks and sorry if this is a stupid question, I don't really understand it