Fiio BTR17

[Andrew_WOT]

Thanks altib, that makes sense, still would be nice to hear a word from @FiiO on that.
Apparently it's quite concerning issue stopping many of us from upgrading.
They can't just ignore reports and pretending that it does not exist.

 

[JamesFiiO]

Did FiiO rep confirm that? Is there production date, range of serial numbers to avoid, is recall/replacement offered.
@FiiO

There are many reasons for EMI interference, including the environment, the power of the telephone base station, which one is used, 2G/3G/4G/5G, and the brand and model of the mobile phone. Of course, it may also be related to the quality of individual assembly and manufacturing, but we have not received batch quality feedback so far.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Thanks for listing the possible sources of EMI, but what would be FiiO recommendation for existing affected users and wanna be owners.
Are there plans for v2 HW revision with improved shielding?
I have never experienced EMI related issues with BTR7, nor remember seeing any reports on ones.

 

[Kean FiiO]

Thanks for listing the possible sources of EMI, but what would be FiiO recommendation for existing affected users and wanna be owners.
Are there plans for v2 HW revision with improved shielding?
I have never experienced EMI related issues with BTR7, nor remember seeing any reports on ones.

In Bluetooth mode, the BTR17 connection is prone to interference. This BUG had been improved by FW, starting with V0.51 version.

 

[PixelSquish]

After the latest update on the Pixel 9 pro - the BTR17 is almost useless. Starts off fine - but if you pause and restart, you just get a bunch of clicking sounds mostly. It's basically unusable unless you don't pause music. iFi Go Blu works fine, the UTSW5 seem to as well.

 

[Stu Paddasso]

In Bluetooth mode, the BTR17 connection is prone to interference. This BUG had been improved by FW, starting with V0.51 version.

I'm using V0.62 isn't that the latest version and some people are still having problems.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

I'm using V0.62 isn't that the latest version and some people are still having problems.

Exactly, not sure how what seems like hardware design flaw can be mitigated with FW update.

 

[sarkihalindekal]

In Bluetooth mode, the BTR17 connection is prone to interference. This BUG had been improved by FW, starting with V0.51 version.

Our friends here haven't mentioned any improvements regarding this issue. I believe this noise occurs in areas with high radio frequency interference or when a smartphone starts emitting excessive radio frequencies.

I think you should take a closer look at your assembly line. Personally, I rarely hear EMI noise with the BTR17, and when I do, it’s not bothersome. I've shared my experiences in previous comments, but I’d like to share them with you as well.

I use an S23 Ultra with dual SIM, both running on 5G. I could only hear the EMI noise when I brought the charging port area of the S23 Ultra close to the display area of the BTR17, and even then, only when a message arrived. So, for me, this is not a major issue. However, some of our friends here have mentioned experiencing EMI noise to the point where they can't listen to music while traveling on a train.

Firmware issues and problems with the FiiO Control app are not that critical, but EMI noise is a serious issue. I've recommended the BTR17 to many people and convinced them to buy it. However, at this point, I feel hesitant when recommending it, as I have to mention all these issues. Sometimes, I even decide not to recommend it at all.

I truly love the BTR17 and always speak highly of it. It's disappointing to see such an issue in a product that is stylish, compact, and delivers performance beyond its size.

 

[Kean FiiO]

Our friends here haven't mentioned any improvements regarding this issue. I believe this noise occurs in areas with high radio frequency interference or when a smartphone starts emitting excessive radio frequencies.

I think you should take a closer look at your assembly line. Personally, I rarely hear EMI noise with the BTR17, and when I do, it’s not bothersome. I've shared my experiences in previous comments, but I’d like to share them with you as well.

I use an S23 Ultra with dual SIM, both running on 5G. I could only hear the EMI noise when I brought the charging port area of the S23 Ultra close to the display area of the BTR17, and even then, only when a message arrived. So, for me, this is not a major issue. However, some of our friends here have mentioned experiencing EMI noise to the point where they can't listen to music while traveling on a train.

Firmware issues and problems with the FiiO Control app are not that critical, but EMI noise is a serious issue. I've recommended the BTR17 to many people and convinced them to buy it. However, at this point, I feel hesitant when recommending it, as I have to mention all these issues. Sometimes, I even decide not to recommend it at all.

I truly love the BTR17 and always speak highly of it. It's disappointing to see such an issue in a product that is stylish, compact, and delivers performance beyond its size.

Thank you for reminding that I did answer some of the questions. That fixed problem caused by BTR17 connecting Bluetooth. For other EMI noise, we will discuss several cases separately.

When the phone is running on 4G, the RF energy will be higher than 5G and WIFI, when the BTR17 is near the phone antenna, there will be some slight noise, and this noise will be covered by the music sound. Of course, this noise can also be reduced by changing the position of the BTR17 relative to the phone.

Another kind of noise is from the POWER IN port, when connecting to a power adaptor or computer, the floating power noise will transfer to BTR17. We recommend using a POWER BANK to reduce this noise.

There is also a case of abnormal sound due to the compatibility of the Bluetooth format, such as aptX Lossless. When it happens, there is usually a sound break or tone change, not an EMI HISS sound. The customer can try to change the Bluetooth format to LDAC, AAC, through FIIO CONTROL APP. We will continue to look for a solution if we get the user's phone model and FW version information.

 

[davidsul2]

제가 몇 가지 질문에 답했다는 것을 상기시켜 주셔서 감사합니다. BTR17이 Bluetooth에 연결하여 발생한 고정 문제입니다. 다른 EMI 노이즈에 대해서는 몇 가지 사례를 별도로 논의하겠습니다.

전화가 4G로 실행 중일 때 RF 에너지는 5G 및 WIFI보다 높을 것이고, BTR17이 전화 안테나 근처에 있을 때 약간의 노이즈가 발생하고 이 노이즈는 음악 사운드로 가려질 것입니다. 물론, 이 노이즈는 전화에 대한 BTR17의 위치를 변경하여 줄일 수도 있습니다.

또 다른 종류의 소음은 POWER IN 포트에서 발생하는데, 전원 어댑터나 컴퓨터에 연결할 때 플로팅 전원 소음이 BTR17로 전달됩니다. 이 소음을 줄이려면 POWER BANK를 사용하는 것이 좋습니다.

aptX Lossless와 같은 Bluetooth 포맷의 호환성으로 인해 비정상적인 사운드가 발생하는 경우도 있습니다. 발생하는 경우 일반적으로 EMI HISS 사운드가 아닌 사운드 브레이크 또는 톤 변화가 발생합니다. 고객은 FIIO CONTROL APP을 통해 Bluetooth 포맷을 LDAC, AAC로 변경해 볼 수 있습니다. 사용자의 휴대폰 모델과 FW 버전 정보를 받으면 계속해서 해결책을 찾을 것입니다.

I bought btr17 from Ali. Can I replace the battery? I mean, even if I pay extra for the fio service center.

 

[holsen]

I picked one up before reading this thread, it's arriving Friday. I sure hope I get "lucky" with mine. In any case I'll look forward to comparing notes with y'all and I remain hopeful I'll have a good experience as I keep a little distance between my phone and BTR17.

 

[BeelzAlBob]

I picked one up before reading this thread, it's arriving Friday. I sure hope I get "lucky" with mine. In any case I'll look forward to comparing notes with y'all and I remain hopeful I'll have a good experience as I keep a little distance between my phone and BTR17.

If it helps, I’ve never experienced any of the complaints here with my iPhone, even with it strapped to the back of it in dongle mode.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Thank you for reminding that I did answer some of the questions. That fixed problem caused by BTR17 connecting Bluetooth. For other EMI noise, we will discuss several cases separately.

When the phone is running on 4G, the RF energy will be higher than 5G and WIFI, when the BTR17 is near the phone antenna, there will be some slight noise, and this noise will be covered by the music sound. Of course, this noise can also be reduced by changing the position of the BTR17 relative to the phone.

Another kind of noise is from the POWER IN port, when connecting to a power adaptor or computer, the floating power noise will transfer to BTR17. We recommend using a POWER BANK to reduce this noise.

There is also a case of abnormal sound due to the compatibility of the Bluetooth format, such as aptX Lossless. When it happens, there is usually a sound break or tone change, not an EMI HISS sound. The customer can try to change the Bluetooth format to LDAC, AAC, through FIIO CONTROL APP. We will continue to look for a solution if we get the user's phone model and FW version information.

And another one to the list, interference in dongle mode.

And I found that the noise problem keep annoying me is not the internal noise, which is the noise pick up from the iPhone 15... when using the BT mode, the BTR17 is far away from the iPhone, which is fine. But when I use the dongle mode, the BTR17 will pick up the noise from the iPhone, I have to set the iPhone to airplane mode to prevent that. Which means that I can't receive the phone calls when I listen to the musics... Can you please help to fix this?! THANKS!!!

 

[PixelSquish]

After the latest update on the Pixel 9 pro - the BTR17 is almost useless. Starts off fine - but if you pause and restart, you just get a bunch of clicking sounds mostly. It's basically unusable unless you don't pause music. iFi Go Blu works fine, the UTSW5 seem to as well.

updated the BTR17 to the .62 firmware and from a super quick test, seems ok now but will verify later with more use.

 

[Stu Paddasso]

When you download UAC 2.0 for Windows what does it do and how do you know its working?