[goodyfresh]

Just what it says in the title:

Has anyone had the chance to compare the Fiio BTR5 to the Fiio K3 (which are currently the same price on Amazon) used as USB DAC'S (so not consider that the BTR5 has Bluetooth while the K3 doesn't)? If so, can anyone give impression as to which one sounds better as a USB DAC? And yes, I already know that the K3 is more powerful and thus can drive more headphones than the BTR5; I'm just asking for pure sound-quality comparisons when it comes to the headphones that both units can properly drive.

I'm also concerned that I've seen a lot of reviews and posts about quality-control issues with Fiio products, including DAC/Amp combos, and it seems to be well-known that Fiio has pretty bad customer service and basically never honors warranty coverage. Should I be worried about that with either of these products? How likely is it for either of these products to die or malfunction in some way a few months or over a year into use? Keep in mind that I will use them VERY heavily, as I am on my computer with my headphones a LOT (hours every day).

Finally, just how crappy are the USB cables that come with Fiio DAC's, really? I've seen a lot of people claim that they're "garbage." Would it be worth it to get a better cable? And if so, what?

 

[tmb821]

While I never had the btr5, I did use the k3 for about a year. It is a excellent little dac, easy to use, plug and play. It is a quite powerful little amp. The sound from both se and balanced was excellent. I used it mostly as a dac, using the line out to run the audio signal into a separate amp. I used it pretty heavily, multiple hours a day, streaming music and movies. I never had any issues either with my laptop, tower, or when using with my tablet. I used if for about a year, I recently gifted it to a friend and he has been using it for a while himself with no issues. As far as the cable, I think a type-c is a type-c, I only changed the cable because I needed a longer run. I had no issues with the cable it came with. If you want a fixed dac/amp with no bluetooth, its hard to go wrong with the k3. Hope any of that helps!

 

[goodyfresh]

While I never had the btr5, I did use the k3 for about a year. It is a excellent little dac, easy to use, plug and play. It is a quite powerful little amp. The sound from both se and balanced was excellent. I used it mostly as a dac, using the line out to run the audio signal into a separate amp. I used it pretty heavily, multiple hours a day, streaming music and movies. I never had any issues either with my laptop, tower, or when using with my tablet. I used if for about a year, I recently gifted it to a friend and he has been using it for a while himself with no issues. As far as the cable, I think a type-c is a type-c, I only changed the cable because I needed a longer run. I had no issues with the cable it came with. If you want a fixed dac/amp with no bluetooth, its hard to go wrong with the k3. Hope any of that helps!

Thanks! Here's hoping that eventually someone who has used both the BTR5 and the K3 will eventually see this, but for now I thank you for your impressions on the K3! What headphones did you use it with?

 

[tmb821]

Thanks! Here's hoping that eventually someone who has used both the BTR5 and the K3 will eventually see this, but for now I thank you for your impressions on the K3! What headphones did you use it with?

I use Hifiman drop he-4xx, akg k240s, fidelio x2hr, Kz as10, zs10 pro’s, tin t2’s & t3’s. I’ve ran all the iems and the 4xx in balanced mode from the k3 as well.

 

[goodyfresh]

I use Hifiman drop he-4xx, akg k240s, fidelio x2hr, Kz as10, zs10 pro’s, tin t2’s & t3’s. I’ve ran all the iems and the 4xx in balanced mode from the k3 as well.

Wow. Did you ONLY drive those from the balanced output, or was it also fully capable of driving all of them single-ended as well? I'm interested to know if it was able to drive planars like the 4xx with complete authority and to their potential from its single-ended output.

I was actually able to afford the Fiio K3 as well (I already have the BTR5 now), so once that gets here on Monday, Jan. 4, I will be able to compare that to the BTR5 using my Fidelio X2HR and my Fiio FH3's, and then I will wantonly abuse Amazon Prime's return-policy by returning whichever one I like less between the BTR5 and the K3. It turns out that the BTR5's bluetooth-receiver function is useless to me anyway since I have no way to make Windows 10 (I freaking hate Bluetooth in Windows) use APTX-LL with it, and there's no point to it for me if I can't watch movies and shows with it, haha, so I'm only interested in comparing the K3 and BTR5 as USB DAC's now.

 

[tmb821]

The k3 did drive the 4xx well with single ended, on high gain. I have a hearing impairment, so people with normal hearing would probably find it to be more than enough. I had to max the volume on the k3 in high gain to get it loud enough for me. As a reference, I use the xduoo xd05 pro now and I run the volume at roughly 1 o’clock on high gain and that is about as loud as I can go. And the xDuoo has 1w per channel. I tried the 4xx on single ended out of my qudelix 5k and found it lackluster in performance.

 

[Livestock110]

I was actually able to afford the Fiio K3 as well (I already have the BTR5 now), so once that gets here on Monday, Jan. 4, I will be able to compare that to the BTR5 using my Fidelio X2HR and my Fiio FH3's, and then I will wantonly abuse Amazon Prime's return-policy by returning whichever one I like less between the BTR5 and the K3. It turns out that the BTR5's bluetooth-receiver function is useless to me anyway since I have no way to make Windows 10 (I freaking hate Bluetooth in Windows) use APTX-LL with it, and there's no point to it for me if I can't watch movies and shows with it, haha, so I'm only interested in comparing the K3 and BTR5 as USB DAC's now.

What was your verdict? I'm currently considering both too. Bluetooth is a nice-to-have, but I'll take whichever has the best sound quality. Using HD 599's which are only 50 ohm, but they're picky with outputs. Thanks!

 

[goodyfresh]

What was your verdict? I'm currently considering both too. Bluetooth is a nice-to-have, but I'll take whichever has the best sound quality. Using HD 599's which are only 50 ohm, but they're picky with outputs. Thanks!

Well the K3 had a bit more power (obviously) which may be better for the HD599. On the other hand, the BTR5 was better with IEM's, because the K3 has a bit of low-level hiss with my IEM's while the BTR5 has a completely black background. And of course, the BTR5 has Bluetooth, but the sound-quality with that isn't as good as in USB DAC mode (obviously) but the Bluetooth proved completely USELESS with my PC except for stuff like Discord chatting since the implementation of Bluetooth in Windows is garbage and there's no way to make it use low-latency (which means that movies/TV were unwatchable with the BTR5 in Bluetooth mode).

In terms of sound-quality with full-sized headphones: I really didn't notice a difference between the two. The BTR5 may have SEEMED a bit "brighter" perhaps, but that's likely just because I wasn't able to do proper A/B volume-matched testing, you know? Both DAC/Amps have practically totally flat frequency-responses and this idea people always throw around that different DACs/Amps have widely different sound-signatures and differently-sized soundstages is honestly nonsense, and can be proven as such with volume-matched testing. Different DAC's/Amps CAN have different levels of detail-resolution and such, but the resolution from the BTR5 and K3 seemed the same to me.

That being said, in the end I decided on the Fiio K5 Pro for $40 more than either of those two, and returned those two. My Sennheiser HD560s are 120ohms, so I got something where I have a lot more headroom with them; again, can't do volume-matched testing so I can't be sure, but it SEEMS like the K5 Pro tightened and cleaned up the bass and low-mids response on them, and I prefer to have it due to it being FAR more powerful (up to 1.5 Watts into a 32ohm load) in case I ever get much-harder-to-drive headphones like planars someday. Also, it shockingly has a black/hiss-free background with IEM's, although of course I need to keep the volume quite low in low-gain mode to not explode the IEM drivers, haha. And it has a dedicated power-supply rather than being powered from your computer's USB port, which reduces the chance of any noise due to power issues.

The HD599's are only 50ohms, but have much lower sensitivity (93db/mW as opposed to 99dB/mW) than the HD560s, so they may actually benefit from the additional power of the K3, or even that of the K5 Pro, as opposed to the BTR5.

Good luck!