Nealz
100+ Head-Fier
Introduction: I think the biggest reason behind this write up is that I myself have spent countless hours on various Facebook audio enthusiast groups, online forums, YouTube channels & even Reddit trying to find out if the Shanling UP4 or Fiio BTR5 will be better for me. Thanks to many users who owned both sharing their opinions I came to the conclusion that UP4 would be ideal for my type of usage, which was mostly budget or mid-range IEM’s not hard to drive headphones or even very expensive IEM’s.
But some of my queries went unanswered like the difference between single ended (3.5mm jack) & also what kind of muddiness was caused when pairing UP4 which is a warm tuned source with another warm tuned IEM? Well, I am hoping to answer these queries for you here, as I have had the chance to test out both UP4 & BTR5 for a whole day.
Let’s get some of the basic facts out of the way, Shanling UP4 costs about $80 whereas Fiio BTR5 costs about $100 to $110 depending on the market. I am not going to dive into a specs comparison, as both of these devices have been out in the market for quite a while & even if you are not aware of the specs, google is your friend, finding a comparison between the two is pretty darn easy. I would like to point out something which is not in the specs though, which will highlight Shanling’s dodgy marketing strategies right from the very beginning. They have put two high-res stickers on the back of the UP4 indicating that this device supports high-res audio output both wired & wirelessly. Well one of them is false as admitted by Shanling themselves on head-fi forums, the UP4 only supports 16-bit/48 kHz audio file playback when connected as a wired DAC either to your phone, laptop or PC. And in order to qualify as high-res audio output the minimum requirement is usually 24bit/96 kHz audio file playback support. BTR5 on the other hand supports both 32bit/384kHz & DSD file playback, UP4 also does not have support for DSD playback in USB DAC mode. Neither has support for MQA rendering/decoding.
Connectivity: Nothing much to talk about here both has support for the range of standard Bluetooth codes: AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX LL/ aptX HD/LDAC, LDAC being the star of the show. Both use the same QUALCOMM’s CSR8675 chip for their connectivity features & both claim 10-meter range for their Bluetooth connection range.
Ergonomics: UP4 wins in this department hands down being the smaller & more lightweight device. It’s simply easier to handle being only 37 grams. Although credit where credit is due, I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the Fiio BTR5 compared to the pics & videos it felt much smaller in the hand, in real life. The BTR5 weighs about 43.7 grams.
Battery Life: When used on LDAC codec with full volume on the single ended port I would get about 4 to 5 days’ worth of battery life form the shanling UP4, used for about 4 hours each day. Using LDAC codec with the volume on about to 95 to 100%, using the device for about roughly 3 hours each day the owner of Fiio BTR5 reported he is getting 3 to 4 days’ worth of battery life. In both cases we charged our respective devices to 100% and depleted the battery all the way to 0%. Specs wise the UP4 & BTR5 has a 550 mah battery but I reckon the reason UP4 is doing better in term of battery life is cause BTR5 has that extra mini-OLED display to power. We did not get a chance to observe the battery life using the balanced port on both of these, but an educated guess would be that UP4 will do better here as well has it has a lower output power compared to the BTR5.
Build Quality: Both uses a mixture of plastic & glass in their body. Both feel premium to the touch & comes with a plastic cover in their respective boxes to protect these devices from falls, scratches etc. Although I would like to point out that the build quality of the Fiio BTR5 is noticeably better than Shanling’s, as the UP4 has some cosmetic defects in most of their units, the finishing between the glass & plastic is improper.
Sound/Tuning: The UP4 is a warm sounding source with a slight boost in the low end, the mids are thick & even though the sound is a bit colored it doesn’t sacrifice details. Meanwhile BTR5 is a neutral source with very good amount of detail retrieval & excellent sound stage. I have seen many reviewers say that the BTR5 can be a bit boring to some folks cause of its neutral presentation compared to the more lively UP4, but I could not disagree more with this statement. I have tested both UP4 & BTR5 with various IEM’s like Final E3000, BQEYZ Spring 2, Moondrop SSR etc & only with SSR the warm signature of UP4 helped tame its shoutyness in the vocals, other than that in all instances the BTR5 sounder much cleaner & more detailed to me.
Performance/Power:
Single Ended (3.5mm Jack): The BTR5 is quoted to provide 80mW (32Ω loaded) & Shanling UP4 is quoted to provide 91 mW@32Ohm Single-Ended. So naturally me or anyone else would be inclined to think that the UP4 is the clear winner based on specs. Wrong! In both Bluetooth & USB DAC mode the Fiio BTR5 consistently outputs louder volume levels compared to the UP4, testing a wide variety of IEM’s. So again, that Dual DAC boasting mode is just for show it seems as BTR5 is able to output more power in its single DAC mode compared to the Dual DAC mode of the UP4. Although I would like to point the difference in volume level/output isn’t much, BTR5 is at best 20% louder in the single ended mode compared to UP4, but the difference is definitely noticeable.
Balanced (2.5mm Jack): Although I personally don’t own any IEM’s with a balanced cable yet, I did have the chance to try out the BQEYZ Spring 2 on both the UP4 & BTR5 using the balanced port at a local retail shop & the difference in power output is quite huge. You need to drive the volume of the UP4 all the way up to 100% to catch up with 60% volume of the BTR5. Although usually with budget & mid-level IEM’s you generally don’t need that kind of power but using the balanced port does improve the soundstage, detail retrieval, mids etc on both of these DAC’s. Specs wise UP4 provides 160mW (32Ω loaded) & BTR5 provides 240mW (32Ω loaded).
Software: The Fiio app wins hands down in this department, as the Shanling app feels very bare bones with some very basic functions available to the user. Fiio on the other hand has some fancy features like Car Mode, DAC clock driver, output & sensitivity controls etc. Although I didn’t notice any differences when playing around with the output & sensitivity controls in the app, but that might be cause the IEM’s which I have tested so far aren’t that sensitive to begin with. Both UP4 & BTR5 don’t support Equalizer when using LDAC codec, this a major bummer for the BTR5 especially given its price point.
Conclusion: Well, I have tried to make this comparison review as detailed as possible in hopes that future buyers won’t have to go through the same hassle I had to go through when making a decision between these 2. I might have sounded a bit harsh on Shanling regarding the whole high-res business, I can tell you right now that in real life the difference between 16 bit & 32 bit playback isn’t that noticeable. But its not a matter of performance but a matter of principle, Shnaling seems like a brand to me who are more interested in fake marketing than actually making a product with awesome performance. Fiio BTR5 beats UP4 in both single ended & balanced mode, it has a much cleaner sound with greater details & a wider soundstage. Overall, this is an easy win for the Fiio BTR5 at least in my books, that extra $20 to $30 dollar price difference is totally worth it.
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