Received today my BTR1.
Ordered on 2017-09-29 from AliExpress and arrived on 2017-10-03. Shipped via DHL, very fast for getting to Europe/Lithuania.
Photos and one video below.
First impressions.
- Physical build quality
Seems sturdy, most of it feels metal/aluminium. Bottom part, where micro-USB socket is located, is plastic. I guess you must have some plastic in order to be radio transparent for Bluetooth to work. Audio socket feels solid, when plugging in the 3.5mm jack, you feel quite satisfactory connection. No connection issues when plugged-in and wiggling/rotating the 3.5mm plug.
- User interface
* You have 3 physical buttons in total:
......... One big at the front round centre button, which acts as power on/off, play/pause, some voice call management functions and as audio effect on/off upon double-clicking when the BTR1 is on.
......... Two buttons on the side for volume up/down. Volume up buttons also functions as previous track when holding for a couple of seconds. Volume down button also functions as next track when holding down for a couple seconds. Holding both volume up/down buttons when BTR1 is on should reset the BTR1 (presumably).
* user audio interface:
you have nice melodies when the BTR1 is powering-up (kinda surround powering up melody when sound is coming at first from left channel, then right channel and then from both). You get audio feedback when connected to some Bluetooth device. You have audio feedback when pressing buttons on the BTR1 itself. Haven't yet test the low-battery audio notifications, so can't tell you if they are annoying. Also a nice melody when the unit is powering-down. Melodies are not those standard from cheap Bluetooth receivers. And not too ear-tearing loud - just right.
- Bluetooth connection
Since the device is almost all metal, the BT connection stability suffers. The range is not that great. Even having BTR1 in my front-left jeans pocket and my iPhone in back-right jeans pocket, I get an occasional BT connection packet drop. Having BTR1 and iPhone farther away without direct line of sight makes the connection even worse. BTR1 BT connection stability is quite sensitive to the orientation of BTR1 relative to the iPhone and direct line of sight.
Maybe FiiO representative could tell us the position of the internal Bluetooth antenna, i.e. at which end of the device it is located (either at the micro-USB socket side or 3.5mm socket side).
Supports simultaneous active Bluetooth connection to two devices: pausing playback on first one and starting playback playback on second one you hear sound from the second one. And vice versa. Neat!
- Charging
When the BTR1 is being charged, you can use it for playback. And the charging process does not add any additional distortions to the sound quality (at least I did not notice any).
- Sound quality
I used BTR1 connected directly to Shure SE535 (with stock Shure cable) and BTR1 connected to iPhone 7 and Spotify 320 kbps tracks.
Firstly, the volume control from BTR1 buttons controls the volume on the iPhone - there is no independent BTR1/iPhone volume controls.
Since SE535s are quite low impedance and quite sensitive, I tried the noise-floor test first. And from my first impressions I can tell that the noise-floor, when on the lowest volume setting in a completely silent room, is very very very low, almost not-noticeable. You have some high pitch noise superimposed on the playing sound - the high pitch noise follows the sound signature of the actual playback. On higher volume settings I practically cannot hear the noise. When pausing the playback you can hear for a short moment the noise-floor until the BTR1 output stage is completely turned off.
Listening to music.
I don't have much experience with other DACs/AMPs. I can only compare between the direct connection to iPhone (via the measly Lightning-3.5mm adapter) and listening via BTR1. I can tell that the sound quality is improved when listening via BTR1. The direct to iPhone connection now seems a little muffled, like somebody has placed a cover on your music. When listening via BTR1 you feel more openness and music seems more alive. To me it seems a good improvement in sound quality from such a small device.
The sound effect, when double-pressing the big button, seems to add 3D sound effect. But via IEMs it does not seem to add anything of value to listening experience (at least to me).
- Usability with iOS:
You get a battery status indicator near your clock at the top and also a battery indicator in the Widget.
Disconnecting the audio cable from BTR1 pauses the playback on the iOS device.
- Summary
I am happy with the device, especially with the low noise-floor when connected to Shure SE535.
Simultaneous Bluetooth connection to two devices tries to emulate Apple approach to their Airpods a little bit - I can have BTR1 connected to my iPhone and my iPad at the same time - which is nice.
Sadly the Bluetooth connection range and stability is not that great (probably due to all-metal construction). I hope they improve this in the next iteration of the device.
All in all a competent device to pair with quality IEMs.
Thanks FiiO for a great device.
Short video: