Many of us will serve up our favorite tunes using a smartphone, but may be left wanting in the sound quality department. That's where a portable headphone amp/DAC can help, and the latest model from Fiio promises to satisfy with desktop-level power and performance.
As we noted when covering the last playful DAC from Fiio, many smartphones today lack a headphone jack, but likely wouldn't have the kind of circuit to support decent ear candy anyway. Wireless is the way for the current generation of mobile listeners, but sonic quality can be hit or miss there too.
The BTR17 definitely takes its design cues from Astell&Kern, featuring sharp angles and pleasantly tactile controls, and also looks to be aiming high in the engineering department as well. Despite a relatively modest price point, the company has secured Qualcomm's latest flagship Bluetooth chip – the QCC5181 – for transmission bandwidth of up to 2.1 Mbps and support for lossless wireless playback.
The inclusion of aptX Adaptive decoding translates to 24-bit/96-kHz quality for better-than-CD streaming resolution. The Bluetooth 5.4 technology also supports LDAC decoding for higher resolution than standard BT audio, as well as aptX Low Latency and aptX HD.
If you'd rather bring your demanding and expensive audiophile headphones into the mix, Fiio's new pocket pal features a desktop mode that allows the listener to connect to a smartphone over USB-C. The device includes its own 8-hour battery so that it won't leech from a handset's cells. But that may not be sufficient to drive power-hungry cans, so there's also the option to connect to an external power supply.
When in this Desktop mode, the unit's THX AAA 78+ headphone amp will employ four of the system's eight op-amps "to fully unleash its potential." This caters for balanced output power that's comparable to desktop headphone amps, at 650mW+650mW. The portable mode, for reference, can push up to 300mW.
When cabled to a music source, the BTR17 can play 32-bit/768-kHz PCM audio files, there's native support for DSD512 and full MQA decoding too. Onboard computing power is provided by the 16-core XMOS XU316 chip, while dual ES9069Q DACs take care of conversion. Parametric EQ is available for fine tweaking via an online portal, though presets can be activated using a shortcut key to the side of the housing.
"The BTR17 integrates high-end HiFi player-level signal processing within its compact body," Fiio says of the audio architecture. "Digital signals are deftly handled by the dual-clock digital audio and DAC. LPF preamplification and multi-stage analog audio processing ensure details and the dynamic range within audio signals are precisely restored, comparable to premium digital audio players."
Elsewhere, the DAC/amp sports a 1.3-inch IPS display, with the onscreen font changing color based on the audio codec. It measures 16.3 x 41.2 x 86.6 mm (0.6 x 1.6 x 3.4 in) and weighs in at 73.4 g (2.6 oz), and includes 3.5-mm single-ended unbalanced and 4.4-mm balanced outputs.
The BTR17 is on sale now for US$199.
Product page: Fiio BTR17
