INTRODUCTION

   The market may be filled with many good wireless earphones and the rather new and compact true wireless models but the truth of the matter is that almost all of the high-end models aimed towards demanding audiophiles are still wired which means that if you'd like to use one such model wirelessly you will need to pair it with a audiophile grade bluetooth transmitter/receiver. Still it's not easy to pair an audiophile level set of earphones with an equally good bluetooth transmitter/receiver mainly because there aren't really that many in the market to begin with. FiiO is well aware of this so last year they released their top of the line BTR3 Bluetooth Headphone Amp (shortly after their mid-end BTR1K) which was aimed towards demanding consumers and audiophiles alike and today we decided to check it out and see just how good it really is.

   FiiO was established in 2007 and has experience in researching and developing countless portable music products of different types, and sell FiiO-branded products through sales agents worldwide. The brand name FiiO is composed of Fi (fidelity from HiFi) and iO (number 1&0), representing the real feeling and convenient life that digital brings to life. Meanwhile, the Chinese “飞傲” is the transliteration of FiiO, indicating the positive and innovative spirit as thriving as spring. FiiO is focused on product quality, adheres strictly to ISO9001 standards in quality management and works hard to attain the lowest repair-related product returns rate. FiiO designs, produces and sells high-quality products at favourable prices to those who love music and style; our high-resolution digital audio players, portable headphone amplifiers, DACs and earphones have all received praise from the majority of users. Several products from FiiO have created record sales in their respective product segments and have received countless awards including iF Design Award, Reddot Award, EISA Award, VGP Award, etc. FiiO places great importance on users' needs and ceaselessly pursues perfection in product design and manufacturing, to supply users with the best audio products at the best prices.

   There are several reasons as to why the BTR3 is currently the flagship Bluetooth transmitter/receiver/amplifier by FiiO. First it's the very first of its kind to support all Bluetooth audio codecs such as AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX Low Latency, aptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC so not only is it 100% certain that your music player and/or smartphone will be supported but you also know that you can get LDAC compatible devices to use with it. Second, it's based around the low-power Qualcomm CR8675 premium tier Bluetooth v5.0 SoC (supported profiles: HFP 1.6, A2DP 1.3.1, AVRCP 1.6, HOGP 1.0, FMP 1.0, PXP 1.0, BAS 1.0 and TPS 1.0) which offers superb audio quality not only because of its support for various state of the art technologies by Qualcomm (truewireless technology, broadcast audio technology, aptX audio technology, 2-mic cVc noise cancellation technology and 24 bit audio data path) but also thanks to the 120MHz Kalimba DSP (digital signal processing). Third it also comes with the AK4376A 32-bit stereo DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) which supports a sampling frequency of up to 384KHz, -107dB distortion and an extremely high 124dB Signal-to-Noise ratio. In addition to all of the above the BTR3 also features an aluminum alloy body wrapped in 2.5D glass, 300mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack (up to 11 hours of music playback when using the AAC codec), USB-DAC support, built-in microphone, NFC (near field communication) and an RGB LED status light which changes color according to the current type of connection (Blue for SBC, Cyan for AAC, White for LDAC/DAC, Green for LHDC, Purple for aptX/aptX low latency and Yellow for aptX HD). The BTR3 also supports Siri IOS commands and can be used with the FiiO Music App.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The BTR3 gets shipped inside a small white box that has a product picture at the front right beneath the company logo and above the main product features.

At the rear we see the authenticity sticker, color and size of the unit, some trademarks and the electrical specifications of the unit.

The bundle is somewhat limited so aside the BTR3 you will also get a USB to USB type-C cable, lanyard, authenticity checking paper, quick start guide and an information paper about bluetooth enabled devices.

THE BTR3

The BTR3 is a compact device that weighs just 26g and measures 58mm in length, 25mm in width and 14mm in thickness. In terms of quality the aluminium enclosure which is covered at the top with 2.5D glass may not look special but it's very durable (at the top we see the RGB status LED and the NFC area).

Since we do have a few Bluetooth transmitters/receivers by HAVIT in the lab (HV-BT018) we decided to compare sizes.

On the right side of the BTR3 we find the on/off/reset/switch input button, microphone, reconnect/play/pairing/pause/answer/end calls button and the volume up/previous track and volume down/next track buttons (yes, the tracks feature is inverted compared to what we usually see).

Both the 3.5mm output and the USB type-C port are located at the base of the device.

A shirt clip with the FiiO logo is located at the rear.

For the most part of our tests we used the BTR3 with the M6/M7 music players (again by FiiO) and the Periodic Audio B and DUNU Falcon-C IEMs.

FIIO MUSIC APP

The FiiO music app not only allows you to play music from your smartphone/tablet but it also allows you to control their devices including the BTR3. So, from here you can disable the RGB LED, enable/disable charge, select input device (manually or automatically), set audio balance (left/right channel), select which bluetooth codecs you want to be supported by the BTR3 and finally you can also choose a lowpass filter (not a feature we actually used).

The app also has an EQ function which will be accessible later on and an operating guide page which can actually come in handy if you skipped reading the quick start guide.

CONCLUSION

   Just like we already pointed out earlier in the review we used the BTR3 Bluetooth Headphone Amp and the HAVIT HV-BT018 Bluetooth Transmitter with the FiiO M6 and M7 Music players and a wide range of Hi-Res earphones including the Periodic Audio Be, the DUNU Falcon-C and the 1MORE Quad Driver. After a period of 19 days we can just say that the difference in audio quality between the BTR3 and the HV-BT018 proved to be rather staggering especially when both the earphones and the audio player (or smartphone) are Hi-Res compatible (specifically LDAC or LHDC compatible). This means that when using a device that supports the most “common” AAC, SBC and aptX audio codec you will not notice the difference in detail and depth you will if your device supports aptX HD, LDAC or LHDC (just remember to manually force 990kbps in your smartphone if you’re using the LDAC codec – that is if your smartphone supports manual setup). The RGB LED is also very useful if you don’t know which audio codec your device supports (especially if you’re not using the FiiO music app) while in terms of battery life although when using AAC and SBC you will surpass the 10 hours mark with aptX HD and LDAC it’s very hard to surpass the 9 hour mark (unfortunately we don’t have an LHDC compatible device here but it should be roughly the same as with LDAC).

   With a price tag currently set at USD69.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 79Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the FiiO BTR3 may be roughly 3-4 times more expensive compared to every day models like the HAVIT HV-BT018 but if your smartphone and/or music player supports aptX HD, LDAC or LHDC it’s certainly worth the extra cost. Of course things are not perfect so it would be nice to see a high quality 3.5mm cable bundled with the BTR3 (even better two different lengths for various uses) and why not even a detachable shirt clip (not everyone will end up using it) and IP waterproof certification (since FiiO does point out that the BTR3 may get damaged even by sweat) but we can’t have it all I guess (still it would be nice if FiiO took these into consideration for the successor of the BTR3). All said and done the BTR3 is without doubt among the best Bluetooth transmitters/receivers/amp you can get today and that’s why we’re giving it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Quality (Aluminum Enclosure / 2.5D Glass)
- Size / Weight
- Bluetooth v5.0
- Supported Audio Codecs (AAC/ SBC/ aptX/ aptX Low Latency/ aptX HD/ LDAC/ LHDC)
- RGB Status LED
- Battery Life (Up To 11 Hours)
- Built in Microphone (Noise Cancelling)
- FiiO Music App (Settings)

CONS

- Fixed Shirt Clip (For Some)
- Limited Bundle