Disclaimer: FiiO sent me the BTR1K for the purposes of this article and a bit of YouTube fun. I paid nothing for it. It goes for: 49$ USD. You can find out all about it here: BTR1K: Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier.
Relevant links:
RMAA FIIO BTR1 24-bit
RMAA: FIIO BTR3 24-BIT
RMAA: RADSONE EARSTUDIO ES100 24-BIT
RMAA: ASTELL&KERN XB10 24-BIT
Headfonia: FiiO BTR1 Review
Headfonia: FiiO BTR3 Review
Headfonia: FiiO uBTR Review
It’s almost 100 metres to the weeds at the end of my street. As you can see in my Bluetooth Pace-off, the BTR1K got 75% of the way before its signal went soft, and 90% of the way before it completely broke up. That’s as good as the Radsone EarStudio ES100 was with Firmware 1,4, and better than every other Bluetooth DAC I’ve tried, price be damned.
It inherits the dual-stage (software + hardware) asynchronous attenuation system of the uBTR and BTR3, gets a dedicated play/pause button, and even measures a bit better than the original BTR1. Solid cycles like this, that boost performance of solid, economical device lines such as the BTR1, is part of what push FiiO to the fore.
The BTR1K’s output is next to noiseless, keeps signal fidelity high under load, and nails deep, detailed stereo scapes. IMD is higher sans load, but jitter is lower, and overall the signal is stabler.
Well done.
DAC/amp: Fiio BTR1K
ADC: Lynx Studio HILO LT-TB
Source: 2017 iPad Pro 12,9”
Cables: 1,5m Hosa Pro 3,5mm stereo to dual 3-pin XLR (around 8$)
NL - no load
SM2 - Earsonics SM2
ES7 - Audio Technica ES7
DT880 - Beyerdynamic DT880/600
24-bit single ended @+0dB - all targets
24-bit single ended @+0dB - NL summary
24-bit single ended @+0dB - BTR1K VS BTR1
End words
If you need LDAC, get the BTR3, but if you want crazy solid wireless signal quality, the same low noise output, and don’t mind losing a bit of performance vs 24-bit targets next to the BTR3, the BTR1K is your best bet. Awesomesauce. 49$ USD.