I took the BTR7 and mounted it with velcro to the Centrance Ampersand with 4.4mm short cable balanced.... then I used the fiio M15s as the wireless source..... that turns the BTR7 into a powerful wireless amp that has enough power to drive a susvara.... it sounds very very good...
Glad you listened with the focal clears, I’m looking to buy the clear MG and seems like this BTR7 will be the perfect pairing and at only $200 it seems like a great value compared to some others.
Hmm, no Qudelix 5k. The PEQ with the 100s of presets, which made a huge difference with different IEMs and over ear cans I have, made me return the BTR 7. I tried them back to back.
I have the original M6 Pro and it has a fantastic shanling sound. I also have a shanling Q1 and its meh! Also the Q1 has an issue where the power button is triggered in the bag or case and when you pull it out has no more power. I have two R3 Pro Sabre and unfortuantly they were bought 1.5 years apart. The first R3 Pro is just fantastic sounding but the second is decent sounding. Maybe internals were changed! I just bought a shanling H5 DAC and its close to the M6 Pro. Not quite as good but about 90% of the M6 Pro but at half the price. The Shanling H5 DAC via optical connection.. Just like the M6 Pro the H5 has 3 gain modes and the ability to choose between single and dual dac mode. Overall the H5 has that fantastic shanling sound. I demo the Fiio K9 Pro ess and it has unbeatble depth and resolution but I always felt it did not have a full note weight. Luckily I was able to return it.
How do these work? Do they connect to the phone via Bluetooth and listened to via wired headphones or wired to the phone and listened through a wireless headphone?
Your explanation of Compression is wrong but I understand why you got to it and it's close to correct. What you got wrong or explained poorly was that compression can just lose data and nearly always does. Which is categorically false and that's a fact not a debate. Compression can be Lossy or Lossless Lossless is less efficient and uses more space but is always 1:1 data accurate, no exception. This is important for text and numbers where data can't be lost at all without destroying it all. Lossy is more efficient and can considerably lower space usage, however it gets way more complicated whether or not you can tell it's compressed or if that matters. This is done on images and sound that have more data than you are probably capable of seeing/hearing anyway so lossy compression formats try their best to only remove those for the most part. For example your PC, phone and most things use lossless compression all the time and you don't even notice. Even audio has lossless compression, such as FLAC and ALAC. Lossless compression's only downside is that it's less power and space efficient than raw and lossy respectively, otherwise it's basically free storage space. For example MP3 is an ancient, dried up husk of a lossy compression format. It's inefficient and removes way too much audible data and is still too big. Compared to OGG/Opus/Vorpis which removes more data, but does so more efficiently and less audibly noticable making it superior. Bluetooth codecs generally are lossy compression, so data is lost, but Bluetooth (nowadays) is more akin to Opus than Mp3. Especially if you use AAC or better, SBC is fine but it's really old. LDAC is probably more than you'll ever need realistically for Bluetooth for now.
I forgot to mention image formats as well. Jpeg and PNG are basically the defaults for lossy and lossless respectively... For now. Jpeg has long since had replacements that have yet to be implemented across the internet, same with PNG. But for now they both work just fine and both surve their respective purposes. PNG for those who want their raw images but in a smaller package and JPEG for uploading finished works. Video is probably the only format that isn't stored losslessly, because we just can't do that. It's way way too space inefficient and doesn't even make sense if you understand how it works. (For example a single movie 1080p could be about 5gb encoded, but 700gb if not encoded) H264 has been the standard encoding format for video. I won't get into explaining how it works, because honestly it's way too complicated for even me to fully understand.
Not much functionally but the the BTR7 has a different sound. Its clearer, and maybe more resolving. Has better control with transients and a brighter sound. The 5 is darker and not as resolving. But both sound good.
I have the BTR15 and the BTR7. The BTR7 is superior in sound quality imho. It has a better controlled sub bass. The soundstage is noticeably better and is sweeter in the treble.
No, most have some sort of loss. The difference is that your ear's cannot hear it. I have tested on very high resolution IEMs and heard no difference. But that is with Qualcomm's aptX.
Wasn't MP3 acceptable because the average person couldn't hear what it cut out? Apparently bluetooth is the same. An audiophile who still has good hearing can tell a difference between wired and bluetooth but an older guy who fired weapons without earplugs in the military, like me, cannot. So, I'll take the convenience of bluetooth.
I took the BTR7 and mounted it with velcro to the Centrance Ampersand with 4.4mm short cable balanced.... then I used the fiio M15s as the wireless source..... that turns the BTR7 into a powerful wireless amp that has enough power to drive a susvara.... it sounds very very good...
Glad you listened with the focal clears, I’m looking to buy the clear MG and seems like this BTR7 will be the perfect pairing and at only $200 it seems like a great value compared to some others.
This is the oddly specific video I needed! My btr3k just broke 😭
The noise floor in the BTR7 is wonderful..plays well on my Dunu SA6 😁
Good explanation of the codecs. Thanks
Very good review 👏.. what about the ifi go blu ? They are getting very good reviews.
Hmm, no Qudelix 5k. The PEQ with the 100s of presets, which made a huge difference with different IEMs and over ear cans I have, made me return the BTR 7. I tried them back to back.
I have the original M6 Pro and it has a fantastic shanling sound. I also have a shanling Q1 and its meh! Also the Q1 has an issue where the power button is triggered in the bag or case and when you pull it out has no more power. I have two R3 Pro Sabre and unfortuantly they were bought 1.5 years apart. The first R3 Pro is just fantastic sounding but the second is decent sounding. Maybe internals were changed! I just bought a shanling H5 DAC and its close to the M6 Pro. Not quite as good but about 90% of the M6 Pro but at half the price. The Shanling H5 DAC via optical connection.. Just like the M6 Pro the H5 has 3 gain modes and the ability to choose between single and dual dac mode. Overall the H5 has that fantastic shanling sound. I demo the Fiio K9 Pro ess and it has unbeatble depth and resolution but I always felt it did not have a full note weight. Luckily I was able to return it.
Will the BTR7 be enough to power Can Clark Aeon Noire 2s and how do you think they will sound. Thanks
The THX amps are nothing to scoff at. Love my THX Onyx. Like a 887/789 in your pocket.
What file type were you using when listening? I know it's probably overkill, but I'm considering the BTR7 for Spotify.
what abour btr7 in wired usb dac mode, does it sound better than $100 dongle dac without bt ?
Yes, I've used it that way many times. But truthfully the difference between wired and Bluetooth is very small.
How do these work? Do they connect to the phone via Bluetooth and listened to via wired headphones or wired to the phone and listened through a wireless headphone?
Connect the unit to phone via Bluetooth, plug in headphones to the dac amp, either 3.5mm Connector or balanced, you're good to go
Your explanation of Compression is wrong but I understand why you got to it and it's close to correct. What you got wrong or explained poorly was that compression can just lose data and nearly always does. Which is categorically false and that's a fact not a debate.
Compression can be Lossy or Lossless
Lossless is less efficient and uses more space but is always 1:1 data accurate, no exception. This is important for text and numbers where data can't be lost at all without destroying it all.
Lossy is more efficient and can considerably lower space usage, however it gets way more complicated whether or not you can tell it's compressed or if that matters. This is done on images and sound that have more data than you are probably capable of seeing/hearing anyway so lossy compression formats try their best to only remove those for the most part. For example your PC, phone and most things use lossless compression all the time and you don't even notice. Even audio has lossless compression, such as FLAC and ALAC. Lossless compression's only downside is that it's less power and space efficient than raw and lossy respectively, otherwise it's basically free storage space.
For example MP3 is an ancient, dried up husk of a lossy compression format. It's inefficient and removes way too much audible data and is still too big. Compared to OGG/Opus/Vorpis which removes more data, but does so more efficiently and less audibly noticable making it superior.
Bluetooth codecs generally are lossy compression, so data is lost, but Bluetooth (nowadays) is more akin to Opus than Mp3. Especially if you use AAC or better, SBC is fine but it's really old. LDAC is probably more than you'll ever need realistically for Bluetooth for now.
I forgot to mention image formats as well.
Jpeg and PNG are basically the defaults for lossy and lossless respectively... For now. Jpeg has long since had replacements that have yet to be implemented across the internet, same with PNG. But for now they both work just fine and both surve their respective purposes. PNG for those who want their raw images but in a smaller package and JPEG for uploading finished works.
Video is probably the only format that isn't stored losslessly, because we just can't do that. It's way way too space inefficient and doesn't even make sense if you understand how it works. (For example a single movie 1080p could be about 5gb encoded, but 700gb if not encoded) H264 has been the standard encoding format for video. I won't get into explaining how it works, because honestly it's way too complicated for even me to fully understand.
What's the difference between FiiO BTR7 and BTR5
Not much functionally but the the BTR7 has a different sound. Its clearer, and maybe more resolving. Has better control with transients and a brighter sound. The 5 is darker and not as resolving. But both sound good.
The balanced connections. 2.5mm vs 4.4mm.
Any comparison between the BTR7 and BTR15? :)
That's what I want to understand. Normally the better unit has the higher number, but the 7 costs nearly 2X the 7.
Corrwction: Meant to say 7 costs 19:46 nearly 2X as much as the 15, so I assume it us still the better unit, but I don't know why.
iirc btr15 is just an updated model of the btr5
I have the BTR15 and the BTR7. The BTR7 is superior in sound quality imho. It has a better controlled sub bass. The soundstage is noticeably better and is sweeter in the treble.
@@fiddlix Thanks!
so what you are saying is that no Bluetooth devices uses any lossless compression
No, most have some sort of loss. The difference is that your ear's cannot hear it. I have tested on very high resolution IEMs and heard no difference. But that is with Qualcomm's aptX.
Wasn't MP3 acceptable because the average person couldn't hear what it cut out? Apparently bluetooth is the same. An audiophile who still has good hearing can tell a difference between wired and bluetooth but an older guy who fired weapons without earplugs in the military, like me, cannot. So, I'll take the convenience of bluetooth.
Were did you get the clip on case for the btr5
it's sold everywhere on amazon,aliexpress for 15 usd
none really even the cowon considered 'audiophile'