Closer Examination

The FiiO BTR17 is available in black or blue colors, and I suspect most people will end up going with the black option since it's a safer color. I did like the blue quite a lot when I saw it in person though, so I urge interested customers to strongly consider it. Either version is highly portable, coming in at ~86.5 x 41 x 6.2 mm and weighing ~73 g. It will easily fit in a pocket thus, or even the palm of your hand if you wish to hand-hold it. There is also an option to clip it to the back of your phone with some add-on accessories as well, and of course the case comes with a built-in belt clip. The chassis is made of aluminium and thus feels cold to the touch, and I also like the chamfered edges added in addition to the main body having some gentle curves and elevations. The Hi-Res Audio badge sadly takes away from the otherwise meticulous aesthetic, and I wish FiiO would put it on the back or, better yet, not on the actual product at all.

The main attraction on the front is that 1.3" full color IPS display, which comes with a pre-applied PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film screen protector—hence the colors when seen from an angle, which are not visible when the screen is on. The top right corner has a physical knob that is very satisfying to use thanks to its multi-way knurled finish. It also has an integrated button in the middle, with FiiO rating the button lifecycle for a minimum of 50,000 presses and the knob itself for over 40,000 full turns. There are discrete steps for the knob, which requires more deliberate movement to prevent accidental volume changes, and it rotates infinitely without any stop points in place. The knob does not jut past the sides, meaning it won't snag onto anything in your pocket, say, although note that the button here does play/pause by default, so that might be annoying if you accidentally press it. In addition, the knob + button combo is used for navigating the built-in menu, call controls on your phone, pulling up the smart assistant, and Bluetooth connections.


Underneath the knob are more controls, although we begin with a vent for the integrated microphone you can use for voice calls. The case clip could theoretically go through a thin shirt too, but this does feel like a feature many won't end up using simply due to the BTR17 likely being further away from your mouth typically. Next up is a power button, which also can be used to do a hardware reset in addition to simply turning the display on or off. Then there are buttons for previous/next track selection, although double pressing them also helps switch between EQ profiles stored onboard. Underneath is a three-way switch used to select one of three operating modes, with the BTR17 set to Bluetooth mode by default, where it can still be powered via USB but uses Bluetooth for wireless connectivity only. Move the switch to the top for PC mode to use as a USB DAC/amp while also being offered off the same USB connection, and then there's phone mode for the same USB DAC/amp functionality except that the USB charging feature is turned off to prevent draining your phone battery. There's one more switch, going between on and off, for the so-called desktop mode, but we'll get to that shortly. The other side has the certification info for the device, where we also find the BTR17 is rated for up to 10 W of power input. The back, which is what the device would typically rest on when on a desk, gets a soft-touch finish and has the FiiO logo embossed near the top.


Hey remember that desktop mode I just mentioned? The bottom side of the BTR17 has two USB Type-C ports, with the left one being your typical port for charging and data transfer when in use as a USB DAC/amp. The second one, marked with a red receptacle, allows you to connect the BTR17 to a dedicated USB power supply. When the desktop mode switch is off, this power supply to the BTR17 will be used to run the device and charge the internal battery, while the other USB port is relegated for data only. This is useful when you don't want to get power from the connected client or consume the internal battery. When desktop mode is on, something cooler happens with the BTR17's high voltage + parallel drive features turning on, increasing the maximum power output of the device—we'll discuss this shortly. The top side has the analog outputs with FiiO providing 3.5 mm single-ended and 4.4 mm balanced headphone connections. There is no line output from the BTR17, in case this is a dealbreaker for you.


The provided case does its job well enough. It's trivial to push the BTR17 inside, and we see the case has appropriate cutouts for the inputs and outputs. There's also room left for the volume knob, the display, and the microphone hole too, with the switches also getting a cutout which thankfully does not hide the labels as I've seen with some DAP cases. The other buttons are covered completely, and the case instead has markings to denote them. The case does feel slightly looser at the top owing to the absence of another stitched surface to secure the opening as in the bottom, but nothing you can do about it unless you go for a fold-over design similar to, say, the FiiO M15S DAP case.


Here's a look at the FiiO BTR17 (left) alongside the previous generation BTR7 in the middle and the even older BTR5 on the right. The BTR5 is the smallest by far and the glass body is such a 2020/21 move where a lot of manufacturers were trying to make portable DAC/amps look like tiny phones. The BTR7 is where FiiO really got into its stride with Bluetooth DAC/amps, and the BTR17 is an evolved take that finally gives us a nice volume knob without having to go even larger to the level of the FiiO Q15 and Q7 that feel more transportable than really portable. We also see all three have a screen that just gets bigger and with more pixels + colors going up from the BTR5 to the BTR17.


The FiiO BTR17 uses an XMOS XU316 USB bridge, offering up to 32-bit/768 kHz PCM playback and DSD512 natively, in addition to MQA decoding. Yes, that's right—the BTR17 actually supports MQA since the device has two ES9069Q 2-channel DACs that have basically all the features you'd like for even a desktop stereo setup, let alone a portable one, along with MQA support. I can only presume the BTR17 was in the works before Tidal decided to shut down its MQA offerings, at least publicly. Wireless connectivity comes via the Qualcomm QCC5181 premium Bluetooth 5.4 SoC. Amplification comes via THX AAA 78+ linear amplifiers used in a 4-channel (two 2-channel DACs feeding to the amplifier stage) with a total of eight op-amps in parallel. When the desktop mode is on and a USB power supply is connected, four of these op-amps are used in current amplification mode, which boosts the net power output of the BTR17 significantly and on par with some desktop amplifiers too!