Setup, Customization, and Performance

Press and hold the power button for two seconds to turn the BTR17 on, which also means the display turns on starting with the FiiO logo in red before it asks you to choose the operating language in two options. Since the BTR17 comes in Bluetooth mode out of the box, the device initiates pairing immediately, and I had no issues connecting it with my phone (or any other compatible device). LDAC was available right away and worked flawlessly with my Samsung Galaxy S23, and I even tried the BT11 for aptX Adaptive—which includes aptX Lossless within it. Ultimately I went back to just having my phone not have the BT11 always plugged in, since LDAC has been great throughout the years. The display then confirms your connection in addition to showing the current volume level, a battery status meter, the connection mode, the playback rate, the connection strength, and even a sound quality indicator in Bluetooth mode. The codecs are shown in text as well as in different colors for easier visualization, and we also see any active EQ profiles mentioned here. PC/phone mode also works as expected, as does desktop mode.


Press and hold the volume knob button and now the system menu comes up on the display, with the knob helping navigate and select the options too. You get a good selection of customization options here including gain selection (low/high), generic DAC filters from ESS, PEQ profile selection with options of several preset modes and up to 10 user defined ones all saved on the BTR17, max volume limit to prevent accidental damage to your ears, charge protection, display brightness level, screen timeout, car mode where the BTR17 would turn on with power fed to it and off when disconnected, UAC mode for increased compatibility with the likes of game consoles and older PC hardware, changing the operating language, and doing a factory reset too.


The FiiO BTR17 is also supported by the FiiO Control mobile app available for both Android and iOS, although I can't guarantee whether the iOS version has all the features in it—I have only used the BTR17 with my Android phone. I've used it in conjunction with the FiiO Music app on my phone for a good user experience. Adding the BTR17 is simple enough given the app detects it immediately, and now we have easy options including a highly useful 10-band PEQ with different profiles—which are saved onboard as seen above—and three filter types. You can also store your EQ profiles locally or have them uploaded via an online account to share with others, which also means you can see other shared profiles too. In addition, we get other useful features such as selecting the idle timeout, the available Bluetooth codecs, choosing whether to have the screen turn on if you press any button as opposed to just the power button, the max volume setting, changing the current volume level via a slider if you prefer that instead of the knob, having master/sub volume control which can be super useful to avoid a call ringtone blasting into your ears, and even accounting for channel imbalance. The distortion options can be cool to play with, especially as the even-order distortion deliberately added can work nicely with some music genres and transducers to try and give you a pseudo tube-amp sound signature. You can also update the device firmware here, and I had a hotfix update available when I first connected the device to the app. I also appreciated the device guide in the app just in case you need it. Overall this is now a really good app, and I appreciate FiiO has taken user feedback seriously. There are some venues for improvement still, mostly related to EQ, in the form of allowing for more EQ filter types and maybe an AutoEQ functionality tied to, say, Squig Link or Jakko's AutoEQ repository.


Using the FiiO BTR17 with Windows 10 or 11 doesn't require any additional drivers, with Windows recognizing the device automatically. We see that the default settings provide PCM playback options up to 32-bit, 384 kHz out of the box. The XMOS USB bridge comes in handy here, and all your favorite players will recognize the device in WASAPI (Windows Audio Session API) mode accordingly. There should be equivalent drivers pre-configured in newer macOS builds too, but I am not familiar enough to speak on this front. You can also use FiiO's USB DAC drivers for 24-bit playback, access to the FiiO Control Panel, and have ASIO playback options similar to what we've seen before with the K11 R2R, for example, but I've chosen to skip talking about it here to keep this page length somewhat reasonable.


Those on PC have something to look forward to, especially if you would rather not use the mobile app for whatever reason. Head over to FiiO's recently developed online EQ configurator here, and note that you will need to use a web browser that supports Web HID API. This means only the likes of Chrome, Edge, Opera, and other Chromium-based browsers on Windows/macOS. Click on "Search Devices" in the top left corner, after having connected the BTR17 to your PC first anyway, and select the device from a pop-up list that comes up similar to the likes of how VIA brings up compatible keyboards in the online configurator. The configurator then changes to what the device can support, which is usually in the form of the number of EQ bands on offer. You will see 10-band PEQ again here for the BTR17, with the video above showing the various options available. Note the added filter types here, and be sure to hit enter after you type in the values in the respective text boxes. You can also use the GUI elements to go up or down, but that can be quite cumbersome in the finer increments allowed. I liked the real time visualization of the EQ settings done, although note that this configurator wasn't fully working with the BTR17 as of the day I write this review. I did see it working fully during a private test at FiiO's facilities though, so this should be finalized sooner than later. FiiO has some big plans for this browser-based EQ control solution too, and we'll no doubt see even more options added in 2025.

Audio Performance

As discussed before, the FiiO BTR17 allows for a dedicated USB power supply to be used for desktop mode, which can increase the power output from the device. FiiO rates the BTR17 to provide up to 130 mW @16 Ω, 140 mW @32 Ω and 20 mW @300 Ω per channel off the 3.5 mm single-ended output with the desktop mode off, with the equivalent numbers being 180 mW @16 Ω, 300 mW @32 Ω and 35 mW @300 Ω per channel for the 4.4 mm balanced output. Add the power supply, turn on desktop mode, and now those numbers increase to 330 mW @16 Ω, 280 mW @32 Ω and 30 mW @300 Ω per channel for the 3.5 mm output, and 480 mW @16 Ω, 650 mW @32 Ω and 125 mW @300 Ω per channel off the 4.4 mm output. I think it's fair to say most people are unlikely to have a USB power supply readily available for them on the go, although having a power bank capable of providing 5 V/2 A isn't unheard of with even smaller devices these days. It's still called a desktop mode for a reason, allowing you to use the BTR17 with more demanding gear at home or an office more than, say, in the gym or on a bus. There's still plenty of power even in non-desktop mode for most things reviewed on this website though, including FiiO's own FT1 closed-back headphones and FA19 IEMs. The output impedance is not as low as some other FiiO devices, with the 3.5 mm output rated for <1 Ω and the 4.4 mm for <1.5 Ω, although I can't say I really perceived any background noise even with more sensitive IEMs thankfully. There are also two gain settings and a useful range of volume control, which is independent of the client device too. I suggest maxing out the volume on your phone/laptop and then using the BTR17's volume knob for convenience.

Charging the internal battery is again dependent on your USB power supply, be it from the phone/PC or a dedicated one connected to the second Type-C input. The BTR17 can take as much as 10 W (5 V/2 A), and the battery goes from 0-100% in ~2 hours. The charge protection option in the menu helps keep the battery at 80% of max capacity to prolong its health, and we have further options to stop the internal battery from being used if you end up going wired more often than not. I would suggest looking at the FiiO KA17 in this case though, as it offers basically the same feature set as the BTR17 without the wireless connectivity for a reduced price. The USP of the BTR17 is thus its wireless mode with rich codec support, although I do wish the battery life could be better. Expect to get 9–10 hours of use with the BTR17 for most use cases, which is not really an improvement from previous generation hardware. That's the compromise of going with more powerful hardware and a larger, brighter screen too. In the future, I would like to see FiiO tackle battery life as a key metric, since most other aspects have been addressed well enough to appease even hardcore enthusiasts.


I spent over a month using the BTR17 on and off with a variety of headphones and IEMs to fully test how it sounds, and it's hilarious how good it is compared even to some larger DAPs and portable sources. In fact, I dare say this really makes the FiiO Q-series mostly redundant now to the point where FiiO has even confirmed they don't currently have plans to update that line. The frequency response is basically flat, and that's obviously a good thing in not adding direct coloration to the headphones/earphones you are listening to. The BTR17 comes off extremely tight and controlled, arguably even a touch more engaging in the sub-bass and mid-bass. If you have a set of IEMs that are especially bassy, this could be too much of a good thing with added bloom though. Treble extension could be better, yet it's only in the ultra-highs that most people won't even perceive, let alone have music that contains data in this region. You can add some coloration with the app-based 2nd-order and 3rd-order distortion controls, with the former working okay with some headphones to create a larger sense of stage in addition to allowing brass and string instruments to shine further. I noticed this with my jazz collection if you turn that slider up more, although vocals were hit or miss with some arguably feeling slightly clenched. Desktop mode can be handy with more demanding planar magnetic headphones, especially if you felt the dynamic range with some classical music tracks was feeling compressed. Having PEQ profiles on board also sweetens the deal in allowing you to customize the tuning of the headphones/IEMs more to your liking without affecting the sound quality as some previous FiiO EQ solutions did in the past. The wired-only KA17 sounds exactly the same in all these objective and subjective parameters too, so I'll again give it a shoutout if you only want a wired portable source.