Closer Examination

The FiiO BTR5 is tiny. It measures in at 72×32×11 mm and all of ~43.5 g, making it easily fit inside your palm as an emergency prop for your amateur magic show. Compared to other portable DAC/amps, the BTR5 is actually on the larger side of things. There is a good reason for it, however, as most such dongles are simply a cable with a small box between two ends, or even a metal enclosure as we saw with the Creative SXFI Amp. Those are all wired-only, and the B in BTR5 might as well stand for Bluetooth since the FiiO BTR5 is a hybrid DAC and Bluetooth reviewer with an internal battery adding to the bulk. The design thus loses the integrated clip to keep things small, and we see FiiO has taken advantage of the size by employing a 2.5D glass cover over an aluminium alloy body to mimic popular smartphones designs. There are two other color finishes, with one employing a titanium gray side and the other going with a blue body, but this all-black version is what you will find for sale globally more often than the others.

This makes the BTR5 a slippery bar of smooth glass, and we now have another reason for the included case/back clip to be used. This device feels really nice to hold in hand, though, and the main issues people have with such curved glass devices is a non-factor considering this is not a curved display. An oleophobic layer on both sides also prevents fingerprints, which works quite well in practice, although it still requires an occasional wipe to remove surface dust build up. It comes off far more premium in build than the price tag would have you believe, and then we see some other features you may not have expected. At the bottom on the front that is mostly plain on purpose, FiiO embedded an NFC tag underneath and marked it as such. It is pre-programmed to automatically pair to a source supporting NFC as well; say, a mobile phone you may be using with the BTR5. The back is where we see the two Hi-Res certification stickers again—FiiO is clearly quite proud of this accomplishment for both the wired and wireless operation. This is also where we see the internal battery is limited to USB 2.0 charging speeds courtesy a 5 V and 500 mA (2.5 W) at most for input, meaning the 550 mAh (2.75 Wh) battery inside will take ~70 min to charge fully in an ideal world, and closer to 75 min with efficiency losses accounted for.


The connectivity options are really where the BTR5 shines, with the USB Type-C connector at the bottom only absolutely necessary for charging the battery. But there is also a very handy USB wired mode we will get into in more detail, where the device can be used as a nice DAC. The digital-to-analog conversion happens either way, even in wireless mode, making this a DAC/amp combination instead of just an amplifier. Output comes in the form of the expected 3.5 mm TRS single-ended stereo port, but also a 2.5 mm TRRS balanced port, which alone makes this worth consideration. We have discussed balanced cables and headphones in the past, and FiiO makes proper use of the balanced architecture by having each channel driven by its own separate DAC and amplifier. This means you will get more output power from the balanced option, which goes as high as 240 mW at 32 Ω and 7.6 Vpp at 300 Ω, which is enough for most IEMs and headphones in the world.

As logic dictates with a single driver setup, the 3.5 mm output does cut things down, giving 80 mW at 32 Ω and 90 mW at 16 Ω to where you need to be more picky, yet there is enough juice for every single set of IEMs and a lot of headphones I have tested. Whatever output you choose, you will need to get familiar with the side buttons. Every button is multifunctional, with the first a power/rest/menu button, the second a pairing/re-connect/media playback/call controls/voice assistant/menu sub-options button, and the longer button at the bottom a volume +/- as well as another menu sub-options control button. There is even a built-in omni-directional microphone at the top, a good reason to clip this to your shirt collar to where you now have a headset as well. If you have an in-line microphone on your headphone cable, the BTR5 can be set to give priority to the other microphone.


If you thought the front was mostly bare, fear not. There is a small 0.49" 64x32 pixel OLED display at the top, which allows for true portable use and is where the menu buttons on the side are useful. The manual is very handy here, so keep it close for when you go about experiencing everything. By default, the screen is set to brightness level 2 of 6 to help with battery life, and the display turns off fairly quickly to minimize burn-in. The subsequent two images of the display were taken at maximum brightness, where it is easier to get more detail compared to the black and reflective glass background/foreground. We will go over these features in more detail on the next couple of pages as well, and FiiO does make things more user-friendly with a mobile app to help things further.


Here we see the BTR5 inside its natural habitat, which is the protective case/back clip. I am once again reminded of a basic acrylic phone case with extended corners to protect against corner impacts from accidental drops. The acrylic is hard enough to resist damage and also more likely to shatter before imparting any forces to the BTR5 itself. It also won't disrupt the wireless connectivity and is see-through to a degree. I don't anticipate it turning yellow over time; those days are long gone because of the decent quality material now. The front is left exposed, as are the sides to access the buttons. Given the included microphone and position of the same, I once again recommend clipping the BTR5 to your shirt collar should you want to use it as a headset along with whatever is connected to the outputs. If not, perhaps clipping it to your belt or even simply sliding it into your pocket will work well.


The provided cable works as expected, and I have no complaints about the length for charging or the BTR5 as an optional USB DAC accessory. USB 2.0 standards are also easily met, which is all you need anyway. Most of my testing was done with the 3.5 mm output since I anticipate people will mostly use this with IEMs, although I did try the 2.5 mm balanced out with some IEMs as well. 4.4 mm or XLR are the balanced out connectors more typically used for full-sized on/over-ear headphones, so it would end up being adapter hell in some cases. As such, imagine my delight at having recently reviewed the FiiO FH5s which comes with a user-swappable 3.5 mm TRS or 2.5 mm TRRS (or 4.4 mm TRRS) plug on the cable! It felt only right that I used this combination during the testing procedure as well.