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FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver

The new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver is said to be a particularly flexible desktop audio solution; the manufacturer FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. even refers to it as a versatile central component of a home audio system.

The FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver is the designated successor to the solution that the specialist for personal audio devices FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. presented at the end of last year as an outstanding, flexible interface for a wide range of Bluetooth devices and as an equally flexible DAC, the FiiO BTA30 High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver.

The very similarity in the product designation already shows clearly that the current FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver is not entirely new, but rather a new generation that relies first and foremost on a new D/A converter.

FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver – New D/A Converter

Quite apart from the fact that the entire industry is suffering from the acute chip shortage, in consumer electronics the situation is aggravated by the fact that D/A converters from the proven specialist Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation, of all companies, are simply not available. Manufacturers who rely primarily on D/A converters from this company are thus faced with massive problems, such as FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd, and must now design their products differently.

And this is exactly the case with the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver, because instead of the AKM AK4490 in the FiiO BTA30 High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver, the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver now relies on converters from ESS Technology Inc, specifically a 32-bit DAC of the type ESS ES9038Q2M.

FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. describes this solution as a high-performance DAC that is supposed to offer immensely detailed, clear signal processing with high dynamics and free of distortion.

Performance upgraded

The manufacturer also lists a performance upgrade as another significant innovation, whereby the focus is on an XMOS XUF208. This is primarily relevant for signal processing via the USB interface available on the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver – designed as USB-C – which supports USB Audio 2.0 and allows signal processing of data in Linear PCM with up to 32 bits and 384 kHz, as well as native DSD including DSD512.

Flexible D/A converter

To stay with the use of the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver as a D/A converter, in addition to the aforementioned USB interface, it also has a coaxial and optical S/PDIF interface as inputs, whereby the coaxial S/PDIF supports signals with up to 24 bits and 192 kHz or DSD via DSD over PCM. The optical S/PDIF interface is limited to 24 bit and 96 kHz in Linear PCM.

High-quality Bluetooth interface

As the name of this solution makes clear, the focus is, of course, on Bluetooth. The new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver uses a Qualcomm CSR8675 Bluetooth chip. According to the manufacturer, this chip allows 32-bit audio processing, is equipped with a 120 MHz DSP and supports all relevant Bluetooth decoding functions.

In fact, the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver can not only receive Bluetooth with the codecs SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX LL as well as LDAC, but also transmit them, so it functions as a receiver as well as a transmitter, and is thus quite rightly called a transceiver.

DSP for upsampling

The new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver is also equipped with a CT7302EL DSP from TE Connectivity Ltd. This is said to be able to upscale any signal from the FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver to 32 bits and 384 kHz.

Flexible outputs

The new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver has, of course, a pair of RCA connectors as analogue outputs, but there are also optical and coaxial S/PDIF interfaces as digital outputs. It is interesting to note that the coaxial S/PDIF is marked as In and Out.

Versatile in use

The list so far already shows that the FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver is designed for maximum flexibility.

The applications that are possible with the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver are truly diverse. In the simplest case, it can be used as a Bluetooth receiver, for example on a hi-fi system, but also on a pair of active speaker systems, with smartphones and tablets serving as the primary source.

It is also possible to use the FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver to transmit Bluetooth, for example, if you connect a TV via the digital inputs and thus transmit audio signals via Bluetooth to Bluetooth headphones.

Another option is to use a PC or Mac as a source and simply use the FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver as a D/A converter.

The manufacturer itself speaks of three operation modes and four functions, a flexibility that is made possible by the aforementioned variety of interfaces.

  • Foto © FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. | FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver
  • Foto © FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. | FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver
  • Foto © FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. | FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver

Extremely compact

The new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver measures no more than 120 x 55 x 25.8 mm and weighs just 145 g. While the FiiO BTA30 High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver was still equipped with a plastic housing, the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver has an aluminium housing that is elegantly anodised in black.

Simple operating concept

The front of the device is adorned with two buttons, a selector switch and a rotary encoder, which already allows you to conveniently control all functions of the FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver, with status LEDs on the front as well as on the top displaying all relevant information.

In addition, the manufacturer also offers a suitable app for the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver, namely the FiiO Music App and the FiiO Control App as a flexible remote control for Apple iOS and Google Android.

Getting to the point

Of course, the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver focuses on a new D/A converter, which distinguishes it from the FiiO BTA30 High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver. However, the developers at FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. have improved the features of the new FiiO BTA30 PRO High Fidelity Bluetooth Transceiver and thus justify the “PRO” in the name.

PRODUCTFIIO BTA30 PRO HIGH FIDELITY BLUETOOTH TRANSCEIVER
PriceN/A
BrandFiiO
ManufacturerFiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd.
DistributionNT Global Distribution GmbH
More about this manufacturer at HIFI BLOG
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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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