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FiiO BTR5 SkyBlue – Special Edition of the portable Bluetooth Amplifier

Personal audio device specialist FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. is now presenting a very special version of the top-of-the-line FiiO BTR Series. The FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier is now available as FiiO BTR5 SkyBlue Special Edition.


It came as a surprise when Chinese company FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. introduced the new FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier as the latest addition to the FiiO BTR Series earlier this year. Originally it was announced that this solution would not be available, but instead the company decided to develop the FiiO M5 Hi-res Lossless Music Player, which is also essentially a portable headphone amplifier with Bluetoooth and portable D/A converter, but with the functionality of a portable Hi-res audio player added to the FiiO M range.

But then things changed and FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. presented the FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier, the new top-of-the-line model in the FiiO BTR Series, which many customers had been calling for.

The FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier is the flagship of the FiiO BTR Series, with all the features you would expect from a high-end mobile Bluetooth headphone amplifier. In addition to the technical features, which we will go into again in a moment, this also includes an outstanding design and impeccable workmanship. Here, the aluminum case is adorned with a top and bottom side made of glass, whose sides are elegantly curved and thus remind us of the design of premium segment smartphones.

Previously, FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. offered the FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier in two designs, titanium and black, but now a special edition is being added. In layman’s terms, this could be called silver, but FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. prefers to call it the new FiiO BTR5 SkyBlue.

Even more so than before, this solution literally shines and cuts a fine figure alongside elegant smartphones, which are the primary source. Of course, at the latest when you look at the photos the manufacturer presents around the new design variant, it is clear which target group you want to appeal to first and foremost, namely the female clientele. However, not only women should enjoy this new exclusive design variant.

There is nothing wrong with the technical features anyway. The new FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier, and with it the new FiiO BTR5 SkyBlue, relies on completely balanced signal processing, starting with the D/A converters, as two ESS Sabre ES9218P are used here. Dual Crystal Oscillators also set the clock, with the FPGA of type 6W1NZ-LV1 providing 45.1584 MHz or 49.152 MHz depending on the signal to guarantee particularly precise operation.

The primary source is, of course, smartphones that are integrated via Bluetooth, whereby Bluetooth 5.0 in the form of a Qualcomm CSR8675 is used. SBC and AAC represent the entry level, but the FiiO BTR5 also supports aptX, aptX HD, aptX LL and LDAC, and thus all relevant codecs for signal transmission with the best quality. This solution is also equipped with NFC for easy coupling, which should not be forgotten.

USB is also available, in the form of USB C, so that the FiiO BTR5 can also be connected by cable to a smartphone, tablet or notebook and used as a portable D/A converter. This is not “just any” USB interface, but rather relies on the finest components in the form of an XMOS XUF208.

Above all via USB, the new FiiO BTR5 can exploit its full potential and process data in Linear PCM format with up to 32 bits and 384 kHz, and native DS with up to DSD256.

The new FiiO BTR5 offers all relevant types of outputs, including a 3.5 mm stereo mini jack plug for unbalanced headphones and a 2.5 mm 4-pin plug for connecting balanced headphones.

The volume control is partly digital and partly analogue, but according to the manufacturer’s promise, it is extremely accurate and sensitive and without loss of fine detail and dynamics.

Unbalanced, two 80 mW are available here, balanced two 240 mW, each measured at an impedance of 32 ohms. This is easily sufficient to operate almost any headphone without any problems.

One detail must not remain unmentioned, namely the integrated microphone, which we mentioned rather casually before. Here, too, we rely on a high-quality solution to guarantee the best possible speech quality, namely two microphones with cVc 8.0 noise cancelling. By the way, headsets that are used via the 3.5 mm CTIA connection also benefit from this active noise cancelling.

The operation is deliberately kept simple and straightforward, a multi-function button is basically sufficient, although separate buttons are of course also available for controlling the volume. With the multi-function button the device can be connected to the source, playback control, a hands-free function via the integrated microphone and activation of the voice control via Apple Siri or Google Assistant are available. A small OLED display shows the most important information clearly.

FiiO Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. is now offering a separate app for the FiiO BTR Series, the so-called FiiO Control App, which is also available for the FiiO BTR5. This allows you to access all parameters via your smartphone, whether it’s Apple iOS or Google Android, so you can also use a 10-band equalizer and select four different filters of the DAC.

The new FiiO BTR5’s built-in 550 mAh lithium-ion battery is said to provide up to nine hours of play time when used with unbalanced headphones alone. If you use the balanced output stage, it is still enough for up to 7.5 hours.

The portable Bluetooth headphone amplifier measures no more than 72 x 32 x 11.1 mm and weighs only 43.7 g.

The new FiiO BTR5 SkyBlue is available immediately from specialist retailers. It is worth noting that this new design variant is of course offered at the same price as the previously available versions of the FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier, so you only have to budget € 119.

Getting to the point

Until now, FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. has offered the FiiO BTR5 Flagship Portable High-Fidelity Bluetooth Amplifier in two designs, titanium and black, but now they are adding another, which will be released as a special edition. In layman’s terms, this could be called silver, but FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd. prefers to call it the new FiiO BTR5 SkyBlue.

Manufacturer:FiiO Electronics Technology Co Ltd.
Distribution:NT-Global Distribution GmbH
Price:€ 119,-
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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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