FiiO BTR17 Review

Design

• 87 x 41 x 16mm (HWD)
• Choice of two finishes
• Supplied with leatherette case

Considering the amount of stuff the BTR17 is capable of doing and the amount of stuff FiiO has crammed inside, the device’s tidy 87 x 41 x 16mm (HWD) dimensions are quite surprising. This is an easily palmed device that is small enough to slip into all but the snuggest pockets, and its 73g weight means it’s not any kind of burden once it’s in there.

There’s space on the front of the BTR17 for a bright, crisp 33mm full-colour IPS display, from where it’s possible to get information about file type or Bluetooth codec, sample rate, EQ setting, battery life and volume level.

Extraordinarily, there’s room on the display for all of this information to be displayed legibly all at once. The display is also where you access menus to adjust gain gradients, select from a number of audio filters, choose an EQ preset, adjust the brightness of the screen, select car mode and plenty more besides.

Navigating the menus is done using the turn/press rotary control on the top left edge of the BTR17. It feels good, and operates with nice positivity, and it also takes care of volume control, play/pause and most telephony functions.

There are other physical controls arranged beneath it down the edge of the machine – they are necessarily tiny, and the labelling telling you what’s what is tinier still.

But nevertheless, once you’ve committed the function to memory, here’s where you can take care of skip forwards/backwards, power on/off, select your usage mode (Bluetooth, phone or PC) and switch desktop mode on or off.

The usage mode is significant for reasons beyond using the BTR17 as a Bluetooth transmitter or not. In PC mode, the FiiO is completely powered by the computer it’s connected to. In phone mode, the BTR17’s internal battery is involved in power supply, reducing the load on your smartphone. And in BT mode, all the power is coming from the FiiO’s internal battery.

Connection to a computer or to a smartphone is achieved using one of the two USB-C slots on the bottom of the BTR17. Both can be used for charging and for data transfer, but one is also for power input when the device is in desktop mode. 

Back in the mainstream world, there are a couple of headphone outputs on the top of the FiiO. One is an unbalanced 3.5mm socket, the other a 4.4mm balanced alternative.

Features

• Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Lossless and LDAC compatibility
• Dual ESS ES9069Q DACs
• 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512 support

Small and relatively affordable it may be, but the FiiO BTR17 is all business when it comes to specification – it’s packing features and functionality you’d be pleased to see in a product costing twice the price.

Wireless connectivity, for instance, is taken care of by Bluetooth 5.4 – and it’s compatible with every worthwhile codec, up to and including LDAC and aptX Lossless. The Qualcomm QCC5181 Bluetooth chip that’s taking care of business is LE Audio-compliant, too.

Using the USB-C slot to get audio information on board in the first place gives access to a pair of ESS ES9069Q DAC chipsets that are able to support resolutions up to a giddy 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512.

And when using the FiiO in desktop mode with its power in USB slot connected to a source of USB power, the BTR17 is capable of a prodigious 650mW + 650mW of balanced output power – this is more than enough to drive even the trickiest headphones, and is comparable to the sort of output you’d expect from a dedicated desktop headphone amp.

There’s also the frankly exhaustive FiiO Control app. If you want a slider to adjust the length of time the BTR17’s screen stays on, or how bright it is, or how long it stays switched on while it’s idle, you can get it here.

If you want to adjust the double-click function of those physical skip forwards/backwards buttons, or create a custom EQ using a ten-band equaliser, switch Distortion Compensation in one or both of two harmonic ranges on or off, or adjust the channel balance between left and right, this is where you do it. Inveterate tweakers will be over the moon with this app, the rest of us are likely to feel quite intimidated.

FiiO, naturally, is more than happy to go on, at length, about the three-stage, ten-rail power supply it’s fitted to the BTR17. Or the driver-free mode that means it can be plugged directly into your Nintendo Switch, Sony PS5 or what-have-you. Or the multi-stage audio architecture that’s derived from those digital audio players it charges four figures for.

Or even the little length of monocrystalline silver- and copper-plated eight-strand USB-C / USB-C cable it provides to ensure clean power and accurate data transfer… but surely by now the broad point is satisfactorily made. FiiO has taken the specification of the BTR17 as seriously as it possibly could.  

As far as battery life is concerned, it depends on the way you’re using the BTR17 – but, thankfully, not all that much. You’ll get the longest run (of around 10 hours) in phone mode when using the 3.5mm unbalanced headphone output, at moderate volume, playing stuff of no greater than 16bit/44.1kHz resolution.

But even in the most unpromising circumstances (using Bluetooth and the LDAC codec, playing at higher volume and using the 4.4mm balanced output), you should expect around seven hours of action between charges.

Performance

• Ample insight and rhythmic certainty
• Detailed and organised
• Moves like a flyweight and punches like one too

There’s more to music than bass, and in almost every major respect the FiiO BTR17 performs admirably in the context of its configuration and its asking price. Bass is a thing, though – for some people it’s the major thing – and it’s perhaps the one significant area in which the BTR17 is slightly lacking. So I may as well start here…

The low frequencies the FiiO generates are just as rapid and controlled, and just as detailed and varied, as the rest of the frequency information it creates. What they’re not, though, is particularly substantial. The BTR17 can dig a fair way down the frequency range, and it hits with determination – but there’s not a lot of body to its bass reproduction. Think flyweight rather than heavyweight and you’ll get the idea.

Via access to EQ settings and various filters in the menus, it’s possible to try and add a little heft to the low end here – and it can be done. But it’s too the detriment of everything the BTR17 does well, and for that reason I’d suggest either taking or leaving the FiiO on its own terms rather than trying to turn it into something it’s not.

After all, they’re quite enticing terms. Listen to something zesty like Neon Drum Pattern by Jon Hopkins and the simple speed and momentum of the BTR17 is straightforwardly impressive – the low frequencies may not be the meatiest around but they’re zealously controlled, and rhythmic expression is confident as a result. The tune fairly cracks along, and it doesn’t sound in any way stressed or unnatural as it does so.

Details levels are high at every part of the frequency range, and the FiiO is particularly adept at identifying and contextualising the more transient occurrences in a recording. The midrange is open and communicative, and the rapidity of the top end is not at the expense of mass. There’s a smooth transition from one area of the frequency range to the next, and with the exception of outright low-frequency punch this is an even-handed listen.

Soundstaging is good, with even complex recordings unpicked to the point that each element can be identified on the stage. Dynamic headroom is considerable, and the FiiO has no problem tracking the shifts in volume and intensity during a recording of Big Youth’s Screaming Target. And it presents recordings as a singular event, with a sense of integration and unity that’s by no means a given in a product of this type, costing this sort of money.

And broadly speaking, these are the terms the BTR17 lays down no matter how you’re using it. Perhaps it’s via Bluetooth, to bring wired headphone ability to a smartphone with no headphone socket or to a car with no wireless aspect to its entertainment system. Perhaps it’s as a desktop DAC/headphone amp, connected via USB-C to a laptop that ordinarily sounds woeful.

There are qualitative differences between wired and wireless connections, of course – but what never wavers is the flavour the FiiO brings.

Should you buy it?