a trade-off upgrade-Feiao BTR3K Bluetooth decoding ear amplifier experience evaluation

Bluetooth earphones, a new Hi-Fi category, as the name implies, have more earphones than ordinary Bluetooth receivers, which can better drive "high-end earphones" in the hands of enthusiasts ". Feiao's BTR series has always been the best among such products, from uBTR, which is in its early 100 yuan, to BTR3, the main force in the middle, and then to BTR5, which is all explosive. However, Feiao upgraded BTR3 this year, using two brand-new AK4377A DAC decoding earphone chips and adding a 2.5mm balanced earphone hole and other upgrades. In my opinion, BTR3K is not an upgrade of BTR3, but more like the youth version of BTR5 (exquisite knife method, improving cost performance)

appearance

BTR3K maintains the size and weight of the previous generation's lightweight pocket. It is only the size of a Dove chocolate, which is very convenient to carry. On the basis of BTR3, the back clip is separated and a lanyard is attached, which is convenient for users to choose freely.

Under the FiiO logo on the front is actually a color light group, which will display different colors during work, corresponding to different Bluetooth coding formats.

From top to bottom on the right side of the fuselage, there are switch buttons, microphone holes, play/communication control keys, and volume addition/subtraction/switching previous or next buttons.

At the bottom is a 3.5mm standard earphone interface and a 2.5 balanced earphone interface.

The USB connection is at the top and uses a more mainstream Type-C interface.

On the back is the Hi-Res wireless certification logo and product information, the new version of the small gold certification oh.

The connection function

BTR3K, like other Bluetooth earphones in Feiao, has the most complete Bluetooth transmission protocol support, including the favorite LDAC of enthusiasts.

BTR3K has 32 levels of volume adjustment independent of the source equipment, which is convenient for users to adjust the volume in a fine manner.

Cancellation of NFC function is a small pity, but in fact, devices such as Bluetooth earphones rarely switch to connect to the front end frequently, which may be based on user feedback and cost reduction considerations. Feiao canceled this function.

From whether there is system-level or APP software support, we can see the real strength of manufacturers. Apple, Samsung, Sony, etc. have already proved their strength. Through software, Bluetooth headsets have room for further improvement and users can customize them individually. BTR3K can also be refined through APP, and can be adjusted only through Feiao music.

In addition to the basic adjustment, the "Feiao Music" APP can also set the EQ and filter of BTR3K, and even adjust the output load of the earphone hole to match the impedance and sensitivity of the earphone to achieve the effect of optimizing the sound quality.

In terms of the most important upgrade of audio performance, BTR3K's DAC has been upgraded from single AK4376A to dual AK4377A independent decoding, thus also having the ability to balance output. There is no need to say much about the benefits of dual DAC, "double happiness, double sound quality?", and balanced earphone holes. Balanced earphone holes are very popular among high-level Hi-Fi players, and their advantages are also obvious. They can improve the separation of left and right channels, make the sound field performance more three-dimensional, and have higher thrust. When the same load is 32 ohms, the 3.5mm earphone hole of BTR5K can output 25mW, while the 2.5mm balanced earphone hole can output 78mW.

BTR3K also supports USB decoding function, directly connected to PC, and used as an external DAC sound card. It is said that some mobile phones can also be connected to use for mobile phone decoding DAC, but because there is no XMOS chip on BTR5, compatibility will be much worse, so Feiao did not publicize this function. If you really want to use the small tail of mobile phones, I still recommend BTR5.

sound quality evaluation

In general, BTR3K is not a style with high gain and high thrust to create miracles, but with the support of LDAC, it can obtain a more comprehensive expression without high volume.

BTR3K has a more balanced and softer warm tone, which is compatible with the mainstream East Asian pop music style and conforms to its positioning of popular music appreciation. This tone color is easy for people not to care about the existence of the concept of "sound quality", and its basic quality performance is enough to make people forget that this is a Bluetooth device. In this price range, it is enough to support consumers to use some medium and high-end earphone products through Bluetooth connection.

"Ten Years"-Eason Chan ("Black, White and Grey")
The sound performance of this single in the past ten years is familiar to everyone. The warm color POP tuning of BTR3K mainstream fits well with Eason's timbre. It is still not a "quality flow" that highlights some details or amplifies some timbre characteristics. The voice and piano are already warm and mixed, and the mixing and matching of various timbre orchestration is warmer and softer, although the emotional expression of Chen Yixun's timbr, but it is more suitable to exist as a BGM on the way to and from work.

"Jiaga Ninja Post"-Yin and Yang Seat "Jiaga Ninja Post" OST
As the representative work of the Japanese visual rock band, this theme song has not been covered up by the classic work of "Kaga Ninja Post". Under LDAC, BTR3K's performance is unexpected. The complicated orchestration and the separation of instruments are very good. Rock instrumental music neither covers the human voice nor mixes into a group. Although the overall timbre is still warm, the dynamic performance can still show the basic impetuous movement of yin and yang, just because of the limitation of the driving force, the scene is a little small, and the cymbals and the high-pitched area of the guitar are slightly lack of control, but this cannot be used to force BTR3K. If the requirements are higher, you can choose BTR5 advanced.

"Reset"-Pingyuan Ayaka "Great God" game OST
This is a classic game ED. As "Great God" entered Steam, it began to be known by more people. This lyrical JPOP is also a music type that BTR3K can better control. The human voice is fuller, and the air sound in the plain sound has a strong sense of existence, which well renders the emotional expression of the whole song. At the same time, the warmer sound also weakens the burrs brought by the air sound, A little more low frequency performance in the recording is very restrained. Although the gain of BTR3K is not high, the stable and warm sound characteristics just make up for the slightly exciting recording of this song. In the performance of many similar East Asian pop music, BTR3K is also There are similar polishing.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the author prefers to regard BTR3K as the youth version of BTR5. It has the ability to reduce the dimension from the configuration to the selling price. Among the products with the same price, few of them use double DAC decoding earphone chips like BTR3K and have 2.5mm balanced earphone holes. Even if the hardware configuration can be close, they can adjust the detailed parameters with APP like BTR3K, among similar Bluetooth earphones, Feiao BTR3K can be the first choice for blind snipers unless you have a crush on BTR5.