I have actually never used the device in USB mode so I donāt know, but I can test that later today when I get a minute free.That being said I have no real complaints with the BT quality so much that Iāve honestly never even considered using it wired lol. By default when you plug it into a source as a amp/dac it disables the charging to not strain the battery. This can be changed in settings but for my personal use case I just charge it and take it with me when I go out. There is also some performance difference when the device is low battery vs full (mostly volume in my experience) so Iād imagine direct plug would sound more like a full charge.
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So, Sgtdap, I tested this and it worksā¦ kinda.
from my phone, the only app that outputs to my BTR5, that Iāve tried, is the FiiO app. if I try to connect by USB and use another music app (I tried Google Play Music and Youtube Music), it plays through the loudspeaker of my phone.
I canāt seem to find any settings that change that.
ā¦ of note: the FiiO app seemed to default to hardware accelerated mode (seems that itās optional on BT, mandatory on USB), which disables the internal volume control on my phone and only the volume on my BTR5 actually does anything. Which also means the audio files are streamed raw to the device, so the bitrates (shown on the screen of the BTR5) show the currently playing mediaās bitrate, when nothing is playing, it just stays at whatever bitrate it was last at or defaults to 384k.
on my PC, the BTR5 just shows up as an audio output device (no input from the mic), so the USB seems to be limited, but functional.
For clarity, the tests were done on my Google Pixel 4, running Android 10; Desktop is a Windows 10 workstation (I expect make/model matter less here). YMMV, and I have an iPhone but no adapter to connect it to my BTR5 in any way, or I would test that too (not sure if I need the lightening to USB adapter and an A to C cable, or I can get a lightening to C cable and that worksā¦ no matter, I donāt have either of those cables).
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Thanks for checking it out. I was pretty decided on the BTR5 over the UP4 due to the āhigherā qualities and rates over USB but it sounds like itās more fiddling than it would be worth to me for the marginally better specs on paper. Really doubt I would be able to discern a difference but knowing something was ābetterā would have always made me wonder. I like the knob of the UP4 better than buttons, about 2 years in on my phone and still hit the wrong buttons on the sides half the time when Iām not pulling it out of my pocket haha.
I would plan to replace my Fulla 2 at work with which ever unit and I donāt have BT on my work PC. I could use either connected but might just roll with the BT from my phone while at work and donāt have to unplug every time I walk to the water-cooler.
Just a quick follow up on my BTR5: I got my balanced cables from Hart audio ( https://hartaudiocables.com/ ) and I finally get to use my BTR5 balanced. I havenāt tested the cables SE on it yet (honestly, why would I bother?) but I expect they sound EXACTLY the same on the hart cables; I have to say, Hart audio cables, if youāre on the fence, do it. these are awesome, my first impressions are above and beyond what I expected. I love the modularity.
I digress, the BTR5 sounds excellent balanced on the Sundaraās, lots of power here (currently running USB from my PC - BTR5 shows 96k (hz), playing a 24bit 48khz FLAC file from Foobar on my PC), and I had to turn it down. Running the Sundaraās balanced on this, you get quite a lot of power. Iām currently on high gain.
I have a lot to say about the Hart cables but Iāll save it for a more appropriate thread. SE performance on the BTR5 with the Sundaraās, just to recap, was good, I didnāt have as much power headroom as I do balanced, but it sounded fine, I didnāt notice anything specifically lacking about the sound. With balanced, I feel itās more robust (? hard to explain I suppose).
Iām still waiting on my balanced cable for my T2ās from Linsoul (been sitting in shipping limbo since April 20th).
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It unfortunately does not a line out feature and isnāt built to act as a standalone dac. Also never balanced into unbalanced, only ever unbalanced into balanced. More needs to be discussed about double amping. Dac->amp->amp. Itās supposed to be avoided like the plague but I havenāt read enough to figure out exactly whatās bad about it. I think it just exaggerates distortion to an unacceptable degree mainly. Again idk why but itās not good, but look more into why and when itās ok to do. I need to know why too!!!
Well, every dac has a built-in amp, too. Plus, es9218p is a soc, which means the dac canāt bypass the amp.
Most line-out for unbalanced have 2 volts. That needs a proper amp. The things is, the amp input only need very little current.
LG V phones have aux mode which has 1 volt (I donāt know why they chose 1 volt) and very little current. People have measured V20 and suggested that aux mode is the best for line-out.
But it seems the fiio doesnāt have this feature.
Not entirely true about SOCās not being able to bypass an amp.
If you allow me to give my two cents on this, as an electronic engineer (but not for audio): amps are common inside various DAC designs, not only in audio, and they are building blocks for analog circuits. You can either have them inside the DAC or acting as buffer/amplifier in the output stage. However, when you āstackā amp stages, a.k.a chain then one after another; one thing that happens is noise increases. Thatās because noise never goes down in the analog chain, it increases with each element of the chain, so less components means less noise. This is specially true for MOSFET based amps, because they have a type of noise called flicker, which acts in our audible frequency.
That being said, there are reasons for using amps for coupling or buffering DACs. For example, usually the dynamic behavior of an active circuit DAC is better, and itās probably more compatible with different ohm loadās. You can also minimize noise with some techniques and topologies.
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I see a lot of questions here about desk use as a USB dac/amp. From what I can tell, this is the one thing the ES100 has over the BTR5: a true line out. At my work office (where I havenāt been in 3 months!), I plug my ES100 into my macbook and then connect to a Magni 2. Et voilĆ . Eventually Iāll get a dac for the office desk, but even then Iāll miss the fact than when Iām running the ES100 as a USB dac, itās ALSO connected to my phone via BT, which means I can take calls or stream Tidal on the phone. It is my impression that one canāt do that with the BTRā¦or does one just keep the volume low?
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Key word here is ādac/ampā. Not just a DAC. I recommend it for desk use because itās small, travels well, and in a standard office just does everything well enough with IEMās and most headphones.
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Iām with Dago. If youāre only driving a pair of headphones, the BTR5 has plenty of power for most everything youāll want to run. if you need something with a little more umph, you can turn the volume on the fiio down to very low and play the source volume vs amp gain game, trying not to overload the ampās input. though, honestly, I wouldnāt, personally, unless Iām running speakers off the BTR5.
If you have speakers good enough that you feel they should be run off of an external DAC, then buying a dedicated DAC and AMP for that purpose may be a better move. using the FiiO BTR5 as a desktop DAC/AMP is more of a cost-saving measure - it sounds great and you can also use it for other things too. IMO, if you have the money for speakers that youāre going to be able to differentiate between a good DAC vs the DAC built into your computer, then buy one specifically for the speakers and factor that into the cost of the speaker systemā¦
IMO, this is a headphone DAC/AMP, and we shouldnāt be trying to shoehorn it into scenarios it wasnāt built for.
WITH THAT SAID: I have used this (and played the volume vs amp gain game) with my carās line in. Worked pretty well and fairly easily with minimal adjustment.
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Got this tiny beast today!
I gave the BTR5 a spin with my HD 6XX.
YouTube Music 256kbps, Pixel 4 + iPhone 11 Pro.
Quick impressions after an hour or two of listening:
- it sounds fantastic
- I know, I know, SPL and stuff. For me, the BTR5 drives the HD 6XX fine over unbalanced, with volume around 60-70%, high gain.
- Iāve already ordered some Hart Audio balanced cables, because I was curious. Iāll post an update after trying them.
- EQ was weird. I think this is where the lack of power may be showing. On my Hel, I can boost the hell out of the lower frequencies and the 6XX will be happy. With the BTR5 they seem to choke. The extra balanced powa might help here.
- playing YTM 256kbps, I canāt really tell the difference between LDAC, APT HD (Pixel 4) and AAC (iPhone 11 Pro)
- I also canāt really tell the difference between this and my Schiit Hel.
- Well. The Hel can go MUCH louder, comparable volumes are like 9 o-clock for the Hel to ~38/60 on the BTR5 (both high gain). Also EQ (read above).
- Android app seems slightly better. But they both work alright. Being able to connect to both and switch on demand was nice, made comparisons a little easier.
Overall, Iām happy with this!
FYI, Amazon has them in stock for $110:
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I believe AptX is good up to 352kbps. LDAC is better for CD-quality playback (yup, 990kbps).
CD-quality is 1411kbpsā¦ but thereās still compression happening (allegedly lossless).
Still, most people use FLAC files ā lossless compression of about 1/3ā¦ ~940kbps.
https://cdn57.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Bluetooth-Audio-Codecs-840x559.png
Iāve experimented with Tidal and lossless and to be honest, I havenāt been able to tell the difference when I compare it to YouTube Musicās high quality version. I know many people claim they can. Not disputing that, but so far it all sounds very similar to my ears. Maybe if I knew exactly what to listen for, Iād notice. But perhaps itās better that I donāt know 
However, if the YTM track is not 256kbps, I can tell. Itās usually the ones that come from videos. IIRC, I used to be able to tell the difference between SBC and the other codecs, but itās been a while since I used that codec, so not sure.
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Yeah itās hard if you donāt have āgolden earsā or ādetail monsterā headphones. Obviously more apparent if you could A/B youtube VS the CD, but well.
One thing I know is, youtube just demolishes the sub-bass. Electro songs I bought in .wav versus the youtube videos (official, 1080p, etcā¦) I get maybe 30% more sub-bass from the CD-quality file.
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Itās also really hard to do a direct comparison, and that gets worse 44 ā 96/192 because even knowing itās the same recording is difficult.
The reason most people find it hard to differentiate, is because if it werenāt compressed audio would have been a complete failure, the difference really is tiny, itās in the details.
All I really notice with compressed audio is a loss in staging, and āclarityā/treble quality, if your systems not particularly resolving, you probably wouldnāt notice that.
I would choose uncompressed over compressed, but I have tracks on CDās I ripped 2 decades ago that I donāt have as FLAC, and are unusual enough streaming services donāt have them, and Iām happy to listen to those in the format I have.
Iād just stop worrying about it and listen to the music.
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To add to @Polygonhellās point, Iām going to drop a link to another post here:
The podcast linked to within that post has a couple of audio researchers as guests. One of the researchers points out that listeners inevitably prefer a lossless format over a lossy formatā¦ EVENTUALLY. The tricky part is mp3 and other compression codecs are really good at determining and presenting the āessenceā of a piece of music. If oneās exposure is first and most often to a lossy format, that essence creates the expectation of how a track should sound. The subtle details like reverb and air that often get lost in a lossy (HA!) format can initially sound like a distraction from that essence. However, in time and with practice listeners do begin to prefer the added realism that the lost content gives back when moving to a lossless format. But that takes time and lots of listening.
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Would you say this could be similar in going from a headphone with little detail to a very detailed headphone for the first time?
Could be. Any new headphone/speaker is going to require some level of mental burn-in (physical burn-in is real too but almost always has a much, much smaller and sometimes vanishing effect). If you go from something relaxed like a Meze 99 series to detail cannons from the Beyer line, then yes, a similar effect could probably happen.
BTR5 now comes in a āTitaniumā outer color. Might be able to see the side buttons better? I might buy one 
But I also want to see someone who has this: