Look into some of the DAPs. Even some cheap ones can transmit and receive Bluetooth. Let us know if you have any more questions. BTW happy holidays to you and your and that’s for everyone here as well. See you on the other side.

Louis –

Happy New Year and thank you for getting back to me! I’m not upset in the least, I had already bought the BTR17 before I read your review or asked my question. I read several reviews prior to yours and in one of those I got the impression that it was capable of BT transmission. So no worries, I didn’t make my decision to buy based on your review! I must have misunderstood what I read in that other review because it seemed to be the solution I was seeking, but clearly not. Besides the ifi Zen Blue 3, are there any other models you can thing of that can be a solution for me? The Zen Blue 3 is fine, as I already own the iFi Gryphon which I love but if there are some better options I’d like to know about those as well, even if they are more expensive. Mind you, I want the DAC that I choose to have a smallish form factor, which the Zen Blue 3 still seems to fit that bill but I wouldn’t want one to be much bigger than that. Any others you’d recommend? Thanks and again I appreciate you responding to my inquiry!

Corey H.

Hi Corey.oh boy how can I say this in a way you won’t flip out. Go back and read the review. I never said it can transmit Bluetooth, it can only receive Bluetooth. The name says it all Bluetooth receiver, or BTR. That unit can’t do that. Perhaps you were thinking of the ifi Zen Blue 3 which can do what you’re trying to do, transmit BT from USB to a set of TWS. As far as your TWS single bud pairing, that is up to the model you’re using. Most can but a few can’t. You’re welcomed to chime in with any questions before purchasing any gear reviewed here and we will gladly answer any questions to clear any doubts.

My name is Corey Harville and I have a question about the Fiio BTR17. First off, thank you for your review. It was an excellent read and I learned a great deal about the unit. However, it appears that I have a very unique situation that I cannot find a solution for so I’d like to ask if the BTR17 is capable of this but it requires a bit of backstory/clarity.

I want to use the BTR17 as a USB DAC from my laptop but instead of using the balanced or standard headphone jacks I want the sound to be output to my BT earbuds. Let me explain. So when I am in my family room with my wife and she is watching one of her HORRIBLE “reality” TV shows, I am usually listening to music on my laptop until the sh*tshow (get it?!) is over and we can begin to watch something we BOTH like. So currently I use a DAC (the iFi Gryphon) with wired headphones to listen BUT to be conversational with my wife, I only have on one earcup. Problem is, I only get the music that is dedicated to one channel – while most music is stereo, some artists matrix certain instruments/sounds in either the right or the left channel separately – so I am only getting “half” the sound of the song. A cool feature with BT is that many wireless earbuds (including the ones I own), when the user is wearing only one earbud, the bud combines the left and right music channels and plays both thru one earbud. This would allow me to hear all of the music rather than one channel. I have 520,000 songs in either lossless or hi-res formats (I’ve been a DJ since I was 15 with over 10,000 CDS and about 5,000 pieces of vinyl) and my laptop is older so its “soundcard” (dare it be called that) is just not capable of handling the playback of hi-res or SACD formats so a DAC is necessary in my case.

So, getting back to my question about the BTR17. I bought it because it says that it can receive and transmit BT, including being able to be paired directly to BT headphones. Most portable DAC dongles can only receive BT so this became the PREMIER feature of the BTR17 that set it apart and seemingly would allow me to use it as I have envisioned: USB out of my computer to the DAC that can process hi-res playback (the BRT17 in this case) and then output the audio via BT to my wireless earbud. However, I unboxed the BTR17, and immediately tried to pair it with my wireless earbuds (the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3’s) and ran into my very first problem: I could not figure out and/or force the BTR17 to pair with the Sennheisers. So my questions are: Can the BTR17 really pair directly to BT headphones/earbuds? Can the BTR17 even be used as I am envisioning it? And finally, if the BTR CANNOT be used as I have envisioned, what portable DAC dongle(s) can be used in this manner? PLEASE HELP. Thank you for your time and attention.

Hi Ozan. It should work just fine on BT connectivity and I believe it should also work as a standalone DAC/amplifier if you get a compatible Lightning cable.

Hello. Will I have problems with Apple products on Fiio BTR 17? Especially iPhone 16 Promax, iPad Air M2, Macbook Air M2. Thank you.

Hi Oun. There’s not much difference but you end up obtaining better results from the BTR17 because it runs on battery power which is cleaner versus dirty USB power. So the noise floor seems to improve by a small margin.

Hi Silvestro. If I would go on sound quality alone I would choose the BTR17 by a small margin but I think that margin comes from the beefier power output section plus I also feel that the DAC chip outperforms the Cirrus logic 43131 chip inside the GO BLU versus the more upscaled ES9069. If the GO BLU had the 43198 it would have been a different story.

Sorry we have not reviewed the Muse M5 Ultra yet.