FiiO BTA30PRO Bluetooth Receiver Portable Transmitter Stereo Wireless High Resolution aptX/LDAC DSD256 Optical/Coaxial/Line-Out for PC/TV/Speaker/Home Audio

First off, I don't write a lot of product reviews, but I felt compelled to write this one because I think this little device is going to make you happy if it's even under consideration for you. Why so? Well, you're reading this, which means you care enough about sound quality that you're not satisfied with what's coming out of your device's 3.5mm headphone jack, and/or you're looking for a bluetooth audio receiver that's not a $30 piece of garbage (I tried one, then decided to up my budget a bit :) But you probably also don’t have such a high-end system that you're looking for a $500+ DAC or bluetooth receiver. If this sounds like you, I really think your search ends here.I’m an audio geek on a budget, with a stereo that cost me less than $1k for the receiver and speakers combined. That being said, both are very decent for their price point, and I know them to be able to provide engaging, immersive, spacious sound from stereo content… provided it’s coming from a CD player. For most of the last 20 years I've been lamenting subpar compressed music files and streaming services which, on my system, always sounded flat, narrow, and disappointing. My system includes an EQ which I like to use for music, so I try to feed it analog sources that allow that EQ to be part of the loop. For years I’ve tried phone or laptop headphone jacks, and over the years I’ve upped the ante twice, buying an Onkyo and a Creative “external USB sound card” (each was essentially an external DAC with proper RCA left and right outputs). Both processors generated a sound quality from my computer’s USB output that, to my ears, was nowhere near CD quality. Admittedly both were from 10+ years ago, after which time I gave up on the idea of truly good sound coming from my computer or phone. I’d play a file through the old Onkyo or Creative, then play a CD of the same song, and the difference was night-and-day, even as recently as the last few years (when the bitrate/quality of my source digital files was getting pretty decent).That all changed when I got this FiiO BTA30 PRO. Seriously, the DAC in this thing is no joke—playing 256 Kbps AAC files from iTunes (USB into the FiiO from my laptop, left & right RCA analog audio cables out of the FiiO to my stereo), I would absolutely say the quality was equal to CD quality through my same system. If someone said they’d spent $100 on this thing as a standalone DAC, I’d have no concerns, but THAT’S NOT EVEN WHAT I BOUGHT IT FOR. I bought it to see if it was possible to have true bluetooth-streamed audio from my phone that was worth a darn in terms of sound quality on my stereo. I didn’t even use an audio-quality-focused streaming service like Tidal—I just opened Spotify Premium (whose claimed sound quality has admittedly been climbing), paired the FiiO with my Samsung Galaxy S21 as a bluetooth audio source, hooked the FiiO to my stereo with RCA analog audio cables, and tried it out. Even through Bluetooth, it was the best thing I’ve heard this side of a CD, and when played back to back with a CD of the same song, I couldn’t give the nod decisively to one or the other.So basically I’m saying this is an amazing bluetooth receiver AND an amazing DAC. At the $120 I paid for it, I’m literally debating buying another, just in case I need a second one down the road & in a few years they don’t make this thing anymore. The one thing I haven’t tried is its bluetooth transmitter, so I can’t comment on quality there, but I have no reason to doubt it. Also, its build quality is nice—all sides but the bottom are metal, the controls feel good, RCA jacks are gold-plated and connectors fit solidly, and optical jacks include (removable) covers.As for complaints, they’re very minor:---If you’re excited about the volume control on this & thinking it’s going to give you a powerful (“loud”) output from the analog outputs, know that the max level is decent but probably not what I’d call loud. To be clear I’m happy with the level of the analog outputs and would say it’s basically identical to that of the two CD players I have with analog outputs. Just know that if you’re using the FiiO’s analog outputs, I’m betting you’re going to turn the volume knob to “Max” once, and leave it there forever.---FiiO’s support materials seem lacking—both the booklet & online directions seem to have been written in another language & Google-translated to English later, and I found it hard to find valuable troubleshooting guidance. That said, the device is pretty much plug & play—just remember to turn the FiiO’s volume knob to Max right out of the box (mine was pretty low & therefore I thought music wasn’t playing when it actually was—spent an embarrassingly long time figuring that out :)---The app seems forgettable—try it & see if you like it. I love the FiiO, but I’ll never be using the app again.---Control/input/indicator labels are tiny (probably not an issue unless you have poor eyesight like me).I should note that before this device I tried a Harman Kardon BTA-10 Bluetooth receiver. Its analog-output sound quality was quite decent, and it is truly tiny (check the dimensions—it’s less than half the size of this pretty-small FiiO). The deal breaker for me was that its analog output “loudness” was quite low, forcing my stereo’s volume to be turned very high (not great on an analog system). The FiiO has at least equal if not superior Bluetooth sound, generates a considerably louder (& adjustable) analog signal, and acts as a DAC for a wired USB input. Given all that, the $50 step-up from the Harman Kardon BTA-10 to the FiiO BTA30 PRO was a no-brainer for me.And there you have it. Given Amazon’s return policy, I’d definitely at least give it a try—I’m thrilled with mine.

The good... These are very versatile accepting both USB and SPDIF inputs, and outputting SPDIF and Analog. In pure USB DAC mode, the system accepts and outputs via SPDIF a very wide range of bit rates and depths. The analog outputs are exceptional with very low noise and very low THD as measured by my professional audio analyzer. More than acceptable for analog HiFi.In wireless mode, the system is very stable. The only disappointment is that in RF mode, whether LDAC or APT-X, it does NOT transmit 24 bit. Only 16 bit. In LDAC mode, the SPDIF is 96K/16bit. In APT-X (all three modes), the audio 48K/16Bit.I bought two of these these to create a high quality link for transmitting audio from room to another. I set one up as a transmitter and the other as a receiver. Although I could transmit and receive in LDAC (highest quality) APT-X, APT-HD, and SBC, I was very disappointed that the system does not support receiving APT-X low latency. In other words, one unit configured as a transmitter can SEND Apt-X LL to say, a compatible headphone. But a unit configured as a receiving unit could not receive APT-X Low Latency. This is a very strange oversight considering users may want to use these as a rear-speaker wireless receiver in a home theater and Apt-X LL is the only mode with acceptable latency. So, don't buy a pair of these expecting to transmit and receive low-latency. The other modes (LDAC and APT-X) run about 250ms in latency.Overall, surprisingly good performance as a USB DAC and Wireless transmitter / receiver. But disappointed that only 16 bit depth's are supported in wireless modes, and no APT-X Low Latency in receiver mode.

This is a very nice package, containing a decent DAC with a bluetooth receive/transmit capability (supporting AptX HD and LDAC). Now that I have it set up and connected, I'm very happy with the sound quality, both through the stereo amp to speakers, and through bluetooth headphones using LDAC. For the price, this is really an excellent value, I haven't found anything else nearly as good for this price.Setup is a bit involved and tricky, and the documentation is quite poor. (Fiio has this reputation.) I hooked it up to my computer using USB, to update the bluetooth & DAC firmware. Then I used the Fiio Control app on my phone to complete the setup, choosing the desired EQ settings and BT codecs. Pairing the headphones was a bit tricky: I found very sketchy instructions on their forum (there's also a Youtube video), which worked after several tries.But the end result is that I have excellent results for a very moderate price. So if you're a bit technically inclined and not afraid of doing some digging and figuring things out, check this product out. I would recommend it highly.

The goal: The option of listening to my vinyl and cd/sacd collections through my B&W PX8 bt headphones for quiet but still ‘hifi’ listening sessions. At the end of the day, the goal was achieved with exceptional results. But it took many extra steps and a major-to-me flaw was revealed.The flaw: lack of analogue input. I do not have any receivers with a digital out. To overcome this I had to use my Monster ADC/DAC and use a 3.5mm to rca cable going from headphones out to the ADC rca input, then a optical cable out to the input of the FiiO.Takeaway: If your stereo/av receiver has no digital output, don’t fear, there is a workaround. I noticed no degradation in sound quality from several vinyl records to test everything out. If anything it sounds more dynamic to me. Your mileage my vary as I can only tell you about my personal experience. I hope this long ramble will give potential buyers a little less to worry about relating to “how am I going to connect this??”Side note: the first picture was throwing everything together to see if it would work and give an idea on how things are connected. Then I cleaned it up for the second picture