Calling all Audiophiles: FiiO uBTR vs Shanling UP2?

FiiO uBTR vs Shanling UP2

  • FiiO uBTR

  • Shanling UP2

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sid41299

sid41299

Disciple
I already have a short-cable pair of headphones, so I don't want to buy dedicated over-ear Bluetooth headphones, and instead replace the Sony SBH20 headset I've been using till now. I've narrowed down my choices to these two - the Shanling UP2 and the FiiO uBTR. While I am partial to the Shanling (Sister dailies the MTW100, and they're pretty good) and the USB DAC feature is killer, not to mention the longer battery, I can't help but think maybe the FiiO is good for what it is and does at it's price? Obviously, I'm comparing two different weight classes entirely, but I want to know if spending 6K on the UP2 is justified for it's perks over the 2.5K uBTR.

As an aside, if you guys know any other good bluetooth receivers/DACs (no-frills or otherwise), I'd be happy to consider them as well.

Thanks in advance.
 
Haven’t looked at the cheaper Fiio’s since they lack a proper DAC chip. I have though used Shanling UP2 a fair bit and can say it’s better then LG V30 and other music phones that have proper chip inside. So imo spend a bit more and get UP2.
 
I am using the Earstudio ES100 and its pretty powerful. Their app itself is fantastic and allows you to control everything. Over time I did not even realize that I was listening over bluetooth, its so good.
 
ibose said:
I am using the Earstudio ES100 and its pretty powerful. Their app itself is fantastic and allows you to control everything. Over time I did not even realize that I was listening over bluetooth, its so good.
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How well is the build quality? Amazon is rife with reviews of the thing falling apart in a year or the battery dying in 2. Was tempted to purchase it when it was being sold for $75 but decided against it.

Also, they are pretty poor about support under warranty and I think it will be impossible to get it serviced if shipped from South Korea.
 
t3chg33k said:
How well is the build quality? Amazon is rife with reviews of the thing falling apart in a year or the battery dying in 2. Was tempted to purchase it when it was being sold for $75 but decided against it.

Also, they are pretty poor about support under warranty and I think it will be impossible to get it serviced if from South Korea.
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Yes I am aware of those reports - the clip tends to break. But I have not faced any issue so far - battery is still working fine. I suppose its not made for rough use. I got it over from Amazon US via a friend so I was already taking a risk. So far it seems to be paying off.
 
t3chg33k said:
How well is the build quality? Amazon is rife with reviews of the thing falling apart in a year or the battery dying in 2. Was tempted to purchase it when it was being sold for $75 but decided against it.

Also, they are pretty poor about support under warranty and I think it will be impossible to get it serviced if shipped from South Korea.
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You can also consider Qudelix-5K Reference DAC AMP as well.
 
ibose said:
Its from the former CTO of Radsone, who sell the Earstudio. Its supposed to be better but had not yet launched when I got the Earstudio.
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Yes, got delayed due to COVID-19 unfortunately. This thing is supposed to give best battery life among all hi-fi adapters available.
 
Nalin said:
Yes, got delayed due to COVID-19 unfortunately. This thing is supposed to give best battery life among all hi-fi adapters available.
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Yeah, read about it when researching the ES100 MK2. Again, the reviews tend to swing between the ES100, BTR5 and the 5K as per the reviewer's preference, so yet again it becomes difficult to judge whether it is worth the premium over the others.
 
t3chg33k said:
Yeah, read about it when researching the ES100 MK2. Again, the reviews tend to swing between the ES100, BTR5 and the 5K as per the reviewer's preference, so yet again it becomes difficult to judge whether it is worth the premium over the others.
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5K is just a little better then BTR5 which again is little better then ES100 from what I have read on the ClieOS thread. But ES100 is most popular among them all no doubt.

Personally I think any entry level AKM dap is much better then all these mainly because we cut the worst bottleneck that is Bluetooth connection. Only con is that then we have to carry an extra device but since I am moving to Headphones, it won’t be an issue.
 
I have uBtr and I am more than happy with it. Frankly I am more than happy with it for the price and honestly I don't think you should go over that .

But if you are going to increase your budget I don't think you should get anything other that ES100 because all though they all do same things for most part but ES100 app is next level in terms of customizations it allows from what I remember .

But then if you do spend that much why not consider fiio m5 and shanling m0 as iirc both can have bidrectional BT and can function as receivers too and you got a dap as well.
 
nick.knack91011 said:
I have uBtr and I am more than happy with it. Frankly I am more than happy with it for the price and honestly I don't think you should go over that .

But if you are going to increase your budget I don't think you should get anything other that ES100 because all though they all do same things for most part but ES100 app is next level in terms of customizations it allows from what I remember .

But then if you do spend that much why not consider fiio m5 and shanling m0 as iirc both can have bidrectional BT and can function as receivers too and you got a dap as well.
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Are the M0 and M5 easily available anywhere though? Also I had used and returned Fiio devices in the past as each time I found multiple bugs in the firmware that made them unworthy of the price. Additionally, I suppose the UI will also be quite poor which is customary for custom Chinese software.
 
t3chg33k said:
Are the M0 and M5 easily available anywhere though? Also I had used and returned Fiio devices in the past as each time I found multiple bugs in the firmware that made them unworthy of the price. Additionally, I suppose the UI will also be quite poor which is customary for custom Chinese software.
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Yes both are easily available shanling is generally available on hfz etc and fiio also and on their own website . re software I think few here own them so they can tell else you can check reviews also ( and reconfirm BT is bidirection once to be sure ).

But my whole point was considering Es100 generally goes for 100$ ( and is amazing in its own right ) I would consider paying a bit more and get m0/m5 for 8k / 9k because u get most of similar things and dap.

But ultimately they are all are fine options inc up2 , es100 and m5/m0 , I just meant to say consider the latter two as well if budget allows.
 
Both the ES100 and Qudelix-5K are in dollars, does that mean I'll have to wait for someone to come over from there? And the mentions of spotty reliability of the ES100 doesn't instill a lot of confidence either.

Also sadly the Shanling M0 and FiiO M5 are out of stock, maybe even discontinued, and I don't know if I even could stretch my budget that far. Not to mention DAPs seem to be overkill? (I'm undecided)
 
sid41299 said:
Both the ES100 and Qudelix-5K are in dollars, does that mean I'll have to wait for someone to come over from there? And the mentions of spotty reliability of the ES100 doesn't instill a lot of confidence either.

Also sadly the Shanling M0 and FiiO M5 are out of stock, maybe even discontinued, and I don't know if I even could stretch my budget that far. Not to mention DAPs seem to be overkill? (I'm undecided)
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The ES100 at least goes for sale at $75 on their website, happened in Christmas and Chinese New Year. Shipping is free from South Korea. Only thing is that there will be around 43% custom duty on it.

M0/M5 also seem to be OOS everywhere, probably because of their age. Fiio products are overpriced on the Indian site in comparison to what you could get them for from AliExpress, so the M5 is definitely not worth 9-10k.

DAP may be overkill but as @nick.knack91011 mentioned, the underling DAC is the same for most budget products, though ES100 does allow a lot of customisation that is lacking in the hardware-only products.
 
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That means when on sale the final price of the ES100 comes to $107. And it's not urgent, but waiting till December for this is definitely out of the question.

So the FiiO uBTR is the only reasonably-priced FiiO product? 3K when not on sale isn't so "out-there".

Are there any other good DAPs in the 5-6K range? 5K is my budget, and I cannot stretch more than 6K (even 6K is only if it has some really good features, like the USB-passthrough mode for e.g.).

And, stupid question yes, but how does that bidirectional BT work? I mean, what can I do with it/how would it be useful? I didn't understand much from the Shanling website.
 
Its worth it or not totally depends on what kind of Headphone/IEMs your are using, if its driver is capable enough then you are going to notice the difference else stay with uBTR.
 
sid41299 said:
That means when on sale the final price of the ES100 comes to $107. And it's not urgent, but waiting till December for this is definitely out of the question.

So the FiiO uBTR is the only reasonably-priced FiiO product? 3K when not on sale isn't so "out-there".

Are there any other good DAPs in the 5-6K range? 5K is my budget, and I cannot stretch more than 6K (even 6K is only if it has some really good features, like the USB-passthrough mode for e.g.).

And, stupid question yes, but how does that bidirectional BT work? I mean, what can I do with it/how would it be useful? I didn't understand much from the Shanling website.
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Regarding bidirectional BT, you can stream the audio from a device without BT like a TV or Desktop or in general use it as an ADC if you think the chipset offer better conversion or codec support. As a receiver, you have the typical use case of a bluetooth DAC.
 
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