Disclosure: The BT11 was provided by FiiO for this review. Please read more about our product review disclosure here.

Users in the Apple ecosystem have been pretty limited when it comes to Bluetooth audio support. Unless you connect your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to a Bluetooth enabled dongle DAC, the only codec you can enjoy when using non-Apple Bluetooth headphones and earbuds is AAC. FiiO is looking to change that though, without needing to use a cumbersome portable Bluetooth DAC audio chain to achieve it. Here we have the FiiO BT11, a small and portable USB-C Bluetooth transmitter that is not only compatible with Apple devices but really any USB-C device. Can this be the ultimate all-in-one Bluetooth transmitter for under $50 USD? Read on to find out.

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• FiiO BT11
• USB-C protective cover
• USB-C to USB-A adapter
• Manual

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The FiiO BT11 is fairly compact as far as Bluetooth transmitters go. FiiO opted for a rounded rectangular shape to prevent it from sticking out too much when plugged in, a design choice I appreciate. It’s also thin at 9mm, meaning it doesn’t look too out of place when plugged into my iPad Pro, especially when using the keyboard case. The housing around the USB-C connector is slightly extended to allow for compatibility with cases and a variety of devices.

The BT11 is made of shiny, smooth plastic with an LED strip on both sides to identify the Bluetooth codec currently in use. It feels solidly built and is extremely light at 3g. It would have been nice to have a cutout for attaching a lanyard. The BT11 is so small and light it might be easy for some to lose or misplace.

Inside the FiiO BT11 is the Qualcomm QCC5181 chipset enabling LDAC and Snapdragon Sound connectivity. As well, FiiO has stated that they implemented an advanced PDS antenna to enable a higher transmission range and a more stable connection.

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The BT11 supports every modern aptX codec, as well as LDAC and SBC. There is no support for AAC or LHDC, most likely due to licensing costs. LHDC is still very niche, and AAC you are already getting if you have an Apple device anyway, so if omitting these two codecs keeps the cost of the BT11 down I’m all for it.

The LED strip on both sides of the BT11 will display the currently used codec based on color:

Blue: SBC

Purple: aptX/aptX LL

Yellow: aptX HD

White: LDAC

Green: aptX Adaptive/Lossless

This works extremely well and makes it easily identifiable, especially since there is no other way to check the current codec in use. The LED strip will glow with the color associated with the codec, but sadly there’s no way to turn that off or modify the brightness level. As far as actual performance goes, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The range overall is excellent, and it did perform better compared to the Bluetooth with my Samsung Galaxy Fold 5, as well as my DAPs (HiBy R4, Sony NW-WM1AM2) for all codecs. Connection stability is where issues start to crop up though.

With my Sony XM5s, the LDAC connection was generally pretty solid and stable, even when walking 20+ meters away. I only noticed an audio glitch or stutter every so often, maybe 5% of the time. The reason for this though is because LDAC requires a very stable, interference-free environment to work well. Currently, the BT11 seems to only support the 660kbps mode of LDAC, with 900kbps and 330kbps support coming in a future update. This will surely help eliminate any connection or audio issues for some, but be aware it’s currently not implemented.

My Sonos Ace, on the other hand, had inconsistent issues regardless of the codec used. Sometimes when playing audio it would stutter and sound full of static, as if the connection were weak and out of range. Pausing the music for a moment and then playing it again usually fixed it. This is especially noticeable when changing audio tracks that are different bitrates. All this happened maybe 20% of the time and was intermittent. The experience was much better with my Sennheiser Momentum TWS4 earbuds, I only had the odd audio stutter, so it was almost as good as using my XM5.

Pairing portable Bluetooth DACs, such as the BTR13 and Qudelix 5K, to the BT11 gave a much better and more consistent experience for both LDAC and aptX codecs. Why the stability seems to be somewhat variable I’m not really sure, maybe some Bluetooth headphones and earbuds are more susceptible than others to interference. Maybe FiiO just needs to iron out some bugs with a firmware update.

Sound quality is a massive positive though. The BT11 doesn’t color the audio in any way and sounds very transparent. This should be expected, so it’s nice to see this is the case. There’s also more than enough volume overhead, just remember to also turn the volume up on your headphones or earbuds.

We talked about the Bluetooth performance, but how is the actual usability and everyday experience of using the BT11? When you plug the FiiO BT11 into a device it attempts to pair with a previously connected device for 30 seconds. If unsuccessful it will enter pairing mode. There is no way to bypass the 30 seconds of waiting as there are no pairing buttons on the BT11 itself. Once the BT11 flashes red and blue on the LED strip you can either pair a device or pair the FiiO Control app to it. Once a device is paired to the BT11 then you can start enjoying Bluetooth audio. This part works flawlessly, and if you’ve paired a device already with it, it will immediately reconnect once you plug the BT11 into any device. You can also connect two devices at the same time, which works well.

Let’s say you want to pair a new device to the BT11 though, how do you do that? Two ways. One, unplug the BT11, plug it back in, and wait 30 seconds for it to enter the pairing state, where you can then force your Bluetooth DAC or headphone/earbud into pairing mode to connect to it. Two, use the FiiO Control app to enter pairing mode. This second way is extremely cumbersome if you use an iPhone or iPad. On both my iPad Pro and an iPhone XS I was only ever able to get the BT11 to connect to the FiiO Control app once. If I unplugged the BT11 and plugged it back in, I would have to redo the pairing with the app in order to control it. Not an issue on Android devices though.

While the FiiO Control app pairing process can be frustrating and annoying for Apple users, thankfully you don’t need to use the app very much. The main benefit of the app is to choose which Bluetooth codecs you want to use, upgrade the firmware (there has yet to be an update though), and clear paired devices. The Android version of the FiiO Control app does not have the ability to update the firmware, so be aware that unless you own an iPhone or iPad you won’t be able to update the BT11 when an update gets released.

Looking in the FiiO Control app now, there’s not really much to see. The main aspect is selecting which codecs to use, and one thing you may notice is the lack of aptX Lossless. This is because FiiO has incorporated it into the aptX Adaptive codec selection. They stated they would be improving this and updating the app later to allow us to select or unselect it, but currently, this is what we have.

The BT11 does indeed work with iPhones that have Lightning connections (tested on an iPhone XS), though FiiO does not officially support this use case. It also works on the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, I encountered no issues with either game console.

PC also works very well, but note that for flawless aptX Lossless or aptX LL playback, you will have to go into the Windows audio settings and set the sample rate to 16-bit/44.1kHz, otherwise you will get audio glitches and stutter.

I had really high hopes for the BT11. While it does deliver on what FiiO promises, it isn’t the most flawless experience or execution. The LDAC support needs to be updated to be able to fall back to 660kbps, the app connection experience needs to be improved, and the Android app needs feature parity with the iOS app. Still, when it works it works very well, and for me, it works around 90% of the time I need it to. I can’t quite recommend the FiiO BT11 to anyone in its current state, but I recommend for those interested to keep an eye on how it’s updated. I’ll be updating this review whenever an update is released for it.

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I’m not always able to cover all the details of a product, both hardware and software, in our reviews. If you have any specific questions you’d like answered about this product please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly.

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