The cleaner the bitrate audio transfer, the better the audio quality. It's that simple! If you are serious about headphone wireless sound the last thing you want is music files losing audio quality because of transcoding taking place between different audio codecs.
The key to preventing transcoding is for both the bluetooth transmitter device (i.e. phone) and bluetooth receiver device (i.e. bluetooth headphones) to be compatible with the same bluetooth codecs; otherwise wireless sound defaults to the SBC bluetooth codec.
If you don't fancy using a dedicated high-res digital audio player, adding a headphone DAC amplifier to your setup is a great way to enhance the audio quality. With a solution like the FiiO BTR1K and the FiiO BTR3 you can enhance wireless audio without being tethered to your smartphone! And, it isn't just bluetooth 4.2 A2DP you get with the FiiO BTR3. You also get support for AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX LL, aptX-HD, LDAC and LHDC so no compromise in processing performance; hence clean bitrate transfer.
Along with functionality, FiiO BTR3 is aesthetically pleasing with smooth curved edges, matte black finish and glass panel on the front of the unit which integrates a "FiiO RGB light" which indicates color-coded statuses.
The indicator can light up blue (SBC), cyan (AAC), purple (aptX and aptX-LL), red (charging), yellow (aptX-HD), white (LDAC) or green (LHDC) to indicate the input Bluetooth audio codec and charging status. Talking about charging, it takes 1.5 hours to fully charge the BTR3 300mAh battery capacity via DC 5V 500mA input and you get between 10 and 11 hours of playback time.
The FiiO BTR3 battery can last close to half a day so battery life is pretty good. You can also use the BTR3 DAC amplifier while charging.
The FiiO BTR3 can be driven between 16 ohms and 100 ohms and it is also capable of driving 25 mW into a 32-ohm load and 33 mW into a 16-ohm load. The FiiO BTR3 delivers the same frequency response low end bass of 20Hz via aptX and LDAC connection but treble is much higher via LDAC connection at 40kHz (only 20kHz via aptX).
While the back clip on the back of the FiiO BTR3 increases the footprint a little bit, the back clip is a useful addition for clipping the FiiO BTR3 on to you while on the go.
The FiiO BTR3 is a well thought out bluetooth dac amplifier as it also integrates a built-in microphone so you can use a pair of headphones without built-in mic. With that said, FiiO BTR3 built-in mic cannot act as a passthrough so you cannot use the built-in mic in your headphones.