M5 bluetooth poor quality

baev_al

Hi.
I bought M5 to use exactly as a bluetooth source. I connet it to JBL live 400BT. Treables are horrible if I use bluetooth connection. If I use wire connection - sound is perfect. The issue is not in the headphones because when I connect them to Samsung A750 via bluetooth sound is perfect.
When I use bluetooth connection I see 'S' near bluetooth icon. Can I switch to 'L'?
How can I solve the sound issue?
My system settings are:
FW 1.3.2 (updated by me)
BT FW version: 1.1.2

P.S. for using without bluetooth I already have your FX1221...

FiiO

Dear friend,

Does your bluetooth headphone support LDAC codec? If yes, it would connect to the M5 in LDAC Bluetooth codec theoretically. The Bluetooth switch is not supported in M5 now.

Best regards

baev_al

I don't see any information about LDAC in the JBL earphones. I will ask the producer. But in any case as I mentioned bluetooth channel with mobile phone works perfect. Is there any solution? Maybe I should install previous BT FW?

ThomasAH

The JBL live 400BT does not support LDAC (or anything other than SBC), so your phone and the M5 speak to the JBL using the same protocol.

Can you set the equalizer profiles for both, the JBL (using the app) and the M5 to flat to rule out problems with that?

Do you have other bluetooth headsets to test the M5? Or a separate bluetooth transmitter so you can connect it via cable to the M5 and use the transmitter to connect o your JBL headphones?

My test song for this is "The Sea (Night Version)" by MØ, especially between minute 2 and 3.

I must admit that this sounds a little bit better when sent from my phone (Fairphone 2 with Poweramp) to a JBL Live 200BT (which is quite different from the 400BT, but may share some JBL-specific properties) than when sent from the M5.

On the other hand the song sounds great using the M5 and either the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless or the Aukey EP-B33, but both use aptX instead of SBC.

And I just tested my very first (cheap) bluetooth headset Hype HY-1511, which to my surprise handles this song quite well when sent from the M5, despite only supporting SBC.

And now the surprise: After all the other tests I tested the JBL Live 200BT with the M5 again, now it sounds better? Maybe because I turned the JBL headset off and on again, maybe because I used a slightly different volume this time? Or just magic

Edit: M5 FW 1.3.2 and BT 1.1.2, too.

baev_al

ThomasAH replied at 2020-1-11 23:04
The JBL live 400BT does not support LDAC (or anything other than SBC), so your phone and the M5 spea ...

Yes, the EQs are all zero.
As for the transmitter I don't have any, but if I use wired connection between M5 and JBL headphones the sound is perfect, and if I use my mobile as a transmitter and the same JBL earphones in bluetooth mode the sound is also perfect.
I also tried different levels of volume in M5 and in earphones and the quality is almost the same (i.e. poor).
And yes, I tried re-connection several times - the results are the same.
It seems like it is some issue with bluetooth FW, because Qualcomm chip is a decent one...

ThomasAH

The forum user Swayok reported similar problems with the JBL Live 200BT:
http://www.fiio.me/forum.php?mod ... mp;page=1#pid131899

I mostly stopped using the JBL headphone after getting the Aukey (which sounds much better to me in general and offers aptX/aptX LL, but the JBL is more comfortable to wear), so I haven't used it the JBL with the FiiO M5 that much. But I can do more tests with the JBL to see in which situations the issue occurs and when not.

baev_al

ThomasAH, thank you for the answer. But it would be great to hear the comments from FIIO team. Do you plan to make new bluetooth FW?
PS: I tried the headphones with other mobiles and laptops and the sound is perfect, so it is definitely M5 issue...

ThomasAH

Yes, an answer from FiiO if BT updates are planned in the near future would be good.
(I have another BT issue with the M5 that I will report in a different thread)

deluffy7

Hi guys, is this problem have been resolved? i have the exact same problem. Thank you.

amischbetschler

+1, I have the same problem with my Bose QuietComfort 35 Series 2, Firmware 4.1.3 as well as the latest 4.5.2 ... no problems via cable, though. Any help from FiiO? It's exactly the same as others describe. Grainy, jittery, "sandy" trebles.

Edit: FiiO firmwares are 1.3.2 and 1.1.2 for Bluetooth, as with the others.

esp0

I have the same problem with my TWS using the M5 bluetooth SBC. Very poor quality in the treble that sounds 'grainy' and 'sandy'. Quite disappointing.
Firmware 1.3.2 and 1.1.2 for Bluetooth
Hope it will be soon fixed with a firmware update…

FiiO

What's the model name of your TWS? Does other Bluetooth headphone have the same problem?

Best regards

esp0

I'm using KZ S1 earbuds. No sound issue with my Android smartphone, my other Bluetooth DAP, and my laptop. I don't have other TWS.

FiiO

Hi,
We will report to the engineer for checking about that. If there are more update, we will contact you again.

Best regards

esp0

Thanks

FiiO

amischbetschler

FiiO replied at 2020-4-20 11:25
Hi,
We will report to the engineer for checking about that. If there are more update, we will conta ...

Hi there! Any news about this issue?

FiiO

We are sorry that the engineer hasn't have condition about this problem currently.

We will try to report again.

Please accept our sincere apology for all the inconvenience bringing to you.

Best regards

godzinilla

Hello there. Want to report problems with SBC codec too. Newest software and bt firmware installed. When using aptx everything works ok. When on SBC, the trebless are very poor quality, as @esp0 said, grainy and sandy. I have Bomaker SiFi2 and Panasonic RZ-S300W and this problem was occured on both devices. I have also TRN T200 with aptx codec and for this setup everything works as expected.

Please, provide us a firmware/software update with fix for this problem, as for me this device is useless with that kind of audio quality (bought especially for BT connectivity) and I thinking abou replacing it with Shanling.

dark.jura1979

Dear sirs,

I have the same issues when usin Fiio M5 as transmitter (terrible sound) with all off my recivers (tws tronsmart spunky beat keeps disconecting, hagibis x2 aptx hd - terrible sound, KZ Aptx HD CSR8675 Bluetooth5.0 Wireless Module Earphone Upgrade Cable - sound so so), anker soundcore 2 - terrible sound (i know that it is SBC but my phone does sound better with that speaker). Please adress this problem fast.