Physical Stuff
The Form factor is quite small. Solid aluminum build with anodized finish. Acrylic face plate with NFC Logo. NFC does work when getting your phone NFC Coil close to the Unit. 3 buttons on the right side of the unit, Plus, Multi-function Button, and Minus Button. And also the inclusion of Gain Switch, switching the switch towards the other buttons puts in High Gain Mode. While Flipping it the other way around is the Low Gain Mode. The microphone on the side (where the buttons and switch are) is probably used for Noise Reduction. The top (or where the 3.5 mm jack resides) consists of an unbalanced 3.5 mm, which will be used as your main output. The other hole next to the 3.5 mm jack is another Microphone, but this one is used for your voice input. On the left side of the unit, there is a TimeEar logo. On the bottom, the USB Input or Charging resides.
First Impression
Full Review
Experience
The lack of User Manual might be the downside of this product. Without the User manual, it's quite hard to understand what the EQs are, how the buttons work, how to tell the sounds it made. From my experience owning this, pressing the Plus or Minus Buttons once, increases or decreases the sound respectively. Double Pressing the Plus (+) button, until there's a double beep means the EQ setting is changed. I'm still unsure which one is which. The EQ mostly focuses on the Upper Midrange and Presence Regions. For me, it's not really noticeable. But, my hack to know which EQ is which, is by playing a YouTube Video to monitor the changes in people voices. The buttons seems to not (barely) work on USB Mode. On PC, It's better to disable the voice input of this unit. As the sound played through is now on lower Bitrate which startled me at first.
Sound
The Sound is as I described in the Heading is neutral-ish. I do not notice any coloration to my usual Zero:Reds. On USB, the Power is also ample, driving the Zero:Reds to the point of being too loud and hurting. As per time of writing, I do not own any high impedance or low sensitivity IEMs or Headphones. So I could not test the power outside of telling it is really loud on USB mode. As on Bluetooth Mode, I could not really tell if it is louder or not, or how loud the High Gain Mode really is. But it is noticeably louder if you switch into High Gain Mode. It is always recommended to not play anything when you plug this or any amplifier and lowering the Volume completely to 0 and gradually increases it.
Compared to TEU-99
While it is unfair to compare a Dongle DAC to a Portable Bluetooth DAC/Amp. The TEU and BTE-222 shares the same DAC Chip. And the sound really does shows, the presentation is rather neutral-ish to my ears. The only difference between the two is the form factor, the TEU-99 is way smaller and it's a dongle DAC. Which needs to be plugged into your Source. The output power is also not as powerful as the BTE-222.
Compared to Hidizs SD2
I'm fortunate enough to experince the SD2 before it launches. Which in time of writing, it should be launching tomorrow 10 AM. The BTE-222 sounds way more natural, neutral. While the SD2 is slightly warmer. I would not go indepth about this as I've made a video and it should be up on launch day.
My Limitations
As per time of writing, I do not own any other competing product in the price bracket, as the Moondrop Dawn Pro, Fiio BTR3K, BTR5, Simgot DEW4X, or any DAC/Amp in $60 - $100. I also do not own any high impedance or low sensitivity IEMs or Headphones.
TL;DR
The BTE-222 is compact $60 Portable DAC/Amp from a rather new company called TimeEar. The BTE-222 supports Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity. It is powered by AKM AK4377A DAC chip and ESS9603 Amplifier Chip. The sound presentation is rather neutral-ish or un-altering in my opinion, which is really good as it highlights the tuning of your IEMs or Headphones. It provides ample power to drive almost any IEMs, although further Headphones testing might be needed. It has a microphone which works really well on Bluetooth mode, the sound quality is not as good as IEM microphones, but in a pinch it does work. While there are a lot of positives, the lacks of user manual might be an interesting experience, the bitrate issue on USB mode is also something worth noting. I'm personally happy with the product, especially if you just use it as a standalone USB DAC/Amp for PC. Once the wrinkles are sorted, it's all smooth sailing. Maybe the lack of 4.4 mm jack ? But that might be a nitpick.
Honestly, I don't think I hear anything different between plugging my Zero:Red directly to my phone or listening to them through the BTE-222. Other than the volume getting louder, I think they sound identical. Or perhaps even slightly better ? Great Suggestion bro. I think I'll need more DAC/Amps so I can compare them. I'll definitely post an update once I got a new DAC/Amp.
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