Bluetooth mini amplifier

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cbmotorsport

Original Poster:

3,065 posts

117 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
I dug my old HiFi setup out of the loft. It's not seen the light of day since I was at University. It was never the best setup, being on a student budget, but it sounded pretty good, and still does. I've got a set of Kef Q35.2's and a Kenwood 3020se amp, and a Marantz (special edition of some sort)CD Player.

The CD's are staying in the loft, and I've been using the speakers and amp to play music from mp3/spotify etc using a Chromecast. This is fine for my needs, although I'd like to find a much more compact amp, that might even fit on top of one of the speakers, thus keeping everything tidy. If it had bluetooth and allowed me to do away with the chromecast (which has proved to be unreliable, sometimes connecting and sometimes not) that would be great.

Any suggestions?

gregs656

10,816 posts

180 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
I'd look at the T-Amps.

The Topping VX3 for example has bluetooth. Your speakers are fairly sensitive so I'd expect the Topping amp to be able to drive them pretty well.

cbmotorsport

Original Poster:

3,065 posts

117 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
Thanks. It lists as 14w into 8 ohms. Would that be enough? I'm lucky where I live and do sometimes listen at reasonable volumes.

MrSparks

648 posts

119 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
How about something like this? I've had one on test for a while and it's surprisingly good for the money.

http://kitchenbathroomradio.co.uk/accessories/audi...

If you want to spend more then have a look at the TEAC AI-101

gregs656

10,816 posts

180 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
cbmotorsport said:
Thanks. It lists as 14w into 8 ohms. Would that be enough? I'm lucky where I live and do sometimes listen at reasonable volumes.
I thought they were 35w into 8ohm (so 17.5 into 4ohm)

Anyway - your speaker's sensitivity is 91db so 1w = 91db. For every 3db double the wattage required so you should get a little more than 103db. The pain threshold is normally quoted at 110.

Does depend on your room etc but I have been quite happy with my t amps.

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
gregs656 said:
cbmotorsport said:
Thanks. It lists as 14w into 8 ohms. Would that be enough? I'm lucky where I live and do sometimes listen at reasonable volumes.
I thought they were 35w into 8ohm (so 17.5 into 4ohm)

Anyway - your speaker's sensitivity is 91db so 1w = 91db. For every 3db double the wattage required so you should get a little more than 103db. The pain threshold is normally quoted at 110.

Does depend on your room etc but I have been quite happy with my t amps.
Hi greg65, you have the sum the wrong way round there. If a 'textbook' amp was rated at 35w into 8 ohms it would deliver 70w into 4 ohms not 17.5w. ( Volts would stay the same, twice as much current would be drawn by the lower impedance load, consequently twice as many watts )

Topping do rate the VX3 as 35w into 8 ohms and also 35w into 4 ohms. @ 10% distortion eek
http://www.tpdz.net/en/products/vx3/index.htm

Texas instruments rate chip that Topping use at 35w at 10% distortion and 28w at 1% distortion.

91dB Kef 35.2 + 28w Topping Vx3 should give 105.5db at 1m from one speaker. 108.5 dB 1m from a pair. 102.5dB 2m away. Approx 100db max in room at a realistic 3m listening distance.




Edited by Crackie on Friday 13th January 18:34

gregs656

10,816 posts

180 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
Crackie said:
Hi greg65, you have the sum the wrong way round there. If a 'textbook' amp was rated at 35w into 8 ohms it would deliver 70w into 4 ohms not 17.5w. ( Volts would stay the same, twice as much current would be drawn by the lower impedance load, consequently twice as many watts )
Yes you're right - numbers obviously got mixed up somewhere there.

In any case, I didn't look for very long but if you want a small amp with bluetooth a t-amp of some description would be the way I'd go. You can spend a lot more than the Topping range.

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Friday 13th January 2017
quotequote all
gregs656 said:
Crackie said:
Hi greg65, you have the sum the wrong way round there. If a 'textbook' amp was rated at 35w into 8 ohms it would deliver 70w into 4 ohms not 17.5w. ( Volts would stay the same, twice as much current would be drawn by the lower impedance load, consequently twice as many watts )
Yes you're right - numbers obviously got mixed up somewhere there.

In any case, I didn't look for very long but if you want a small amp with bluetooth a t-amp of some description would be the way I'd go. You can spend a lot more than the Topping range.
Between Jan 2013 and Jan 2015 I worked on project developing a four channel class D amp ( with digital active crossovers built in ). During development the team reviewed the specs, measured the performance and listened to several amp chip solutions from Tripath ( t-amps ), Texas instruments, Hypex, B&O icepower, Abletec and Analog Devices chip amp solutions. Some were a little 'flakey' from a measurement point of view but they invariably sounded great.

The original first generation prototypes, from April 2013, used APT-X to handle Bluetooth input; very impressive.

Not sure what cbmotorsport's budget is but if it were my money I'd be getting a Temple Audio Bantam with an apt-x receiver to handle the input. £115 ish for the pair.

http://www.templeaudio.net/bantam.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bayan-StreamPort-Universa...




Edited by Crackie on Saturday 14th January 21:00

cbmotorsport

Original Poster:

3,065 posts

117 months

Monday 16th January 2017
quotequote all
Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I've got some research to do! :-)

cbmotorsport

Original Poster:

3,065 posts

117 months

Monday 16th January 2017
quotequote all
I've decided to try the SMSL SA-50 with the Bayan Stream port. It looks great, reviews are great, and it's got a bit more power than the other solutions.

I guess at the end of the day listening over bluetooth through cheapish aged speakers, I shouldn't concern myself too much about sound quality :-)

2Btoo

3,410 posts

202 months

Monday 16th January 2017
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I was given one of those for Christmas and it's a tidy little thing. In terms of sound quality I have yet to try it out meaningfully; it sounded rubbish when connected to rubbish speakers (which I had planned to use) so no surprise there. I have yet to connect it to the decent Tannoys in the lounge but am looking at some JBL Control 1's at the moment which should (should!) pair with it nicely.

I'll be playing from Chromecast too, but Chromecast Audio - which I rate very highly.

heisthegaffer

3,347 posts

197 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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I recently purchases a Topping VX2 amp to go with my JBL Control 1 speakers. At first I thought it was a bit rubbish and not very loud but admittedly, the speakers weren't in good positions, one of them sat on two cardboard boxes!

I then put some brackets up and had a bit more of a listen and cranked the volume up. Much better. Very clear, great with female vocals and will go louder than I ever need it to albeit my room is small at around 2m x 1.8m.

It has highlighted that the JBLs lack a bit of bass and the bass boost function on the amp just makes it a bit muffled. apparently there is a way round this by using some EQ on the PC so may be able to improve this but overall I'll give it an 8.10.

2Btoo

3,410 posts

202 months

Thursday 19th January 2017
quotequote all
Well I now have those JBL Control 1's and have plugged them into my SMSL SA-50 amp, fed it with some signal from a Chromecast Audio and can happily report that they sound very nice indeed! I was concerned that the amp was a cheapo affair and that it would sound rubbish but it seems to suit those speakers very well indeed. Yes, there isn't a huge amount of bass and yes, if you were a dedicated audiophile and this was your main system then you would be disappointed but for a small system for the kitchen it is very good indeed.

Amp was £50 and the speakers (second-hand) £40. Less than a ton (excluding source) and it feels like stupendous value.