DAC (with Bluetooth)
Discussion
All digital devices (laptops, phones, tablets, CD players etc) and Bluetooth receivers of course convert Digital to Analogue.
Is the technology different and is there an appreciable sound quality (to a non-serious-audiophile) difference between the various devices available nowadays?
Eg. An Ifi Zen compared with a £25 one?
Is the technology different and is there an appreciable sound quality (to a non-serious-audiophile) difference between the various devices available nowadays?
Eg. An Ifi Zen compared with a £25 one?
TheInternet said:
Re. Bluetooth receivers, you need to consider not just the DAC but also the codecs it is able to support, and perhaps the effectiveness of the antenna. I recently swapped a generic Logitech receiver for an iFi one. The latter does offer a better DAC, but more importantly offers better codecs at higher bitrates. It is miles better.
Interesting, thanks. I have posted in another thread about my Nobsound amp (with integrated 36V power supply and three tone knobs). When I tested it, via Bluetooth and plugged in, streaming Spotify by WiFi, the sound quality appeared good to me in both cases.
I also have a very cheap ZK-MT21 Bluetooth 2.1 Class D amplifier in a home-made portable boom box powered by a 19V supply. The amp sounds much better than I expected to, good to my ears, via Bluetooth and plugged in.
I have just bought another ZK-MT21 for use with the kitchen DAB module (easy for everybody to switch on/change channels, and I am retro-fitting the DAB and amp into an old Pure DAB radio case to please my wife) and Android tablet media player.
Even this cheap amp driving a pair of Mission 701s and a small sub streaming music via wifi sounds really good to my ears. DAB obviously typically a lower bit-rate.
I would like to listen to different bluetooth 5.0 receivers and DACs back to back as a comparison.
OutInTheShed said:
At the heart of an audio 'DAC' box is generally a DAC chip.
A high quality DAC chip won't cost a manufacturer more than a few dollars.
There are some good performing cheap DACs out there, but there's also some rubbish.
I have a Prozor DAC with Bluetooth which seems to me to work entirely fine, but others of this brand have been tested and appear to be fundamentally dire. The main IC in mine has quite an old date code on it, so maybe they've changed?
People are sniffy about Bluetooth anyway, but for the ordinary person the sound degradation it might bring is probably inaudible below the sound of traffic three streets away or the birds in the garden, way below the noise my keyboard makes as I type this.
The problem is, if you try to make a well engineered DAC from a $5 DAC IC etc, you need to sell many thousands of them to get the price below £100.
I'm inclined to suggest splashing £15 or so on ebay or Amazon, you should get your money back if you're genuinely dissatisfied.
If you want to know how good bluetooth can be, a friend of mine has a pair of Sennheiser headphones which give amazing clarity to TV sound. About £150 I think?
Like DACs, I think it's possible to implement bluetooth badly, both at the transmit and receive ends.
The Prozor DAC was the £25 one I had seen and prompted my question.A high quality DAC chip won't cost a manufacturer more than a few dollars.
There are some good performing cheap DACs out there, but there's also some rubbish.
I have a Prozor DAC with Bluetooth which seems to me to work entirely fine, but others of this brand have been tested and appear to be fundamentally dire. The main IC in mine has quite an old date code on it, so maybe they've changed?
People are sniffy about Bluetooth anyway, but for the ordinary person the sound degradation it might bring is probably inaudible below the sound of traffic three streets away or the birds in the garden, way below the noise my keyboard makes as I type this.
The problem is, if you try to make a well engineered DAC from a $5 DAC IC etc, you need to sell many thousands of them to get the price below £100.
I'm inclined to suggest splashing £15 or so on ebay or Amazon, you should get your money back if you're genuinely dissatisfied.
If you want to know how good bluetooth can be, a friend of mine has a pair of Sennheiser headphones which give amazing clarity to TV sound. About £150 I think?
Like DACs, I think it's possible to implement bluetooth badly, both at the transmit and receive ends.
The built in Bluetooth & DAC in my home amps seem good to me, hence wondering what improvements could be made, and also whether it was worth investing much for older analogue amps.
OutInTheShed said:
MC Bodge said:
The old Android tablet I use as a media player (only BBC and Spotify installed) in our kitchen serves a similar purpose. It works well, and no notifications etc.
Mrs S quite often listens to BBC stuff on an ipad in the kitchen.It seems a small step to bluetooth that to the the kitchen amp/speakers, and then another small step to simultaneously share it with some other speakers,
The barriers to sharing music around a home Wifi network seem entirely artificial?
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