Hi all. Long-time visitor, first-time poster. I have some information to contribute and then hopefully I can get some reaction.
Believe it or not, Brookstone sells a dac amp. It's called the Big Blue Bluetooth Amplifier. It has bluetooth features, but it also works as a USB dac amp. It caught my attention because it is being sold at a clearance discount right now: $20 instead of $100. (Availability comes and goes right now.)
Reviews about this unit are scarce. I've searched the forums here and have not seen it mentioned before. (Being Brookstone, it's probably not a device that audiophiles are clamoring to try.) However, I did some sleuthing, found the FCC page for the device, and did some more sleuthing on the chips shown in the FCC photos of the internals. I was expecting this to be junk, but it seems to have some quality components. In particular, it uses a PCM5102A dac like the Fiio E10k.
It's made for Brookstone by Taiwanese manufacturer Vence. It's overseas clone seems to be the Ampio G3 VD6880 or maybe VD6000. It's described in the trade press (thanks Google Translate) as being positioned to compete with TEAC HA-P50SE-B and Roland Mobile UA dac amps which are $200-ish price point devices.
Could this be a bargain basement gem? For $20 I took a chance. I'll report back here once it's in my hands. I'd appreciate any reaction anyone might have.
Here are the details:
FCC page (FCC ID matches Brookstone product manual):
https://fccid.io/VHVBTVD6000
Images of the internals are within FCC PDF documents.
Chips seen in photos:
https://www.amazon.com/Brookstone-Big-Blue-Bluetooth-Amplifier/dp/B01N9F3FYQ
Brookstone Product Page:
http://www.brookstone.com/pd/big-blue-bluetooth-amplifier/311665p.html
Believe it or not, Brookstone sells a dac amp. It's called the Big Blue Bluetooth Amplifier. It has bluetooth features, but it also works as a USB dac amp. It caught my attention because it is being sold at a clearance discount right now: $20 instead of $100. (Availability comes and goes right now.)
Reviews about this unit are scarce. I've searched the forums here and have not seen it mentioned before. (Being Brookstone, it's probably not a device that audiophiles are clamoring to try.) However, I did some sleuthing, found the FCC page for the device, and did some more sleuthing on the chips shown in the FCC photos of the internals. I was expecting this to be junk, but it seems to have some quality components. In particular, it uses a PCM5102A dac like the Fiio E10k.
It's made for Brookstone by Taiwanese manufacturer Vence. It's overseas clone seems to be the Ampio G3 VD6880 or maybe VD6000. It's described in the trade press (thanks Google Translate) as being positioned to compete with TEAC HA-P50SE-B and Roland Mobile UA dac amps which are $200-ish price point devices.
Could this be a bargain basement gem? For $20 I took a chance. I'll report back here once it's in my hands. I'd appreciate any reaction anyone might have.
Here are the details:
FCC page (FCC ID matches Brookstone product manual):
https://fccid.io/VHVBTVD6000
Images of the internals are within FCC PDF documents.
Chips seen in photos:
- ComTrue CT-5301 Audio SRC Bridge
- Qualcomm CSR8670 Bluetooth Audio SoC
- TI PCM1803A 103dB SNR Stereo ADC
- TI PCM5102A 2VRMS directPath, 112dB Audio Stereo DAC with 32bit, 384kHz PCM interface
https://www.amazon.com/Brookstone-Big-Blue-Bluetooth-Amplifier/dp/B01N9F3FYQ
Brookstone Product Page:
http://www.brookstone.com/pd/big-blue-bluetooth-amplifier/311665p.html