[16610]

Hi

I'm looking for a portable Bluetotoh amp/dac to use between my Shure SE535 and my iPhone/Mac. Size wise I'm looking for a credit-card size AMP or a little bit bigger.

But before I'm pulling the trigger on one, I'd like to hear your opinions. For example, does Bluetooth affect sound quality?

What do you think of the Fiio E17K ALPEN 2 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier ?

Thanks!!

 

[kukkurovaca]

Hi

I'm looking for a portable Bluetotoh amp/dac to use between my Shure SE535 and my iPhone/Mac. Size wise I'm looking for a credit-card size AMP or a little bit bigger.

But before I'm pulling the trigger on one, I'd like to hear your opinions. For example, does Bluetooth affect sound quality?

What do you think of the Fiio E17K ALPEN 2 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier ?

Thanks!!

Don’t think the Alpen has Bluetooth.

Radsone ES100 is my recommendation, great app, performs well, good implementation of EQ. Clip is fragile and button UI isn’t the greatest, but the app more than makes up for it. Shouldn’t have power issues with your iem.

You may take a quality hit with Bluetooth in comparison to a wired DAC, but I dunno whether it will be a meaningful audible difference. The ES100 is good enough for my purposes either wireless or over USB.

 

[pufftissue]

How does the sound quality compare to a dragonfly red. I found that the black was more or less a wash over an iPhone but the red, that was a big step up.

 

[techboy]

Check Xduoo

 

[ClieOS]

Also note that for your Apple user, iOS devices only supports up to AAC codec so other codec, while nice, won't give you better SQ.

 

[audiomonkey777]

Have you taken a look at the xCAN by iFi audio? It supports a varirty of codecs. I'm looking at some of their stuff now - xDSD, micro BL. From what I can see the xCAN is a cracking little Bluetooth headphone amp and would be a good match for you. The weblink is this: https://ifi-audio.com/products/xcan/.
I'm erring towards the xDSD as I'm looking for an all in one solution - dac/amp. Good luck with your search.

 

[yong_shun]

You can consider Shanling UP4 or Radsone ES100.

 

[jeejack]

Btr3k or Btr5

 

[vulkarie]

Do using bluetooth dac mode instead of wired change the sound quality? I have a dap that support bluetooth dac mode

Just curious

 

[ClieOS]

Do using bluetooth dac mode instead of wired change the sound quality? I have a dap that support bluetooth dac mode

Just curious

Never heard of a 'Bluetooth DAC mode' before. I assumed it is just using the DAP as a Bluetooth receiver? Sometime manufacturer like to reinvent name to pretend they invented something that has already existed.

 

[vulkarie]

Never heard of a 'Bluetooth DAC mode' before. I assumed it is just using the DAP as a Bluetooth receiver? Sometime manufacturer like to reinvent name to pretend they invented something that has already existed.

Yes, i have hiby r3 and it can be work as a bluetooth receiver so my phone will be the source connected to hiby r3 (dap) in bluetooth and then connect the earphone to the hiby r3's 3.5 jack

Does it reduce sound quality or the bluetooth that connected from my phone to the dap is only transfering the file and then the dap will process it and send it my earphone directly using 3.5 mm jack so it wont lose sound quality?

 

[ClieOS]

Yes, i have hiby r3 and it can be work as a bluetooth receiver so my phone will be the source connected to hiby r3 (dap) in bluetooth and then connect the earphone to the hiby r3's 3.5 jack

Does it reduce sound quality or the bluetooth that connected from my phone to the dap is only transfering the file and then the dap will process it and send it my earphone directly using 3.5 mm jack so it wont lose sound quality?

Bluetooth source (i.e. your smartphone) doesn't transfer audio files directly to any BT receiver (*including your Hiby). It works by transcoding the music files using a BT codec (which will need to be supported by both your smartphone and Hiby, and it could be either SBC, AAC, aptX or LDAC, or Hiby's own UAT that is usually too unstable to use for most people), sending the transcoded music stream to the BT receiver and the BT receiver, which has a DAC chip of its own, decoding the music stream back to analog signal that will feed into your headphone. Technically the trasncoding process is NOT lossless and therefore some SQ will be lost. However, the better the BT codec, the less likely SQ will be lost and it can be argued that a good BT codec, such as LDAC @ 990kbps, is almost as good as wired connection and most people might not be able to tell the difference.

Since you already own the Hiby, the best way to find out is to listen to the setup for yourself.

 

[vulkarie]

Bluetooth source (i.e. your smartphone) doesn't transfer audio files directly to any BT receiver (*including your Hiby). It works by transcoding the music files using a BT codec (which will need to be supported by both your smartphone and Hiby, and it could be either SBC, AAC, aptX or LDAC, or Hiby's own UAT that is usually too unstable to use for most people), sending the transcoded music stream to the BT receiver and the BT receiver, which has a DAC chip of its own, decoding the music stream back to analog signal that will feed into your headphone. Technically the trasncoding process is NOT lossless and therefore some SQ will be lost. However, the better the BT codec, the less likely SQ will be lost and it can be argued that a good BT codec, such as LDAC @ 990kbps, is almost as good as wired connection and most people might not be able to tell the difference.

Since you already own the Hiby, the best way to find out is to listen to the setup for yourself.

So for example if only available bluetooth codecs is aac and it said to be 264 kbps (from quick google search).

So does this mean that if i use apple music of which have the max bitrate of 256kbps, there will be no SQ being lost?

And if i use spotify who happened to have 320 kbps of bit rate, there will be a sound quality lost? Is that analogy correct?

What if i use LDAC that calim to have 990 kbps? Then it will be like using wired cable since spotify and apple music is below that benchmark?

What maybe i wanted to know is, is the bluetooth transcoding processing will effect sound quality in general despite using ldac that support higher than my source bitrate (lets say i'm using spotify) vs cable connection?

 

[ClieOS]

So for example if only available bluetooth codecs is aac and it said to be 264 kbps (from quick google search).

So does this mean that if i use apple music of which have the max bitrate of 256kbps, there will be no SQ being lost?

And if i use spotify who happened to have 320 kbps of bit rate, there will be a sound quality lost? Is that analogy correct?

What if i use LDAC that calim to have 990 kbps? Then it will be like using wired cable since spotify and apple music is below that benchmark?

What maybe i wanted to know is, is the bluetooth transcoding processing will effect sound quality in general despite using ldac that support higher than my source bitrate (lets say i'm using spotify) vs cable connection?

BT transcoding doesn't work that way.

Regardless of what format the music files have been encoded with, your smartphone will first need to decode it back to PCM first (*think of PCM as the most basic, universally understandable audio format that all computer use internally, like 1 and 0). Then to send it over BT, the PCM music is re-encoded into one of those BT codec before it is sent over wirelessly. While decoding your music into PCM is a lossless process, encoding PCM into BT codec is not. So regardless of what bitrate or format you start with, by the time it is sent over BT, the process itself will have caused some degree of SQ lost (*again, how much lost depends on the BT codec used).

 

[jeejack]

I only have $100 what to chose between IDSD plus and XD 05 basic ?
Thank you!