Portable Bluetooth DAC - Would that improve SQ? What would be the best solution?

Audio Gear Talk
1

For me Bluetooth (BT) makes everything more convenient - cable is not an option.

After BT 5.2 has hit the market with new products I bought:

  • Astell & Kern AK UW100
  • Beoplay EX

I use them in my home office and on the road with my iPhone 11.

I my home office I use them in combination with Roon (Roon installed on a cirrus7 nimbus with Windows 11 - (Roon Server - NAS QNAP HS-264) and a BT 5.2 transmitter (Creative BT-W4).

96

I was reading about

and

https://www.fiio.com/btr7

The Q is would such a device or any other devise improve the SQ?

THX for any advice :slight_smile:

Greetings from Hamburg
Torben

2

Thatā€™s for connecting wired headphones to a Bluetooth connection. Itā€™s not going to improve anything if your using Bluetooth headphones as it wonā€™t work with BT headphones.

1 Like
3

Good to know :slight_smile: THX :slight_smile:

Is there any other way to improve SQ in my setup? Not than I am unhappy with SQ - just looking for way to improve things :slight_smile:

Torben

4

The best option will be in not using BT :wink: ā€¦

2 Likes
5

That is not an option - I donā€™t see any need for that.

6

Thatā€™s how you improve SQ.

7

BT 5.2 doesnā€™t really bring much in the realm of increased bandwidth. What you need to explore is devices and headphones that support ā€˜betterā€™ codecs like Aptx HD, aptX Adaptive, LDAC. LDAC is the best option but little supports it.

Good luck in your quest. Itā€™s going to be a good long while before BT can beat a copper cable.

I use this. Itā€™s fantastic but requires wired headphones. 5K DAC AMP ā€“ Qudelix, Inc.

8

Thats why I bought Astell & Kern AK UW100 and Beoplay EX - only LDAC is missing.

I know copper cable is better - but for me not convenient :slight_smile: I donā€™t want be stuck in a place due to the cable :slight_smile:

I could ā€œliveā€ with a cable solution (from earphone to DAC) if there is small portable device like FiiO BTR7, iFi xDSD Gryphon ā€¦ that would improve SQ compared to BT earphone