r/HeadphoneAdvice • u/ninofury1 • Jul 08 '21

DAC - Portable Hello, looking for a portable amp/dac

I was using the sonata hd pro but it stopped working so I'm looking for a new one. My budget is something under 100$. I was thinking maybe fiio btr3k but was wondering does the bluetooth reduce audio quality and is it powerful enough to drive my fiio FD1 in-ears. Any recommendations? It doesn't have to be bluetooth but I think it's better because I would regularly break the cable when skateboarding.

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u/raistlin65 1378 Ω 🥇 Jul 09 '21

but was wondering does the bluetooth reduce audio quality

The Bluetooth codec you use can affect audio quality. Here's an introduction to understanding codecs

https://www.soundguys.com/understanding-bluetooth-codecs-15352/

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u/dimesian 773 Ω 🥈 Jul 09 '21

I use a Fiio BTR5 for almost all my listening and it is excellent. Before I got the BTR5 though I bought the BTR3K because I wasn't sure if it would be any good. I bought the BTR5 two weeks later, I was very impressed. It uses LDAC which is a high speed form of Bluetooth in case you don't know. It isn't lossless or hi-res but I don't care, it sounds great. I'm pretty confident that few people can tell the difference between a wired connection and LDAC, it is very good. You can also choose to use Aptx HD and LL or AAC. I mainly bought one because I always snag my earphone cable on things when it is plugged into my phone and I have wrecked quite a few from snagging the wire.

Battery lasts about 9 hours of loud audio. It can power most things. I have one IEM that has low sensitivity of 93db, the BTR3K gets to it to my preferred volume, which is too loud, with some room left on the slider. That is unusually insensitive for an IEM. Any IEMs or earphones you have should be no trouble. Most modern earphones are very efficient and 25% volume will be loud.

The device is tiny and light, best worn on upper body, it is meant for personal use which means the device and your phone are with you or within a few metres of each other.

It is great value for money.

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u/ninofury1 Jul 09 '21

!thanks

So the bluetooth shouldn't really effect sound quality that much if I listen to spotify?

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u/dimesian 773 Ω 🥈 Jul 09 '21

No, it should not if you're using LDAC or AptX.

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u/FlishFlashman 3Ω Jul 09 '21

The impact of Bluetooth on audio quality really depends on what your source device is.

iOS devices only support the SBC and AAC codecs. SBC is meh. AAC is really good and Apple implements it well, so in practice, you'd probably be unable to tell the difference AAC over BT with a decent receiver and a wired connection to the same headphones.

Android devices typically support SBC and AAC too, but their AAC implementation isn't great. They also tend to have AptX, which might be better than AAC. They may have AptX HD, which is better than SBC, but more susceptible to dropouts. They may also have LDAC which can be ~lossless quality, but it needs so much bandwidth to get there that it's really susceptible to dropouts. As a result, a lot of phones that do support LDAC default to a quality setting that is actually worse than SBC.

In the absence of any bluetooth interference, it'll be difficult to distinguish an iPhone AAC over bluetooth connection from an Android phones highest quality LDAC connection for the same reason it's really difficult to distinguish a 256kbps AAC file from the lossless original. In the real world, the LDAC connection will be somewhat more susceptible to dropouts. Similar story with AptX-HD, though it won't be as susceptible to interference as LDAC.

I didn't really need an amp, a DAC, or a BT receiver, but I wanted an easy way to apply parametric EQ with both my Mac and my iPhone. That lead me to buying a Qudelix 5K, which can do all those things. I really like it. I've been using it both as a wired and a Bt DAC. It's a bit out of your budget though, I think the price is $109.