DAC to Bluetooth speakers

[defo]

Hi, I am currently listening to music from a Macbook Pro over Bluetooth to a pair of Ruark MR1s. I'm thinking of adding a DAC and was wondering if there is one I can plug into the Macbook which can send a post-DAC Bluetooth signal to the Ruarks but also let me plug in a pair of headphones to get a post-DAC signal? Many Thanks

Andy

 

[ID.]

So from what I understand, you want something to convert the digital signal to analogue then convert it to (lossy) digital (Aptx) which will then be transmitted to the speakers and converted to analogue by the DAC inside the speakers...

Maybe I haven't really understood about bluetooth and aptx, but I assumed there was a reason for products like the rBlink from Arcam having the DAC at the receiving end of the signal rather than the transmitting end. I suppose you could use something like an rBlink and run it into the line-in in the back of the speakers, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement you'd get, if any. Also seems to kind of defeat the point of the speakers.

 

[spiny norman]

Hi, I am currently listening to music from a Macbook Pro over Bluetooth to a pair of Ruark MR1s. I'm thinking of adding a DAC and was wondering if there is one I can plug into the Macbook which can send a post-DAC Bluetooth signal to the Ruarks but also let me plug in a pair of headphones to get a post-DAC signal? Many Thanks

ID.'s right: there's no point using a DAC connected to your computer, then converting back from digital to analogue, then using a Bluetooth converter to chage that signal back into digital and then converting it back to analogue again in the speakers.

The arbiter of the quality of sound you'll achieve will still be the digital to analogue conversion in the Ruark speakers, so you may as well go direct from the computer to them using Bluetooth. The sound will be at least as good, and probably better for missing out all those conversion stages.

Your best bet is to buy a headphone amp to use with the computer when you want to listen to headphones. The likes of the AudioQuest DragonFly, Meridian Explorer and even the Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS would do the job very nicely.

 

[defo]

That's really helpful folks, many thanks

Andy