Alfi76

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Jul 1, 2021
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Hello everybody

I am very new to this so forgive me if the question I am about toask sounds extremelly dumb.
I just bought a Denon DRA-F101 and I would like t buy a Bluetooth adapter so i can connect my phone to it.
The question is, Having Amazon Music HD, do i need any specific codecs on the BT receiver to play HD sound thourgh the Denon amplifier or will any receiver (with bluetooth 4.2 or 5) do the job? I hope this make sense and thanks in advance for your advice.
 

Tinman1952

Well-known member
Hello everybody

I am very new to this so forgive me if the question I am about toask sounds extremelly dumb.
I just bought a Denon DRA-F101 and I would like t buy a Bluetooth adapter so i can connect my phone to it.
The question is, Having Amazon Music HD, do i need any specific codecs on the BT receiver to play HD sound thourgh the Denon amplifier or will any receiver (with bluetooth 4.2 or 5) do the job? I hope this make sense and thanks in advance for your advice.
If your phone is Android then you should be able to use AptXHD or LDAC to send the audio over Bluetooth. So an adapter/receiver that accepts these would be ideal to give you better audio quality. Check the specs.
If it’s an iPhone then you are stuck with AAC.
Any adapter will work however as they use at least the SBC codec which is the default for all devices if they cannot use a better codec.
All Bluetooth is a ‘lossy’ protocol…which means the audio is compressed before transmission. However the convenience may be more important to you.
 

Alfi76

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Jul 1, 2021
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If your phone is Android then you should be able to use AptXHD or LDAC to send the audio over Bluetooth. So an adapter/receiver that accepts these would be ideal to give you better audio quality. Check the specs.
If it’s an iPhone then you are stuck with AAC.
Any adapter will work however as they use at least the SBC codec which is the default for all devices if they cannot use a better codec.
All Bluetooth is a ‘lossy’ protocol…which means the audio is compressed before transmission. However the convenience may be more important to you.
So if i get this right the receiver should support those codecs? Most receivers seem to only support them on the TX side of things rather than the RX
 

Vincent Kars

Well-known member
It takes two to tango so a Bluetooth sender and a Bluetooth receiver negotiate a protocol.
The standard is SBC (320 kbs, a kind of high bit rate MP3)
LDAC (Sony) is one going up to 900 kbs but you will probably have a hard time to find a receiver supporting this.
In practice, due to stability is often falls back to 600kbs.
But all of the time it will be lossy compression as others already pointed out.
Bit more detail: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/Bluetooth.htm

A wired connection won't have this problem.
A common one is a USB DAC as most todays phones do support USB audio.
At least Android is UAC1 compatible so anything 16/24 bit ip to 96 kHz sample rate.

Modern receiver can be connected to the LAN.
This allows for UPnP, a open source streaming AV protocol or Airplay (Apple)
 

Alfi76

Active member
Jul 1, 2021
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It takes two to tango so a Bluetooth sender and a Bluetooth receiver negotiate a protocol.
The standard is SBC (320 kbs, a kind of high bit rate MP3)
LDAC (Sony) is one going up to 900 kbs but you will probably have a hard time to find a receiver supporting this.
In practice, due to stability is often falls back to 600kbs.
But all of the time it will be lossy compression as others already pointed out.
Bit more detail: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/Bluetooth.htm

A wired connection won't have this problem.
A common one is a USB DAC as most todays phones do support USB audio.
At least Android is UAC1 compatible so anything 16/24 bit ip to 96 kHz sample rate.

Modern receiver can be connected to the LAN.
This allows for UPnP, a open source streaming AV protocol or Airplay (Apple)

Thanks for your reply Vincent!
I take when you say "A common one is a USB DAC as most todays phones do support USB audio" you mean that (assuming the phone and the recivers do their job properly) having the phone connected to the receiver via USB could be the best compromise between practicality, sound quality and costs then? Would you personally go for such a setup or just a bluetooth connection knowing you'd be loosing sound quality?
Sorry to be a pest but as I mentioned before, I am completely new to this but also very fascinated by the whole audiophile thing...

Also, I have just seen this on Amazon:


Would this avoid having a receiver between phone and amplifier?
 

Vincent Kars

Well-known member
I’m using a USB DAC from 2008 on.
It is sitting on my desktop next to the PC.
Use it for headphone listening and with a XLR going to a pair of mono blocks to drive my speakers.

You might try https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?reviews/
Lots of DACs reviewed there including the DargonFly: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...balt-review-portable-headphone-adapter.23015/

The cable you are referring to is a USB DAC as well.
You can find a couple on my website including some references to measurements.
 

Tinman1952

Well-known member

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