Hi fi and Bluetooth

[Constellation161]

Has anyone got any experience of fitting Bluetooth transmitters and receivers to hi fi amplifiers and wired speakers, any help would be much appreciated.

[Thinksmart]

Yes, my Bluetooth boxes have Optical Outs so I have mine wired into the Optical in port. Works really well and I can then use highest quality BT codecs such as LDAC or AptX-HD/adaptive. I use the iFi Zen Blue v2 and 1Mii Bluetooth transmitters.  The 1Mii recharge so are nicely portable between devices and properties.

Edited March 18 by Thinksmart

[Catsprint]

Constellation161, I’ve been thinking the same. Think smart, all to technical for me, sorry Is there a, ‘plug it in, switch it on, play via phone & listen’ transmitter?

[Thinksmart]

First, you may not need a device buying at all!

A lot of your modern hifi or radio devices will already have a bluetooth mode.  Your phone has Bluetooth. All you need to do is connect to it (enable Bluetooth mode on phone, search while the other device is in Bluetooth mode) and connect. 

If your hifi or radio (or soundbar) has Bluetooth in it - you don't need a transmitter or receiver box at all.  You can then play direct from phone to the music playing direct over the air.

Where a little box is helpful is connecting to a device that either doesn't have Bluetooth or it only uses the older poor quality versions.  You migh not care about the sound quality anyway for casual listening.

There are lots of easy plug in and connect devices to buy online - the 1Mii one I mentioned is great.  You plug that into your device/amp and your phone then connects to that.  You can connect these little boxes by audio cables (to your Aux In) or for better quality by Optical cable (generally to Opt In).

For most people if you need a box, get one on Amazon or wherever you choose, check it has an audio cable that connects to your hifi/radio etc. First though, check if your music playing device already has Bluetooth - if so, you don't need anything new.

Another option is just to buy a separate dedicated Bluetooth speaker.  I bought the Soundcore 300 recently to take on holiday and it's excellent. There are lots of larger ones with handles to move around your home and garden such as from Soundcore (the 100) or Boombox, JBL etc.  You then won't need anything else, just connect your phone and play.

 

Bluetooth varies in its quality, it uses what are called Codecs - which are how the Bluetooth file is compressed and decompessed at the other end. These range from its most basic (SBC) available on all devices, through first generation higher quality (AptX and AAC) through to High-Resolution (AptX-HD, AptX-Adaptive or Sony's LDAC which is only available on all Android devices).

For a bluetooth speaker AAC /AptX is generally fine. The others are used more for earphones/headphones.

For most people if not worried about the highest sound quality  - don't worry about these Codecs. If you're wanting better sound quality (and it does make a big difference) - I can provide more input either here or directly.  I doubt most people will want to bother with that though. The only reason I have the boxes I highlighted in an earlier post is for the best sound,  my devices typically already had AptX in them, but I had got used to using higher quality LDAC in earphones when travelling.

 

NOTE: if using an Apple phone, it can only connect via SBC/AAC (AAC is good). Android phones support both of those plus the AptX versions I mentioned and LDAC.  To enable highest definition audio off an Android phone needs a mode opening, which I can help with easily.

 

 

Edited March 19 by Thinksmart

[Constellation161]

Thank you everyone, I think I have enough information to finding what I want.