Reddit mentions of FiiO BTR3 HiFi Bluetooth Receiver&USB DAC | aptX/aptX HD/aptX LL/LDAC/AAC/HWA Support, for Home TV,Speaker,Car Stereo, NFC Pairing, Type C Port and 3.5mm Out, AK4376A 192K/24B DAC chip

I think Fiio just released something like this that can play audio with any Bluetooth codec available and it also has a CLIP on it. I'd look for it but I'm sleepy, so link will wait until tomorrow.

Hmm, so /u/rushatgc's notification woke me up. Here's the link.

If you have to crank volume that loud then, yes, you would benefit from an amp. May I suggest a bluetooth DAC/amp that also has USB DAC functionality from FiiO. It's not the most technically impressive, not the loudest thing on the planet, but it certainly covers a fair bit of use-cases: USB DAC for your laptop/phone AND bluetooth DAC/amp for either laptop or phone.

Have you considered bluetooth? FiiO's BTR3 is LDAC compatible and (in the best circumstances) the compression should be unnoticeable and the sound should be as good as any other wired DAC at this price. Plus you can use it wired for your phone and PC. The Mi8 came out with android 8, so it will be LDAC capable. £55 worth taking a look-

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Headphone-Amp/dp/B07FVN14FH

> are there bluetooth headphones that actually sound good?

I've been on a quest for actually good sounding bluetooth headphones myself recently, and the conclusion I came to was - no...not without some help.

Get this: ES100. Clip it to something (it's incredibly tiny and lightweight) + whatever headphones you want (if the cables are swappable, then look for some short ones... Fiio makes some short MMCX cables for instance). Bam, any headphone you want is now bluetooth at basically its full potential. It drives everything I've tested it with amazingly well (quite a bit better than my Schiit Fulla, at any rate) and sounds amazing.

If you will also be using the headphones for gaming or movies/TV, then instead get the BTR3 ... the ES100 is slightly better (more gain, more firmware updates, more configurable options, etc) overall for AptX-HD music playback (or LDAC, or AAC), but it doesn't support AptX-LL (low latency) mode, which is important for anything interactive. BTR3 supports all of those including AptX-LL. In low latency mode, I can just barely perceive a slight delay in terms of lip synchronization, but only just barely if I'm doing my best to look for it, and I might just be imagining it. For any casual media consumption or gaming bluetooth via AptX-LL, at least with the transmitter I'm using and this receiver, is good enough.

I've tested both of these with my Fiio FH5 and Etymotic ER4XR IEMs (both of which are quite resolving IEMs), and in both cases it sounds 100.00% indistinguishable to my ears compared to just plugging them into my smartphone. On the other hand, when I connected them via SBC codec using a USB bluetooth dongle, I could easily tell. Though, actually, even via SBC things still sounded better than I figured they would....goes to show that the default SBC codec isn't the only problem with most bluetooth headphones. Decent headphones via SBC still sound fairly decent, if not at their absolute best.

Oh, and the ES100 has an optional "high gain" mode, but even with that disabled, it gets me significantly higher volume if I pump it up to painful max levels (as a test) compared to the BTR3. The BTR3 was never too quiet at max volume for me, but if I had headphones that were hard to drive then that might sometimes be an issue.

wait... you already have something transmitting bluetooth audio?

just get a headphone receiver and plug them COMTAC's right in!

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH/

this one's even got a battery. FiiO is a very well known brand for headphone amplifiers.

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or you're looking for two-way communications via bluetooth?

What you need is a good Bluetooth receiver, that will turn any pair of wired headphones or IEM’s into Bluetooth headphones/IEM’s. Since you’re using a decent pair of IEM’s you want something that can drive them, so your best option would be one of these Bluetooth receivers specifically made for audiophile equipment.

FiiO BTR3 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FVN14FH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_piKSCbYM45MSS

EarStudio ES100 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078H4YD2L/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_imKSCbYR6VXN2

I have both and they are amazing the quality difference between wired and Bluetooth is almost indiscernible. I also use them both to drive my
IE80S IEM’s and believe me you will be surprised by the quality of these devices. They both are small and can easily be carried in a pocket.

Sony has stayed at the top of the portable audio industry for like the past 40 years.
They still make some of the best Hi-Res portable media players with super high quality DACs/headphone amps that range from $180 all the way up to $3k+.

They also recently developed LDAC to go along with their portable players, which is arguably the highest quality Bluetooth codec available right now. It actually allows all but the highest tier lossless audio formats to playback via bluetooth without quality loss. Very few headphones can actually receive LDAC yet (most of those that can are made by Sony of course) but you can get pretty affordable bluetooth receivers, like the FiiO BTR3, that will give any wired pair of headphones the capability to use ultra high bandwidth/low latency bluetooth.

I'm using an Mpow on the HP50. I also have a Fiio BTR3 which I use for iems. If you have a bigger budget then you could also go for the Earstudio ES100.

Depends what where you want the audio out.

For the speakers?
not much i can help you there, as i disable the speakers in the bios

For headphones?
The noise floor on the 3.5mm port on the laptop is the worst, if you have sensitive iems you will always hear it.
instead you need to grab a usb dac like

dragonfly

• 24bit/96hz
  
• usb only
  
• $124.88
  
  earstudio
  
  
• 16bit/48hz (on usb) up to 24bit/96hz(BT ldac)
  
• BT/USB
  
• has both balanced and unbalanced outputs
  
• $99
  
  btr3
  
  
• 16bit/48hz (on usb) up to 24bit/96hz(BT ldac)
  
• USB/BT
  
• $69
  
  m6
  
  
• 384kHz/32bit(usb)
  
• BT/USB/Onboard (its it own music player)
  
• $99.99
  
  any of these will give you great sound from whatever headphones you have

these and these dacs and what's your budget?

Are you dead set on just wireless headphones?


Sennheiser momentums are currently on sale for 7490 : https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07R5ZZ23C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A14CZOWI0VEHLG&psc=1


Alternatively, you could just get a bluetooth adapter like the fiio BTR3 and use any of your headphones that you already own. https://www.amazon.in/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Support/dp/B07FVN14FH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fiio+btr3&qid=1563207457&s=gateway&sr=8-1


Bear in mind that the latter option is pricier but since the adapter supports aptxHD and LDAC, provided your music source and headphones are good, it's going to beat the sound quality of most wireless buds.


I personally use the adapter paired with my Pinnacle p1s. Streaming LDAC audio through adapter gives ~8 hours give or take on a single charge.

Most of the time I use galaxy buds, which I was also using on my S8. Though I always listen to stuff at night to help me sleep, and its also when I charge my phone. I have special headphones for nighttime that are easy to sleep with. So at night I use a bluetooth adapter that I plug my headphones into, and then I can charge my phone as well.

Heres the adapter I use at night.
https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fiio+btr3&qid=1563250057&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I use fiio btr3. I can confirm it has very good audio quality and I play with ldac codec. I use it as connected dac with my laptop and as a Bluetooth receiver with phone. So it charges while working and wire free when on the move.

You need something with APTX LL, not too many true wireless earbuds got them, I can only think of momentum true wireless.

Or use an Bluetooth amp like the Fiio BTR 3 which has got APTX LL and plug in any IEMS.

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https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH

And Amazon.co.uk

I also recommend the ES100. It is double your state budget though. The FiiO BTR3 is a bit cheaper and will be more than sufficient for the IEMs you mentioned.

I’ve used Fiio BTR3 and it works good and delivers great sound actually (much better than original sound). the battery life is 10 hours. the only trick is that mic on bose is not working and the mic on the dongle works instead.
I think you may also use other models from fiio too, the differ by battery life and quality.

edit: buttons in the bose are not working at all. you have to use buttons in the dongle instead or use volume your phone (if you play from the phone).

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-LC-3-5AS-Headphone-Cable-Connector/dp/B07HN1474D/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1543596574&sr=8-4&keywords=fiio+mmcx+cable+short

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https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543596601&sr=8-1&keywords=fiio+btr3

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https://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE215-K-UNI-Isolating-Earphones-Android/dp/B07C7JB2R1/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1543596625&sr=1-5&keywords=shure+se215

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This is my wireless earphones setup for the gym. It's expensive but it's very very good indeed.

Fiio BTR3 also supports LDAC and is of very good quality, a bit cheaper than the ES100 at $70. https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH

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The model that clips onto the M50x is the BTA10 which is $40. https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTA10-Bluetooth-Amplifier-ATH-M50X/dp/B07L6DL863

I've been having the same debate as you for a while. I think the answer is to get both (if you can) because they're built for different things, but do them excellently.

What I did was buy the PC37X, because I'll mainly be using them for gaming, and since they provide a more open soundstage, more base and have an excellent mic, I think that they'll work better for me.

I'm going to try pairing them with a cheap DAC/amp, I'm going to be testing them this week with either the Fiio BTR3 connected through USB C (which I can also use wirelessly with my iPhone over Bluetooth and other headphones). So they're convenient but may be lacking a bit in power.

I'll also be testing it with Syba Sonic's UBS 24 bit 96 KHz DAC/Amp (For under $40 it's hard to argue with)

I also considered the Sennheiser GSX 1000 Gaming Audio Amplifier, but will only test it out if the other options don't perform well for me.

I'll let you know how it goes. What option did you end up going with u/HasHooves?

For many of you I can recommend a Fiio BTR3, it's a Bluetooth DAC (digital-to-analog-converter) that's super compact, allows you to use any of your old headphones with a Bluetooth enabled phone. Drives my studio dt990s just fine, no worries about power. Can use AptX HD as a Bluetooth Codec, and paired with the good chip inside sounds better than any phone with a headphone jack, aside from a few select LG phones.

I have a phone with a jack still, and honestly I prefer to use this since I could have it clipped on my shirt and pull my phone out of my pocket without wires. Really tilts me to see all you, "I won't buy a phone if it doesn't have a jack", haters. You're limiting yourself to phones with shittier software, camera, hardware, the whole 9 yards, and for what? You have to use a different audio setup that's better anyways? Then again, I prefer equipment that's limited by my phone's DAC in the first place, so I don't have the same view as many of you.

Maybe I didn’t spell it out easy enough for you or explain it well enough for you, or maybe you simply didn’t actually read what I wrote. So, let’s try this again.

There is NO quality loss with the es100 or any of the FiiO Bluetooth receivers. Quite the opposite. They have a built in AMP(this AMPLIFIES the sound and outputs more power to drive the headphones better), and on the es100 a DAC chip(Digital to Analog Converters that increases the sound quality). So it takes the Bluetooth signal and enhances it greatly. It sounds significantly and noticeably better and louder, than if you were to take the same set of headphones and plug them directly into the phone with the provided lightning to 3.5 headphone jack dongle. It also sounds way better than a set of Bluetooth headphones. Believe me, I have 4-5 different high-end Bluetooth sets, and have tried out all these different situations. Some of them sound ok, but don’t really get loud enough, and you lose a lot of detail in the music. There is no comparison to the es100 or Fiio Bluetooth receivers. They sound amazing! And you still have your phone wire free. The only thing that is wired is your headphones to the tiny Bluetooth receiver which you can just clip to your shirt or put in pocket.

Plugging directly into most phones sounds like shit. Phones don’t output enough power to really drive a decent set of headphones. So they also does not get loud enough for me personally.

If your someone that is content listening to music with the set of pods that come with the iPhone, then these devices are probably not for you. I myself have quite a few sets of headphones that require a cable, and I was pissed that I was basically being forced to use one of these dongles to keep plugging them directly into the phone, or use Bluetooth headphones. The dongles I kept losing/misplacing because they are so damn small and they are expensive to keep replacing, and I didn’t want to use Bluetooth headphones as the sound quality isn’t the best. Especially since Apple uses only the AAC codec and not better ones like aptx, aptx hd, or LDAC. So it forced me to look at different options and the es100 was the answer. I didn’t know how much I didn’t like plugging directly into the phone via dongle until I used this thing for a few weeks. Music that I have been listening to for years, all of the sudden sounded better, more alive. I was hearing micro details and sounds that you just usually couldn’t hear. It’s amazing!

Best $100 I ever spent. I know that that could be too much money for some folks, but it’s about the cost of a few of the Apple dongles! If $100 is too steep, the FiiO options uBTR is $28, the BTR1K is $50, and the BTR3 is $70. They can all be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549717742&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=fiio+btr&dpPl=1&dpID=31GuLdGu5jL&ref=plSrch

Es100:

https://www.amazon.com/EarStudio-ES100-24bit-High-Resolution-Bluetooth-Unbalanced/dp/B078H4YD2L/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549717742&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=fiio+btr&dpPl=1&dpID=31e1njGDDpL&ref=plSrch


Just so people know, I have no affiliation at all with either of these companies. Just products that have helped me get over the lack of a headphone jack on iPhones. And not having your phone connected to any wires is amazing. But you still get amazing audio quality which is important to me. Hope this helps some and clarified what I was trying to get across in my first post. Or not...

These are the two that I know about:

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH/

https://www.amazon.com/EarStudio-ES100-24bit-High-Resolution-Bluetooth-Unbalanced/dp/B078H4YD2L

If you don't mind a single cable, I love the MEE M6B buds. Fantastic battery life (8+ hours), bluetooth 5.0, and sound great. IPX5. $30 USD

If you don't mind using a set of cables, You can use any 3.5mm headphone with the Fiio BTR3 bluetooth receiver. Built in AK Dac, Can be used as a USB Dac from any computer, 11 hours of playtime (can use while charging), and works with any normal impedance headphone (i can use with 300 ohm headphones, but they aren't that loud.). $70 USD.

There is a less expensive model uBTR that comes without the DAC/9 hours battery life. $30 USD.

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I haven't had too much experience in this price range, but these products I own myself and use them both for difference reasons. Good luck hunting!

One option is to get something like the Fiio BTR3 https://smile.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH and then get whatever headphones you like. :) If you go this route, you'll ideally want headphones with a short or easily replaceable cord.

FiiO A3 - $49.99

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-A3-Portable-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00Z9BIODA/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?keywords=fiio%2Ba3&qid=1566682827&s=gateway&sprefix=Fiio%2Ba3&sr=8-6&th=1&psc=1

FiiO BTR3 - $69.99

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-BTR3-Bluetooth-Receiver-Portable/dp/B07FVN14FH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?keywords=fiio%2Bbtr3&qid=1566682953&s=gateway&sprefix=fiio%2Bbt&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=A1FRAG12EMPNNU&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFKQk5LNzczVEFSUlkmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAyNzU0MzYxOFJWVVlHT1oxMlBTJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5NjI2NDczSkZCSkVBNkVBREtTJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

V-Moda Crossfade 2 Wireless Codex Edition- $337.99 (But if you don't need wireless, save some dollars and get the M-100 or maybe the newer M-100 Masters)

https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-Crossfade-Wireless-Codex-Qualcomm/dp/B07DMMXC9L/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=vmoda+crossfade+2+wireless+codex+edition&qid=1566683030&s=gateway&sprefix=vmoda+crossfade&sr=8-3

[EarStudio ES100 è al momento il migliore ricevitore BT] (https://www.amazon.it/EarStudio-Ricevitore-bluetooth-risoluzione-amplificatore/dp/B078H4YD2L), sia per qualità generale sia per i codec che implementa (se hai android dall'8.0 in su puoi trasmettere in LDAC ed avere una qualità audio notevolmente superiore al classico codec SBC).

Diversamente, c'è il FiiO BTR3, un po' meno caro e con una build diversa ma decisamente competitivo, in particolare per la presenza del codec AptX-Low Latency (AptX-LL).

Di seguito una breve sinossi (in inglese) presa in prestito da u/PragmaSG (thanks dude!):

>in terms of internal specs, FIIO says BTR3 uses a Qualcomm Bluetooth 5 low powered chip. Didn't find anything about the ES100.

>Codecs (from website): ES100 - aptX Classic/HD, AAC, MP3, SBC; BTR3 - AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX Low Latency, aptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC

>Both use Asahi Kasei dacs, but the dac in BTR3 is a newer one: AK4376A vs AK4375A. I found a comparison between them here.

>ES100 has a 350mah battery (14 hours) and BTR3 has a 300mah one (11 hours).

>ES100 has balanced output.

You certainly can though Filo BTR3