Ifi Zen Blue, Bluetooth Dac 5.0

Bluetooth 5.0TM with AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, HWA Codec

Output: Optical/Coaxial, Audio RCA L/R, 4.4 Balanced Lineout

Haven’t seen much talk about this and i think its a nice little upgrade to any system. The bluetooth sounds great and is convinient. I have it hooked up in my living room with emotiva pre amp/amp. I use the digital out to an el dac but the anolog out works great too. I upgrated from an emotiva bluetooth dongle and noticed a big improvement.

I don’t doubt it sounds good. It feels a bit overpriced to me, TBH. Fiio BTR5 has more overall features and is currently on Amazon for $109. I realize they are very different products, but they have basically identical Bluetooth specs. The iFi surely has a pretty good quality dac to justify that price. But a digital-output-only version for $80 or even $90 would be more attractive for me.

1 Like

Does the BTR5 have outputs besides headphone? Or can you use a 3.5 to rca split?

Was thinking about about getting it for portable use though. I have the hip dac right now but that with my phone is bulky. Would be nice to tuck away without a long usb attached haha.

I’m using the Zen blue to el dac to pre amp to tube buff to amplifier though lol :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

It’s not clear if the BTR5 has a line out. A googling didn’t have a quick and obvious answer. I agree the flask-shaped dac/amps aren’t very OTG friendly, though. The cord is an irritant, and I find that the USB ports on phones wear and get loose. Keeping a stable connection with the DAC becomes an issue. For me the Hip-Dac is mostly useful with my laptop while traveling and sitting at a desk in a hotel room or coffee shop type of environment.

1 Like

Agreed, and the bass boost with the edition xx is lovely haha. So great bluetooth is getting better and better. Was doing a/b tests with the zen blue dac,enog2, and the el dac usb. As far as presentation of details, i couldnt really hear much of a difference. But then again they are around the same price range. Bluetooth maybe just doest get as wide i guess. Just a little more foward than spread out.

Oh yeah. BT tech is finally becoming a viable alternative. That’s is a good thing. Wireless tech usually does catch up to wired. Wi-Fi is a good example. It took time but wifi is now very similar to wired networking in terms of stability and can even best it in bandwidth.

1 Like

Even the digital to analog stuff besting/matching vinyl. Atleast on my lower end stuff haha. I havent wanted to listen to my vinyl in awhile since getting decent digital gear. Still, certain vinyl sound so great. I have a steve miller, steely dan records that just presents it self so good compared to spotify/qobuz/tidal. So many good options! Love it haha