My current setup is a Schitt Fulla 2 and Sony MD-7506. This set up has been great for a number of years. Now I am upgrading. I have pre-ordered the Blon B50 and looking for a new DAC for $200 or less. I do have few wants and I’m not sure if this DAC exists.
Must have a volume knob. I absolutely love this about my Schitt Fulla 2.
Transmit Bluetooth (LDAC). I also have a pair of Sony 1000xm4 that I use as well and would like to get LDAC Bluetooth from PC.
First off, welcome to HFG! I haven’t heard the B50s yet so I’d be interested to read how they work out for you after you’ve had them for a while. They should be able to be driven by just about anything given their low impedance and high sensitivity (117 db/mW ) so you don’t need anything super powerful. However, the bluetooth transmission part is what’s throwing me for a loop. I know that you can do that with some DAPs, but I can’t think of any DACs off the top of my head that would do this. I’ve never really looked though so someone else will hopefully come along and be much more helpful lol! I mostly just wanted to welcome you and encourage you to stick around for a bit and have some fun.
In the meantime, I’ll do some inernet crawling and see if I can find what you’re looking for.
Thanks for the welcome! I’ve been looking for an upgrade for a while now and decided to take a chance on the B50 as they apparently have much more soundstage than anything within it its price range.
I’ve kept looking and I found the FIIO BTA30 Pro. They transmit LDAC and also can go into DAC mode. I’m not sure how the DAC sounds like but its the only LDAC transmitter I’ve found. I’ll probably get a separate DAC later. Still not sure on a good DAC with a volume knob.
Wow, I didn’t know that the BTA30 functioned as a DAC as well. I thought it was just a BT transmitter. I just looked it up and it has an ES9038Q2M chip in it which is a pretty decent chip. Given my experience with Fiio’s BTR series of bluetooth receiever DACs, I’d bet that the BTA30 should be a decent place to start as a DAC. I know that people like it as a quality transmitter/receiver.
For DACs with a volume knob are you looking for something that’s just a DAC with a volume knob or are you looking for a DAC/amp combo like an upgrade to your Fulla 2?
I don’t mind a DAC/AMP combo but I just don’t use the amp portion. I use the Fulla 2 with the Variable Preamp Output only. I would do the same with any dac/amp. so yea, any dac or dac/amp with a variable preamp output controlled by a knob. Not sure if the BTA30 Pro dac is an upgrade over the Schitt Fulla 2.
So I found the perfect DAC. Topping E70.
Volume Knob… check
LDAC Transmission… check
high Quality DAC… check
USB Input… check
Price: $350
Looks like I’ll save up for it instead of getting two separate devices and spending close to a similar amount. I almost feel like I’m going overkill on the DAC side but I can’t find anything that offers everything I’m looking for in a single solution at a similar price.
Yeah, the E70 came to mind pretty quickly, but I didn’t suggest it because of your stated budget. In the end, saving up and getting what works best is almost always a better idea for the long term than compromising and paying less so I think you’re probably making the right call. Do you already have an amp that you’re planning on pairing with the E70?
The Topping E70 cannot transmit audio over bluetooth tho? At least i didn´t find any info that it can. It just can receive via bluetooth like basically every other DAC that supports bluetooth.
As far as I know, there are no DACs besides the Fiio BTA30, which can also transmit to bluetooth headphones. But Fiio is kind of a neccessary evil, they are one of the few brands which make high quality blueooth DACs, but i never had a Fiio product that didn´t come with some bugs or some weird implementatitions, also their apps are pretty bad.
The DAC part of the BTA30 Pro is bugged too. When there is no audio played, it will go into kind of a standby mode, and when audio is played again it will turn on again, resulting in a cut off at the beginning of any audio playback. Not that bad when just listining to music, but quite terrible for gaming/movies and voice calls.
Look into actual reviews of the DAC, it definitely cannot transmit to bluetooth headphones.
The Topping E70 has a QCC5125 onboard that handles most modern-day codecs including LDAC. Now keep in mind that the E70 can only receive a signal and not transmit one. It works out well, particularly for those couch junkies that want to feed the DAC with a tablet or phone wirelessly. Source
Fiio BTA30Pro is the only DAC to my knowledge that can transmitt audio, especially LDAC. As far as i know it has some problems with Sony Headphones tho, autoconnect with Sony Headphones seems to be bugged as far as I remember.
Bluetooth Transmission is also bugged, LDAC works fine, but as soon as you use any other codec and your digital signal is too low, it will just not be sent. Thats not a problem if you just leave the source and the volume knob at 100% and adjust the volume directly on the bluetooth headphoens, but if you wanna adjust the volume with the volume knob on the device or on source volume, that could lead to problems.
And, as I already mentioned above, DAC output is also bugged and knowing fiio probably will never be fixed. Not that great of a device, but one of the few transmitters that can transmitt LDAC.
If I use the BTA30pro it will only be for LDAC transmission. I’ll look more into the Sony big with it. Hopefully it was for the BTA30 and not the BTA30pro. Thank you.
) so you don’t need anything super powerful. However, the bluetooth transmission part is what’s throwing me for a loop. I know that you can do that with some DAPs, but I can’t think of any DACs off the top of my head that would do this. I’ve never really looked though so someone else will hopefully come along and be much more helpful lol! 
I mostly just wanted to welcome you and encourage you to stick around for a bit and have some fun.
I believe you are correct sir.
