[musicfreak]

First of all happy new year for everyone reading this!

I'm looking for a portable DAC/amp with bluetooth. Key function for me is the possibility to change tracks and volume on the dac/amp instead on my Sony Z1 compact smartphone. The Creative labs Sound blaster E3 offers this, and also offers aptX so I'm happy to have found such a device. I've ordered it but I'm wondering whether to keep it or not. Maybee there are some better alternatives available? Other alternatives i'm known of are the Elecom LBT-PAR500AV and the Poweradd bluetooth adapter (upgrade version). This last one sounds less refined then the E3. Then there is Audio technica, of which I know the AT-PHA05BT that seems of lesser quality. This product is however discontinued, and followed by the AT-PHA50BT that seems a good shot.

Any other good prtable bluetooth amps with remote functionality that I missed?
 

 

[darkdoorway]

Also thinking along these lines but have put the noble bts into the mix as well

 

[musicfreak]

That's also a good contender. Another one is the Voxoa / BTunes VXB but that one doesn't have a skip track and volume control.

 

[darkdoorway]

That one looks good for full size headphones. I'm interested in something which supports IEM. (For full size I use a mdr1abt which has a built in dac and ldac bluetooth)

I think on considering the options the soundblaster e3 might be the way to go. Looking for something that has a solid DAC, and that looks like it

 

[musicfreak]

I find the DAc in the E3 very nice, I have used it with blurtooth with very good quality on several headphones. But there is always a voice withimn that says maybee xxx (at the moment the Noble BTS) is better. 

 

[StressedOutCat]

Hi, just wanted to chime in with regards the E3

I been using mine ever since it came out.. technically i think it works great it does the stuff it says it does.
but i think there are two things that are not great and people should be aware of before getting one 

1, the clip on it is very flimsy. mine broke within a month, which I then sent back to creative to have replace.. this took 30 days
and the second one had the same problem.. the back clip is made out of very brittle plastic that is almost see trough.
what i eventually did was break it off, sand the back off and superglue a better clip.

2.they advertise this to be worn around your collar so you can use the mic to make phone calls
which is what i did initially ( i use this with my sennheiser hd25 II which do not have in line mic )
because the device has some weight..it started to stretching all the collars my t-shirt out...
so be aware.

other than that i think it works great.