jeffmd
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2006
- Posts
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So, I had many interest in using bluetooth receivers for things like my car, and my bedside speakers. However the amount of informative reviews out there on bluetooth receivers, especially AptX ones, are staggeringly low. It became even more frustrating to see many aptx receivers in the $20-$50 range on amazon, and no reviews on the web or youtube (at least, not anything more then "hey it works!" ).
So, I decided to pull the trigger on one and see what I got. I wen't with the Danibos because while it is from a chinese manufacturer (I-link or something like that) it was at least on the AptX website, and it was only $20. It also wasn't bulky or ugly. So when it arrived yesterday I opened it up and first thing that struck me was, damn, they stuffed so many cables in the box was bulging. Mainly it was the time traditional soundblaster cable, the stereo jack to RCA. So a popped out the device shaped like a puck and made another startling discovery, this sucker is heavy. It's got some great construction with a glossy top, rubbery sides, and a nice plastic finish on the bottom. The buttons were nothing special though. Still it had some solid weight and could double as a weapon. This could be an issue if you were looking to hang this off the end of your headphone cord, you would still need a pocket or something to support the weight. The packaging and manual on the other hand is something straight out of google translate. The front of the box has a banner that says "telephone chatting is free and relaxed".
My headphones of choice are a pair of Ostry k06a earbuds, and my LG G Flex for the AptX connection. I also had an LG volt and some windows devices to try and do some A2DP comparisons. All my music is high bitrate AAC files compressed from Losseless FLAC or original CD sources. The types of music used are heavy symhphonic, rock/HM, and electric. After getting my ears used to the wired connection I plugged my headphones into the puck and tapped my phone to it for an easy NFC connect. So after several hours of listening and going into this not knowing what to expect, I am pleasantly surprised. For the most part AptX succeeds with what it set out to do. It wasn't %100, I think I could note an ever so slight drop in bass and mids even, but it was nothing my tone controls in poweramp couldn't correct for. I did attempt to get some comparisons with A2DP modes by using other devices, althought that in itself reveled some mixed issues. My first device up was my old LG Volt, aaand it sounded pretty good. So much so that I was afraid that it may actually have AptX support that just didn't make the big list. Unfortunately afaik it is impossible to determine what type of connection you are listening in. So I went to another device, my windows 8.1 laptop. Unfortunately its bluetooth software is a little screwed up (it is due for a wipe) and the only audio it supported was the lowest quality mono. On the flip side I now know what listening to music on a jawbone sounds like. My last trick was a windows 8 HP tablet. That one worked out fine and I got some good feedback from all these test.
So first thing I learned was, unlike the days of mp3 and wma, the difference between Regular a2dp and aptx isn't artifacts, but rather tone range. Listening to both I determined that a2dp lost some more bass and the range of sound just seemed to be a little more narrowed, but I never noticed artifacts like warbling on high frequency sounds like I would on bad compressions back in the day. One thing to note however is that my receiver device is BT 4.0 and therefore supports high bitrate transfer modes. Older/cheaper 2.0 a2dp devices probably sound worse due to the slower speeds afforded it. Second, both my Lg Volt in the past (bluetooth speaker) and cheap windows tablet had a hard time doing seamless audio playback over bluetooth. On the other hand my Lg Flex does it flawlessly. Something to keep in mind when trying to stream BT audio with budget devices, you may find sound/streamimg issues you can't do anything about.
So is the Danibos receiver all roses? Not exactly. It may come as to no surprise to some, but the DAC used is cheap and suffers from an elevated level of hiss. It is not loud enough to be in the foreground, but anytime there is silence or solos it will hang in the background forever reminding you "This is what $20 gets you".
Overall I think the device sets out to do everything it is supposed to. It is easy to use, portable, offers bluetooth audio with almost no compromise in audio quality, and does it all for $20. It won't replace a wired connection but I think most people would be plenty satisfied with the sound quality. I know I would have no problem with extended play through on it. Only the most anal would consider the hiss to be unbearable.
The Danibos receiver is available on ebay for $20 direct from the manufacturer's USA store. Also other user reviews peg the battery life at around 5 hours.
2 Week Update: So after using it for 2 weeks I have made it my car BT audio device, mainly because of its size. It has worked great and consistently connects to my phone instantly when I power it up. Infact I never have to touch my phone now. I get in my car, turn this on, activate my music player with my Moto 360 watch, and when I leave the car the unit automatically powers down. I also notice none of the hiss over my sony deck. Oh, btw if you do want to keep the plastic top shiney, get one of those descent polyurethane skins for round smart watches or cut your own. The plastic will scratch easily, mine is a complete mess now because I almost always have it face down due to the very bright LED.
I also have a new cheap bluetooth receiver I will review but in short, I would choose this one over the other. This unit is one of the smallest out there and the solid body construction is great.
So, I decided to pull the trigger on one and see what I got. I wen't with the Danibos because while it is from a chinese manufacturer (I-link or something like that) it was at least on the AptX website, and it was only $20. It also wasn't bulky or ugly. So when it arrived yesterday I opened it up and first thing that struck me was, damn, they stuffed so many cables in the box was bulging. Mainly it was the time traditional soundblaster cable, the stereo jack to RCA. So a popped out the device shaped like a puck and made another startling discovery, this sucker is heavy. It's got some great construction with a glossy top, rubbery sides, and a nice plastic finish on the bottom. The buttons were nothing special though. Still it had some solid weight and could double as a weapon. This could be an issue if you were looking to hang this off the end of your headphone cord, you would still need a pocket or something to support the weight. The packaging and manual on the other hand is something straight out of google translate. The front of the box has a banner that says "telephone chatting is free and relaxed".
My headphones of choice are a pair of Ostry k06a earbuds, and my LG G Flex for the AptX connection. I also had an LG volt and some windows devices to try and do some A2DP comparisons. All my music is high bitrate AAC files compressed from Losseless FLAC or original CD sources. The types of music used are heavy symhphonic, rock/HM, and electric. After getting my ears used to the wired connection I plugged my headphones into the puck and tapped my phone to it for an easy NFC connect. So after several hours of listening and going into this not knowing what to expect, I am pleasantly surprised. For the most part AptX succeeds with what it set out to do. It wasn't %100, I think I could note an ever so slight drop in bass and mids even, but it was nothing my tone controls in poweramp couldn't correct for. I did attempt to get some comparisons with A2DP modes by using other devices, althought that in itself reveled some mixed issues. My first device up was my old LG Volt, aaand it sounded pretty good. So much so that I was afraid that it may actually have AptX support that just didn't make the big list. Unfortunately afaik it is impossible to determine what type of connection you are listening in. So I went to another device, my windows 8.1 laptop. Unfortunately its bluetooth software is a little screwed up (it is due for a wipe) and the only audio it supported was the lowest quality mono. On the flip side I now know what listening to music on a jawbone sounds like. My last trick was a windows 8 HP tablet. That one worked out fine and I got some good feedback from all these test.
So first thing I learned was, unlike the days of mp3 and wma, the difference between Regular a2dp and aptx isn't artifacts, but rather tone range. Listening to both I determined that a2dp lost some more bass and the range of sound just seemed to be a little more narrowed, but I never noticed artifacts like warbling on high frequency sounds like I would on bad compressions back in the day. One thing to note however is that my receiver device is BT 4.0 and therefore supports high bitrate transfer modes. Older/cheaper 2.0 a2dp devices probably sound worse due to the slower speeds afforded it. Second, both my Lg Volt in the past (bluetooth speaker) and cheap windows tablet had a hard time doing seamless audio playback over bluetooth. On the other hand my Lg Flex does it flawlessly. Something to keep in mind when trying to stream BT audio with budget devices, you may find sound/streamimg issues you can't do anything about.
So is the Danibos receiver all roses? Not exactly. It may come as to no surprise to some, but the DAC used is cheap and suffers from an elevated level of hiss. It is not loud enough to be in the foreground, but anytime there is silence or solos it will hang in the background forever reminding you "This is what $20 gets you".
Overall I think the device sets out to do everything it is supposed to. It is easy to use, portable, offers bluetooth audio with almost no compromise in audio quality, and does it all for $20. It won't replace a wired connection but I think most people would be plenty satisfied with the sound quality. I know I would have no problem with extended play through on it. Only the most anal would consider the hiss to be unbearable. The Danibos receiver is available on ebay for $20 direct from the manufacturer's USA store. Also other user reviews peg the battery life at around 5 hours.
2 Week Update: So after using it for 2 weeks I have made it my car BT audio device, mainly because of its size. It has worked great and consistently connects to my phone instantly when I power it up. Infact I never have to touch my phone now. I get in my car, turn this on, activate my music player with my Moto 360 watch, and when I leave the car the unit automatically powers down. I also notice none of the hiss over my sony deck. Oh, btw if you do want to keep the plastic top shiney, get one of those descent polyurethane skins for round smart watches or cut your own. The plastic will scratch easily, mine is a complete mess now because I almost always have it face down due to the very bright LED.
I also have a new cheap bluetooth receiver I will review but in short, I would choose this one over the other. This unit is one of the smallest out there and the solid body construction is great.
