how is the bluetooth on this connected to headphones etc?
Great BT quality - with headphones that support aptX, the wireless stream quality is just as good as with the BlackBerry Q10 streaming music via aptX (and the BB has got a really good BT chip and wireless sound quality).
I would also mainly recommend to use the AP60 with Bluetooth headphones or as a digital source (as soon as the DAC gets enabled through a firmware update), as the sound quality out of the headphone port is not that great (
moderate roll-off towards the sub-bass, not so quiet noise floor with really sensitive IEMs regarding the low power output, something odd about the treble). Yeah, I think the AP60 would work best as a pure transport device but not so well for standalone use (headphones directly connected to its output) as the SQ over the headphone output is only average at best imho.
Anyway, here are some pro and contra impressions I sent to another user who asked me via PM:
First the bad things:
- It has got a permanent sub-bass roll-off of 4 dB (noticeable if you listen to music that extends really low).
- Given that its headphone output is quite weak on power, the amount of hiss with sensitive IEMs is rather high.
- The digital output doesn't work yet (but they said they will enable it soon-ish).
- In my opinion, the navigation with the virtual touch buttons is really stupid at times (normal physical buttons would have been better).
- Even though I am more on the objective side and metrologically volume-matching devices when comparing them, there is something about the treble (sounds "flat" and lacks some details).
But the good things are:
- Great scan speed and it takes 200 GB micro SD cards without any issues.
- The UI is well structured and response speed is excellent - nothing feels laggy or buggy.
- The volume control is very fine-grained and one can listen to music at really low volume levels.
- The output impedance (between 1 and 1.5 Ohms) is reasonably low.
- The Bluetooth quality is really good.