Help with DAC…

[Aneesh606]

Hi All,

I am a newbie here and to the audiophile world as a whole, so would appreciate any help on the below….and please excuse me if the questions are too basic for all of you.

I have a ROTEL A11 tribute AMP connected to BW CM5 speakers. Currently I am trying to find the best way to stream music from an IOS device for High Res music. Tidal and many other services are blocked in my country unfortunately.
Recently I purchased a Belkin AirPlay 2 adaptor to connect to my amp (with RCA cables into AUX) as I heard that the bandwidth in Airplay 2 is much better than the current Bluetooth method I am using at present. Unfortunately the sound was just so soft with barely any power - it was terrible.

I have now been researching DACs and I wanted to ask the following questions :

1. If the DAC has UAT Bluetooth / APTx HD Bluetooth CODECS - does my IPhone / iOS device need the same to be able to utilise it. Ie will I get the full benefit of the APTx or UAT streaming from my iPhone?

2. I have been considering the SMSL SU 9 Dac. Given my above setup would you recommend this ?

Lastly I am open to any other suggestions on the above as I am so overwhelmed by the wealth of information out there….

thank you !

 

[JeffS7444]

Recently I purchased a Belkin AirPlay 2 adaptor to connect to my amp (with RCA cables into AUX) as I heard that the bandwidth in Airplay 2 is much better than the current Bluetooth method I am using at present. Unfortunately the sound was just so soft with barely any power - it was terrible.

There seems to be a companion app for that device, and I'll bet it includes a volume control - have you tried this?

1. If the DAC has UAT Bluetooth / APTx HD Bluetooth CODECS - does my IPhone / iOS device need the same to be able to utilise it. Ie will I get the full benefit of the APTx or UAT streaming from my iPhone?

Yes, both the Belkin adapter and your phone need to support AptX in order for the feature to work, else they'll resort to the next best available codec. And the last time I checked, no Apple phones or tablets supported AptX.

 

[Aneesh606]

thanks so much Jeffs7444.
I am not aware of any companion app unfortunately- do you by any chance know which one ?

 

[JeffS7444]

thanks so much Jeffs7444.
I am not aware of any companion app unfortunately- do you by any chance know which one ?

It's supposed to be the Belkin Soundform app. If you don't like the Alexa features, you can probably just use it to increase the gain on your device, then delete the app.