Arylic BP50 Preamp with HDMI ARC Review

[dtaylo1066]

Raise the price to $199 and enable better design and performance. Their stuff looks to be aimed at the non-serious audio crowd. Cheap piece of doo doo.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

In the dorm room of a party animal who has a pair of Behringer B2031a's with a Dayton sub and plays Death Metal and only Death Metal, this guy is the golden ticket.

 

[Ismapics]

Just punch in Arylic BP50 in You tube and you will see the usual suspects. All the golden ear reviewer saying how great this thing is. That's why it's a great time when we have ASR to give us truth. It's just that simple. I say Arylic BP50 in Black Friday promo, it was really enticing, but knowing that others from the same brand were not that good anyway I passed. So glad I did. Now on to the next.

 

[Ismapics]

Hello @amirm , have you received a copy of the Wiim Amp? I am looking forward to that one.

 

[Mauro]

I have got the A50+ and is very noisy using analog input. Not so bad with airplay.

I would be interested in seeing a review of the H50.

 

[dtaylo1066]

In the dorm room of a party animal who has a pair of Behringer B2031a's with a Dayton sub and plays Death Metal and only Death Metal, this guy is the golden ticket.

Yes, target consumer is low budget music listener who does not care about specs or listen very critically. Dorm room, computer desk audio set up, frat party, family home theatre, teen, etc. For them a functional super bargain. For those of us who are audio enthusiasts, instead say hello to WiiM. It's new amp will blow this away, of course $200 more but you get amplification, competent DAC, streaming.

 

[DTTOM37]

I would reckon, that at 79 USD, the majority of available sound reproducing devices which offer just a single functionality (i.E DACs) may not perform in the fine/not terrible sections. There is some need to for quality that's reflected in the prices we pay.
This is a device is like a Swiss knife with tin blades in the Sahara, offering multiple functions / connections which may feed a great demand (but not in practise), just controlling dept. dictates a more than dissapointig technical performance (compared to what actually?) which may be not the worst we may see at that price point.
I also would like to see a better performance at that budget, but how and from whom? Objectively a failure with flying flags at a sweet price point.
Would a comparable device for 250-300 USD with an acceptable performance and full functionality meet the budget audio crowds requirements? I would think it's complicated ...
Amir, thanks you for the review!

 

[dtaylo1066]

I would reckon, that at 79 USD, the majority of available sound reproducing devices which offer just a single functionality (i.E DACs) may not perform in the fine/not terrible sections. There is some need to for quality that's reflected in the prices we pay.
This is a device is like a Swiss knife with tin blades in the Sahara, offering multiple functions / connections which may feed a great demand (but not in practise), just controlling dept. dictates a more than dissapointig technical performance (compared to what actually?) which may be not the worst we may see at that price point.
I also would like to see a better performance at that budget, but how and from whom? Objectively a failure with flying flags at a sweet price point.
Would a comparable device for 250-300 USD with an acceptable performance and full functionality meet the budget audio crowds requirements? I would think it's complicated ...
Amir, thanks you for the review!

Yes, you could not DIY this device for anywhere near the retail price.

 

[ampguy]

The FR graph could use some clarity, the flat response remains the same with sub out, correct? relatively flat? but the sub out had the sharp 24/db or more cutoff? Some folks would like that sharp drop, but probably only if the point were adjustable.

Does the volume pot have linear or audio taper?

 

[salmo]

Not terrible one with so many inputs and outputs for that price! Measurements are a little disappointing, with better internal (and still attractive price) it would be a nice piece of hardware.

 

[amirm]

Hello @amirm , have you received a copy of the Wiim Amp? I am looking forward to that one.

They said they would send me one. May be here already but I need to finish testing older stuff. This unit was sent 3 months ago!

 

[amirm]

The FR graph could use some clarity, the flat response remains the same with sub out, correct? relatively flat? but the sub out had the sharp 24/db or more cutoff? Some folks would like that sharp drop, but probably only if the point were adjustable.

Does the volume pot have linear or audio taper?

Volume is digital. And that is correct on fr response.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

They said they would send me one. May be here already but I need to finish testing older stuff. This unit was sent 3 months ago!

Thanks for the update, that’s very much appreciated.

The WiiM Amp is being cited as an industry game-changer. Your opinions, thoughts and measurements would be most welcome.

 

[Ajax]

I'd love to see a modern proper version of an old school preamp with analogue/digital inputs, a decent headphone output and RCA and balanced outs with properly ample headroom and the possibility of eq perhaps in an add-on module for those that need it (in other words, an update on the Quad 44 modular concept?)

Would it sell enough? I suspect for posters here, such a product would be unnecessary but for me it'd be a godsend frankly with my motley sources. To do it properly outside of cheap far eastern labour may make it more expensive than an RME or Benchmark, which comes close I believe.

You can get a second hand Benchmark DAC2 HGC for US$1,000, which will do all this. It will be 10 years old but performance is still excellent.

However, if you need EQ have a look at the minidsp Flex range starting at US$500, although you will need to add a headphone amp. Check out these links and you will see performance is very good and that there are several models to choose from with a myriad of different inputs and outputs. I'd be surprised if one of these models didn't tick all your boxes.

miniDSP Flex

Pocket size processor with flexible Input/Output configuration, Audiophile converters, 400MHz Sharc DSP processor, BT connectivity, DSP toolbox for subwoofer and multiway crossover, Dirac Live optional upgrade

www.minidsp.com

Minidsp Flex Review (Audio DSP)

This is a review and detailed measurement of the Minidsp Flex audio signal processor. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $475 for unbalanced and $550 for balanced that I tested. Flex borrows the interface from SHD and puts it in a compact package. Seeing how I really liked that...

www.audiosciencereview.com

miniDSP Flex HT

miniDSP Flex HT, 400MHz Sharc DSP audio processor, toolbox for subwoofer or multiway speaker tuning, USB/HDMI ARC/EARC, WISA, Optional Multichannel Dirac Live license for room correction,

www.minidsp.com

miniDSP Flex HT - Review and Measurements

This is a review of the miniDSP Flex HT. The Flex HT is the latest iteration on the Flex platform. HT stands for „home theater“. Note: The unit tested has been send to me by miniDSP for feedback and testing purposes. I am not associated with miniDSP nor did I receive compensation for this...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Freckles.Mcgee]

Hello @amirm , have you received a copy of the Wiim Amp? I am looking forward to that one.

Not a ASR but someone posted some data on the WiiM Amp https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/my-wiim-amp-tests.1873/ and VintageFlanker did a review of the pro https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../wiim-pro-review-measurements-streamer.42300/ The WiiM Amp and Pro/Plus from my understanding use the same chip for the ADC.. anyway just further reading if you haven't seen it

 

[DTTOM37]

Thanks for the update, that’s very much appreciated.

The WiiM Amp is being cited as an industry game-changer. Your opinions, thoughts and measurements would be most welcome.

Although it's likely OT, the WIIM AMP may have shown some issues when having his first round of tests/reviews iirc, and that is why it seems to be quite silent around this device since mid December. I would have actually expected a bigger buzz if the device would perform according to specs from day one.
On the other side, WIIM has already a reputation to loose, and you can't fix amps with software updates like they do professionally with their streamers.
It would be strategically risky to push forward with reviews if the device could show some unwanted issues.
Even DARKO (imho) has curbed his enthusiasm in comparison to the WIIM pro products.

 

[amirm]

Although it's likely OT, the WIIM AMP may have show some issues when having his first round of tests/reviews iirc, and that is why it seems to be quite silent around this device since mid December.

No, not at all. I already addressed this in another thread.

Wiim sent me the WiiM Pro during the summer and it sat here for a few months until I got a chance to test it. I think for that reason, they didn't ask me if I wanted the amp (and I didn't go ask either). In the WiiM pro review thread someone asked me if I had the amp and I said no. I think they saw that and reached out to me about 2 to 3 weeks ago if I wanted the amp. I said yes. They said there was a shortage but they would get me one in the new year. I have not checked but it may already be here (I don't open boxes until I am ready to review something).

So no, i have not tested the amp at all. Don't know if it is good, bad or indifferent. Please don't make up stories like this without facts.

 

[DTTOM37]

No, not at all. I already addressed this in another thread.

Wiim sent me the WiiM Pro during the summer and it sat here for a few months until I got a chance to test it. I think for that reason, they didn't ask me if I wanted the amp (and I didn't go ask either). In the WiiM pro review thread someone asked me if I had the amp and I said no. I think they saw that and reached out to me about 2 to 3 weeks ago if I wanted the amp. I said yes. They said there was a shortage but they would get me one in the new year. I have not checked but it may already be here (I don't open boxes until I am ready to review something).

So no, i have not tested the amp at all. Don't know if it is good, bad or indifferent. Please don't make up stories like this without facts.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I didn't meant to suggest that you have it (and you have already written that you haven't), afaik some member of this forum already had their hands on this device.

 

[TonyJZX]

the sister device, the B50 amp has been out for a long time and its been reviewed a lot and for $140 its mediocre at best... and give its been reviewed by the usual youtube crowd then you know they're being very lenient

the B50 does nothing well but it does a lot and that's probably good enough for the 'lifestyle' crowd... Arylic has a lot of 'lifestyle' products.

This BP50 is no different. You're expected to push it into use cases where top tier performance isnt an expectation... as long sa it 'works' and outputs some kind of 'sound' then thats all the customer wants... I've only used it as a dac via usb or sp/dif, i knew any analog source would be wasted... it works ok but its real glitchy.

Worse still is that Arylic the company is not very receptive to user input... they know there are issues but I reckon a lot of this cannot be fixed in firmware.

 

[ta240]

Raise the price to $199 and enable better design and performance. Their stuff looks to be aimed at the non-serious audio crowd. Cheap piece of doo doo.

I wonder if it is priced to 'sell out when youtube people say it is amazing' product. A quick search turned up a lot of titles with exclamation points on there.