BerryBak BEA1 Bluetooth Receiver & DAC Review

[amirm]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the BerryBak BEA1 Bluetooth Receiver with support for LDAC and USB DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $46.90.

The metal case is fine, albeit I am not a fan of its very sharp corners. Functionality is excellent with support for RCA outputs as you see, and digital outputs on the other side:

That is the taller antenna. A shorter one is supplied which should not rise above the case.

While not very clear from the instructions, the USB connection not only provides power but also exposes the device as a USB DAC.

BerryBak BEA1 Measurements
There are a lot of similar looking measurements but hopefully you can stay with me. First, I tested the unit as a USB DAC and tested its analog output:

This is pretty bad results especially since it also clips (severely) above 1.4 volt (max is like 2.4 volts). Switching to Toslink output only shows 16 bits of performance:

The main event is LDAC Bluetooth codec streaming though so let's see how it performs first with analog output:

This is streaming from my Samsung S23+ Android phone configured to produce 24 bit LDAC stream. We see that the analog stage is the bottleneck and not LDAC. So let's switch to Toslink digital output:

Now we are talking! Notice how the output rate is changed to 96 KHz so the high-res mode is only supported with LDAC streaming.

Here is our dynamic range which even with analog out (surprisingly) is good:

Translation: if you connect the Toslink to a reasonable DAC, you should get excellent fidelity, rivalling wired connection!

Just in case you are curious about other codes, here they are with Toslink Digital Out:

Aptx: (default in many devices)

Notice how the device is now outputting 44.1 kHz.

AAC:

As usual, AAC which is normally an excellent codec, shows up horribly in Bluetooth envelop. It also sounds bad to my ears. The best of the non-LDACs is SBC to me:

But they all pale in comparison to LDAC.

Conclusions
Let's get the bad news out of the way: the analog output of the BEA1 is horrible. Even the digital output is deficient if you use it as a USB DAC/digital bridge. But switch to LDAC streaming and use Toslink and the device delivers nearly perfect output with a single tone. In my past listening tests, LDAC is far superior subjectivity to other Bluetooth codecs and these measurements show it again. A single tone should be very easy for a lossy codec to handle, yet, all but LDAC manage to screw it up good.

If your application is LDAC in, and Toslink out, then the BerryBak is recommend. If you want analog out, then it will be disappointing no matter what.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

 

[amirm]

Specs:

• Multi-Function Audio Decoder
• Bluetooth / USB to Analog / Coaxial / Optical Converter
• QCC5171 Bluetooth v5.3 Module, Supporting Various Codec as SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC
• Supporting 24bit/96kHz Sampling Rate
• Maximum Transmission Rate as 990kbps
• Supporting Bluetooth LE Audio Standard
• External Bluetooth Antenna for Long Distance Connection and Stable Audio Transmission
• USB Type-C Port for Both Power and Data
• UAC 2.0 USB Codec Input, Supporting 24bit/96kHz Sampling Rate
• Analog, Coaxial, Optical Signal Output for Easy Connection with Amplifiers, Soundbars, Active Speakers
• 32/80MHz Dual Processor, Optimized for Balanced Performance and Power Consumption
• Independent ES9018K2M Audio DAC
• Digital Signal Transmission, Less Susceptible to Interferences
• High Audio Performance
• Gold-Plated Plug-N-Play RCA Terminals, Simplifying System Integration
• Sleek and Stylish Design with Robust Aluminum Housing

 

[JSmith]

It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $46.90.

Thanks to the member for sending and of course for your time in testing Amir.

Pics;

JSmith

 

[amirm]

That's a ton of stuff in there for such a cheap device!

BTW, I saw it advertised for $31 elsewhere although not sure if it includes shipping.

 

[Lunafag]

@amirm, I heard enabling "Turn off A2DP hardware offload" in the developer options of the phone improves AAC performance, could you test this? It's greyed out on some phones though. To enable developer options you need to go to settings > about phone > software information and tap "build number" 7 times.

 

[amirm]

@amirm, I heard enabling "Turn off A2DP hardware offload" in the developer options of the phone improves AAC performance, could you test this?

I don't see how that could make a difference. I have actually tested AAC on an iPhone with the same results you see here.

 

[shuppatsu]

I don't see how that could make a difference. I have actually tested AAC on an iPhone with the same results you see here.

So far as I could see the only iPhone you tested was a 6SE. Obviously if you don’t have anything newer that will have to do, but I’d love to see how modern iPhones do.

Archimago tested various codecs and found the iPhone 14 AAC implementation to be vastly better than his Samsung Galaxy Tab and Huawei P8. He also found it to be competitive with LDAC 990 but at only 256kbps.

But it was a weird test. The numbers were down across the board compared to your measurements, likely because this was part of a review of a cheap Aiyima amp where he measured the SINAD of a wired connection to a Topping D10S at 77dB. So he was measuring the poor amp performance in addition to the codec performance!

But still, he was getting like a 20dB SINAD improvement with the iPhone over the Android devices. And, just looking at the distortion spray on the FFT, your results look a lot more like his Samsung results than his Apple results.

Yours:

His Samsung:

EDIT: iPhone 14:

 

[shuppatsu]

I almost voted great, because it’s super cheap and if you want a device to stream LDAC to your DAC via TOSLINK, it’s perfect! I’d venture that it does just as good with the other Bluetooth codecs, and that it’s just that the other codecs as implemented are bad.

But it is pretty limiting to have such terrible analog output. You *need* to have a free TOSLINK input for your DAC. My D10S doesn’t have any TOSLINK input, and I imagine a fair number of people who do have one are already using it. It would have been nice if coax SPDIF was also included. So “fine” it is.

 

[daniboun]

Without overshadowing Berrybak, the Fiio BR13 is a little more expensive but much more complete and has a PEQ via BT and is equipped with an ESS ESS9018K2M chip + TPA1882 chip

 

[amirm]

It would have been nice if coax SPDIF was also included.

There is a coax as well. I just tested S/PDIF since in this context, they are identical.

 

[amirm]

Without overshadowing Berrybak, the Fiio BR13 is a little more expensive but much more complete and has a PEQ via BT and is equipped with an ESS ESS9018K2M chip + TPA1882 chip

I like the display on that one. It is such a pain to not know which codec is in operation or the volume level.

 

[JeremyFife]

Curious little thing.

Pretty good if, and only if, you need an LDAC receiver (and can accept toslink).
How may people would know that though and end up using the analogue out, or any of the other input options.

Can't decide how to vote, will probably go 'not terrible' because there is only one worthwhile use case and there is no way (apart from this review!) of knowing that...

 

[daniboun]

I like the display on that one. It is such a pain to not know which codec is in operation or the volume level.

NB : PEQ can only be controled via your Mobile phone with the Fiio control tool.

 

[amirm]

Archimago tested various codecs and found the iPhone 14 AAC implementation to be vastly better than his Samsung Galaxy Tab and Huawei P8. He also found it to be competitive with LDAC 990 but at only 256kbps.

By what metric??? Here is his LDAC test:

Here is the AAC you quoted:

The AAC on iphone is massively more distorted the way it has spread the spectrum. You cannot compare THD+N ratings for lossy codecs except in gross levels. You need to look at the spectrum or be a trained listener to know what to listen for. There is no question that LDAC is superior to AAC on iPhone.

 

[Michou]

By what metric??? Here is his LDAC test:

View attachment 472691

Here is the AAC you quoted:

The AAC on iphone is massively more distorted the way it has spread the spectrum. You cannot compare THD+N ratings for lossy codecs except in gross levels. You need to look at the spectrum or be a trained listener to know what to listen for. There is no question that LDAC is superior to AAC on iPhone.

I’m a little confused by this discussion. As far as I know, iPhones only support SBC and AAC when it comes to Bluetooth audio codecs. They don’t do LDAC (or aptX, for that matter). So if we’re talking about measuring LDAC performance, that can’t be on an iPhone—it has to be on an Android device. Unless I’ve missed something major, that’s always been the case.

 

[Bob101]

For the price, I would recommend this to someone I know, for non-critical applications. If you don't mind the form and raw performance, and just look at it from a features standpoint it is not bad value IMO.

 

[GWolfman]

Not bad for the price, but with caveats as mentioned in the review (only if you have LDAC as input and use digital as out).

The problem with these devices is you’d never know it’s garbage in one scenario and “perfect” in another if it weren’t for @amirm. In other words, you can’t trust any of them until they’re tested by a professional.

Thanks!

 

[phoenixsong]

For the price I think this will serve as a good one-trick pony (LDAC Toslink). Btw, I think the LDAC RCA image is that of the USB RCA one

 

[Negatywny]

Sooooo... how you use it? You connect to it directly from your smartphone by bluetooth and it passes through the loosless bitperfect signal to your DAC by toslink?
You don't need any streamer thanks to this?

Or like I have a USB connection from PC to DAC - i could get rid of the USB cable and stream from PC wirelessly to DAC through BerryBAK BEA1?

 

[oldloder]

Thank you for the quality review, Amir.

This device and review is a perfect example of the value of ASR. There are a lot of products out there that receive mixed reviews and without such testing they can be considered to have inconsistent quality or poor QC. Reminds me of a friend who used to say "For every job there is the right tool ... and many wrong ones."