This is a review and detailed measurements of the Dayton Audio WBA31 Wifi/Bluetooth Streamer. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $62.98.
As you see, it is a little plastic box as you would expect at this price. Power is provided through a USB adapter:
Both analog and Toslink digital outputs are provided which is nice. And unusually so, there is analog input as well (I did not test this).
Streaming protocols include Airplay which is what I used for my testing over Wifi.
Setup was smoother than many others I have tested using company's app. You connect to its Wifi AP temporarily to configure it and then you can both control the device and play content using their app.
Dayton WBA31 Audio Measurements
I used my Roon player to talk to the WBA31 over its Airplay interface. Airplay is limited to 16 bits so best case SINAD is usually in the 90s. Here, we get much lower value due to high distortion of the DAC (volume is maxed out):
I was also disappointed that the output was just 0.74 volts. Seeing how this is powered by 5 volts, I expect it to product at least 1 if not 2 volts.
I then switched to Toslink output (which is active concurrently with analog out), and got much improved results:
As noted, this is probably as good as Airplay gets. I then used the App on the device to stream, hoping that it would do better than Airplay. Alas, it seemed to truncate 24 bit samples to 16 bits, causing a ton of distortion.
Going back to analog, here is our dynamic range:
Not great but passable for this type of device.
Jitter over Airplay was quite poor when combined with generally bad response of the DAC:
Since my analyzer can't control the device, I don't have any sweeps for you to share. But I think we have a good picture of the device already.
Conclusions
One doesn't have high expectations going into a review like this but always hope for the better. That wasn't meant to be here. Clearly the DAC is a "checklist" item here with performance likely never measured or looked at. I will probably produce OK sound but you are not going to want to invite your neighbors to brag about what a high performance streamer you have!
Overall value is quite high though and inclusion of Toslink should let it produce much better performance if paired with an external DAC.
Personally I can't recommend the Dayton Audio WBA31. Then again for this much money, the fact that it works and brings this level of functionality may be good enough to spend money on.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
As you see, it is a little plastic box as you would expect at this price. Power is provided through a USB adapter:
Both analog and Toslink digital outputs are provided which is nice. And unusually so, there is analog input as well (I did not test this).
Streaming protocols include Airplay which is what I used for my testing over Wifi.
Setup was smoother than many others I have tested using company's app. You connect to its Wifi AP temporarily to configure it and then you can both control the device and play content using their app.
Dayton WBA31 Audio Measurements
I used my Roon player to talk to the WBA31 over its Airplay interface. Airplay is limited to 16 bits so best case SINAD is usually in the 90s. Here, we get much lower value due to high distortion of the DAC (volume is maxed out):
I was also disappointed that the output was just 0.74 volts. Seeing how this is powered by 5 volts, I expect it to product at least 1 if not 2 volts.
I then switched to Toslink output (which is active concurrently with analog out), and got much improved results:
As noted, this is probably as good as Airplay gets. I then used the App on the device to stream, hoping that it would do better than Airplay. Alas, it seemed to truncate 24 bit samples to 16 bits, causing a ton of distortion.
Going back to analog, here is our dynamic range:
Not great but passable for this type of device.
Jitter over Airplay was quite poor when combined with generally bad response of the DAC:
Since my analyzer can't control the device, I don't have any sweeps for you to share. But I think we have a good picture of the device already.
Conclusions
One doesn't have high expectations going into a review like this but always hope for the better. That wasn't meant to be here. Clearly the DAC is a "checklist" item here with performance likely never measured or looked at. I will probably produce OK sound but you are not going to want to invite your neighbors to brag about what a high performance streamer you have!
Overall value is quite high though and inclusion of Toslink should let it produce much better performance if paired with an external DAC.
Personally I can't recommend the Dayton Audio WBA31. Then again for this much money, the fact that it works and brings this level of functionality may be good enough to spend money on.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
