• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Trying to figure out BT DAC to pair with Aiyima A07, or whether to just buy the A200

hojicha

New Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2022
Messages
1
Likes
0
Hi, I'm looking for a new amp for my living room (small living room) setup and I'd like to get some BT functionality happening. Right now I have an SMSL 98e and it's fine, but i want to move it upstairs to kick out the underpowered (for my needs) and somewhat disappointing SMSL a12 to a different job. At first the Aiyima a200 seemed perfect, but now that I'm down the rabbit hole it seems like the digital side of that amp is disappointing and pairing the Aiyima A07 with a separate DAC/BT receiver is the move. One option that seemed to make sense is the SMSL SU-6, but I have very little experience with this stuff (the only dedicated DACs I've used were a cheap superfluous fiio, and the DAC on my UMC202 audio interface for my office setup just because that's convenient) and want to make sure I'm not spending money on stuff I don't need, especially because the most common BT use case for the living room will just be iphone via AAC, which I understand to be quite lossy.

I'm powering a pair of these https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/i...c-nova-8b-rebuild-crossover-re-design.307141/ which is a whole separate rabbit hole, but I mention it because I lean higher than usual on the power requirements for these chip amps, which limits my options. I've thrown the SMSL 98e at a laundry list of vintage loudspeakers and it can pretty much handle all of them for way better bang for buck than something period or something more substantial.

In conclusion, does that combo (a07 + su-6) sound like the best bet for my use case, or is the A200 adequate for the lossy situation (with the benefit of slightly more power and integrated design), or alternately, is there a better product altogether that anyone would recommend?
 
Top Bottom