Disclaimer: A big thank you to Arcam for loaning me the rBlink for this review
This is the second portable Arcam DAC that I have reviewed, the first being the rPAC Both the rBlink and rPAC share the same DAC chip and have similar looks, but in essence they are quite different. Instead of being USB powered and with a combined headphone amp, like the rPAC , this machine drops all of that to accommodate wireless audio. The capital 'B' standing for 'Bluetooth', which makes it compatible with a great many portable devices. It also supports the superior 'apt X' format, which is said to improve audio quality too (read on to find out how well I thought that works.
With analogue RCA outputs the rBlink can be connected to a headphone amplifier (which is where I will do most of my testing), or a full-size amplifier (speakers). It also has a coax digital output if you'd prefer to offload your digital signal to another DAC, this is great if you have a high-end DAC or AV receiver. Bluetooth audio is commonly being built into all-in-one systems where upgrades are not possible these days, so it's nice to see something that has such great flexibility and upgrade paths available.
SOUND
Being just a DAC I found the rBlink's audio quality a little tougher to judge than when reviewing most of the USB audio that I have previously because most of the quality improvements seem to come from the amplification. From switching amplifiers with the rBlink (and the rPAC I found the audio quality of it's DAC to be good for the money rather than great. I found a slightly better sound from the £100 Schiit Modi for example, but this is not really a fair comparison because, not only is there more to the rBlink than than just it's DAC, but you can use it to connect to a better DAC if you wish.
So for me the key to the rBlink's success is how cleanly and accurately the Bluetooth technology gets the the digital signal rather than it's DAC's raw performance. I've heard a lot of negativity around wireless audio technology and this is my first wireless audio device, so I was quite skeptical about it's abilities. After spending a few weeks with the rBlink and connecting it to a few different devices I'm happy to report that I am considerably more impressed with it than I thought I could be. It has suffered from the odd audio drop-out with most of the devices I've used, but the audio quality is very impressive, especially if you have an 'apt X' compatible device.
'apt X' seemed to make a considerable difference to audio quality. I had heard people say this of other audio equipment. From trying to read between the (marketing BS) lines I'd assumed this meant it would be a little bit better, but still fundamentally flawed. After testing the rBlink with devices that do support 'apt X' (Samsung Galaxy Note 2) and ones that don't (iPhone 4) I found that it makes a huge difference. Here's a rough guide to how different I found them:
- Non-'apt X' devices sound like they're performing at about 70-80% potential - Detail sounds muddied / recessed, bass lacks weight and attack. This gives the impression of general dullness when compared to the 'apt X' device or the rPAC It's acceptable as long as you don't hear the difference between the two.
- 'apt X' devices sound like they're performing at 95-100% potential - I notice little to no difference compared to the rPAC's DAC output to the same amplification.
Most laptops and smartphones these days support some sort of Bluetooth so there are several billion compatible devices out there ready to play with the rBlink. Lots of tablets and other digital audio players (DAPs) also support Bluetooth, but it's still best to check the technical specifications of your device before buying into the rBlink. As for 'apt X' support, well that's a little more spotty, so far it seems to have been built into only a handful of devices, but hopefully this will improve over time. 'apt X' is generally supported on Macs with OS X for example, however it's not supported natively on any current IOS devices. The functionality can be added to iPods, iPads and iPhones with an adapter (although I couldn't find any with the lightning connector). Jesse B. Anderson has made a nice list of supported devices, so click here if you would like to know more about 'apt X' devices.
If, like me, you haven't used any Bluetooth audio devices before and you refuse to read any manuals then you might struggle a little at first, but most of this goes away with a tiny bit of practice. I had turned bluetooth off on all my devices ages ago because I knew it can wastes power. Then there's pairing the two devices. The rBlink can only be seen by your music playing device if you click and hold the 'Pair' button (on the front of the device), this only needs to be done the first time they see each other. This will send the rBlink's LED light into crazy flashing mode, indicating that you can now search for it on your device. Once this process has been completed there is usually little else to do but play music on your device and magically hear it come out of the rBlink (albeit through an amp + speakers, or headphones).
Setting up my laptop posed a couple of other issues however. After adding the rBlink in Windows 7 it shows the two devices connected, but you then have to click a link underneath that says 'Listen to Music'. Perhaps this second step is equivalent to pairing on the phone. It's not really obvious why there are two steps or why both seem to require the OS to download new drivers. Neither of these steps refer to the devices are being 'Paired'.
The next issue was more troublesome - considerably more frequent audio drop-outs. These were seemingly related to me "using" the laptop to perform other tasks while listening. It was often only very menial tasks, like writing in a web browser that caused this and at other times I was doing nothing at all. If my laptop were old, or slow I could forgive this a little, but it's not (Core i5-2410M, 8Gb RAM). This made my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 seem almost perfect by comparison, which only stuttered on very rare occasions when it was in another room. It could be argued that the phone has twice as many CPUs and is only running a Linux based OS compared to the laptop, but I feel that sheer system performance is not the real issue here. I also don't think this issue was related to the lack of 'apt X' support because I experienced no such issues with the iPhone. More likely it's related to the Bluetooth support coming directly from the CPU and if that's true then it could be quite easily fixed by adding a USB Bluetooth dongle. A silver lining to this is that you could add 'apt X' support at the same time.
COMPARISONS
I haven't been able to find or test any similar wireless audio devices, but talking about audio quality comparisons I have to mention Arcam's own rPAC. After testing just the DAC sections of these two devices I came to the conclusion that their abilities are pretty close. It was only after I came to this thought that I looked up the technical specification and saw that the rPAC and rBlink use the exact same DAC chip, so this is a true testament to the quality of the Bluetooth technology for audio (at least if you are streaming from an 'apt X' device).
As for competition on the wireless front there isn't too much. I'm afraid I can't offer my opinion on them either because I haven't heard them. The £350 DACMagic Plus has a Bluetooth (with 'apt X' adapter upgrade option (although just this add-on will set you back around £100!). Then there is the Chord Gem, a £400 USB DAC that also has the ability to receive audio from a Bluetooth device, it too support the 'apt X' codec. Reviews on this one vary from average to superb and it has the added flexibility of accepting a signal from a computer directly.
BUILD
The construction of the rBlink is very good. The build quality shares a lot with the rPAC and that's no bad thing. The bass is solid rubber, which helps differentiate the design, but it doesn't help it grip to surfaces nearly as well as common, individual feet. The top and sides of the unit are thick cast aluminium, which makes up most of the weight. Some images may suggest that this is the same chassis as the rPAC's, but the rBlink is actually a little bigger in most dimensions. It's also another 50g heavier, even though it has connections on both ends, which removes some of that aluminium shell.
FINAL WORDS
The functionality, ease of use and sheer fun that the rBlink adds to an existing traditional audio set-up is great, I myself will not hesitate to add one to mine, but it's benefits are not lost with a headphone set-up either. I very much appreciated the convenience of using my phone to listen to some high end amplifiers, headphones and even other DACs.
I'm too fussy about audio quality to fully recommend the rBlink without 'apt X' support, but if you have a device without it all is not lost. USB dongles can be added to computers for not much money, IOS devices can be upgraded in a similar fashion too and I'm sure more devices will emerge with this feature in the near future.
To me the rBlink represents flexible, wireless audio in a neat package and it has good upgrade paths too. Put down that Sonos catalog and give your proper system some wireless audio love.
EQUIPMENT USED
Dell Vosto Laptop, iPhone4, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Arcam rBlink, Audiolab M-DAC, Schiit Modi, Benchmark DAC2 HGC, SoundMAGIC HP200, Beyerdynamic DT880 600 Ohm, AKG Q701, Sennheiser HD650, Denon AH-D7000, Mad Dog (Fostex T50rp mod), Hifiman HE400, Fostex TH600, GermanMAESTRO GMP-400
0 comments:
Post a Comment