Hi-fidelity Bluetooth Receiver for Yamaha AS501

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donny0m

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#318864 27-Feb-2025 18:20

Hi folks

I have a Yamaha AS501 primarily for my turntable. I'm planning to add a bluetooth receiver to play Spotify from my laptop (I know!)

What hi-fi 24-bit BT receivers do you recommend? I saw this and was wondering if it is worth the money.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/SPKAUE90021945/AUDIOENGINE-B1-Bluetooth-Music-Receiver---Grey

Cheers

davidcole

6029 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3348495 27-Feb-2025 22:12

What about a streamer? A wiim plus, or even an old chromecast audio. Then your amount tied to your laptop.

yamaha does make a musicast device you could put on as well. But they’re 500-600ish

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toejam316

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#3348595 28-Feb-2025 07:56

Don't have much to contribute except to say that Hi-Fidelity and Bluetooth are not compatible concepts.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

nitro

656 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3348642 28-Feb-2025 09:29

toejam316:

Don't have much to contribute except to say that Hi-Fidelity and Bluetooth are not compatible concepts.

still a valid statement, but newer codecs such as LDAC and aptX lossless have made significant improvements. i mean OPs source is spotify... from a laptop! and i've no idea what codecs laptops support these days.

so, OP... the AudioEngine B1 might be all you need. a fancier, more flexible (and more expensive!) solution would be the iFi Zen Blue 3.

for spotify from a laptop, a chromecast audio would likely be ample, but they're hard to come by. someone's asking for $350 on tm! i should have hoarded those when they were available.

toejam316

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#3348652 28-Feb-2025 09:49

On the Chromecast Audio track, you could make a Raspberry Pi Zero 2w into a Spotify Connect device, which is probably the cheapest option.

How to Setup Spotify Connect on the Raspberry Pi - Pi My Life Up

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

DMWellington

30 posts

Geek

#3348660 28-Feb-2025 10:46

Spotify isn't lossless so this seems a little overkill for basic MP3 playback. Something like this would cover the bitrate requirements for Spotify - Buy the Logitech Bluetooth Audio Adapter, Simple Setup Long Wireless Range... ( 980-000914 ) online - PBTech.co.nz

donny0m

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3348682 28-Feb-2025 11:53

nitro:

toejam316:

Don't have much to contribute except to say that Hi-Fidelity and Bluetooth are not compatible concepts.

still a valid statement, but newer codecs such as LDAC and aptX lossless have made significant improvements. i mean OPs source is spotify... from a laptop! and i've no idea what codecs laptops support these days.

so, OP... the AudioEngine B1 might be all you need. a fancier, more flexible (and more expensive!) solution would be the iFi Zen Blue 3.

for spotify from a laptop, a chromecast audio would likely be ample, but they're hard to come by. someone's asking for $350 on tm! i should have hoarded those when they were available.

Good point. I have a MacBook M1 Pro whose specification states:

Supported formats include AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos

I wonder now if even the AudioEngine B1 is overkill constrained by the laptop's capability.

nitro

656 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3348686 28-Feb-2025 12:09

donny0m:

Good point. I have a MacBook M1 Pro whose specification states:

Supported formats include AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos

I wonder now if even the AudioEngine B1 is overkill constrained by the laptop's capability.

what you need is what codecs are supported on bluetooth. having said that, according to this, you can get aptX on a MacBook Pro - Enable Bluetooth aptX and AAC Codec In Macbook Pro... and the B1 might not be such a bad idea if you have hi-res audio files to play from the laptop (spotify will still be limited to its quality).