Blue tooth to vintage stereo.

[Roy Skinner]

I purchased an Avantree blue tooth tranceiver v3.0 to listen to you tube videos from my LG phone, and tablet. When I first connected the Avantree to the stereo by rca jacks the volume was very inadequate. Much lower than cd, or tape. I turned the volume all the way up on the device. Not much better. I connected a phono pre amp to the Avantree just like a phono, and it worked great.
I called the Parts express tech line and asked about this. They told me that the problem is that my phone, and tablet put out a weak blue tooth signal.
Are there devices that have better blue tooth signals, and is this listed on the spec sheet anywhere?

 

[George W]

They could be right. I didn't research a Bluetooth solution, but happened upon a discontinued USB solution. It's a NAD Wireless USB DAC 1 (originally to connect my MacPro to my vintage sound system). I also tried to it with my Galaxy S4 {OS 4.2}, but the results were very much as you described. I started a thread about it, and consensus was the mobil OS drivers were not all that great.

However:

When I got myself a Galaxy S5 {OS 4.4}, the same wireless DAC now sounds fantastic. The updated Android OS did improve the SQ dramatically. I've attached a picture of the connection. The first adapter is a MicroUSB to USB, the a short USB -> USB mini because that is what the NAD DAC takes. The receiver end has both digital and analog RCA outputs, so it works great with standard connection. The SQ is almost as good as coming from USB of my MacPro. If your phone has the microUSB port, perhaps it would support USB Mass Storage, and the USB DAC is recognized without any need for drivers.

 

[mr_light]

You didn't mention the model of your receiver, but I would check the Q&As on AMAZON for that device. The extensive comments may shed light on the problem. I assume you are not plugging it into the Phono input...

 

[Wolverine]

I have used a Rocketfish Blue Tooth receiver with a variety of vintage gear with great success. It even comes with a optical connection that allows me to run it through a outboard DAC. I can control the volume either the volume control of the gear or through my phone or tablet.

 

[Roy Skinner]

George W, thanks for the great idea. The first thing I did was put down my tablet, and pick up my "phone" to investigate this DAC while maintaining my place in this forum with my tablet.
I really appreciate your input, but after seeing the price of that, I feel much better about using my external phono stage into the auxiliary input. I only listen to you tube occasionally.

 

[Roy Skinner]

Wolverine, thanks for the input also. I am curious about seeing how my daughter's I phone would compare to my LG with the same set up.

 

[Eddmac]

Don't know if this is any help.
I have a NEC AUA-7000e vintage amplifier and I wanted to stream my music from my iPad to listen on this.
I bought a bluetooth receiver, which does a decent job the Nextav NXA-BR-30
This has digital coax and optical outputs and also RCA.

Initially, I used the RCA outputs and the result was satisfactory, but then I added a Moon DAC (which I got cheaply), used the digital output to the DAC and the RCA from the DAC to the amplifier - this really improved the sound quality. Now this would be my main listening source, as I can leav my playlist running without having to constantly change things. I can also use the volume control on the iPad.

 

[rxonmymind]

Possibly. But I found no difference in terms of volume on either my old smart phone a Droid RAZR xt 912 vs my Droid Turbo 2. Audio quality output was identical. One area that the DT2 was it's ability to hang on to the Belkin Bluetooth from a greater distance. But that could also be attributed to "wear" after five years of use, drops etc.