ÍøÆغÚÁÏ
Customer Review
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2020I’ve an old tower desktop pc that needed a decent sound card. I went with an external dac soundcard (a Fiio E17). The dac is connected to by 3.5mm audio cable to this Avantree transmitter to send the audio to speakers and airpods.
To my ear, this arrangement worked exceptionally well. I’ve used it to watch/listen to ÍøÆغÚÁÏ’s primevideo, Netflix, youTube and classicfm. I’m not an audiophile but enjoy listening to the individual tones in high quality classical music tracks. There is no noticeable lack of synchronisation between the video and audio.
Quick setup guide - the buttons explained - transmitter mode
Bottom right are ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ for volume control. Holding both down clears the bluetooth paired memory.
Bottom left is the pairing button. Touching this will make the light above it flash quickly and it will automatically pair with a speaker that’s in pairing mode. Alternatively, if the unit is set to ’Rx’, receive, this button will enable pairing with a pc/phone/bluetooth player.
Next to this button is the ‘aux/opt’ for switching input between the use of 3.5mm audio cable and optical audio cable. Holding this button down for 7 seconds will disable the voice prompts which are handy for initial use.
Pros
1. There is no internal battery which could be good for use with a desktop pc as batteries need care and maintenance. I’ve also used it with a TV to enable bluetooth sound output; the ‘no battery’ renders it a simple ‘plug-in and forget’ device - it’s perfect in this role.
2 The range is pretty good. It works at seven metres and round two corners in my house; it’ll work much further if there is ‘clear line of sight’.
3. Two bluetooth devices can be connected at once - I’ve tried it, it works.
4. The unit reliably connects to its remembered devices automatically. It also starts up automatically with its last configuration - essential for use with TV’s.
5. It’ll work very well with Apple Airpods though if the airpods are already paired with an iPhone/Mac, they will need to be unpaired (click ‘forget this device’ on the iPhone/Mac). Being able to work with airpods is a bit of big deal as they can be a pain, being as they are in a way, two bluetooth devices which are also pushy in their way of wanting to be paired to only one source. Apple utilise their own version of 'apx hd' and I suspect that it's compatible with Avantree's system. I say this because, in my opinion, the airpods appear to work much better than Jaybird earpods in this role.
Cons
1. There is no battery. This and it’s protruding antenna doesn’t help its portability.
2. A battery might be of benefit when used with a laptop to smooth or clean the power supply. I’m going to try out this Avantree with a Macbook and a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop and I’ll post an update on this in a couple of weeks.
Other
I’d a small hiccup registering for the extended guarantee; it’s a must-do thing within 30 days of purchase. The manufacturer’s customer service people helpfully dealt with this issue promptly. The power is led to the unit by a micro usb cable; it’s essential that this be the original cable or another high quality cable. A low quality cable used here will cause disruptions to the sound stream. This product has advanced features such as 'HD' and 'APTX'; I haven't tried these features as my other kit does not support them.
