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Audioengine B1 Bluetooth - Really Surprised

For those of you who enjoy casual listening, and minimizing either financial outlay or the number of components it takes to get great sound, this post is for you.

I picked up the Audioengine B1 Bluetooth receiver to plug into our living room system, just sort of out of curiosity to see how simple I could make it for when my wife wants to use the system, or when we just want to listen to Spotify without wires across the living room. What a great little device - it never drops signal, and it sounds fantastic. And this post isn't specifically an endorsement of the B1 (or of Spotify specifically) as much as an endorsement of the idea of the B1 - from what I've read many of the Bluetooth devices from $100-250 all sound nice, with just differences in connections, signal range, etc. so you can pick your favorite brand and do the same thing.

The cool part is the simplicity it allows - with only three components...

- Speakers
- Integrated Amp
- Bluetooth Receiver/Dac (analog out into the integrated)

...not including the iPhone/Android/iPad which most people have anyway, you can listen to millions of songs without wires, without leaving the couch, and with sound quality that will probably surprise many others like it surprised me.

We'll play Scrabble and make it a game of musical-torture - whoever wins the round gets to pick the song and "torture" the other (I'll pick '70s AM-Gold love songs, she'll pick Nine Inch Nails) - but that would be tedious with CDs. With Spotify on the iPad, we can pick songs in seconds, no wires, the signal never drops, and it sounds much better than I expected.

I went into it with an "I'll just return this when I discover how limited it is" mentality, so this was a cool discovery for us, and definitely a keeper. Not that changing CDs (or LPs) is all that difficult, but being able to pick from 20 million songs using my iPad while planted comfortably on the couch, and without any wires, is really fun and I wish I'd tried it sooner.
128x128bcgator
fishboat
245 posts
 
..haven't been around here in a good while..listening to music I guess..

Anyway..I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents on the Audioengine B1.  I searched A-gon for a smartphone-bluetooth-Pandora input to my system solution and arrived at this thread.  I've since picked up a B1 and having it running through my Paradisea + DAC via an optical cable.  Install and hookup was a no-brainer..2 minutes. 

Very Nice!  I'm really surprised just how good it sounds.  Bluetooth, and the nearly free world it opens up in identifying new music to take a harder listen to..best investment I've made in a while!

An Alison Krauss I hadn't heard is playing now...lovin it. 

Thanks to bcgator for starting this thread/review. 
bcgator's avatar
bcgator OP
355 posts
 
Thanks for posting fishboat, glad to hear the B1 worked out for you and that my original post was helpful.   Sounds like you're enjoying the same thing I am - it is so cool being able to instantly queue up millions of songs, right from the smartphone, and discovering new genres, bands, songs.   Thanks to the B1 and Spotify I've had more fun with music this year than any other time in my life.  There's so much great music out there that I hadn't discovered, especially the lesser-known independent artists.   There are times when I want to listen critically, but most of the time I just want to explore the world of music and have fun.
russellrcncom
311 posts
 
Just curious if anyone tried upgrading the interconnects that came with the unit to something more robust (for lack of a better term) and what were the results.  Heavy interconnects obviously won't work due to the size / weight of the unit.
gmz374
5 posts
 
Just bought an AudioEngine B1 (June 2019) and have been using it non-stop for two weeks.  My conclusion is that it's a great product.

I've run it through several systems in my home:

Amps

Marantz SR-18EX AV amp
Yamaha C2a and M2 pre/power amp
McIntosh pre-amp and mono blocks

Speakers

Dahlquist DQ-10's with REL sub
B&W 802's
Sonus Farber's

I used lossless recordings.

In all cases the speakers disappeared and there was simply a wall of sound.  Anyone who says otherwise has never used the product.  It's turned out to be one of the best buys and at $189 current price it's a steal.



elevick
2,636 posts
 
GMZ, yep I'm still using my B1 and am happy.  It is currently in my living room running the whole house and doing double duty to my Music Hall Receiver to another pair of Coincident speakers.
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