I have been enjoying Bluewave's GET, a $129 bluetooth receiver, DAC and amp for using 3.5mm jack-style headphones with my IOS and Android devices.
The Bluewave GET beats the pants off my $22 Ribbon, at least when used with my old set of Westones. I love these old in-ear buds and didn't want to lose them. The audio quality when playing music is just light years ahead of even my favorite bluetooth headphone set, the B&O HP5.
The highest end audio protocols these guys offer APT-X variants are not Apple kosher, which is sadly where most of my music lives. Using AAC from my iPhone, and playing the same several songs over the same set of headphones, shows the GET simply pushes a lot more power to the earphones than the Ribbon. Giving them more juice opens them up a lot and everything gets far more detailed. The sound stage widens waaaay the heck up and the sound is simply better across the board. For any time I am earbud listening, the GET wins over the Ribbon hands down.
The GET + Westones are just better sounding headphones than the B&O H5. I like the B&O a lot, but they are less comfortable and do not sound nearly as good. Bluewave is supposed to release an app for the GET that will allow the same EQ-like tuning that the H5's app allows. I do enjoy being able to switch things up between podcasts and music. Battery life on the GET is 2x that of the B&O (10 hrs vs 5.)
My only complaint about the GET is that I find the volume wheel to be jumpy and I hurt my ears when I am not careful.
The GET has replaced an RSA Emmeline The Shadow as my on-airplane headphone amp.
Portable wireless hi-fi headphone amplifier with integrated microphone GET by Bluewave audio via Amazon
Image via Boing Boing
