Helix BT HD HEC vs AliExpress BT interface. Which one is better? 

Yes, considering this cheap chinese device has that built-in.

I tried playing around with it, however apparently my Pixel has problems with LDAC. Need to find a different phone capable of LDAC.

For convenience it's a no brainer😄

I have the SMSL and will be testing it next👍

Because of this BT shenanigans, I switched my focus from trying to use BT with my source to using wired Apple CarPlay. I switched from Android to Apple because every car audio manufacturer supports Apple, but not all support Android.

Well from my experience, if a codec is not supported by the phone, the option will be greyed out and you won't be able to select it.

@@RAW-CAt my Samsung J7 only supported SBC and AAC codecs but nothing was “disabled” in developer options. Apple used to allow you to select a codec, but that menu has been removed. I did a lot of research a year ago because the BT module for my Audiocontrol D6.1200 supports AptxHD. I would have had to spend thousands of dollars on a Sony phone or get an LG from 2015-2016.

@@gonzoe123 well, my Pixel supports LDAC, as well as newer Galaxy phones. It's just not advertised.

@@RAW-CAt I have Samsung S23 and it only has SBC and AAC !

Yeah, If you are going digital, there is no point of a DAP as a phone can do the same.

​​@@RAW-CAtBut source must be good right? Ok of course phone might be able to stream tidal, qobuz etc.. but still output of phone is not as good as DAP right? Im talking about losless streaming..mp3, Spotify etc is not gonna make any difference if im right.. correct me if im wrong

@@vaisakhmurali6918 source material is digital. FLAC files stored on your phone and going digital straight to DSP avoids DA and AD conversions that a DAP introduces.

@@RAW-CAt Phone also contains a DAC inside it right but of very low quality than that inside a DAP.. then how come there won't be any conversion in phone as you said?

@@vaisakhmurali6918 phone has a DAC, but it is used only if you are playing through 3.5mm jack - analogue signal. If you send digital si gla via USB that bypasses the DAC and no conversions are happening.

It can be done on android too

Ha, so true, just checked now and I can do that😄 Never used the on screen volume adjustment, only the buttons.

In my opinion wireless signal will never be as good as wired. Mainly due to bandwidth. But for daily it's plenty enough. In my old system I had a Helix USB audio hec card, so it was a wired connection.

@@RAW-CAt Am I correct in assuming that the Helix USB hec card will have just as good, if not better, signal quality as the optical/digital coax inputs? It seems reasonable that since you don’t have to go through an additional conversion with devices such as Topping or SMSL acting as a digital bridge, the signal would be a cleaner signal. Also if you’re using an iPhone you have to use a camera kit to convert lightning to usb. I don’t know what devices are available for android that perform that same conversion.

@@19rc69 optical on Helix is much better than BT, like 20-25dB better. Android has a lot of DAC options, like SMSL PO100pro.

0.05% for a DAC is really bad. Most quality car audio amps have lower distortion than that.

​@@RAW-CAt I think i did something wrong with my measuremnt. I measured the Apple 3.5 DAC dongle and it shows 1.5 THD. Make no sense cause all the review says this dongle have like 0.001% THD+N. Measured using UCA222 interface.

The AD converter is Cosmos E1DA.

Yes it does👍

Yes, same as via optical.

He did as close to an apples to apples comparison he could. You may think it's not fair from the chinese interfaces view, but if he ran the Helix at full tilt and then lowered the level in REW to match it, that would be unfair for Helix, much more so in fact