Beetlejuice: 3 ways to squeeze an AudioQuest DAC [YouTube]

Every year or so I wonder ‘What if?’. What if the loudspeakers were there and the couch there? The only way to answer that is to do; to move the loudspeakers; to move the couch; to see how it sounds; to see how it looks.

Like the 74% of the Darko.Audio readers responding to our most recent poll, my listening room is a long way from gargantuan. There are only so many ways to swing a cat.

And like the 81% of Darko.Audio readers polled last year, my listening room is also my lounge room. It’s where I entertain friends and watch TV. Giving the latter permanent position between the loudspeakers no longer flies. Most of the time the TV, a 32″ Samsung, sits out of sight, off to one side — it is only moved into place when required. That makes cable re-attachment and subsequent detachment a necessity. And a PITA.

This scenario recalled a recent email from a reader asking how and when I use Bluetooth audio. Headphones are easy: only with noise-cancelling models; otherwise, I prefer wired. In the home, I almost never use Bluetooth, except whilst watching TV. I have the Amazon Fire TV Stick send its digital audio over Bluetooth to an AudioQuest Beetle DAC that’s already connected to an amplifier and tucked away out of sight.

Another reader email arrived asking if I’d consider penning an article on the very basics of digital audio connectivity. Ordinarily, this website is aimed at the more IT-savvy consumer but with my YouTube video rehearsals in full swing and the listening room a mess due to ‘What if?’ reorganisation, I’ve made an exception: a video that takes my TV Bluetooth DAC hack and marries it to the basics of AudioQuest Beetle DAC connectivity:

Further information: AudioQuest