AudioQuestBeetle Optical/USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier, Black, Model: BEETLEBLKA

I use this in my car with my iPhone 7. It connects immediately, every time and sound is fantastic. I'm very pleased so I bought a second Beetle for my wife's car.

Am a big fan of AudioQuest products. Have purchased multiple cables, DACs, and JitterBugs over the years. Per expectations, this little Beetle is flawless (so far, at least). Am using it exclusively to convert a fiber optic digital signal to an analog signal, and could not be happier. The DAC in this thing sounds fantastic, being subtly but noticeably better than my previous solution. It’s about $50 overpriced, though. You’ll love the way it functions and sounds!17 May 2020 Update: A few weeks ago, the volume level of the analog signal that this DAC was outputting fell by two-thirds, or more. As such, was literally maxing out the volume of my amp and could barely hear anything. Contacted the AudioQuest company, went through some troubleshooting, and they verified that it was broken. At least Amazon’s return process was simple and straightforward. Am very disappointed in AudioQuest, though.

I have many computer based sound systems around my house and four of them use Audioquest Beetles as USB DACs. They sound very good, much better than the DACs built in to the computers. The sound is typical Audioquest, maybe halfway between a Dragonfly Black and a Dragonfly Red. Clear, detailed, effortless, and non-fatiguing. I had to purchase extra cables to use these with the optical output on my Mac Mini and the USB ports on my little PCs. They work perfectly with Roon, sound great, and are dependable. They run cool and are trouble free. They don't use or need batteries.So why don't they get more attention? Everyone loves the Dragonflys and these are similar, cheaper, and offer extra features! In particular, they have that extra optical input (very handy with Macs!) and Bluetooth capability. I haven't used the Bluetooth much; I don't listen to music directly from my smartphone. Is there a bluetooth issue I don't know about? Also, the black plastic case doesn't reek quality like the blue and red Dragonflys' cases do, but I don't care since they're out of sight really, behind the little computers. They sound great and work perfectly. What's not to like?

The complicated procedure to stream Spotify from my phone through TV airplay via a BD player connected to the hi-fi equipment, pushed me to find an easier solution. A colleague told me about the Beetle from AudioQuest (a company I know for Dragonfly DAC's), which I purchased on amazon.com, since the Italian shop was out of stock. I also purchased the AudioQuest Tower 3.5mm - 2xRCA audio cable to feed the amplifier in a proper way. The result is fabulous: a Spotify much better defined soundstage, smoother voices, proper acoustic instruments performance. The improvement in quick and easy connection is enormous: bluetooth is connecting in less than 2 seconds, music is flowing immediately. I did rate 4 stars because the analog-linear power supply included (a good quality one) is only for 110V, useless in Europe.

The Beetle is a great concept and I hope that firmware updates become available to make it fully functional. I want to be able to use this.Pros:Great sound quality using a PC over USB (when it works)Good sound quality using Bluetooth from an Android device (when it works)Cons:Almost unusable using Windows 10 and Tidal. I've tried three different PC's . I have been told that Audioquest's Windows 10 software interface, (the "Device Manager", the same software that's used for the DragonFly DACs) hasn't been fully updated to function with the Beetle. I don't know if the Beetles functionality will improve when the firmware is updated. Bluetooth functionality is slightly more reliable, but it still suffers from occasional dropout. My fix is to power cycle the Beetle and let it re-establish connection with my Android.

The Beatle is a nice dac, but unfortunately the audio quality of my unit is not hify by no means. There is constat slight crrackilng and humming in one channel! The price of a "new" unit was however very low, so costs for delivery and taxes detter me from rerurning the unit and will keep it for lisyening to podcasts. Otherwise the sound is nice, but not good eg for listening to classical music with quiet passages. Bought from AQ store as a new unit, but aparently has been already probably returned.

Unfortunately the Bluetooth connectivity didn't work. The device would appear in my device list on my iPhone, paired once, and would not pair again. It wouldn't even show up on my PC. Thinking it might need a firmware update I followed the instructions to download Audioquest's device manager app from the URL listed in the instructions, and it was nowhere to be found under anything related to the Beetle. I did find the device manager app under the Dragonfly tab, and when I connected the Beetle it recognized the serial number and informed me the software was up to date. There was no ability to perform a factory reset as described in the instructions. The USB input worked with JRiver's Media Center, and displayed the correct LED colors as per the input resolution, but my computer doesn't live by my amplifier so I was mainly looking for Bluetooth connectivity. I have used previous generations of Audioquest's Jitterbug and Black Dragonfly, both failed within a couple of month's usage. Not very impressed with their products. Plus the box claims it's made in the USA, when in fact only part of it is (or partially assembled), the transformer is made in China.