Review on iFi Zen Blue: The Ultimate HiFi Bluetooth Receiver & DAC - Wireless Inputs/Outputs, Optical/Coaxial/SPDIFRCA/4.4 Balanced, Audio System Upgrade by Jeff Bruno

Pros: Build quality is excellent. At this price I was expecting plastic. It's all aluminum. There is no setting and it connected to my Note 9 straight away.Then the Zen works well and has a very good reception range. I used an optical output so I can't comment on DACS. The sound is pretty good. Needs improvement: When my Note 9 goes out of range, it turns itself off. It doesn't connect automatically. I think the Note 9 is really to blame. I have to press a few keys to get my Note 9 to reconnect. Meanwhile, Zen flashes an annoying blue light. So I bought a switch for Zen (search Revain for ADA1125). I think the ZEN should come with a switch. I tried going into Note 9's developer options to improve the bluetooth codec. Unfortunately I could not find a better option than the aptX used. According to iFI, LDAC and HWA will be included in future firmware updates. This will be interesting as I don't see USB, Ethernet or any other suitable connector. Also, there is a very deep pop at the beginning of each song. There is no way of knowing where in the communication chain this is happening. The last little thing - the antenna must be black. (Easy to replace when it gets really annoying).