Audio Technica Bluetooth Headphone Amp AT-PHA50BT BK

[Flint]

I have been making pretty extensive use of the Audio Technica BT headphone amp and I can say I am very impressed. This week I decided to see how far I could go on the battery. On Sunday I used it for about 2.5 hours at the gym and while shopping (yes, I wear headphones at the store), then on Monday I put in about 3 hours at the gym and doing chores in the house. Finally, today I used the amp for about 5 hours throughout the day while at the gym, at the store, and while working at home. That adds up to over 10 hours of utilization with my Shure IEMs, which is astonishing. I I finally decided to charge it tonight.

I am now prepared to put my full recommendation on this amp. Compared to everything else I can find on the market, this is by far the best bang for the buck.

 

[Deerhunter]

What the advantage of one these over just using the phone? I know power, but is it also sound quality?

Right now I am still using my S4 along with Player pro, that has a decent eq with it. Along with sennheiser momentum earbuds.

 

[Flint]

What the advantage of one these over just using the phone? I know power, but is it also sound quality?

Right now I am still using my S4 along with Player pro, that has a decent eq with it. Along with sennheiser momentum earbuds.

I am prepping for my next phone which may not have a headphone jack. I also find I am consistently switching my headphones between my phone, tablet, tablet, and PC through the day. With this I can just click a few icons and be connected to the new device.

The result of my using this, which I didn't expect, was better sound quality with listening to good music, mostly it is dead silent and clean as heck. I also like it when working out or doing chores because the tiny little amp is easy to hook to my waistband and control the phone which is often placed in a pocket. Finally, it is just cool and if you don't have one, that makes me more cool than you.

 

[Deerhunter]

[QUOTE="Flint, post: 197053, member: 82" Finally, it is just cool and if you don't have one, that makes me more cool than you.[/QUOTE]


Oh I see how it is, MR. Cool....


My ride is cooler

 

[Flint]

UPDATE:

As I mentioned in my opening post, one huge requirement for me is long battery life for anything I plan on using regularly while traveling.

Recently I had a business trip to Barcelona, Spain, which entailed about 17 hours of travel from the moment I arrived at the airport in Austin to landing in Barcelona. I had fully charged the Bluetooth headset before driving to the airport and I used it almost non-stop after I walked through TSA security check until I landed in Barcelona and walked up to passport control. While I was asleep on the flight out it turned off, so I am guessing it was probably operating about 10 of the 17 hours I was traveling. The battery easily lasted the entire trip to Spain.

On the return trip I used it again nearly the entire time, but this time I didn't sleep but about 4 hours on the flight, so I got approximately 13 hours of operation.

I decided this was plenty of battery life for my travel habits, but thought it would be fun to see how far I could push it.

This past weekend I flew to Milwaukee, WI, to visit our good friend Heeman and enjoy his new HT. On the flights to Wisconsin I probably used the Bluetooth amp for 7.5 hours, including the time I spent in the airport lounge. When I got to Heeman's, I chose not to charge the amp. Then when I returned to Austin I used the amp for about 8.5 hours non-stop. In Austin when I was waiting for the shuttle bus to drive me to the lot where my truck was parked, the battery alert finally chimed - that's at least 16 hours of usable life with my Shure SE846 IEM earphones. Wow!

I am currently making arrangements to visit Nice, France, in a month for a trade show and am very excited about utilizing this amp for the long flight over. I may need to charge it a bit along the way, but I can do that during a layover since it fully charges in about 2 hours.

 

[Roy Tang]

I have been making pretty extensive use of the Audio Technica BT headphone amp and I can say I am very impressed. This week I decided to see how far I could go on the battery. On Sunday I used it for about 2.5 hours at the gym and while shopping (yes, I wear headphones at the store), then on Monday I put in about 3 hours at the gym and doing chores in the house. Finally, today I used the amp for about 5 hours throughout the day while at the gym, at the store, and while working at home. That adds up to over 10 hours of utilization with my Shure IEMs, which is astonishing. I I finally decided to charge it tonight.

I am now prepared to put my full recommendation on this amp. Compared to everything else I can find on the market, this is by far the best bang for the buck.

Hi, I just purchased the AT-PHA50T when I was in Fukuoka last week thanks to your comprehensive review!
It is great but one thing is bugging me, the auto power off feature when idle...my unit keep turning off after playing for 5min via Bluetooth. Have you experience this before? Is it a bug or what? I understand it will go power off when idle after some time but didn't expect it will go off while I am playing my music. Please help. Thank you

 

[Flint]

Hi, I just purchased the AT-PHA50T when I was in Fukuoka last week thanks to your comprehensive review!
It is great but one thing is bugging me, the auto power off feature when idle...my unit keep turning off after playing for 5min via Bluetooth. Have you experience this before? Is it a bug or what? I understand it will go power off when idle after some time but didn't expect it will go off while I am playing my music. Please help. Thank you

I have never had it power off while playing audio. If there is no audio playing, it will power off after a certain amount of time. I have never measured the time, because it isn't a problem for me. If I haven't used it for 5 or 10 minutes, I want it to turn off to save battery life. Then I will turn it back on when I want to use it again. That works for me.

So, it is turning off while music is playing? I have never experienced that.

 

[Roy Tang]

I have never had it power off while playing audio. If there is no audio playing, it will power off after a certain amount of time. I have never measured the time, because it isn't a problem for me. If I haven't used it for 5 or 10 minutes, I want it to turn off to save battery life. Then I will turn it back on when I want to use it again. That works for me.

So, it is turning off while music is playing? I have never experienced that.

Yup, I am playing with Spotify streaming...not sure if that is an issue or not

 

[Roy Tang]

I have never had it power off while playing audio. If there is no audio playing, it will power off after a certain amount of time. I have never measured the time, because it isn't a problem for me. If I haven't used it for 5 or 10 minutes, I want it to turn off to save battery life. Then I will turn it back on when I want to use it again. That works for me.

So, it is turning off while music is playing? I have never experienced that.

Found out it is due to poor jack connection.....apologize for my stupidity hahaha
It works fine now, simple but powerful

 

[Flint]

Found out it is due to poor jack connection.....apologize for my stupidity hahaha
It works fine now, simple but powerful

Glad you figured it out.

 

[teknojack66]

Greetings, Flint. I found your review as part of my (let's face it, obsessive) research into Bluetooth receivers/headphone amps. I am happy to say that your excellent review was what I needed to finally pull the trigger, and I was able to score a brand-new opened-once unit for $82 on Ebay. It's gonna get here Tuesday, and I can't wait to put it through its paces. Perfect timing as I am burning in a just-bought Philips SHP9500, and hopefully the magic burn-in sauce will be piping hot from the oven when I pair the Philips with the AT. Good times.

Thank you, man. I'm gonna have to come round here now that I've met you and been convinced by your Superstar-ian passion and logic for pure sound and neat design. You mentioned going to Barcelona recently in a March post--were you perchance at the Bread+Butter trade show?

Lastly, how is it holding up? The only other model I was seriously considering was an Elecom (also Japanese) with twice the output (100ma x 2) and a significantly larger battery. You definitely convinced me that, as proof of concept (turning wired phones into wireless) the AT worked, and did so quietly and elegantly. Just wondering if you still love it. Oh yeah, how does it work with phone calls? You didn't mention that.

Peace,

Jon

 

[Flint]

Thanks for the comments on my review, teknojack66.

Here are my responses to your questions or concerns:

How's it holding up? I still use it almost every day, some days I use it for hours on hours. It is small enough, light enough, and easy enough to use that I love having it with me. In fact, I don't go anywhere without it.

How does it work for phone calls? It is okay. The microphone is on the chassis, so I have to place it near my face. I cannot use the mic built into my Shure cable when using the AT amp, so I have limited options. But, people can hear me and I can very clearly hear them, so it works pretty well other than sometimes having to actually hold the amp in one hand while on the phone.

I have only once managed to run the battery dead. When it happened I was shocked not that it died, but that it lasted so long before it died. Good stuff.

Yes, with my low efficiency headphones, like the Sennheiser HD650 or AKG K701 headphones, I have to turn the volume control pretty high. But it sounds great with no signs of stressing from the higher settings. I just have to be prepared when going back to the very highly efficient Shure SE846 IEMs, or I will hurt my ears.

I would buy it all over again. It is a shame this or similar amps are not commonly available in the USA.

 

[Towen7]

Since my new phone won’t have a headphone jack I decided to buy the little brother to the one Flint reviewed here.

 

[Flint]

I can't wait read your opinions on it.

 

[Towen7]

The little AT-PH05BT was delivered yesterday. It was $108 on Amazon. That’s more than I wanted to spend but, as Flint noted, the vast majority of similar products are of questionable origin and seem disposable.

Like Flint’s larger model this is not marketed in the US so there is no English manual. There’s a Japanese version in the box and after searching online the only other version I could find was in Russian. This is simple so there was no problem figuring it out.

BT pairing to the phone was easy. The little receiver/amp supports HFP, HSP, and ADP profiles.

The unit has a teeny monochrome LED display which is super handy. The display scrolls track information for the first few seconds but of each song and shows the battery level. Adjusting the volume results in a display of the setting on a scale of 1-14. The unit has a few “effects” modes: Music - Dynamic, Music - Bass Boost, Movie, Game, and OFF.

PH05BT has more than enough power for the headphones I’ve tried it with so far. I have no doubt that they’ll be plenty loud enough to overcome ambient noise in a gym or a plane.

Audio performance is really good. There is zero perceptible noise with the amp cranked all the way up.

I’ve read a few reviews that complained about the BT range. Some reported that even their own body was enough to interfere. That is absolutely not the case with my unit. I’ve tested it at around 10’ with and without barriers like my body and office furniture and I haven’t had any reception issues at all.

There is a permanently attached spring clip on the back. I like that as I plan to use this clipped to my clothes while at the gym or around the house.

 

[Flint]

That's great!

Have you tried putting your phone in a pocket and the amp on the opposite side of your body? In my case, I like to clip my amp on the center/back of my waistband when taking long walks as it gets the wires out of the way as much as possible. But, if I place my phone in a front pocket sometimes it loses connection. It is very inconsistent, though - sometimes it seems more sensitive and other times works fine.

 

[Towen7]

That's great!

Have you tried putting your phone in a pocket and the amp on the opposite side of your body? In my case, I like to clip my amp on the center/back of my waistband when taking long walks as it gets the wires out of the way as much as possible. But, if I place my phone in a front pocket sometimes it loses connection. It is very inconsistent, though - sometimes it seems more sensitive and other times works fine.

I have and so far, there hasn't been any connection issue. I'm at my office now and to test this exact possibility I've tried some ridiculous configurations to put as much of "me" between the phone and amp as possible.

I've tried...
putting the phone and amp in opposite pockets
putting the phone on the desk in front of me or in my breast pocket and clipping the amp to my belt behind my back
while sitting at my desk, putting the phone under my left thigh and clipping the amp to my shirt collar on the right side

No problems

I was able to get a good connection at 50’ with open space between the amp and phone regardless of my body position.

I still had connection at 55’ but my that’s where my body position started becoming a factor.

It's only been a few hours but the connection has been bullet proof so far.

 

[Towen7]

Also ... In hindsight I'm sorry for hijacking your thread. I just thought that since these two products are so closely related that it probably didn't need it's own thread.

 

[Flint]

Also ... In hindsight I'm sorry for hijacking your thread. I just thought that since these two products are so closely related that it probably didn't need it's own thread.

I think this is totally appropriate. No need to apologize.

 

[Flint]

Yeah, I get a great connection to my headphone amp from my phone over great distances. It is only when both the phone and the amp are pressed against my body, as in stuffed in opposite jean pockets, that I sometimes have cutouts. I can move either just a few inches from my body and the issue goes away. As you know, Bluetooth uses the unlicensed band centered around 2.5Ghz, which is the radio frequency which is absorbed by water and causes it to heat up (i.e. the Microwave oven). As such, water absorbs WiFi and Bluetooth signals and our bodies are mostly water, so a close proximity to our bodies greatly reduces the propagation of the radio signal.