A common issue we run into with modern technology with the lack of 3.5mm jacks is the inability to play music of off client’s phones and other devices. But our friends at Kali Audio have truly outdone themselves on their latest product, the MV-BT. It allows you to quickly interface Bluetooth devices with the touch of a button, and sounds fantastic.
If you don’t already know, not all Bluetooth-equipped devices are optimized for the highest fidelity audio possible, and instead, opt for longer transmission distances or powerful yet noisy amplifiers. The MV-BT has very quiet, transparent, and powerful amplification, making it very simple to implement without any additional equipment. We had no issues hitting 0 dB peak on our 24/96kHz audio converter and the added 3.5mm jack option, great for interfacing with older laptops and phones.
Use of the MV-BT is extremely simple- press the Kali Audio logo to begin the pairing mode, select the MV-BT on your BT-enabled device, and turn up the volume!
While the audio quality isn’t lossless, we noticed only a few distinctions between using the 3.5mm jack versus BT. There was a little less “vibe” and clarity while monitoring via BT- particularly in the low mids, extreme high end above 16kHz, and in the stereo image width. Despite these points, the BT audio outperforms our expectations. The following screenshots we took will help you understand a bit better the differences in transmission quality.
Daft Punk – Get Lucky (MV-BT)
Daft Punk – Get Lucky (.WAV)
You can clearly see from these screenshots that the bass and hi-end are slightly rolled off compared to their .WAV counterpart, which sacrifices only a minor amount of warmth and fidelity for convenience. The low mids have less presence but it doesn’t sound unnatural. We were actually quite surprised running this somewhat objective test to find a few of us were unable to distinguish between the two audio sources in a blind test. This proves the value and quality of the MV-BT.
The MV-BT began shipping this month at the pre-order price of $99. Kali Audio has also been hard at work developing several other new products. We can’t wait to check out their 3-way monitor in the months to come!
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