iFi Audio's Zen Blue is the first Bluetooth receiver on the market to support all the latest Hi-Res codecs, providing the best possible audio quality for remote transmission directly from your smartphone / tablet to your high-fidelity audio system.

Compact, versatile, stylish and extremely powerful, Zen Blue is a concentrate of technologies ideal for music lovers who want to enjoy the remote distribution of their audio files.

Bluetooth 5.0, aptX-HD, LDAC, HWA

The way the Bluetooth receiving circuit is integrated, its signal processing quality and all the surrounding circuits have a huge impact on audio performance. iFi Audio has therefore worked to ensure that Zen Blue can offer the best possible sound quality.

As a result, all the latest Bluetooth audio protocols and codes are supported, including Qualcomm's aptX-HD, Sony's LDAC and Huawei's HWA. Other supported codecs are aptX, aptX Low Latency, AAC and SBC. This complete coverage of Bluetooth codecs by Zen Blue allows it to ensure full compatibility with source devices, while allowing you to enjoy the highest audio resolution currently supported by Bluetooth.

In addition, Zen Blue is able to record the pairing of 7 source devices, allowing you to switch quickly from one device to another, while taking advantage of the wide reception range offered by Bluetooth in version 5.0.

The DAC stage of Zen Blue supports much higher sampling rates than Bluetooth currently allows. Thus it will never be an obstacle in the playback of your Hi-Res audio files, and will also provide a high level conversion for a rich, dynamic and transparent playback.

On the interface side, nothing could be easier. The LED in the center of the front panel of the Zen Blue changes color to allow you to easily identify the Bluetooth codec currently in use. The LED on the right allows you to indicate the sampling rate of the read file. Finally, the QCC5100 Bluetooth chip can be updated remotely, so that future Bluetooth codecs can be added to Zen Blue.

Qualcomm QCC5100 & DAC ESS

The entire Zen Blue architecture benefits from intelligent design, starting with the integration of the excellent Qualcomm QCC5100 Bluetooth receiver chip, enabling fast and efficient audio stream processing.

Although this Bluetooth chip also integrates a digital-to-analog converter, iFi Audio has chosen to integrate an independent and more powerful ESS Sabre DAC chip. The ESS Sabre chips use proprietary HyperStream and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator technologies, ensuring low distortion, very low jitter level and improved dynamics.

Complete connectivity & balanced output

Particularly versatile and able to be integrated into the vast majority of HiFi audio systems, Zen Blue offers a very complete range of digital and analog connectors. The rear panel thus integrates a stereo RCA output, a S/PDIF Coaxial output, and a Toslink Optical output. Rarer for a product in this price range, Zen Blue also has a balanced output on a 4.4mm jack connector, which reduces interference and crosstalk. A switch is used to select the path taken by the digital signal: via the DAC and then to the analog outputs or directly to the digital outputs.