Up next in 10
Whether you have great audio gear or just want your favorite headphones to sound better, the Helm Audio BOLT DAC/AMP is like a turbocharger for any music source. Compatible with Mac, Windows, Android and iOS [with adapter] the Bolt DAC/AMP gives you full THX certified sound and, of course, MQA Master Quality Authenticated compatibility for any 3.5mm device. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ plugged the BOLT DAC/AMP into his Pixel 5 and Gateway PC and drifted away in audiophile heaven, with a little help from Tidal for MQA source material. It's also a great stocking stuffer for the audiophile in your life too...
Learn more at https://www.HelmAudio.com/
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
This tiny device will breathe new life into even your best headphones. Let's check it out
0:12
Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out this. This is so cool. This is the Helm Audio Bolt
0:17
DAC Amp. It's an inline amplifier and it basically lets you plug in any 3.5 millimeter audio jack
0:27
into the USB-C of your source device and get way more and way richer sound out of whatever you're
0:35
listening to. So don't have USB-C? No problem. It comes with a USB 3.0 adapter so if you only have
0:44
that rectangular connection you're good to go with that. But the basic idea is that you plug it into
0:50
anything that has USB-C and it actually amplifies and enriches the audio signal on its way to your
0:59
headphones. Now you can use it with speakers and stuff that have 3.5 millimeter jacks but
1:04
this is really glorious for headphones. So what do I have here? These are the Beyerdynamic Amaron
1:11
Copper and yes they're Bluetooth headphones but plug in that 3.5 millimeter wire it comes with
1:18
and now you've got a beautiful pair of wired headphones too. I thought why not give these a
1:23
shot? So plug it in get it all in line get that plugged into here and then you want to have a
1:30
musical source that has that richer wider bandwidth. So the unit supports what's known as MQA or Master
1:40
Quality Authenticated and if you're thinking oh that sounds like what Tidal does you're exactly
1:45
right. Tidal is the prime music source for these sort of high-end audiophile devices because they
1:51
have big rich big data samples and a ton of music so if you listen to something through that it just
2:00
sounds amazing with the right devices and the right reproduction system. So this also supports THX
2:07
and it's so it's MQA, PCM, DSD, DOP and THX certified so all together that adds up to being
2:16
something that turns my Pixel 5 into a pretty amazing music source. Now you can use this with
2:23
things like Spotify or Pandora or even just streaming radio off your favorite radio station
2:29
but when you get to that MQA quality it really is just like turning on that turbocharger on your car
2:37
it's like oh there's more of everything it's richer more strong you know it's just it's a
2:42
pretty remarkable experience. Now one thing to know is that there's a little tiny LED here
2:47
and that gives you a visual indicator of the bandwidth that you're actually using as you
2:53
listen. So I'll show you I never quite got it to be red it was either blue which is that you know
2:59
less than 48 kilohertz which is a typical CD is like 44.1 kilohertz that's what we're used to
3:05
listening to but then when you go to MQA that's magenta and that's like five or ten times the
3:11
amount of information and obviously like any other reproduction having more information gives you a
3:18
bigger richer sound there's just more data for the system to work with on reproduction
3:23
So you can see here in this close-up this is what magenta looks like versus what blue looks like
3:28
So the device actually I'm hooked have it hooked up with an Android phone here but it'll work with
3:34
Mac, Windows, Android and if you can figure out a lightning to USB-C adapter you could actually use
3:41
it with an iOS device but for me I've just been using it with everything but my iPhone that's okay
3:48
lucky I have lots of other devices. So you plug it into your computer and you're good to go. So let
3:54
me give you some specs on it and then I'll tell you what it does to the sound but you can pretty
3:58
much guess it's going to be pretty glorious. So this has a sound annoyance ratio of 115 decibels
4:05
total harmonic distortion is basically indistinguishable it's 0.007 percent so it's really not adding any distortion for even the most you know well-refined listening. 20 to 20,000
4:20
hertz response and the whole unit is 1.2 ounces it's really just this tiny little thing and what
4:27
happens is if you plug your earbud you know your headphones or something into your computer say and
4:33
I have a gateway that has THX sound if I plug it in it sounds good you know these are nice headphones
4:38
they sound really good but then when I put this in line and plug it into that USB-C instead of the
4:45
3.5 millimeter I bypass the relatively cheesy DAC that's in my device and use this tuned audiophile
4:54
DAC instead and all of a sudden it's like it's like those old movies where it starts out in
5:01
little square black and white and then it just opens up and it's full color and full screen and
5:06
you're like wow that's this is sort of the audio equivalent of that where your music gets a bigger
5:13
sound stage better sound reproduction better you know the quality of the sound is better so those
5:19
hi-hats on the drum solo sound nice not tinny and bright the bass line becomes very easily
5:26
distinguished so you can just listen if you want to the bass you can really get just the detail
5:32
and clarity of music so I was listening to Yes Fragile what a great album and boy 10 times what
5:40
a great album it is listening through these headphones and of course the Helm audio device so
5:47
this is just a really cool tiny little gizmo and what does it come with not much it's really just
5:53
the device it comes with that little USB 3 adapter and a little soft leatherette sort of holder that
6:01
you can put everything in if you want to but more likely than not you're going to just leave it
6:05
permanently connected to your favorite headphones and then when you want to listen instead of
6:10
plugging your headphones into the little 3.5 millimeter jack you'll plug the bolt DAC amp
6:16
into your USB-C and then you're just going to just enjoy the heck out of everything so if you have
6:22
good headphones these will make them really good if you have great headphones like these
6:27
Beyerdynamics they're going to make them sound even that much better I mean I was just zoning
6:33
out you know you try to listen to music while you're working but when you put this on and then
6:38
you like turn up the volume maybe just a little bit and the volume gets so loud I can't actually
6:43
test full volumes just so you know because it's an amplifier too right so you turn that volume up
6:48
and I just like drifted away into the music and stopped being productive at all which was great
6:54
on one sense and not very productive on the other sense so you'll have to find that balance for
6:59
yourself but suffice to say this is a remarkable little device I'm really a fan of these tiny
7:05
little inline amps because it just makes everything you already own sound better so it's a
7:12
very green solution too and really simple really simple to work with so definitely worth checking
7:18
out the only thing left to talk about is the price but before we get to the price I'm going to ask if
7:23
you can click or tap on that little red subscribe button and subscribe to my channel really appreciate
7:28
when you do that and leave me a comment too if you have something like this or you want to get
7:33
something like this what are you going to plug in what kind of headphones do you have and why do you
7:37
like them so it's a great question all right this is the helm audio bolt DAC amp and it's 99.99
7:48
at helmaudio.com and if you move quickly there are still some promotions going on for the holidays
7:54
but if you watch this a few weeks or months after I've recorded it you might have missed them
7:58
so either way definitely worth the money if you're the kind of person who really wants the
8:03
best possible sound reproduction for everything you're listening to this is going to rock your
8:09
world definitely worth checking out and with that I'm going to reassemble everything and I
8:13
think I'm going back to yes which means that I will catch you in my next video
8:33
bye
#Music Equipment & Technology
#Music Streams & Downloads
#Computers & Electronics
#Computer Hardware
#Consumer Electronics
#Audio Equipment
#Virtual Reality Devices