The iFi Audio Zen Blue 3 is the world’s first device that can receive and transmit lossless audio wirelessly, and even if you are not an audio nerd who is obsessed with bitrates, there’s a lot that this offers.
I was looking for something like this for a long time because I have an extra pair of high end speakers, and I want to use them with my TV without needing to drag cables across my bedroom, so this is the perfect solution for me.
Let’s check out the features before we discuss pricing.
UNBOXING
Inside the box, you’ll get an iFi sticker, some papers, a quick start guide, the Zen Blue 3 with protective plastic, the long range wireless antenna for it, a pair of short RCA cables, a USB A to C cable, an optical cable adapter which is very nice to have, and finally the power adapter for this device.
BLUETOOTH
This is a Bluetooth receiver and transmitter, so you can use it to send Bluetooth audio signal to any speaker, amp or DAC, and you can also send Bluetooth signal from any audio device like your PC, TV, Console, or even other DACs.
It of course supports the best codecs available in Bluetooth mode. We have AptX Lossless support here, which means that you can stream lossless audio to your speakers, and we also have the lower quality codecs like LDAC, HWA, and AptX adaptive.
All of this can also be done in transmission mode, so you can also send an Aptx Lossless signal, and if you can afford it, you can use 2 of these to transmit lossless audio wirelessly, and I think that this is the only device at the moment that has this ability.
You can can do very niche things like sending the audio from a vinyl turntable to your Bluetooth headphones, and there’s also good news for gamers because you can enable an AptX low latency mode on this, so your audio will have a delay of less than 40 milliseconds, so you should easily be able to play casual games.
I tested the range of the wireless connection and it was really excellent. Even in the opposite end balcony of my 2000 Sq. ft. studio with brick walls in between, I was able to get stable playback on AptX, but on LDAC, you do have to be a bit closer as the bitrate is higher. This is Wi-Fi router level range, which is super amazing.
DESIGN
The design of the Zen Blue 3 is a lot like iFi’s Zen DAC 3, which means we have the same classy and uniquely shaped box with these nice brass accents and leather patterns.
The build quality feels extremely good in hand, but the buttons do have some wobble.
In addition to the power button, we have a button to switch between receiver, transmitter, and DAC modes, a button that lets you select the input, the iFi logo LED changes colors to indicate different Bluetooth codecs, and the LED next to it indicates the audio format and volume in transmitter mode.
This button lets you select different codecs in transmission mode, and you can also long press it to enable the low latency mode, and finally there’s this multi function button that allows you to switch the LEDs on and off, and get into bluetooth pairing mode (it also lets you turn off the voice prompts).
I/O
The Zen Blue 3 is a device that is packed with different ports. We have 2 pairs of RCA connectors for both input and output from the DAC, there’s also 2 SPDIF ports for digital audio in and out, and these support both optical and coaxial connections. There’s also a USB port which you can use to connect your PC, laptop, or phone, and finally, if you want to connect some professional level speakers to this, we also have an option of getting a balanced output from it with a 4.4mm balanced jack, and this again sets it apart from other Bluetooth adapters that you may find online.
You can of course power it with the supplied power adapter, but you can also just use any phone charger to power this via USB, and if you connect this to a PC, phone or laptop, you don’t need to supply power to this, because the power from USB cable will be enough
DAC
Good audio quality of course depends a lot on the DAC on your device, and we have an ESS DAC chip here that can deliver a 96 kHz 24 bit signal over Bluetooth, and you can go up to 192 kHz on SPDIF connections.
iFi says that their use of separate Bluetooth, DAC, and Amp chips further increases the audio quality to Hi-Fi levels unlike other Bluetooth adapters which use simpler unified SOCs.
You can also easily connect it to other DACs my my RME DAC so you can also send a room corrected signal to your speakers. This is just so versatile, and you can use it to make any audio device wireless.
The audio quality on it is good enough for basically anything, including high end speakers. You can connect this to higher end DACs if you want, but you will probably not notice a difference between this and something higher end.
PRICING
Now this is priced at 300 US dollars, which is 100 Dollars higher than the Zen Blue 2, which is a 50% price increase, but it also has many more features like Bluetooth transmission, USB input, and other upgrades. This has to have a high quality ADC along with a high quality DAC, and you also have to add the ports and circuitry for that so I am not surprised at the price increase, but if you just want a simple Bluetooth receiver without the advanced features, you can also check out the Zen Air Blue which is 1/3rd of the price of this.
There aren’t really any negatives with this device, but one limitation here is that AptX Lossless codec is supported by very few devices at the moment. So even the latest S25 Ultra doesn’t support it, and iPhone 16 Pro also don’t support it, but LDAC will be supported by most phones, which is very close to AptX lossless, and if you decide to save the dying smartphone divisions of Asus or Sony, you will get full AptX Lossless support.
CONCLUSION
The Zen Blue 3 is definitely a very feature packed device. It can be a little complicated to understand at first because there’s just so much going on, but if you need a very high quality Bluetooth receiver and transmitter, then this is a no-compromise option which can do everything that you can think of. The audio nerd in me just feels very satisfied when I see devices like this.
⭐ Check out the iFi Audio Zen Blue 3 by Clicking Here.