Arcam miniBlink review

We love the ability to stream music straight from our phone or tablet to a speaker system, and the Arcam miniBlink is a simple box that lets you stream to a standard speaker system via Bluetooth. All you need is a speaker system or hi-fi with a 3.5mm line input, and many speakers will have that connection. Even better, the miniBlink supports the higher quality aptX Bluetooth codec, so you’ll be able to enjoy better quality sound quality if you have a compatible device from which to stream.

The miniBlink makes perfect sense if you already have a high-quality hi-fi system or don’t want to pay for a whole new system for the sake of one feature. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but shares much of the same hardware used in Arcam’s chunkier rBlink Bluetooth DAC, including the same Texas Instruments Burr Brown PCM 5102 DAC chip.

It’ll work with any phone, tablet or laptop, but you can take advantage of the higher quality aptX codec if you have a compatible device. The aptX codec preserves more audio information than the standard SBC Bluetooth audio codec. In blind listening tests with 320kbit/s MP3 tracks, the miniBlink, using the aptX codec, proved to be effectively indistinguishable from the high quality USB DAC built into our Kef 300A speakers when playing the same audio files.

The miniBlink is more expensive than many rival devices designed for the same purpose, such as the Bayan Audio Streamport Universal, but the miniBlink has more impressive DAC hardware built into it, and looks nicer. This makes the Arcam miniBlink a great match for even very high end audio systems.