Bluetooth receiver with an audiophile approach. Advance Paris has long been known for its excellent sounding Bluetooth receivers. Advance also regularly uses vacuum tubes in its products, such as in CD players and amplifiers. The introduction of a Bluetooth receiver with vacuum tubes was therefore obvious.
Tubes in the analog output stage
It has become the WTX TUBES. A design in which the famous Raytheon 5703 vacuum tubes are placed in a Class A setup in the output stage, just after the D/A converter and before the analog output. The tubes are mounted in insulating holders to suppress microphonic effects and maintain a constant temperature. The analog output can be connected with an RCA/Cinch cable to an analog input (Line In or AUX) on an amplifier or receiver.
High-quality Dac
Advance does not use Qualcomm's integrated DAC (digital-to-analog converter) into the standard Bluetooth chipset. Instead, Advance takes a tap and deploys a custom and highly qualified Cirrus Logic/Wolfson WM8740 (24bit/192kHz) DAC. Despite the fact that Bluetooth 5.0 HD has a maximum resolution of 24 bit/48kHz, the WM8740 is used with its higher resolution because of its beautiful sound. The WTX-TUBES also has an optical and coaxial output for the use of an external DAC.
HD-DETECT, a unique feature
The WTX-TUBES Bluetooth receiver is in Bluetooth Hi-Res 5.0 mode by default. Recognizable by the illuminated blue LED in the front panel. However, it is possible that the sound quality deteriorates. Especially when the signal transmission between the transmitting device and the WTX-TUBES is too weak or unstable due to, for example, too great a distance. In that case, the HD mode can be turned off by setting the switch on the back to 'Off'.
It is not a problem if the source device cannot offer aptX HD. The WTX-TUBES is backwards compatible with older Bluetooth protocols.
