With the home theater field piquing the interest of more than just the typical HTPC enthusiast, we have been seeing more manufacturers picking up on the trend, especially with MCE 2005 now out the door. While we have been looking at software PVR and HTPC solutions, we haven't spent as much time on the other knick knacks that often makes the home theater that much better; case in point, the Ahanix's D.Vine 4 HTPC case.

After our so-so experience with the Albatron Widio, Bluetake handed us their Bluetooth Hi-Fi Audio Station Kit. For those who aren't familiar with Bluetake, they are a spin-off from Thermaltake; thus, the similarity in the name and in the logo. And as their name suggests, they only (so far) produce products that deal with Bluetooth technology. Last time we looked, they released eight products with the HiFi Audio Station Kit being their latest and second attempt in the entertainment/multimedia field.

Bluetake's BT460EX BlueTooth Hi-Fi Audio Station Kit: Package
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  • danmcb - Thursday, September 21, 2006 - link

    I don't see any reason why a good bluetooth hifi audio solution should not be possible. But not done like this.

    You have plenty of BW with Bluetooth, provided the signal strength is good and error rate is low, it's no different from sending digital audio over any other medium.

    What I'd like to see though is a better engineered solution from a high quality audio manufacturer. This looks like a toy, basically.
  • Booty - Wednesday, November 3, 2004 - link

    Well said. I read the article because it sounded like a cool gadget, but I really have to wonder who would actually spend that kind of money on something like this in the first place. It'd be one thing if it worked, but it doesn't. I would think if the product's audio lag was that bad that BlueTake would wait to release it reviewers (let alone retail) until it was fixed.

    Anyway, I'm sure glad I read this review before I ended up seeing this at Newegg and deciding to just give it a try for myself - something I've been known to do.
  • WooDaddy - Wednesday, November 3, 2004 - link

    Bluetooth, mini-amplifier and hi-fi should never be used together in the same product or sentence. I would categorize this under the "neat gadget" group but also the "never had a chance" lifecycle. Bluetooth is a wonderful technology but is a PAN - Personal Area Network - for use in personal, meaning body to body, not even across the room situations. Yeah, class 1 is up to 100ft but not really the intent of Bluetooth.
    Mini-amplifier and hifi = IC based amps != hifi. Nuff said. Also, 20W into 4 ohms? Prolly at 1khz only too.. That, in my book, is not hifi.

    My question is what type of speaker are they expecting the end-user to use? I'm kinda confused on that. I wouldn't use this with a true home theater setup (Amp, receiver, 8ohm REAL speakers). Is this for the computer speaker surround sound setups?

    Either way, I have two conclusions: 1) Interesting gadget that pushes bluetooth into a realm not expected and 2) great article from the editors at AT as usual.


    Oh yeah.. Frist Post!
  • cathna - Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - link

    For me, any BT devices that comes out has to be bought from Hypercel. They carry all the brands, have all the accessories you're looking for at a reasonable price. Just check out their website.

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