Disassembly TP-Link HA 100 Bluetooth Audio Receiver

Lately I am using this tiny, non audiophile device as my primary source in car audio. As an excuse, my current car audio setup is not an audiophile either. It is just a Sony CDX-CA900 with the OEM speakers. I know no one loves Bluetooth in term of sound quality, but for friendly use and neat installation especially in car, this Bluetooth is a great solution.

This TP-Link bluetooth audio receiver is great at signal reception. Never failed in operation and don't even have any interference when playing the music. The audio quality is still acceptable but you know when talking about Bluetooth sound quality, this is basically a signal transmit using a certain radio frequency.

So in this post, I actually want to explore about what inside this TP-Link device. Open this device is little tricky, I am using very thin object such as the guitar pick and slide it between the two cover.

This method successfully open up the cover perfectly without any scratch or damage.Once it is open, the first thing I see is the small sticker for NFC reception. Surprisingly, it not attach anything to the main board.

And this is the main board. I am looking what I can do for the upgrade.

The main chipset is CSR 8630. Based on my findings, it is a midrange class bluetooth receiver support bluetooth 4.0 and A2DP. It is from Qualcomm and yes, it is the same chip that produce the mighty Snapdragon SOC for phones.

The other chip is for the EEPROM, serial CAT24C128 from On-Semi, a reputable semiconductor company as well. Then the last chip that very related to the output, is can be an op-amp or a DAC chip that I did not find any information about this.

The back side of the board is a huge ground isolation along with the thick steel plate in the bottom of the cover.

Sadly but true, I cannot find anything to improve in the components inside. The signal output is directly feed from the opamp/DAC chip. No filter capacitor, no resistor or whatsoever.

Then, I only add the small capacitor from Silmic at the power supply section. This capacitor theoretically will improve the ripple rejection. The effect to the sound quality might be not audible.

Everything is done, and put all back together in the case. I add little hot glue to make the new capacitor attach firmly.

I shall put my signature in this little device, It make this device priced double:)

It is all for now and it sound good. Cheers.

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