How to add Bluetooth to your home stereo system

How do you play music from your phone through an old stereo system? Try a home Bluetooth adapter. Also known as a “Bluetooth receiver,” I’ve been recommending them ever since I added the Audioengine B1 to my own home setup. In fact, I hounded my editors for the chance to write this article!

Audioengine B1

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For two or three years, I rarely listened to music through my nice living room speakers. The adapter was an affordable alternative to replacing my vintage Onkyo A/V receiver, which still has plenty of old-school power. Bluetooth got music flowing through my Polk tower speakers again.

How to stream music from your phone to an old stereo system

Bluetooth lets you play music wirelessly from your phone or tablet. Any audio that you can hear on your device, can play through your stereo speakers — including downloaded tunes, podcasts, Spotify®, Pandora®, or even audio from YouTube™.

Easy, simple setup

You’ll only need one wire to connect the compact adapter to your A/V receiver or amp. You’ll also have to plug the adapter into an AC outlet.

Next, you enable Bluetooth on your phone or tablet and put it in pairing mode. Then you select the Bluetooth adapter from the onscreen menu.

From there, you can walk around freely and enjoy wireless tunes from your phone. Some adapters, like the B1, even offer an extended wireless range.

Premium Bluetooth adapters help preserve sound quality

I'll admit that I can get a little snobbish about my main entertainment system. I once tried a super-cheap Bluetooth "dongle" from Amazon. But I immediately returned it after I got shoddy sound and choppy wireless reception with tons of audio dropouts.

Then I tried the premium Audioengine B1 Bluetooth adapter. It gave me reliable access to all my music downloads and Spotify. So now my kids can dance in the living room to their playlists — and I can revisit classic albums, while reclined in my favorite chair.

And most importantly, the sound is full, powerful, and detailed. I never feel like I compromised audio quality for convenience. While these adapters may look small and unassuming, I learned that some perform like a top-notch audio component.

Bluetooth versions and codecs

To be clear: while Bluetooth has vastly improved over the years, it still has some limitations when it comes to sound quality. Bluetooth adds its own layer of compression and decompression to facilitate the wireless transmission.

But newer versions give you a greater wireless range and faster data transfer rates. I’ve found that adapters and gear with Bluetooth 5.0 and above are way less likely to lose signal or suffer audio dropouts.

There are also several different compression/decompression schemes (codecs) to look for, with names like aptX®, aptX HD, AAC, and LDAC. The iFi Audio Zen Blue 3 even offers aptX Lossless — the first and only non-lossy Bluetooth codec that streams at CD quality.

We have a breakdown of the available Bluetooth codecs in our Bluetooth home stereo article.

Just remember that a codec must be present on both the Bluetooth adapter and your phone to take full advantage of it.

You can send audio wirelessly with a Bluetooth transmitter

Some Bluetooth adapters — like the Zen Blue 3 and Mcintosh MB25 — can also transmit Bluetooth. That means you can send audio from connected sources like your stereo to a set of Bluetooth headphones. It’s become a popular solution for watching TV with headphones.

The McIntosh MB25 Bluetooth Transceiver (shown on top of this sweet vintage McIntosh MA-6100 amp from the '70s) can both send and receive audio wirelessly.

Looking for advice?

Need some help choosing the right Bluetooth adapter for your needs? Our Advisors know home stereo gear inside and out. Contact us today. And don't forget, free lifetime tech support is included with your Crutchfield purchase.