Bluetooth audio receiver: digital non-DAC output? Limitations in receiver IC?

[ELS122]

Are there bluetooth receiver IC's that don't have a built in DAC, so it outputs a digital signal like an S/PDIF or some other standard digital audio signal?
And then codec support and things like that wouldn't be of no concern with the actual receiver IC right? It just needs to be able to connect and receive data. Are there speed limitations that need to be considered with the receiver for high bitrate audio?
Also is there a name for DAC-Less bluetooth receivers? All the ones I find are "one chip solutions"... I want to have a DAC-Less one because if I'll have a DAC anyway, I'd rather use a single DAC for both a digital wired and bluetooth input, also the sound quality would depend on 1 DAC that's used for everything, instead of depending on a bluetooth receiver IC

[DavidAlfa]

Some can be modified to output is audio, I did this with a CSR64215 board, Bluesuite software, BlueMagic, atxs0108E shifter to talk to the 1.8v logic, and dump the SPI flash using a ch341.
It was a PITA, these modules are extremely easy to brick, so the SPI flash backup is a must.
I mainly used it to fix distortion, the soc EQ had +6dB amplification, causes the output to clip over 60% volume.
While doing so I tried interfacing a PCM5102A I2S DAC, it worked, and that was all, I reverted to analog output.

Then Qualcomm bought CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio), renames the devices to QCxxxx, made all the docs and tools pretty NDA, though you might still find them.

Search for I2S bluetooth receiver, for sure you'll find something

[tooki]

Are there bluetooth receiver IC's that don't have a built in DAC, so it outputs a digital signal like an S/PDIF or some other standard digital audio signal?
And then codec support and things like that wouldn't be of no concern with the actual receiver IC right? It just needs to be able to connect and receive data. Are there speed limitations that need to be considered with the receiver for high bitrate audio?
Also is there a name for DAC-Less bluetooth receivers? All the ones I find are "one chip solutions"... I want to have a DAC-Less one because if I'll have a DAC anyway, I'd rather use a single DAC for both a digital wired and bluetooth input, also the sound quality would depend on 1 DAC that's used for everything, instead of depending on a bluetooth receiver IC

Try the Microchip BM83: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/BM83

The BM83 comes with a few default firmware options (though any can be reflashed to another), and you can configure the audio output from analog to digital I2S using the config tool. (Unlike many competing products, the entire toolchain is publicly available.)

It's a fairly complex beast, so I'd definitely recommend getting a dev kit to play with. (It took us a while to get it up and running.)

You can also use the BM83's I2S input to use it as your system DAC. (It also contains a microcontroller of its own, if you feel like having it run the show entirely.)


I strongly suspect that many competing Bluetooth audio modules which have onboard DACs can similarly be configured to output I2S audio instead of analog.


Or use an ESP32 with corresponding firmware. Take a look at the LyraT dev board (which only costs around $20).