nRf52840 stereo Speaker using bluetooth

[Ram_2424]

Hi, we are looking to build a bluetooth speaker(Product Prototype) where the mcu using I2S it communicates to the amplifier IC(TAS5806) from TI, Can we use nrf52840 for this application, as the audio should stream from mobile phones (Andriod/IOS) to the mcu.

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello,

we are looking to build a bluetooth speaker(Product Prototype) where the mcu using I2S it communicates to the amplifier IC(TAS5806) from TI, Can we use nrf52840 for this application, as the audio should stream from mobile phones (Andriod/IOS) to the mcu.

Are you here referring to an LE Audio Bluetooth speaker, or a Bluetooth Classic speaker?
Please note that none of Nordic's product support the Bluetooth Classic protocol - our devices are LE Audio only.
You can read more about LE Audio here.

For LE Audio products we support and recommend using the nRF5340, and we already have a reference application for LE Audio - the nRF5340 LE Audio reference application - which demonstrates exactly what you describe in your initial ticket.

Best regards,
Karl

[Ram_2424]

So can I use the nrf5340 dk as a blu le audio receiver where I can then through I2s send the signals to the Amplifier IC? Also can we use the nrf5340dk or should we get the audio kit for this? We thought of using the nrf5340 dk dev board.  

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello,

Ram_2424 said:

So can I use the nrf5340 dk as a blu le audio receiver where I can then through I2s send the signals to the Amplifier IC?

Yes, you can use the nrF5340 as a LE Audio receiver and then output the received audio over I2S to a connected amplifier IC, no problem.
This is already implemented and demonstrated in the nRF5340 LE Audio reference application if you would like to take a look at that - in the CIS case the audio will by default be output over I2S to the onboard hardware codec before being output on the HEADPHONES jack, but you can easily modify the code to bypass the onboard hardware codec so that you may route it to your own amplifier or codec by doing the following:

Ram_2424 said:

Also can we use the nrf5340dk or should we get the audio kit for this? We thought of using the nrf5340 dk dev board.  

For working with LE Audio and the nRF5340 LE Audio reference application I would highly recommend getting some nRF5340 Audio DKs, since this will let you start the application work immediately. The nRF5340 Audio DK provides a lot of convenient features for working with audio.
There is of course no technical difference between the nRF5340 SoC on the Audio DK and the regular nRF5340 DK, and so you could definitely use the nRF5340 DK for LE Audio development as well, but this will require that you first modify the devicetree configuration of the default nRF5340 LE Audio reference application to match that of the nRF5340 DK, and then update the application to remove the features (such as the onboard hardware codec) that are only present on the nRF5340 Audio DK.
In essence, it would be much quicker to get started with your development, and with a lot less hassle, to use the nRF5340 Audio DK, which is why I would recommend using this instead of the regular nRF5340 DK, but you are of course free to do either! :) 

Best regards,
Karl