Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › Cowon Q5W + SPDIF + iBasso D1 (review)
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Cowon Q5W + SPDIF + iBasso D1 (review) - Page 2

post #16 of 25
2/5/08 at 6:50pm
I'm pretty sure i will be getting a "NO" but is there any stand alone portable DAC out there with SPDIF in? It would be great if iBasso made something along the lines on the D1 but without the amp section in it so that we could use the DAC without the bulk and choose which amp we want to use
Reply
post #17 of 25
2/5/08 at 8:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caribou679 View Post
I do not have a SPDIF input on my Go Vibe 7 amp. It's analog!

Is there a line-out on the Cowon player?
Sorry, it's a little late for a comment to that, but anyways...

A friend of mine has the Go-Vibe 6, and I have the PA2V2. These cheapo amps make the sound of any Cowon players I tried it with notably worse, muddy, and lacking definition. I tried the PA2V2 with the Cowon X5, D2, M3, and U2. It sucks the life out of these players. Even the 300 Ohm HD650 sounds better directly out of the D2 than over a low-budget amp. I'm fairly sure the Q5 is no different in that regard to the other Cowon players.

Either you use no amp, or you use a good amp with any of these, IMO. However, I do not know if the Go-Vibe 7 is a lot better than the Go-Vibe 6 - just a heads up.
Reply
post #18 of 25
2/5/08 at 9:12pm
thank you for making me want a q5 even more now when i cant afford it
Reply
post #19 of 25
2/6/08 at 12:23am
so how is the quality of the cowon compared to a zune? i've heard its better but i'd like your opinion op

the q5w can't add flash drives like the D2 i take it?
Reply
post #20 of 25
2/15/08 at 2:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Audelic Norm View Post
I took the supplied multi-cable and wrapped it up tightly, only leaving the RCA SPDIF plug free. Shrinkwrap was then used to seal the cable bundle to the iBasso D1. The two were then stacked and held together with two large thick rubber bands. This is a quick fix until I make a custom SPDIF cable and case.
So have you made a custom cable, or found a source for one yet? I am definitely looking for a custom breakout cable that only has the spdif out. Actually I am looking for a custom coax SPDIF out terminated in a mono-mini plug. Anyone out there willing to give it a try?
Reply
post #21 of 25
2/15/08 at 3:23am
$1,000 is a pretty good deal. I can almost imagine that being mounted in a car.
Reply
post #22 of 25
4/18/08 at 8:18am

Cowon Q5W appears to output 48khz digital signal

I also have a Cowon Q5W and use a pair of Audio Technica ATH AD1000 or Sen PX100 headphones for listening to music files (mainly flac or ape files) and films and the sound is generally excellent although I do notice some strange additional noise when playing solo bass music, this is noticeable just after the bass note is struck possibly something to with the decoding?. I have also used the Q5W with its digital out into a Behringer SRC dac using the headphone output, when using this setup I noted that the Cowon appears to output the digital signal at 48khz even though the original file is 44.1khz, it therefore appears to upsample the digital signal to 48khz which I was rather suprised at. Has anyone else noted this?
Reply
post #23 of 25
4/27/08 at 6:12am
great review,very helpful
Reply
post #24 of 25
10/14/08 at 8:30pm

SPDIF upsample to 48kHz? Yesor No?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikeb View Post
when using this setup I noted that the Cowon appears to output the digital signal at 48khz even though the original file is 44.1khz, it therefore appears to upsample the digital signal to 48khz which I was rather suprised at.
Can anybody please check this?

If also really need to know if DTS and Dolby multichannel FLAC-encoded audio files will play correctly thru the Q5W's internal SPDIF port connected to an external amplifier, as they do with a Rockboxed iHP140.
Thanks for any help here ...
Reply
post #25 of 25
1/19/10 at 3:57am
I have connected my q5w to an external DAC (Musical Fidelity A324) using the SPDIF cable (orange). However, the DAC cannot decode MP3s so no sound is produced. How can I configure the q5w to do the MP3 decoding (i.e. output PCM data via its SPDIF) and leave the PCM to analogue conversion only to the DAC?
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Portable Source Gear
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › Cowon Q5W + SPDIF + iBasso D1 (review)