Have just spent the first few hours with my new QP1R and... ... much to my surprise & dismay, it might be going back.
First off, as pretty much everyone's been saying, this player looks fabulous & sounds superb - it pulls off the great trick of balancing lush, rich (slightly warm), powerful sound with great detail retrieval. It's easily, noticeably better than my iphone 6s and the 1st gen X5 (as it should be at the price).
Now for the 'but'... That scrollwheel. I'm really confused about the complaints about it being stiff. Mine is loose - very loose - but the contact is erratic resulting in similarly erratic onscreen scrolling. The X5 wheel always felt a bit sloppy mechanically, but compared to the QP1R's, married well & consistently to onscreen performance (to me - I know others weren't so happy). As it is, the wheel on the QP1R feels bad - really bad - & just doesn't seem like it belongs on a £700 piece of kit to me.
My bigger problem with the QP1R is the volume pot. I love the position of it pocket access-wise, but it's way, way too loose to be practical on the move - I can envisage constant, random volume changes with every brush on a pocket lining. I might be wrong, but at the risk of scuffing the casework, am not willing to test given I'm contemplating returning it. I was anticipating it being quite firm & resistant - requiring some very positive pressure to rotate (in similar fashion to that on my now departed E12 amp, which could sit happily in a jeans pocket without disturbance). Again, it feels almost toy-like on a premium product. It would be a huge improvement if there was some feature for a downward mechanical click on the pot to engage/disengage it's active status.
I'm really torn now as to whether I keep, or return it. It's clearly a class-leader sonically, but I can imagine the above becoming things that increasingly irritate me about it with every use - like that annoying squeak or knocking that you just can't trace in a new car... Either that, or I return it & am eternally disappointed with the sonics of a similarly-priced touchscreen operated player.
Very, very frustrating - especially since these things didn't strike me when I tried the player at CanJam.
First off, as pretty much everyone's been saying, this player looks fabulous & sounds superb - it pulls off the great trick of balancing lush, rich (slightly warm), powerful sound with great detail retrieval. It's easily, noticeably better than my iphone 6s and the 1st gen X5 (as it should be at the price).
Now for the 'but'... That scrollwheel. I'm really confused about the complaints about it being stiff. Mine is loose - very loose - but the contact is erratic resulting in similarly erratic onscreen scrolling. The X5 wheel always felt a bit sloppy mechanically, but compared to the QP1R's, married well & consistently to onscreen performance (to me - I know others weren't so happy). As it is, the wheel on the QP1R feels bad - really bad - & just doesn't seem like it belongs on a £700 piece of kit to me.
My bigger problem with the QP1R is the volume pot. I love the position of it pocket access-wise, but it's way, way too loose to be practical on the move - I can envisage constant, random volume changes with every brush on a pocket lining. I might be wrong, but at the risk of scuffing the casework, am not willing to test given I'm contemplating returning it. I was anticipating it being quite firm & resistant - requiring some very positive pressure to rotate (in similar fashion to that on my now departed E12 amp, which could sit happily in a jeans pocket without disturbance). Again, it feels almost toy-like on a premium product. It would be a huge improvement if there was some feature for a downward mechanical click on the pot to engage/disengage it's active status.
I'm really torn now as to whether I keep, or return it. It's clearly a class-leader sonically, but I can imagine the above becoming things that increasingly irritate me about it with every use - like that annoying squeak or knocking that you just can't trace in a new car... Either that, or I return it & am eternally disappointed with the sonics of a similarly-priced touchscreen operated player.
Very, very frustrating - especially since these things didn't strike me when I tried the player at CanJam.
