BOEING 717
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2012
- Posts
- 26
- Likes
- 30
My G5 arrived the day before I left for a 8 day vacation to Hawaii with my wife. Of course I left it in the seat back with my Fiio M7 on the return flight (Lucky AMEX seems to cover lost items within 90 days, so I should get a credit on the G5)
So I did not have a ton of time to use it but did listen to it for about 10 hours or so. My last portable DAC/AMP was the Monolith THX portable and to me the G5 produced better sound and I did notice some excellent separation of sound when really trying to listen to a song. Compared to just listening to a song with the M7, there was quite a nice improvement in sound quality. I was actually very impressed and did not recall such an improvement with the Monolith. Of course with 10 hours of use and many of those at 34,000 feet and a bit of listening with my wife trying to talk to me, I did not get to form a large scale impression with the G5 but I know I like what I was listening to from my Shure 1540's.
I was using a small Tumi carry case that Delta gave me on one of my upgrade flights that was perfect to carry the Fiio, Topping and some cables. I would throw the case in my backpack with the headphones. Of course I should have done my usual sweep of my seat back when my flight landed but a lady got out of her seat quickly and fainted and while trying to help her I forgot to check the seat back.
Size wise it seemed a bit smaller then I thought it would be, It was a bit more clunky (if that is a word) then the Monolith, that was easier to connect to the Fiio. It was easy to hold both devices in one hand. I liked how the volume control was protected by the frame, I didn't suddenly have an extra 20db of sound like I did with the Monolith by brushing the sound button accidently. There were 2 different very small nobs to change the gain settings. Low gain got the volume pretty loud on its own, I liked that I could go to about 33% of the volume on medium gain and keep the M7 at 120 (full volume) for a good level of sound for me to listen to. The 2nd small nob was for different imputes (BT, USB or AUX) These switches were smaller then I expected and the script on the device was also very small. They did work well but just my initial thoughts were that I was a little surprised at how small they were. I am sorry for the not very technical brief review. I love good sound quality but am a mid 50s low tech guy who just wants his music to sound great.
I did not notice a way to tell how full the battery was on the G5, there may be a way to see how charged it is, I just could not tell. That was one of the only things I did not love about the G5
I was very impressed with the unit for $299 and will be buying another one. Of course Fiio has a new DAP/AMP in the works but not at $299. I wish I could say more and had more time with the unit but I was very impressed with how much better it made my music sound.
So I did not have a ton of time to use it but did listen to it for about 10 hours or so. My last portable DAC/AMP was the Monolith THX portable and to me the G5 produced better sound and I did notice some excellent separation of sound when really trying to listen to a song. Compared to just listening to a song with the M7, there was quite a nice improvement in sound quality. I was actually very impressed and did not recall such an improvement with the Monolith. Of course with 10 hours of use and many of those at 34,000 feet and a bit of listening with my wife trying to talk to me, I did not get to form a large scale impression with the G5 but I know I like what I was listening to from my Shure 1540's.
I was using a small Tumi carry case that Delta gave me on one of my upgrade flights that was perfect to carry the Fiio, Topping and some cables. I would throw the case in my backpack with the headphones. Of course I should have done my usual sweep of my seat back when my flight landed but a lady got out of her seat quickly and fainted and while trying to help her I forgot to check the seat back.
Size wise it seemed a bit smaller then I thought it would be, It was a bit more clunky (if that is a word) then the Monolith, that was easier to connect to the Fiio. It was easy to hold both devices in one hand. I liked how the volume control was protected by the frame, I didn't suddenly have an extra 20db of sound like I did with the Monolith by brushing the sound button accidently. There were 2 different very small nobs to change the gain settings. Low gain got the volume pretty loud on its own, I liked that I could go to about 33% of the volume on medium gain and keep the M7 at 120 (full volume) for a good level of sound for me to listen to. The 2nd small nob was for different imputes (BT, USB or AUX) These switches were smaller then I expected and the script on the device was also very small. They did work well but just my initial thoughts were that I was a little surprised at how small they were. I am sorry for the not very technical brief review. I love good sound quality but am a mid 50s low tech guy who just wants his music to sound great.
I did not notice a way to tell how full the battery was on the G5, there may be a way to see how charged it is, I just could not tell. That was one of the only things I did not love about the G5
I was very impressed with the unit for $299 and will be buying another one. Of course Fiio has a new DAP/AMP in the works but not at $299. I wish I could say more and had more time with the unit but I was very impressed with how much better it made my music sound.