I borrowed a K17 from a friend before making this purchase and loved the sound. Since I did not adjust the bass or treble on that and the frequency response curve was perfectly flat on the Q1 http://www.fiio.net/en/products/44/parameters I decided that it would be completely satisfactory. This was not the case. Even with the bass boost off the low end is incredibly loud, with it on it is almost unbearable to listen to anything. If you like bass then I think that this would be excellent. Aside from the bass level the sound was well worth the price.