Unfortunately I don't have experience with the DACs that you just mentioned, so no comments. But I saw Fiio Q5s in your profile, I had Fiio Q5s before too, from Q5s to Hugo 2, I can notice the difference right away and I enjoy the improvement, but just IMO, someone else might say Q5s sounds no...

no offence, not sure what we are debating here, did anyone here actually say they can't hear the sound difference between a high-end DAC and a low-end DAC? :darthsmile:

one day, I must own Dave and M-Scaler :L3000:

The thing about listening experience is kind of personal and subjective, beside the quality of the gears, you have to find the sound that you like. That's why my speaker system always stick with Naim and Harbeth, and my headphones always stick with Sennheiser, well, from Sennheiser 600/650 to...

Just upgraded my headphone DAC/AMP to Hugo 2 for my Sennheiser HD800s, very happy with this combo; not just the pinpoint accuracy, also the amount of details I can hear now, just Wow; what surprised me the most is it doesn't sound bright at all, not a single bit, and the bass is very accurate...

And when I received my Monolith, I found it's not double boxed, so imagine if the delivery guy drop it by accident, there is no protection at all; and the Monolith box itself has no seal or tape to prevent someone else from opening it...but again, I must be lucky, my unit is not faulty.

I received my Monolith desktop headphone amp/dac last week, I must be lucky, there is no issue whatsoever, plug my Sennheiser HD800S headphones to the balanced output, sounds brilliant, I rate this Monolith amp over my Naim DAC V-1, Marantz HD DAC1, Fiio Q5s and Q5. However when I tried the SE...

Has anyone a chance to compare Q5 with Q5s in USB mode? I am sure the bluetooth will sound better in Q5s, but with the same USB connection, do you think it's worth the upgrade?

I don't have AGK712, but I have AKGQ701, and I found they are harder to drive using Fiio/AM5 compare to Sennheiser HD650 .

I have been used AM5 with Q5 in the last 6 months and I agreed it's only 30% louder than AM3a, but I don't think that's a problem, and we all know the volume is not the only indicator. With singled ended connection, I prefer AM5 over the AM3A, my Q5/AM5 drives my both Sennheiser HD650 and HD800S...

My Naim DAC V-1 is coming next week, will let you know how it sounds with my Sennheiser HD800S and HD650.

Finally I figure out how to make my Qobuz hi-res streaming playback to my Q5 DAC in DSD 256 format :)

Use my Fiio Q5/AM5 to drive my new purchased Sennheiser HD800S headphones, lots of power and details, can't be happier!

Got my Fiio AM5 power module today, it transformed my Q5 to a little beast, and it puts smile on my face when I am listening to Qobuz using USB connection from my Google Pixel 2 XL to Fiio Q5 via Fiio CL06 and wearing Sennheiser Momentum Over Ear headphones. It's like the first time I listened...

Thanks! I will give a try. update: yes, the DSD works!