My initial impression of the sound on the i5 was that it is very warm. Like cozy blanket warm, especially in the bass. Every AK4490 implementation I've heard before has had a more incisive brighter sound, so the warm sound coming out of the i5 caught me a bit by surprise. The warmth smooths over some bass detail and gives the sound a little bit slower quality. So far it isn't my preferred signature, but I still need more time to let the system and my ears burn-in. I think that this DAP will need to be paired with bright headphones to have a more balanced sound, luckily I've got the Noble Encore on hand, and it qualifies in that regard.
Obviously, my i5 is brand new and the initial impressions were a bit warm. I am adjusting to the sound and beginning to hear some real quality here. As stated previously, I have always liked the Ak dap's. The thing I wrestle with is "perceived value". I really don't like when folks say for the money, however this dap is really starting to grow on me, at a price of at least 1/2 of the cost of what I am accustomed to. I am beginning to also find my way around some of the firmware annoyances. I am still experimenting with various iem's and headphones, even the warm 64 Audio U12 is beginning to pair well.
I normally don't comment on the listening experience of customers as I need to keep my role impartial, but I would like to comment on the issue of detail and warm sounding briefly, please bear with me for a moment.
To human ears, warm (or something the perception of thick sounding) didn't go along with detail (sense of high resolution) very well, and its indeed easier to develop a HiFi device to excel in resolution when we use a more neutral or neutral cold type of sound signature. This is actually very good for speaker based sound system, but"might" result in fatigue or unpleasant listening experience after prolonged listening session with headphone. In fact if someone compared i5 to our flagship N6 DAP, you'll notice the i5 is indeed warmer then the N6. This is because N6, being a reference DAP, is designed around a dual flagship DAC chipset (PCM1792) and satisfactory the toughest requirements of audiophile. On the other hand, i5 is developed for music lovers, one of the main objectives of i5 is "Music anytime, anywhere", so we want to make sure i5 is suitable for long listening hours, hence a slightly different direction in sound tuning.
On the other hand, we have spend a lot of effort to achieve warm sounding and high resolution at the same time. I won't say i5 is the most high resolution DAP with AK4490, but it certainly is above average on this aspect, but the i5 sound signature indeed can be misleading, so it might take a while before you can notice the details preserved behind the warm and smooth sound of i5.
Last but not least, it is important to differentiate detail and sharpness. Its like apply Unshartp Mask (USM) in photoshop will increase the sharpness of a photo, but it won't enhance its detail, its a perception game, and is changing the world's appreciation of true detail. Sometime when the "details" are too obvious, that is a warning side of USM effect already. To me, genuine high resolution audio should offer details that are natural and seamingless, the low level details are playing an important part here
Spend more hour with i5 and you'll re-discover your music collection, that I promised personally.
