[fe-lixx]

The effects of network cabling is also horribly underrated. The sound of different Twisted Pair cables for Ethernet alone! It takes a long, long time to explain and understand, but once you've heard the whole story, you'll be able to understand why the internet smells differently on each computer and why every ISP delivers a distinct "flavor" to their customers. Just try listening to any streaming service via your home or work WiFi, which should already be a difference, and then compare that to 3G or 4G mobile data connections. When I visited the US, the AT&T 4G connections actually made me gag once. Also photos I took during my visit there and uploaded them to the cloud seem kind of faded in terms of color. When I copied them again using a highly shielded USB connection directly from my phone's memory, I saw what difference that made.
For home listening, just as an example: The music I stream via my Spotify account sounds only acceptable when tunneled over TOR exit nodes in Tuscany, though I wish they'd use more fiber instead of copper in their backbones over there, for an even lighter sound, too much copper (or possibly just bad wiring practices in datacenters that transport your data - some are using horribly cheap cabling for their power supplies) makes music sound very heavy and dark. The only other exit nodes that sound alright for background music are the Norwegian ones. They mainly use hydropower plants for generating power, this appears to have a generally great impact of even and clean power supply to datacenters and homes alike. I'll have to bring my rig with me when I visit Oslo again, I bet it'll sound a whole lot better there than with my unfiltered atomic crap here in France.
If anyone has observed other good sounding exit nodes or VPNs that offer great sound quality for streaming, I'd love to hear your experiences.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Nobody is ever going to agree on these issues. For the record I also can't hear any difference. I used a cheapo USB cable from my printer with a $3000 DAC and was quite content.

 

[Dodeca]

[deleted]

 

[Dodeca]

Hey Fiio!

Just stumbled on this thread... I picked up the Q5 the other week on a whim, as I needed to re-tool my mobile sound setup. I have to say, I really love this unit.

I hadn't done a lot of research on the unit beforehand, but it's turning out to be a real Swiss-army knife for me... a total multi-tool.

Sound quality is great, the switchable L/H gain and bass boost is nice to have. The bluetooth implementation has been solid, and I've had no problems with Tidal on lossless over aptX... loving how the signal gets pumped through the buttery-yet-transparent DACs. It's rugged AF and I've got no hesitations throwing it into my bag or traveling with it in my pocket.

But here's the bonus: IT COMES WITH AN ASIO DRIVER!!? I'm able use the Q5 in my DAW / Ableton sessions while on the go with some REAL LOW LATENCY. At 64 samples, Ableton reports a RTL of 4.90ms. Fantastic -- I don't even need to unplug/replug my IEMs when going from bluetooth on my Pixel 2 and then swapping into my laptop.

This thing is great: a perfect commuter + mobile audio tool. Thanks for the design!

 

[Alex Kitic]

Your sympathies are appreciated, but they're also misplaced -- the extra cash in my pocket from not being swindled by digital cabling prevents me from missing out on lots!

I think you're conflating digital vs. analogue signal paths. There are absolutely differences between sound quality in an analogue audio path -- whether it's cabling or circuitry or vac tubes or anything else along the way, but I'd argue some of these differences are, at times, also placebo. But there is absolutely nothing that will appreciably degrade or affect sonic quality on the digital path from source to DAC; it's like saying that copying a photo from one folder to another results in pixel loss.

If you can refer me to one of your "trainings" from a reputable audio school that allow one to discern the differences between SQ in digital cable interconnects, I'd love to see it.

Seems like such a funny conversation to be having.

Copying a file from one folder to another, or one device to the other is a copy and subject to a CRC (cyclic redundancy check). There will be no difference between 2 files if they have not been altered, or otherwise some error in copying occurs.

The “digital” signal path from source to DAC does indeed transfer digital data, but there is no CRC and data is transferred analogically, i.e. a stream is emitted and received. Therefore this stream is subject to alteration and one known form is jitter.

To summarize, copying a file form one folder to another is not the same as transferring a signal (digital or analog) from an emittor to a receiver.

If you can hear differences between interconnects or speaker cables in the transfer of analog signals, you should be able to hear the differences between cables that transfer a digital strem between two devices.

There is no “audio school” that I know of where they can teach you to distinguish anything. But, there are serious academic courses where they can teach you the basics (and more) about files or signal transfer.

Ignorance is a far worse sin than subjectivity to placebo.

 

[Dodeca]

[deleted]

 

[Brooko]

Gents
The FiiO Q5 thread is no place for this discussion. Please cease it - or I’ll be forced to call in the Mods.

Alex - there are plenty of threads in Sound Science where you can make your anecdotal claims - suggest you do so over there.

Thanks.

 

[Dodeca]

Gents
The FiiO Q5 thread is no place for this discussion. Please cease it - or I’ll be forced to call in the Mods.

You're 100% right, Brooko. I've taken down my more... ornery... replies. Q5 is a great bit of kit, shoulda left it at that.

 

[Zodler]

I'm getting FIIO Q5. I have a Sennheiser HD 800 S. Do I have to get another amp module for Q5 for better sound with this headphone?

 

[Sonic Defender]

I'm getting FIIO Q5. I have a Sennheiser HD 800 S. Do I have to get another amp module for Q5 for better sound with this headphone?

Depending on how loud you like your music playback volume, and depending on the music itself, you may want the A5 which I believe has the most power. Older more dynamic music is recorded more quietly as compared with newer (90s and newer) recordings where compression and limiting is used so if you like classic rock from the 70s and enjoy louder volume listening I suspect the HD800S might require more power. I owned the HD800S, but I only powered it with a speaker amp and a La Figaro 339 OTL amp that had lots of power so no experience with the Q5 and the 800S.

 

[gto88]

I'm getting FIIO Q5. I have a Sennheiser HD 800 S. Do I have to get another amp module for Q5 for better sound with this headphone?

Depending on how loud you like your music playback volume, and depending on the music itself, you may want the A5 which I believe has the most power. Older more dynamic music is recorded more quietly as compared with newer (90s and newer) recordings where compression and limiting is used so if you like classic rock from the 70s and enjoy louder volume listening I suspect the HD800S might require more power. I owned the HD800S, but I only powered it with a speaker amp and a La Figaro 339 OTL amp that had lots of power so no experience with the Q5 and the 800S.

A5 amp has 55mw at 300Ohm.
If you get balanced out on AM3A comes with Q5, you get 63mW for 300ohm.

 

[Zodler]

Do I need to buy new cables for Sennheiser HD 800 S for balanced out? It's not in the box? Balanced cables that can get connected to Q5.

 

[gto88]

Yes, you do.
And you may want to get xlr for HD800s, and get a 2.5mm to xlr female for Q5.
So, you will have to do this Q5 -> 2.5mm balanced out , XLR female -> xlr male cable of HD800S
I just bought a 2.5mm trrs to female XLR, so I can connect all my headphone which has XLR cable on Q5.

 

[kukkurovaca]

Do I need to buy new cables for Sennheiser HD 800 S for balanced out? It's not in the box? Balanced cables that can get connected to Q5.

If you don't want to go the XLR -> 2.5mm adapter route, a relatively inexpensive option for HD800 to 2.5mm is LQI cables on eBay. The connectors aren't as nice as the stock Sennheiser ones, but they do the job.

 

[Zodler]

Balanced cable with XLR4 connector is already in the box (HD800S box). I guess I will get only the 2.5mm XLR female adapter.