[snellemin]

So when I first got the Q5, I wasn't too impressed with the sound. Sound changed quite a bit after 30 hours. Made a quick temporary adapter to use the balanced out to my 3.5mm TRRS connections. The balanced sound to me sound much much better vs the standard output. Not a fan of the 2.5mm for the balanced connection.

Not a fan of having to use an apple device to change filter settings in the Q5. I didn't hear a difference in the filter settings, like I did with the Sony Dap. Waiting on a Andriod app from FIIO to make this happen. I understand FIIO is invested into Apple with the dongles, so android is on the back burner.

Very impressed with the range and sound quality of the BT. I can walk around at work without losing connection.

To me the Q5 shines in playing DSD. Sound is the same as Mojo and Sony PHA-3. With the regular 24bit stuff I have, the Mojo and Sony have the edge. I converted a bunch of my standard CD's into DSD, thinking I wouldn't be able to hear a difference. I was wrong. The DSD conversion sounded way better. I thought I was just hearing things and asked a few of my audio buddies to come and have a listen. They could also tell that the DSD version sounded better.
So, I'm keeping the Q5 for DAC duties. It's cheaper then either the Mojo or Sony. However the used Mojo's are cheaper then the Q5.

Wish item:
I want FIIO to offer a DIY amp module.
It can be bigger if needed.
It needs to be balanced.
Ability to swap out the buffers and Opamps.
No 2.5mm TRRS!!
Power needs to be the same as the E12DIY or AM5. More would be nice for Bassheads that like 40Hz and below.
$150-175 price point

Anyways, the FIIO Q5 has found a permanent spot in my work desktop setup using the Line-out. And if I need to be on my feet around the office, I can still have my music through BT.

 

[slider2828]

Hey Guys,

First post because I just got into the headfi stuff but was always into home audio setup. Always been a lurker here on headfi.

I got a chance to try my Oppo PM-3 with Q5 back to back to a Magni 3 - Modi 2 - Eitr.....

Tried it on a bunch of stuff through Foobar2000 24bit / 96k flacs....

Just my .02....

The PM-3's which tend to be a little punchy and veiled a tad vs the HD650's, were amazing on the Schiit stack. It literally sounded similar to HD650's but on a closed planar.... Amazing...

Overall I felt through that stack, it was what I was looking for. I use the headphones on an open floor office plan so hd650 is not possible.

I mean truthfully the Q5 is no slouch and best I have heard on a dac / amp / portable combo / bluetooth .... Through the bluetooth and aptx it is almost as good as a USB cable plugged in. Thanks everyone.

 

[demond]

So when I first got the Q5, I wasn't too impressed with the sound. Sound changed quite a bit after 30 hours. Made a quick temporary adapter to use the balanced out to my 3.5mm TRRS connections. The balanced sound to me sound much much better vs the standard output. Not a fan of the 2.5mm for the balanced connection.
---------
Wish item:
I want FIIO to offer a DIY amp module.
It can be bigger if needed.
It needs to be balanced.
Ability to swap out the buffers and Opamps.
No 2.5mm TRRS!!
Power needs to be the same as the E12DIY or AM5. More would be nice for Bassheads that like 40Hz and below.
$150-175 price point

Anyways, the FIIO Q5 has found a permanent spot in my work desktop setup using the Line-out. And if I need to be on my feet around the office, I can still have my music through BT.

Thank you for your suggestion. This operation doesn't know whether it is feasible. We can evaluate it.

 

[demond]

Hey Guys,

First post because I just got into the headfi stuff but was always into home audio setup. Always been a lurker here on headfi.

I got a chance to try my Oppo PM-3 with Q5 back to back to a Magni 3 - Modi 2 - Eitr.....

Tried it on a bunch of stuff through Foobar2000 24bit / 96k flacs....

Just my .02....

Through the schiit audio stack, the PM-3's which tend to be a little punchy and veiled a tad vs the HD650's, were amazing. It literally sounded close to HD650's but on a closed planar.... Amazing...

Overall I felt through that stack, it was what I was looking for.

I mean truthfully the Q5 is no slouch and best I have heard on a dac / amp / portable combo.... Thanks everyone.

thank you

 

[snellemin]

Can there be a firmware update that enables line-out and headphone-out to work at the same time?

 

[tim0chan]

So when I first got the Q5, I wasn't too impressed with the sound. Sound changed quite a bit after 30 hours. Made a quick temporary adapter to use the balanced out to my 3.5mm TRRS connections. The balanced sound to me sound much much better vs the standard output. Not a fan of the 2.5mm for the balanced connection.

Not a fan of having to use an apple device to change filter settings in the Q5. I didn't hear a difference in the filter settings, like I did with the Sony Dap. Waiting on a Andriod app from FIIO to make this happen. I understand FIIO is invested into Apple with the dongles, so android is on the back burner.

Very impressed with the range and sound quality of the BT. I can walk around at work without losing connection.

To me the Q5 shines in playing DSD. Sound is the same as Mojo and Sony PHA-3. With the regular 24bit stuff I have, the Mojo and Sony have the edge. I converted a bunch of my standard CD's into DSD, thinking I wouldn't be able to hear a difference. I was wrong. The DSD conversion sounded way better. I thought I was just hearing things and asked a few of my audio buddies to come and have a listen. They could also tell that the DSD version sounded better.
So, I'm keeping the Q5 for DAC duties. It's cheaper then either the Mojo or Sony. However the used Mojo's are cheaper then the Q5.

Wish item:
I want FIIO to offer a DIY amp module.
It can be bigger if needed.
It needs to be balanced.
Ability to swap out the buffers and Opamps.
No 2.5mm TRRS!!
Power needs to be the same as the E12DIY or AM5. More would be nice for Bassheads that like 40Hz and below.
$150-175 price point

Anyways, the FIIO Q5 has found a permanent spot in my work desktop setup using the Line-out. And if I need to be on my feet around the office, I can still have my music through BT.

No way I'm taking 3.5mm trrs. For safer use, 4.4 pentaconn would be better. And yes opamp rolling would be fun but the size of the module would have to increase very much. I am not sure why you would need the ho and lo to be active at the same time

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

Getting an iOS for Q5 meant me and Kaiser Tone were on a collision course

su-weeeeet!!



Oh...and I did a vid

 

[qsk78]

There is an adhesive sheet from Oyaide - Pota-Pita



I used that stuff in the past connecting AK100 with Vantam - nice thing to use.

 

[torifile]

To me the Q5 shines in playing DSD. Sound is the same as Mojo and Sony PHA-3. With the regular 24bit stuff I have, the Mojo and Sony have the edge. I converted a bunch of my standard CD's into DSD, thinking I wouldn't be able to hear a difference. I was wrong. The DSD conversion sounded way better. I thought I was just hearing things and asked a few of my audio buddies to come and have a listen. They could also tell that the DSD version sounded better.
So, I'm keeping the Q5 for DAC duties

That makes no sense at all. Standard CDs don’t have enough data to make a bit of difference as DSD files. It’s like saying converting 256 kbps mp3 flies to FLAC makes them sound better. That’s hogwash.

 

[snellemin]

That makes no sense at all. Standard CDs don’t have enough data to make a bit of difference as DSD files. It’s like saying converting 256 kbps mp3 flies to FLAC makes them sound better. That’s hogwash.

Have you tried it?

 

[torifile]

Have you tried it?

Why would I try it when it is complete nonsense?

ETA: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/converting-pcm-44-1-16-to-dsd.324678/

 

[Dobrescu George]

Why would I try it when it is complete nonsense?

ETA: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/converting-pcm-44-1-16-to-dsd.324678/

Of course it is nonsense, it is literally the same data but packaged differently

 

[329161]

Audiophiles (including myself) think they hear lots of things that just aren't so. It's like religion.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Audiophiles (including myself) think they hear lots of things that just aren't so. It's like religion.

Any conversion can degrade the signal, if the conversion algorithm is not perfect.

The DSD file is exactly the same file as the PCM one, decoded by the same DAC chip usually. The idea isn't that I say that there is no difference, the idea is that in the very technical part of it, the data included is supposed the same or less after such a conversion, it isn't supposed to be able to introduce a better quality in any way, the very design of it doesn't imply that the signal will be better.


---

The whole DSD idea started from the concept that the mastering was kept in 24 bits / 192 kHz or so, or even that the mastering was done in DSD, so you'd have a purely DSD file. Or even DSD re-remasters from the original analogue master and such. You aren't supposed to make DSD files from Redbook, the very technical nature of DSD isn't to act like an enhancer in this case, it is just a format supposed to contain the very same data that was fed to it. If you'd have a different DAC processing it, again, would be something, but you have the very same DAC processing the DSD file usually, which further indicates that the DSD file is supposed to be the same quality

Of course, I can't convince anyone of this, but I may be able to help you make space for more albums on your mSD cards if you know this

 

[slider2828]

I took this from mojo audio. I think that what we aren't accounting for is Fiio doing upsampling the dsd file. Also as said below there are advantages to upsampling dsd vs standard pcm recordings. So in fact there is a possibility that he can detect the difference between pcm and dsd on his equipment.

Truthfully if the equipment amp dac and line is good to great, then even difference between standard bit rate stuff to mqa can sound different.

------------ excerpt from mojo. Trust me I want to try dsd.

This is why DSD128 (aka Double-Rate DSD) and DSD256 (aka Quad-Rate DSD) formats came into being. This is also why advanced player software, such as JRiver, offers Double-Rate DSD output. Using player software that upsamples DSD64 to DSD128 or DSD256 significantly improves performance by putting the digital artifacts octaves above audibility allowing more advanced noise-shaping algorithms and less severe digital filters. Note these extremely high sampling frequencies are why ultra accurate clocking is more important in DSD vs. PCM recordings.