[Alex Kitic]

I have recently acquired the Q5 (new, unopened box), and am rather satisfied with the sound quality over headphones (standard and balanced) as well as over the line output.
The sound quality over line output is definitely comparable to full-size DACs. The sound quality over headphones output is better than most DACs and CD players that have a headphone output (which comes as no surprise, due to the poor quality of most commercial solutions).
I mostly listen to HiRes PCM (over coax input on the Q5) and DSD and HiRes PCM (over USB connection to either Mac or PC).
Of course, I do also listen to standard PCM (ripped CDs), and those sound very good as well.

On the other hand, one should take into account that this is not a cheap device, therefore it comes as no surprise that the line output sound quality is comparable to full size DACs.

What bothers me is battery life: it is rather short compared to what can be read on the FiiO site and in reviews on the net.
In my case, battery life is never more than 5 hours (standard use case scenario: FiiO X3 2nd used as player, PCM over coax digital to Q5, most files are 24bit HiRes).
I've tried an array of headphones - in terms of impedance and efficiency - but the battery life is more or less the same. One would expect to have it dictated by the output amp, where HD650 over balanced connection should draw more battery than AT MSR-7 over standard connection -- but that is not the case.
It seems that the main consumer is the DAC?

What are the experiences of other owners/users? In parallel to battery life, what is your standard use-case?

 

[KopaneDePooj]

I have recently acquired the Q5 (new, unopened box), and am rather satisfied with the sound quality over headphones (standard and balanced) as well as over the line output.
The sound quality over line output is definitely comparable to full-size DACs. The sound quality over headphones output is better than most DACs and CD players that have a headphone output (which comes as no surprise, due to the poor quality of most commercial solutions).
I mostly listen to HiRes PCM (over coax input on the Q5) and DSD and HiRes PCM (over USB connection to either Mac or PC).
Of course, I do also listen to standard PCM (ripped CDs), and those sound very good as well.

On the other hand, one should take into account that this is not a cheap device, therefore it comes as no surprise that the line output sound quality is comparable to full size DACs.

What bothers me is battery life: it is rather short compared to what can be read on the FiiO site and in reviews on the net.
In my case, battery life is never more than 5 hours (standard use case scenario: FiiO X3 2nd used as player, PCM over coax digital to Q5, most files are 24bit HiRes).
I've tried an array of headphones - in terms of impedance and efficiency - but the battery life is more or less the same. One would expect to have it dictated by the output amp, where HD650 over balanced connection should draw more battery than AT MSR-7 over standard connection -- but that is not the case.
It seems that the main consumer is the DAC?

What are the experiences of other owners/users? In parallel to battery life, what is your standard use-case?

I didn't test the full extent of battery life because I use it daily at my work desktop, so it always charges. But maybe once or twice I used it mostly with BT for about 6 or more hours and it didn't die.
Maybe try to use exclusively non-hi-res files (mp3, flac) just for testing. I suspect decoding mostly 24bit hi-res consumes way more battery.
If you have the same short battery life with regular files, it may be a faulty battery.

 

[Currawong]

Dear friend,

Do you mean that the DPInst.exe can not be run in your Win7 or Win10 computer? What information would you receive?

Best regards

The drivers install, according to the installer, but don't show up in the Device Manager. The main problem is when I connect to the side USB port while the device is in Bluetooth mode, no computer recognises that there is a USB device connected at all, even after I put it in upgrade mode by pushing both forward and back buttons.

 

[Alex Kitic]

I didn't test the full extent of battery life because I use it daily at my work desktop, so it always charges. But maybe once or twice I used it mostly with BT for about 6 or more hours and it didn't die.
Maybe try to use exclusively non-hi-res files (mp3, flac) just for testing. I suspect decoding mostly 24bit hi-res consumes way more battery.
If you have the same short battery life with regular files, it may be a faulty battery.

Thank you for your quick reply.
The mix of files I listen to does include some 16bit flac files, but I do not listen to lossy formats.

From a DAC standpoint, there is no difference between a 16bit lossy and a 16bit lossless file, because it is receiving a PCM stream via coaxial digital input.
Similarly with DSD files played by some external player (like the X3 2nd gen), there is no difference from a DAC standpoint, since those files are are received as a PCM stream via coaxial (in this case it should be 24 bit 88.2kHz).

Finally, there from a DAC standpoint, there is no difference between 16bit and 24bit, or 44.1k and 192k -- at least not in terms of power consumption. The power consumed by DAC chips is usually listed in the respective datasheets, and there is no indication that more power will be consumed if converting (not decoding, as DAC chips do not decode but they do convert digital signals into analog signals).

The processing power needed to process compressed lossless PCM files like hires flac, or DSD files like dsf - is only relevant when the power consumption of a DAP is reviewed -- from a DAC standpoint, there is no difference in power consumption between converting a PCM stream generated from an mp3 and a PCM stream generated from a DSD file that the DAP has converted from DSD to PCM in the usual format 24-88.2

If most users are able to use their Q5 for more than 5 hours, it might be that my unit is defective, which on the other hand is going to be difficult to prove to the local distributor (one would need to let the DAC "play" for hours on end until the battery is depleted... and than the service personnel, or the distributor, have to agree to the fact that 5 hours are a lot less than the advertised 10 hours).

Point is - are other users able to use the Q5 for approximately 10 hours (as advertised) in any form of DAC mode (i.e. not over the line input when the DAC is not receiving a digital signal and therefore does not draw almost any power)?

It would be very useful to get as many input as possible from real-life users, i.e. owners who listen to music using their Q5 for a number of hours daily. My bias currently is that the advertised battery life is grossly unrealistic -- either exaggerated for marketing purposes (to make it look similar to data advertised by other manufacturers) or not applicable to real life use (a typical user of such a device listens mostly to HiRes PCM and DSD, and uses headphones that are not particularly easy to drive like the HD650 -- as opposed to a user who listens to mp3 and other compressed 16 bit files over earbugs of the easy to drive "phone-ready" kind).

 

[Alex Kitic]

For an objective approach sake, I've just checked out the Datasheet of the AKM4490EN (2 of these are the DAC section of the Q5) and found that there is a difference in power draw relative to the sampling frequency.
The DAC chip draws an average current at DVDD as follows:
44.1k = 10mA
96k = 15mA
192k = 17mA
This would imply that the consumption is 50-70% higher with HiRes files.
BUT, the same chip draws 22mA at VDDL and VDDR, and approx. 1mA at AVDD and TVDD.
As all these data are averages from the datasheet, the total average current draw would be:
44.1k = 55mA
96k = 60mA
192k = 62mA
Once this is taken into account, DAC power consumption is just up to 12% higher with HiRes files.

Bottom line -- while the number of bits does not increase current consumption (i.e. 24bit vs mp3 sourced PCM), the sampling rate will have an impact of up to 20% on the DAC's current draw.

Looking one ore time at the current draw of the DAC, even doubling that figure since the Q5 has 2 of these chips, I am much less convinced that it is the DAC that dictates the battery life, and even less convinced that the up to 12% higher current draw of the DACs when converting HiRes files (sampling rate) would dictate a decrease in battery life...

The remaining variable is headphones, but I have not seen any increase in battery life when switching from HD650 in balanced mode - to AT MSR-7 in single-ended mode. The HD650 should be much more difficult to drive with its 300 ohm impedance than the MSR-7 with its 35 ohm impedance.
I have managed to find measurements of both headphones on the RAA site, showing that the HD650 requires 0.225mW for 94dB SPL, while the MSR-7 requires almost 50% less i.e. 120mW for 94dB SPL. I am not aware if I can post links, but I guess it is not going to be so difficult to google these pages with the keywords "RAA HD650 Sensitivity" and "RAA MSR-7 Sensitivity".

OK, enough info from me - let's see some real life use cases.

 

[shinvicius]

Question it should show me the 384khz in the advanced audio property?I already installed de win10 drivers.Should i do anything else more?

 

[Franklin]

I'm using Fiio Q5 for about 2 months now, every working day, 100% of the time paired with LG G6 via Bluetooth. So, i have some possible improvements to suggest to @FiiO for future firmwares and/or Fiio App.

- Every morning when i turn on Q5, I need to turn on Bluetooth, pressing BT PLAY/PAUSE button for 2s after press for 1s the Power Button. So, will be very usefull if in the future we have the option to turn on BT when Q5 starts. I thought 2 ways to do that (if possible, of course):

1 - adding an option on Fiio App to turn on BT when turn on Q5
2 - adding a function to turn on both BT and Q5 when pressing PLAY/PAUSE button for 2s (when q5 is off) and leave POWER button turn on only the Q5

- With recent update of LG G6 to Android 8, i noticed that BT AAC is enabled by default when connected to Q5, even after change it to APT-X on android developer options. Now G6 suports AAC, APT-X, APT-X HD and LDAC, so i think G6 is setting AAC during protocol negociation with Q5, since Q5 supports both (AAC and APT-X). An option do set de default BT protocol on Q5 side will be very helpful!

Thank's for this amazing device Fiio, I hope more and more improvements to come.

 

[khyaris]

I don’t think the RGB indicator option in the app works properly.
If you turn the option off, the led is off but if you change the source (e.g from Spotify to Hiby) the led is on but the option is still turned off.
Also if the led is off and you restart the Q5, the led is on but the option is still turned off....

@Franklin I agree with you, an option to turn automatically BT on would be great.

 

[Brooko]

The drivers install, according to the installer, but don't show up in the Device Manager. The main problem is when I connect to the side USB port while the device is in Bluetooth mode, no computer recognises that there is a USB device connected at all, even after I put it in upgrade mode by pushing both forward and back buttons.

Amos - unless you have changed the settings (via the app) the side port is for power only - while the bottom post is for data and power. This can be changed within the app.

Did you get the Bluetooth upgrade sorted?

What I mean from post last week ......

I used a PC for upgrade. When I got to the Bluetooth section, the driver wouldn't load. Then I realised - my PC does not have Bluetooth hardware. In order to have the software engaged - it was necessary to connect Bluetooth hardware - to effectively enable Bluetooth transmission. As soon as I did this, the drive loaded, and I could complete the upgrade. Any USB Bluetooth transmitter should work

 

[Brooko]

I have recently acquired the Q5 (new, unopened box), and am rather satisfied with the sound quality over headphones (standard and balanced) as well as over the line output.
The sound quality over line output is definitely comparable to full-size DACs. The sound quality over headphones output is better than most DACs and CD players that have a headphone output (which comes as no surprise, due to the poor quality of most commercial solutions).
I mostly listen to HiRes PCM (over coax input on the Q5) and DSD and HiRes PCM (over USB connection to either Mac or PC).
Of course, I do also listen to standard PCM (ripped CDs), and those sound very good as well.

On the other hand, one should take into account that this is not a cheap device, therefore it comes as no surprise that the line output sound quality is comparable to full size DACs.

What bothers me is battery life: it is rather short compared to what can be read on the FiiO site and in reviews on the net.
In my case, battery life is never more than 5 hours (standard use case scenario: FiiO X3 2nd used as player, PCM over coax digital to Q5, most files are 24bit HiRes).
I've tried an array of headphones - in terms of impedance and efficiency - but the battery life is more or less the same. One would expect to have it dictated by the output amp, where HD650 over balanced connection should draw more battery than AT MSR-7 over standard connection -- but that is not the case.
It seems that the main consumer is the DAC?

What are the experiences of other owners/users? In parallel to battery life, what is your standard use-case?

Give me a chance to get mine fully charged = then I'll mimic your usage and let you know how much battery life on my unit.

 

[Currawong]

Amos - unless you have changed the settings (via the app) the side port is for power only - while the bottom post is for data and power.

For the Bluetooth update, it specifically states to plug the Q5 in via the side port while in Bluetooth mode.

 

[Brooko]

Yes but - if Bluetooth driver not loaded, it wont' recognise anything anyway.

 

[Sonic Defender]

The drivers install, according to the installer, but don't show up in the Device Manager. The main problem is when I connect to the side USB port while the device is in Bluetooth mode, no computer recognises that there is a USB device connected at all, even after I put it in upgrade mode by pushing both forward and back buttons.

If I recall, I had to make sure that the extracted files were inside the directory where the bin file was (I believe that was it) I wish I remembered exactly what I did, but I initially had the exact problem and remember thinking after I solved it that the instructions should mention that the files all need to be together when the update program is run. Odd that I don't remember exactly the steps I took, but I do know that I had your exact issue and after making sure the files were in the right place, the update ran seamlessly.

Hopefully somebody else with a better memory can chime in and give you more specific guidance, but it is a paths issue for sure.

 

[Brooko]

I have recently acquired the Q5 (new, unopened box), and am rather satisfied with the sound quality over headphones (standard and balanced) as well as over the line output.
The sound quality over line output is definitely comparable to full-size DACs. The sound quality over headphones output is better than most DACs and CD players that have a headphone output (which comes as no surprise, due to the poor quality of most commercial solutions).
I mostly listen to HiRes PCM (over coax input on the Q5) and DSD and HiRes PCM (over USB connection to either Mac or PC).
Of course, I do also listen to standard PCM (ripped CDs), and those sound very good as well.

On the other hand, one should take into account that this is not a cheap device, therefore it comes as no surprise that the line output sound quality is comparable to full size DACs.

What bothers me is battery life: it is rather short compared to what can be read on the FiiO site and in reviews on the net.
In my case, battery life is never more than 5 hours (standard use case scenario: FiiO X3 2nd used as player, PCM over coax digital to Q5, most files are 24bit HiRes).
I've tried an array of headphones - in terms of impedance and efficiency - but the battery life is more or less the same. One would expect to have it dictated by the output amp, where HD650 over balanced connection should draw more battery than AT MSR-7 over standard connection -- but that is not the case.
It seems that the main consumer is the DAC?

What are the experiences of other owners/users? In parallel to battery life, what is your standard use-case?

Just realised I hadn't replied.

Set-up : X7 original to Q5 via coax. Files have been a mixture of redbook, 24/96, and some aac256. So far 7 hours in - and no signs of it quitting yet. If you are only getting 5 hours - I'd get your battery checked. IMO - something is wrong.

 

[joshnor713]

Hey guys, I posted a detailed synopsis of the Q5 for anyone interested:

https://www.thesynops.com/fiio-q5-portable-dac-synopsis/



Great DAC