JAC151
Head-Fier
Okay - so an honest review from someone who does not frequent these forums and is mostly a music enthusiast and not an audiophile.
My main music device for actually listening to music (as opposed to passive listening at work or on a commute) is an iPod touch 7th generation. I use a pair of Sennheiser HD6XX headphones. I swapped back and forth between the Q5S and iPod touch on a handful of songs ranging from vocals to instrumental pieces (Swtichfoot and Kingdom Hearts mostly). My impressions (fully acknowledging that there is some justification bias) were as follows:
My main music device for actually listening to music (as opposed to passive listening at work or on a commute) is an iPod touch 7th generation. I use a pair of Sennheiser HD6XX headphones. I swapped back and forth between the Q5S and iPod touch on a handful of songs ranging from vocals to instrumental pieces (Swtichfoot and Kingdom Hearts mostly). My impressions (fully acknowledging that there is some justification bias) were as follows:
- The difference is subtle. It isn't as pronounced as the jump from 128kbps to 256kbps or from EarPods to the Sennheiser HD6XX.
- I think there is a slight improvement in clarity and more details in the background instruments. For example, while the main points of the songs were roughly the same, when listening via the Q5S I noticed some details in the song (such as background notes, additional instruments, etc) that I didn't recall. I went back and listened on the iPod looking for those pieces and sure enough, they were there, but they seemed slightly more faded. I've listened to these songs for years and never picked up on some of these details until after listening via the Q5S.
- Overall - this may be bias, but I think as a whole music sounds a bit more musical/fuller on the Q5S. Again, I'd probably fail 50% of the blind tests, but when listening to songs I've heard hundreds of times, they seem just a bit richer.
