[vonBurg]

What you wrote about I absolutely agree with your point of view, But I can think of one or two reasons why / who wants a dedicated DAP.

(1) People with lots of High Res format (DSD, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, APE) Audio purchased/collected from different sources and want to carry them on the go or access them off the desk...i,e without any Computer...Zero faith in Lossy format despite their hearing capability.

(2) The above category people usually own a single or more than one very very high-end expensive IEM, they are absolutely satisfied and realized as their end game, Don't want to use any Full-Size headphone / not interested at all / not like to do any experiment.

(3) No expandable memory at their phone / too hard to transfer all those music collections/ Don't want to clutter their phone....Not much faith in Music Streaming and want to Physically / Digitally own their music.

(4) A large collection of Physical format at their home from the early days from the pre-digital era.

EXACTLY.
Also for people with LDAC or AptX HD DACs, speakers or headphones that cannot transmit bluetooth signal with this quality from their phones/tablets/computers...

my case indeed haha

 

[tolis626]

What you wrote about I absolutely agree with your point of view, But I can think of one or two reasons why / who wants a dedicated DAP.

(1) People with lots of High Res format (DSD, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, APE) Audio purchased/collected from different sources and want to carry them on the go or access them off the desk...i,e without any Computer...Zero faith in Lossy format despite their hearing capability.

(2) The above category people usually own a single or more than one very very high-end expensive IEM, they are absolutely satisfied and realized as their end game, Don't want to use any Full-Size headphone / not interested at all / not like to do any experiment.

(3) No expandable memory at their phone / too hard to transfer all those music collections/ Don't want to clutter their phone....Not much faith in Music Streaming and want to Physically / Digitally own their music.

(4) A large collection of Physical format at their home from the early days from the pre-digital era.

Great points mate. I realize that I came off a bit like I meant that DAPs are useless. They're not, far from it, but as you said they're for specific people and specific use cases. Like, I never got why some people insist on using very expensive DAPs to listen to music through Spotify or Tidal. That doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, it works, but why bother? The user experience is usually inferior to having a good phone.

With that said, given the financial flexibility to do so, I would like to get a DAP at some point, just 'cause. The only one of your points that applies to me is number 3. It's not like I'm a lossless only type of guy, I do most of my listening through Spotify. But I firmly believe that not all music is created equal when it comes to sound quality. For example, I'm a metalhead and 90% of my music listening is to various types of metal. For the vast majority of the bands I listen to, I wouldn't bother with having FLAC versions of their songs on my phone, it's just not worth it given the recording quality. Bands like Tool, they're some of the greatest in the industry, but their recording quality is... Meh, at best. Then there's artists like Daft Punk. I'm not a huge fan of electronic music (or rap, hip hop, pop, etc), but listening to Random Access Memories on Spotify vs 24/96 Flac, the difference was obvious (Yes, 24/96 is overkill, but I always get the highest quality I can find and convert down if needed, it's not like storage space on my desktop PC is at a premium). Everything sounded a touch (or more) better on the FLAC version. To end my ramble, what a DAP would allow me to do is just say "screw it" and throw a 256GB SD card in it with all my music in FLAC and carry that around on a plane etc, where reception wouldn't be good enough to stream music. But that's too much of a niche use to justify the cost for me. So I will probably get the Q5s and make sure my next phone has at least 128GB of storage instead of the 64GB that my OnePlus 3 has, which just isn't enough.

 

[Redhell08]

some people people might also need to save thee battery on their phone

 

[tolis626]

some people people might also need to save thee battery on their phone

Fair point, but a simple powerbank solves that.

 

[human bass]

I actually hate DAPs, both hardware and software are usually bad, and the ones that are decent are much more expensive than a mid-range android phone that is much more functional. The Fiio X5 3rdgen was awful, extremely slow and stuck in android 5, it wasn't worthy half of the price. If I tried to use bluetooth and wifi at the same time it would become ultra slow and laggy.

Just use your phone, a nice sd card if you have the need to have high-res files and pair it with a nice dac-amp.

 

[tolis626]

I actually hate DAPs, both hardware and software are usually bad, and the ones that are decent are much more expensive than a mid-range android phone that is much more functional. The Fiio X5 3rdgen was awful, extremely slow and stuck in android 5, it wasn't worthy half of the price. If I tried to use bluetooth and wifi at the same time it would become ultra slow and laggy.

Just use your phone, a nice sd card if you have the need to have high-res files and pair it with a nice dac-amp.

Yeah, that's probably my main gripe with them too. And considering that the X5 is among the good ones, the category as a whole doesn't look good. Oh well, to each their own I guess. I just need more storage than 64GB on my phone, it turns out. And bluetooth 5/LDAC.

 

[Trainsauce]

Hey FiiO,

Any chance you will make a 2nd (premium) SKU? A Q5S dac and an AM3D AAA THX module bundled? Not interested in the AM3E honestly.

 

[tolis626]

Hey FiiO,

Any chance you will make a 2nd (premium) SKU? A Q5S dac and an AM3D AAA THX module bundled? Not interested in the AM3E honestly.

While I don't expect that to happen, I would be thrilled if they released a Q5s without a module for 100-ish bucks cheaper, so that we could choose whatever module we want without having to pay for one we may never used. That said, the AM3E seems more than competent, so I may not even get the AM3D immediately but rather as an upgrade down the road.

 

[human bass]

While I don't expect that to happen, I would be thrilled if they released a Q5s without a module for 100-ish bucks cheaper, so that we could choose whatever module we want without having to pay for one we may never used. That said, the AM3E seems more than competent, so I may not even get the AM3D immediately but rather as an upgrade down the road.

Does the 3E comes with 4.4mm?

 

[tolis626]

Does the 3E comes with 4.4mm?

It comes with 3.5mm single ended and both 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced outs. I'm telling you, it's gonna be a beast, the THX one will probably just sound a bit better.

 

[human bass]

It comes with 3.5mm single ended and both 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced outs. I'm telling you, it's gonna be a beast, the THX one will probably just sound a bit better.

Thanks. I just bought a 4.4mm cable for my kanas pro and a xlr to 4.4mm for my focal clear.

Besides the sound, this THX AAA topology is known for being very power efficient, so for a portable device that relies on a batterty it will be very practical

 

[tolis626]

Thanks. I just bought a 4.4mm cable for my kanas pro and a xlr to 4.4mm for my focal clear.

Besides the sound, this THX AAA topology is known for being very power efficient, so for a portable device that relies on a batterty it will be very practical

True that, not to mention that it probably offers the cleanest sound available outside exotic amp technologies. I'm telling you, I'm gonna be getting one for sure, it's just not a day one buy for me to keep costs down, the AM3E is probably going to be great too. I mean, even the AM3A, the default amp module in the original Q5 is phenomenal, so I wouldn't worry. Fiio do know how to make a good portable amp. Also, if I may add, using the DAC portion of the device is probably going to draw more power than the amp anyway, so the gains will probably be small unless you're using it solely as an amp.

 

[FiiO]

Hey FiiO,

Any chance you will make a 2nd (premium) SKU? A Q5S dac and an AM3D AAA THX module bundled? Not interested in the AM3E honestly.

Dear friend,

Thanks for your kind feedback. We may not have this plan currently.

Best regards

 

[OneL0ve]

@FiiO please let me send back my new in box Q5 for credit towards new Q5s.

I also just purchased the M11 and I have owned my Fiio devices (x7,x5,e12,etc) in the past, so I remain faithful, but the short device upgrade cycle is killing me to keep up. $$$

 

[vonBurg]

@FiiO please let me send back my new in box Q5 for credit towards new Q5s.

I also just purchased the M11 and I have owned my Fiio devices (x7,x5,e12,etc) in the past, so I remain faithful, but the short device upgrade cycle is killing me to keep up. $$$

I'm curious, how do you use both M11 and Q5/Q5s in your daily life? do you combine them? I'm asking because I try to decide which one I need/want to buy... and read about some examples or experiences with them could make the decision easier... thanks!