[noaid]

No, quite opposite. Plug cable in phone, switch on Q5s, then plug to Q5s. Q5s must be switched ON BEFORE CONNECTING to anything and on its side you must use OTG type connector like ML06 or any OTG cable when connecting to PC. With normal cable it will charge.

 

[mikroski]

I found a way to disable charging while connected to PC in USB mode, using the standard USB cable:

1. Connect USB cable to PC / Q5s
2. Turn ON the Q5s. The side LEDs will start flashing, indicating charging and charge level.
3. With the Q5s still connected in USB mode, press the Bluetooth button on the Q5s for 2 seconds to enter Bluetooth mode and connect to your phone.
4. Open the Fiio Music app > Settings > Bluetooth Device Control > Q5s > and switch "Charge" from ON to OFF. Wait 3 seconds and the side LEDs will stop flashing indicating no charge.
5. Still inside the Fiio app tap the cog in upper right and then tap "Turn off Bluetooth", confirm and exit the app. The unit will go into USB mode with no charging. No flashing LEDs.

This way you can still discharge your Q5s battery if you often use PC USB connection. Good for healthy charge/discharge cycles with your battery and not always staying near 100%.

After you disconnect and turn off the Q5s, it will reverse to normal charging mode next time, so you'll have to always repeat this procedure if you want no charging from PC.

Thank you very much for your useful information.
May I ask one very stupid question? I will buy Q5s to use with PC+Jriver only, what is the disadvantage of charging when connect to PC in USB mode

if I off "Charge" in app. How can I charge Q5s, with telephone charger?

 

[KopaneDePooj]

Thank you very much for your useful information.
May I ask one very stupid question? I will buy Q5s to use with PC+Jriver only, what is the disadvantage of charging when connect to PC in USB mode

if I off "Charge" in app. How can I charge Q5s, with telephone charger?

The disadvantage is that if you will use it with PC only, the battery will always be full or near 100% and that is not healthy for the battery.
So it is beneficial to let is discharge from time to time to 30-40%.
When you switch the Q5s off, it will reverse to "Charge" - ON so you can charge it with phone charger as necessary.

The ideal usage would be to use it equally with Bluetooth and PC, that way the battery discharges during Bluetooth use and charges gently at low current during PC use.
In my case I always use my Q5s at work, so 85% of the time it is connected to PC. During the rest of 15% time with Bluetooth use, the battery doesn't discharge too much so I'm always between 90-100%.
So turning the charging off with PC from time to time is beneficial in my case.

 

[klash]

Am I crazy or does the Q5s sound better on BT connection than on USB DAC mode?

I'm playing it LDAC via OnePlus 7 Pro to Q5s to Solaris. It sounds better than when I have it plugged to PC.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Am I crazy or does the Q5s sound better on BT connection than on USB DAC mode?

I'm playing it LDAC via OnePlus 7 Pro to Q5s to Solaris. It sounds better than when I have it plugged to PC.

My initial reaction is that it shouldn't sound better, sounding as good, yes, entirely possible. Could you describe your PC system and configuration a little? I would be curious about what might be behind your perception.

 

[klash]

My initial reaction is that it shouldn't sound better, sounding as good, yes, entirely possible. Could you describe your PC system and configuration a little? I would be curious about what might be behind your perception.

I just plugged the Q5s directly to the PC via USB. I didn't mess with anything. But I did download the drivers from the Fiio website. I'm running a Windows 10 64 bit system. I dunno if the specs matter but my board is an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon with a Ryzen 1600X.

I noticed a difference because I was using spotify on my PC then when I shut if off I continued listening immediately, continued where I left off on spotify on my phone. I was shocked at the difference.

 

[noaid]

@mikroski I think new Fiio K5 Pro desktop DAC is more suited for such use. The same DAC, but only SE output. No battery problem. If the line out woud be the same quality as Q5s I would buy it but I am not sure because it is not balanced.

Today I recabled my AKG K701 headphone to balanced 4.4 Pentaconn connector. Originally I tried 2.5 connector but it was imposible to solder it, too small. As for sound - I dont remember much how it sounded on 3.5 SE so hard to compare. Definitely not much louder.
I compared once more BT LDAC and USB and stiil I think BT is a bit less clean and dynamic, more flat. But it is not blind test so maybe psychic is working here.

Am I crazy or does the Q5s sound better on BT connection than on USB DAC mode?

I'm playing it LDAC via OnePlus 7 Pro to Q5s to Solaris. It sounds better than when I have it plugged to PC.

Question is how you play it on your PC and on your phone and what you play, settings and so on, there are too many variables in the process. BT cannot be better then USB max. the same for 16/44 CD format. If you think it is better then USB you are doing something not well.

Now I see you next message. Your Windows are resampling and destroing output. Also Spotify is not good source for testing, sound is not good comparing looseless sources lake Tidal, flac files,... Your phone is also resampling output.

High quality audio is not just plug and play. You need to know something about the sw part. Or know somebody who will set everything correctly.

 

[klash]

@mikroski I think new Fiio K5 Pro desktop DAC is more suited for such use. The same DAC, but only SE output. No battery problem. If the line out woud be the same quality as Q5s I would buy it but I am not sure because it is not balanced.

Today I recabled my AKG K701 headphone to balanced 4.4 Pentaconn connector. Originally I tried 2.5 connector but it was imposible to solder it, too small. As for sound - I dont remember much how it sounded on 3.5 SE so hard to compare. Definitely not much louder.
I compared once more BT LDAC and USB and stiil I think BT is a bit less clean and dynamic, more flat. But it is not blind test so maybe psychic is working here.


Question is how you play it on your PC and on your phone and what you play, settings and so on, there are too many variables in the process. BT cannot be better then USB max. the same for 16/44 CD format. If you think it is better then USB you are doing something not well.

Now I see you next message. Your Windows are resampling and destroing output. Also Spotify is not good source for testing, sound is not good comparing looseless sources lake Tidal, flac files,... Your phone is also resampling output.

High quality audio is not just plug and play. You need to know something about the sw part. Or know somebody who will set everything correctly.

Well, seeing as I used spotify on both platforms, I guess my Windows setting is the problem then. I'll look around for some guides on how to properly setup the audio on Windows to maximize the Q5s.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Well, seeing as I used spotify on both platforms, I guess my Windows setting is the problem then. I'll look around for some guides on how to properly setup the audio on Windows to maximize the Q5s.

I know with Tidal I can tell it to use the Q5s as the DAC, but if I don't tell it to do so, I am pretty sure by default it doesn't. Now if the Q5s is your default sound device in Windows I would think/hope that Spotify goes through it, but we shouldn't assume that it is. Before streaming have you confirmed that the Q5s is the default sound device? Additionally, do you know if Spotify allows you to select the sound device it goes through? Anyway, for absolute certain there is no reason that Bluetooth will sound better, that is for certain, unless as we are trying to figure out something is amiss with your PC setup. Good luck getting this straightened out and what a treat it is that the Bluetooth implementation is so darn good as is. Gives you two fantastic options in my book.

 

[MarcusWWW]

New to this.

So have a question.

I already have a FiiO M11 to be used with Tin Hifi P1 & Audiosense T800 as the IEms of choice. Headphones Beyerdynamic Amiron Home.

What benefits if any would adding a Q5s into the mix?

 

[abitdeef]

New to this.

So have a question.

I already have a FiiO M11 to be used with Tin Hifi P1 & Audiosense T800 as the IEms of choice. Headphones Beyerdynamic Amiron Home.

What benefits if any would adding a Q5s into the mix?

The only benefit would be being able to change amp modules.

 

[LoveMusicEveryday]

Don't have experience with iOS, but try unpairing / forgetting the Q5s in iPhone, clearing the cache for FiiO Music app (if there's a way), clean restart iPhone (by keeping some buttons pressed until you see the apple (google it)), restart Q5s, press the Bluetooth button for 5 seconds to enter a fresh pairing with red/blue LEDs flashing, re-pair the Q5s, try again.




The old Q5 has 2 USB ports but it's still ALWAYS charging on BOTH when connected to PC. The data port is not strictly used for data. So at least with the Q5s there is a way to disable charging when used with standard cable and PC. With the Q5 you don't have this option at all.

And regarding the phone connection I don't have back-charging when using with FiiO CL06 cable and HTC 10.

But I agree that a mechanical switch would be the best solution.

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I think I have figured out why the BT Control connection was not working with my iOS device. I was always trying to use the BT Control once my iPhone was already connected to the Q5s via Bluetooth, and thus I believed the BT Control itself was also trying to connect to the Q5s (via Bluetooth) which was already connected to the iOS device. Thus, BT Control itself was not able to successfully make the bluetooth connection. Once I understood this issue, I did the following steps and they are guaranteed to work:

1. Make sure the iOS device (iPhone, iPad) has the Bluetooth turned on.
2. Run the Fiio Music app on the iOS device and get to the Fiio BT Control panel.
3. Turn on the Q5s and press the Bluetooth button (the middle button on the left-hand side) to enter Bluetooth pairing mode).
4. If the upper left corner small window of the BT Control panel says Fiio Q5s disconnected, press it once to get it connected.
5. You should then be presented with the Bluetooth status window as has been shown here before.

I agreed that turning off the Charging option is only for the current session and it will prevent back-charging when the Q5s is connected to PC/MAC and mobile devices using regular USB cable. Once shutdown and turning back on, the default Charge behavior (ON) is back. This makes sense as mentioned in this thread since it might get into a state where the battery runs out completely and this option is turned off, which will lead to a brick Q5s. The manual switch would be a great idea and makes life much easier for everyone. However, I am grateful to have at least this option in software .

 

[KopaneDePooj]

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I think I have figured out why the BT Control connection was not working with my iOS device. I was always trying to use the BT Control once my iPhone was already connected to the Q5s via Bluetooth, and thus I believed the BT Control itself was also trying to connect to the Q5s (via Bluetooth) which was already connected to the iOS device. Thus, BT Control itself was not able to successfully make the bluetooth connection. Once I understood this issue, I did the following steps and they are guaranteed to work:

1. Make sure the iOS device (iPhone, iPad) has the Bluetooth turned on.
2. Run the Fiio Music app on the iOS device and get to the Fiio BT Control panel.
3. Turn on the Q5s and press the Bluetooth button (the middle button on the left-hand side) to enter Bluetooth pairing mode).
4. If the upper left corner small window of the BT Control panel says Fiio Q5s disconnected, press it once to get it connected.
5. You should then be presented with the Bluetooth status window as has been shown here before.

I agreed that turning off the Charging option is only for the current session and it will prevent back-charging when the Q5s is connected to PC/MAC and mobile devices using regular USB cable. Once shutdown and turning back on, the default Charge behavior (ON) is back. This makes sense as mentioned in this thread since it might get into a state where the battery runs out completely and this option is turned off, which will lead to a brick Q5s. The manual switch would be a great idea and makes life much easier for everyone. However, I am grateful to have at least this option in software .

Glad you worked it out. Now I remember I also had problems accessing FiiO BT Control in Android too, and I had to restart both devices to make it work. I think it sometimes happens when you use other player or app that outputs audio to Bluetooth BEFORE accessing FiiO BT Control.
So it is best to first access BT Control and make your settings and then starting another music player.

 

[KopaneDePooj]

Man, I keep pressing the "Input" button and the unit won't turn on
Old Q5 habits...

 

[KaiFi]

Well, I ordered one of these today

My main amp has so far been the iFi Nano.

I liked the sound of Q5, but I had a problem with it when using USB input from my MacBook where I'd get a delay in starting a song (there would be a half-second of silence until the music began, cutting off a small part of the beginning of a song whenever I started it). I hope that doesn't happen with this new model.