So I've had my Fiio Q5s since august and it just conked out today. I've tried holding the reset button down to 5 seconds like it advises one to do in the manual but that bred no fruit. I really enjoyed the product and drove my LCD-2s and LCD-Xs well but that's not really a testament to anything. I just enjoyed the use of LDAC over Bluetooth for use alongside my isine 20s. I think the TI MSP430 chip died in my unit or the firmware got ****ed because the battery is still providing nominal voltage alongside with power to every non-semiconductor controlled element on the board. This includes Butterworth LPF for power conditioning before the LDOs as well as other power points. There are test pads on the back but I don't have an oscilloscope handy atm so I couldn't do a comprehensive analysis. Regardless, it's still under warranty so should be good for warranty repair by fiio but shipping to china and back is a bitch. I gotta use my crappy dongle with my phone and it makes everything sound like ****ing garbage. Might as well wear some beats and blow my ears out with some bass boost.
Looking through the internal PCB layout I found the list of chips they used to control basically all elements of the sound delivery system other than the internal Amp architecture of the amp modules as I couldn't take that apart without some damage. If you guys would like some more images and breakdown of the layout I can provide some insight. For the price, this device is a great deal but doesn't match higher-end offerings which can be seen by the outsourcing of big segments of the player design being outsourced for off the shelf SoCs. A good example is the use of the NJW1151 for use of the volume control. I don't know the exacts of the volume control implementation but I am almost sure that it is a bit depth truncating system which is circumventing the whole point of using an external device for volume control for the most part in a way. I would have expected some sort of analog based volume control, but at this price point it's not possible so I understand the concession. Beats a pot any day and allows for some LPF filter adjustment on the output end of the DAC before the amp module final amplification.
@FiiO, I messaged your customer service department about support and possible replacement but I haven't heard from them. I have looked through your forums on your site and it was barren regarding issues with your product. This product is definitely buggy when it comes to the bluetooth connectivity on android but for the most part has performed admirably but the power off and power on ****ery is really bad and has almost bricked my device 3 times with this 4th time actually bricking it. You guys should have just allowed the device to be actually powered off when the volume wheel hits 0 instead of a soft power off. Especially when I have to cycle the device to make it work properly sometimes cuz it stops working.
Internal Pic:
Sorry about the low image quality, I tried taking a quick image and couldn't get the DSLR out, it's late in NYC and everyone is sleeping at my place.
I have images of the backside of the board with the test pads. The PCB quality is genuinely good and well thought out. They have signal output pads on the back for comprehensive testing and analysis. My Xmos chip isn't getting the 1.0V it's supposed to be getting which is why I think it's the TI chip that has gone to crap but the firmware getting corrupted could also be the culprit or some trace could be damaged. Regardless, it's impossible to be sure of the issue without the actual schematics of which I could not find.
Thank you once again Fiio for releasing such a great product at such a price point. The only other realistic options are the iDSD and the Chord Mojo/Poly combo. I will eventually upgrade to that but I didn't have the cash atm to drop on a portable setup like that. I need to buy me a Yggdrassil first.
