[raif71]

Of course they measure the volume that measures the best.

That speak volumes

 

[John Massaria]

I am wondering if they had the latest updated flashed version? There is no way this thing sounds anything but steller for the price... it crushed my old OPPO HA2SE and the Monoprice Portable THX when I tried some 10 plus of my different headphones with it- I immediately flashed the unit to new software - wonder if they did

 

[rar133]

Well, it certainly does sound good, subjectively speaking, but based on those measurements technically there are clearly some significant issues. You can have engineering issues that do not rise to audibility that nonetheless should not happen. There are devices that cost hundreds less than the Q5s/AM3D combination that have measured better. That does not always mean they will sound better, but really something that measures well is not very likely to sound poor.

This i always wanted to find out.... Since it took forever for asr to give those measurements, a lot of people have this unit (plus today 183pages on headfi)....
So far, most if not all the complaints here have been around the BT and app or power drain on phones or eq, but rarely on what the device produced. Personally ive had it for a few months now and never had any issues with distortion or anything technical.

Now to see how many folks will find issues now that they have read those graphs and how it is a piece of trash, oh how i wasted my money blah blah blah...

 

[Sonic Defender]

I am wondering if they had the latest updated flashed version? There is no way this thing sounds anything but steller for the price... it crushed my old OPPO HA2SE and the Monoprice Portable THX when I tried some 10 plus of my different headphones with it- I immediately flashed the unit to new software - wonder if they did

I don't think software has anything to do with the measurements. But I doubt that it was the most recent version. Also a real shame that FiiO hasn't responded here, or over at ASR. I know companies think being silent is better, maybe in China it is, but certainly in the West when companies just go silent on big issues it looks bad. My guess is their engineers are trying to discover what went wrong.

 

[Sonic Defender]

...
Now to see how many folks will find issues now that they have read those graphs and how it is a piece of trash, oh how i wasted my money blah blah blah...

I expect that you're right. As I said, I was generally very pleased with the sound quality. I am shocked by how poor the AM3D module measured. That for me was an eye opener as I thought the sound was quite good. Saying that, despite sounding good, there is no reason that such engineering mistakes should happen and FiiO simply must address this. Schiit was called out by ASR over their crappy measuring devices and now Schiit is on a roll releasing affordable products that also measure very well. It is FiiO's turn to turn this around.

 

[Facta]

Question. Can I send Sony A25 DAP's headphone out signal into 3.5mm Line In of FiiO Q5S and connect 4.4mm balanced headphones into FiiO's 4.4mm BO?

 

[raif71]

Question. Can I send Sony A25 DAP's headphone out signal into 3.5mm Line In of FiiO Q5S and connect 4.4mm balanced headphones into FiiO's 4.4mm BO?

I don't see why not, all the best trying

 

[Facta]

?

 

[Bacci]

I expect that you're right. As I said, I was generally very pleased with the sound quality. I am shocked by how poor the AM3D module measured. That for me was an eye opener as I thought the sound was quite good. Saying that, despite sounding good, there is no reason that such engineering mistakes should happen and FiiO simply must address this. Schiit was called out by ASR over their crappy measuring devices and now Schiit is on a roll releasing affordable products that also measure very well. It is FiiO's turn to turn this around.

At least NwAvGuy put his money where his mouth was and created the ODAC, which measures superb for its price (but sounds a bit clinical). This Amir guy has twice the attitude but half the intelligence of NwAvGuy. As an engineer in an unrelated field I don’t even trust his measurements TBH, he screwed up before with the Benchmark DAC.

 

[Sonic Defender]

At least NwAvGuy put his money where his mouth was and created the ODAC, which measures superb for its price (but sounds a bit clinical). This Amir guy has twice the attitude but half the intelligence of NwAvGuy. As an engineer in an unrelated field I don’t even trust his measurements TBH, he screwed up before with the Benchmark DAC.

Agree to disagree, I think what Amir is doing, and getting better at is very important. You do notice that FiiO is not in the thread denying the findings and refuting them with evidence. There were likely some technical mistakes made and I would bet dollars to dimes that FiiO will not repeat those mistakes in future efforts. It is great that these issues came to light. Schiit also produced some pretty checkered engineering efforts that like the Q5s, still managed to sound good. Schiit responded very, very well and addressed some of the critiques that were levelled at them. Look at the Modius, quite a nice device at a great price. I fully expect FiiO will do the same and I have no doubt that FiiO has the knowledge and skills to recover from this.

I will have to look into your claim that Amir screwed up with the Benchmark DAC. While I can't be positive of this, I do think that I read posts where this was addressed and it turned out that the findings were valid. I may be wrong, so I will keep that in mind and next chance that I get I will look into this.

 

[Julius Decimus]

Very few folks will read or see the post about the measurements in here or in the Audio science site. When you look it that way....i dont expect someone digging into it and giving explanation (especially when to most of people the device sounds completely OK). But who knows.....

 

[FLN Luco]

This video compares:
- Topping D90: DAC that focuses on objective tests (measurements).
- Schiit Bifrost: DAC that, although it also has a good measurement, focuses on subjective tests (listening test).

And my conclusion is: an equipment can have regular/good measurements and present an excellent sound, even superior to an equipment that has a perfect measurement.
"A race car can have an excellent measurement in the dynamo, but that does't mean that this car will perform well on a race track"

 

[Sonic Defender]

DACs just need to measure correctly, they do not have sound signatures unless they are engineered wrong by mistake, or worse, to intentionally have a sound signature. The ONLY job of a DAC is to accurately convert digital signals to analogue. That's it. The idea of engineering a DAC to have a sound signature is axiomatically incorrect. The only part of the audio chain that should really introduce colour/character is the headphone or speakers.

 

[Bacci]

Agree to disagree, I think what Amir is doing, and getting better at is very important. You do notice that FiiO is not in the thread denying the findings and refuting them with evidence. There were likely some technical mistakes made and I would bet dollars to dimes that FiiO will not repeat those mistakes in future efforts. It is great that these issues came to light. Schiit also produced some pretty checkered engineering efforts that like the Q5s, still managed to sound good. Schiit responded very, very well and addressed some of the critiques that were levelled at them. Look at the Modius, quite a nice device at a great price. I fully expect FiiO will do the same and I have no doubt that FiiO has the knowledge and skills to recover from this.

I will have to look into your claim that Amir screwed up with the Benchmark DAC. While I can't be positive of this, I do think that I read posts where this was addressed and it turned out that the findings were valid. I may be wrong, so I will keep that in mind and next chance that I get I will look into this.

I'm a big fan of testing, but the one of the Q5s is sketchy. The device was tested with the DAC filter option set to super slow roll-off mode, which is not even the default it ships with. Then there are highly unusual dips in frequency response the tester could not be arsed to investigate with subsequent tests, despite having the equipment to do so.
Sorry, but that's just sloppy.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I'm a big fan of testing, but the one of the Q5s is sketchy. The device was tested with the DAC filter option set to super slow roll-off mode, which is not even the default it ships with. Then there are highly unusual dips in frequency response the tester could not be arsed to investigate with subsequent tests, despite having the equipment to do so.
Sorry, but that's just sloppy.

The filters have virtually no effect on the measurements at all. The testing was the same as other devices in the same class were subjected to. Again, do you see FiiO here or anywhere on the Internet denying the results or publishing tests to refute the results? No you don't, and that is because the tests were proper and conducted correctly. This doesn't change the fact that the Q5s is still a great sounding device with many features, it just means that there were some engineering/design errors made that could be corrected.