[timb5881]

It uses sd cards, has a digital only out put (with the potential for I2S). Could be a nice high quality portable unit to use with a portable dac

.http://cgi.ebay.com/QA-550-Hi-End-WA...d=p3286.c0.m14

 

[mrarroyo]

At $100 it sure looks interesting, S&H is up to $30 and it only seems to support up to 8 GB cards. It is not too large, only supports 16/44.1 WAV which IMO should be good enough for most.

 

[Punnisher]

Looks neat, except you would need a battery power supply to take with you. That's the player, powersupply, dac and amp. That's 4 brick sized devices if the dac doesn't have a built-in amp.

 

[fatman]

Another China audio maker's products?

 

[timb5881]

Not only producing products, but is also a major consumer of hifi. Some things they produce are junk some are great, others in the middle.

 

[a_tumiwa]

can this become alternative of iriver ihp120/140??

 

[david1978jp]

So many people want digital output to go, there you have it.

 

[Punnisher]

It's not really to go. You need to carry a large battery pack with it unfortunately.

 

[EugeneK]

Would have been cooler if it took other lossless formats too, like flac, wma and apple lossless.

 

[a_tumiwa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punnisher /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's not really to go. You need to carry a large battery pack with it unfortunately.

u mean the player doesn`t have internal battery inside??

 

[penartur]

Quote:

u mean the player doesn`t have internal battery inside??

Yes, it is driven by DC In, and it is unknown how much energy does it use (although it seems like 4.5W, so you will be able to use it from 6*AA battery pack for a 4-5 hours maximum).
That "player" is completely nonsense, an used ihp-1xx costs just a few more, weights (with battery) less than QA-550 (without battery), works from battery for about 15 hours, rockboxable, supports (through rockbox) a wide variety of formats (including flac, aac, mp3, ogg etc), has a nice screen, can be upgraded to 240gb hard drive (although i'm not sure if rockbox will work with hard drives larger than 137GB) and can be used without an external dac/amp.
Completely pointless.

 

[kostalex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by penartur /img/forum/go_quote.gif That "player" is completely nonsense, an used ihp-1xx costs just a few more, weights (with battery) less than QA-550 (without battery), works from battery for about 15 hours, rockboxable, supports (through rockbox) a wide variety of formats (including flac, aac, mp3, ogg etc), has a nice screen, can be upgraded to 240gb hard drive (although i'm not sure if rockbox will work with hard drives larger than 137GB) and can be used without an external dac/amp. Completely pointless.

I agree. Please, sell me used ihp-1xx for "just a few more".

 

[penartur]

Here is H120 for just $150: iRiver iHP-120 20GB MP3 Player - eBay (item 300341932072 end time Sep-01-09 19:35:14 PDT)
And don't forget that for "portable" usage of QA-550 you will need also to purchase 6 AA batteries plus a case to get 9V output. And $95 for this QA-550 is just a current bid, not "buy it now" price.

 

[penartur]

BTW, how does H1x0 sounds compared to e.g. ipod 5th gen and zune 80/120?

 

[Tachikoma]

The QA-550 is more like a cheaper wadia 170i in my eyes. This was never meant to be a portable device.