[Chupi383]

Personally I like having a single device that works for both portable and desktop use, and carries all my settings, any EQ, etc. with it. I haven't found it to be very compromised by miniaturization at all, apart from not supporting DSD or as wide a variety of USB sample rates as some devices, and of course not having a big round volume knob.

Mic does work on USB, though the mic modes only support 44.1 or 48 kHz output rates. I'm not sure why. I'd guess something about USB bandwidth, but I have an ancient USB SoundBlaster MP3+ (note, the "MP3" in the name is just an early 00's buzzword, the device does not encode or decode MP3) that does microphone, line in, and output all up to 192 kHz, over USB 2.0. So perhaps processing limitations of the QCC5124 while still handling up to 2 Bluetooth connections and PEQ?

 

[Nolbert0]

Humans can't produce supersonics with their vocal chords anyway so going above 44.1 from the mic is a waste of bandwidth, processing power etc? Besides, most mics (even high end ones in studios) don't record such high frequencies anyways. Certainly not tiny cheap ones like the ones found in the 5K. After all that, you factor in the low audio quality of a phone call, surrounding noise, connection reliability...

Was my understanding, anyways.

 

[Chupi383]

Maybe I wanted to record a bat. /s

But really, my gripe isn't with the mic sample rate, but that the modes where it even has a mic on USB only support playback at 44.1 or 48 kHz.

Personally I don't see a point to going above 44.1 (or 48) since by Nyquist's theorem a competent DAC can perfectly reconstruct an audio signal up to 22 (24) kHz from that, which covers all of human hearing. Now I've heard that higher rates improve clock jitter. I can't test this since I haven't trained my ears to hear jitter (and I'd rather not go down that headache of a rabbit hole), but wouldn't "Performance" mode's DAC oversampling already help with this?

 

[happybuns]

If you're trying to reach someone from Qudelix, you should do so by contacting them directly via the support email on their website or on their official forum. I doubt you will get a response here.

support@qudelix.com

Just did. Hope they are responsive. Amazon cs was giving me the run-around, even giving me email addresses that point to nowhere.

 

[TK33]

Just did. Hope they are responsive. Amazon cs was giving me the run-around, even giving me email addresses that point to nowhere.

Good luck. They were very responsive to me when I first got it...even procured a LG V60 (not sold in Korea) to help me figure out why my V60 would not connect via LDAC and helped me fix it.

 

[mart1272]

Got the device today and I am very impressed at this marvelous little piece of engineering. I've tested it on earbuds (Monk Plus, Kbear Stellar) and IEMS (Blon BL 03 mainly) and I'd say:

- Qudelix 5k sound quality (LDAC bluetooth) is definitely better than SQ from the headphones directly plugged into the headphone jack of the Pixel 4A phone released last year. Knowing this, in hindsight, perhaps I would've also considered buying a new phone without a headphone jack (or an LG V phone with the internal quad dac/amp, but they're way too big phones to my liking).

- It also feels like that Qudelix 5k SQ bluetooth > SQ wired usb-c to 3.5mm dongle (Apple) Pixel 4A > SQ wired headphone jack Pixel 4A.

I tested this on Youtube Music / Spotify (have yet to try Tidal HiFi, if that matters).

Feels great that the cable is no longer tied to my phone, need to unlearn some muscle memory here. Especially now that small phones are disappearing it becomes more and more cumbersome to pull phones with cables attached to it out of your pocket.

The EQ is also fantastic, no longer need to go through the cumbersome process of jailbreaking my iPhone SE 2016 to install system-wide EQ software.

 

[mart1272]

This device is also really handy in the gym. Without the cable attached to my phone, my headphones stay put almost all the time, whereas before I was constantly losing seal and fiddling around with the cable and refitting my headphones, particularly when I pulled the phone out of my pocket. And pulling it out with the cable attached (and the headphone jack on the top of the phone, so upside down in the pocket - unless you use rotate-screen software) and putting it back in the pocket involved quite some acrobatics as well to not lose seal, even with over-the-ear headphones, and despite having one of the smallest mainstream phones with a headphone jack on the market nowadays (Pixel 4A, wish they'd introduce a cheap 4.x inch phone again like the iPhone SE 2016).

And now I can also leave the phone anywhere in the gym, the Bluetooth range of the Qudelix seems to extend quite far (on LDAC even). Amazing device.

 

[visor]

Hi,

I just received the device and while it works via bluetooth and via pc usb, I can't figure out how to make it work via usb c to usb c on my phone, only bluetooth. Is there a setting I'm overlooking?

 

[DBaldock9]

Hi,

I just received the device and while it works via bluetooth and via pc usb, I can't figure out how to make it work via usb c to usb c on my phone, only bluetooth. Is there a setting I'm overlooking?

Are you using a cable that's known to work for OTG USB DAC connections?

 

[visor]

Are you using a cable that's known to work for OTG USB DAC connections?

Actually decided to try the cable meant to be used with pc (c to usb) and plug that into otg and Neutron popped up asking for direct usb access. But it kept cutting out for whatever reason. I then also tried the standard c to c that came with it and it also worked then (Even said USB DAC or something like that in the app) but also kept cutting out. And I don't understand as the phones port isn't dirty or even dusty from what I can tell and it works fine on pc.

 

[TK33]

Actually decided to try the cable meant to be used with pc (c to usb) and plug that into otg and Neutron popped up asking for direct usb access. But it kept cutting out for whatever reason. I then also tried the standard c to c that came with it and it also worked then (Even said USB DAC or something like that in the app) but also kept cutting out. And I don't understand as the phones port isn't dirty or even dusty from what I can tell and it works fine on pc.

My old Galaxy S9 had that issue...the port was just loose and kept losing connection to my Dragonfly Cobalt (I don't really use my 5K as a USB DAC). My new phones (V60 and OnePlus 8T) have no such issues. Are you able to try another phone?

 

[Chupi383]

Or just use it on Bluetooth. All Android 8.0 and up devices support LDAC, and at 6xx or 9xx kbps the sound is pretty much indistinguishable from a wired connection.

Edit: You can see what codec is in use, and for some of them the bandwidth, in the Qudelix app. If you're stuck in aptX, head to Developer Options at the bottom of the phone's Settings app, scroll down a few screens and hopefully you'll find some options for what Bluetooth codec to use and the LDAC bandwidth. If you don't have Developer Options, head to About This Phone, software info, and tap on the kernel build version about a dozen times until things start popping up like tap 2 more times to become a developer and you are now a developer.

Sadly, on my S7 Edge every time I connect the 5K it defaults to aptX and I have to head to Settings to get to LDAC. Not sure why this is. My old Earstudio ES100 always defaulted to LDAC.

 

[rkw]

Sadly, on my S7 Edge every time I connect the 5K it defaults to aptX and I have to head to Settings to get to LDAC.

Which settings are you taking about? Make sure you are looking at the 5K's Bluetooth settings (not Developer options).

 

[TK33]

Or just use it on Bluetooth. All Android 8.0 and up devices support LDAC, and at 6xx or 9xx kbps the sound is pretty much indistinguishable from a wired connection.

Edit: You can see what codec is in use, and for some of them the bandwidth, in the Qudelix app. If you're stuck in aptX, head to Developer Options at the bottom of the phone's Settings app, scroll down a few screens and hopefully you'll find some options for what Bluetooth codec to use and the LDAC bandwidth. If you don't have Developer Options, head to About This Phone, software info, and tap on the kernel build version about a dozen times until things start popping up like tap 2 more times to become a developer and you are now a developer.

Sadly, on my S7 Edge every time I connect the 5K it defaults to aptX and I have to head to Settings to get to LDAC. Not sure why this is. My old Earstudio ES100 always defaulted to LDAC.

I had an issue with my V60 and 5K combo defaulting to aptX adaptive instead of LDAC. I posted the steps Qudelix support sent me in post #1,065. May be a long shot but perhaps it might work for you. I disabled aptX adaptive in my codec list on the 5K to prevent it from happening again.

Post in thread 'The Qudelix-5K thread' https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-qudelix-5k-thread.914628/post-15750138

 

[Chupi383]

My bad. I forgot about the "high quality audio" switch in connections -> bluetooth -> qudelix 5k. I forget whether it defaulted to on or off for the ES100 when I got it, but it certainly defaulted to off for the 5K. After turning it on, it defaults to LDAC.

I thought about disabling aptX from the 5K's app, but wanted to leave it enabled for when I use it wirelessly with Windows since at least my PC bluetooth adapters all only do aptX or SBC. It's a bummer, I'd really like to be able to use LDAC/aptX-HD or aptX-adaptive for lower latency on PC.