The Qudelix-5K thread

[kalibri]

Any other thoughts or recommendations between the 5K or BTR15 or any others? Thanks all.

It depends on your needs my dude.

If you absolutely need EQ then you have the 5k, some distance and then the rest, nothing beats the 5k when it comes to EQ.

If you don't care about the EQ at all, any BT dac-amp will work as they all sound the same more or less. I have a fair number of these devices and can barely tell the difference.

If you want EQ but it's not top priority then the BTR15 or the BTR7 are good options. Exquisite build quality too.

Another options would be a Hiby DAP, they are small enough and can function as BT dac-amps as well. When used as a DAP, the Hiby MSEB does a great job of EQing without actually doing the work yourself. Look it up, it's a neat feature.

 

[maulopez]

I have previously experienced this many times. The culprit, for me, was the lightning connection was either dirty or the lightning cable was not getting a good, consistent connection. When I first had a similar issue, the solution was to simply clean the lightning connector. The second time I had a similar issue, my favorite USB-C to Lightning connector was the culprit. It just stopped getting a good connection. Most recently, I had the issue again. This time, after testing my back up USB-C to Lightning cable on other iPhones in my house, it was determined that my iPhone has a slightly loose lightning socket. So I ordered a couple new connectors hoping I could find another connector that fit more tightly. Great success! I found this one and this Cayin one both fit very well and fixed the issue(s). So I use the Cayin one daily and I keep the other for a backup. Much cheaper than replacing my iPhone.

Thanks you very much for your time and input @04gto! Makes sense. Will try to get one or both of those cables and see the results, because apparently the iPhone sockets are already clean. Much appreciated!

 

[maulopez]

Thanks you very much for your time and input @04gto! Makes sense. Will try to get one or both of those cables and see the results, because apparently the iPhone sockets are already clean. Much appreciated!

Hey @04gto, just to confirm. The lightning socket of my iPhone wasn't dirty, but the cable connector apparently had imperceptible dirt which must have gone away once I wipe it with a soft cloth and voila! everything seems to be working fine now. I think I'm gonna buy one of the cables you mentioned anyways in case my current one fails. Thanks so much once more for pointing me in the right direction and for your cable recommendations!

 

[monsieurfromag3]

No. I used the Cayin lighting to type-c cable with the 5K and an iPhone 13Pro for almost 2 years.

A MagSafe case, with a MagSafe sticker on the back of the 5K made it a very nice convenient setup as well.

Only issue is the 5K will run off of the phones battery instead of the battery that is inside the 5K. Not the best for the phones battery life or the overall battery health of the phone. This is the same as any batteryless dongle, so no worse than using most dongles though.

How come the 5K uses the phone’s battery? There may be something I’m not understanding in your setup. For me, with the same Cayin usb-c/lightning cable, disabling charging from within the app makes the 5K run from its own battery (maybe sucking a tiny trickle from the iPhone but not as much as a battery-less dongle).

 

[supernaut9]

Hi guys. I got the update and there's an option that I swear I never seen before, it's called "distortion compensation". Unfortunately there isn't any info about what this makes. Anyone knows anything about it?
Thanks in advance.

PD. I was able to find it on the Qudelix forum.
The Qudelix staff said:
"It's a built-in feature in ESS DAC. With some ESS DAC parameter optimization, we can enhance the linearity by a little margin"

So I let it turned on

What does that mean exactly? Lol

 

[Ferdinando1968]

What does that mean exactly? Lol

It means that you can set from the 5K app whether or not to charge its internal battery when connected via USB.

If you set it to 'charge', it will obviously consume energy from your smartphone's battery.
Conversely, it will consume energy from its internal battery.

 

[supernaut9]

It means that you can set from the 5K app whether or not to charge its internal battery when connected via USB.

If you set it to 'charge', it will obviously consume energy from your smartphone's battery.
Conversely, it will consume energy from its internal battery.

I was referring to this:
'PD. I was able to find it on the Qudelix forum.
The Qudelix staff said:
"It's a built-in feature in ESS DAC. With some ESS DAC parameter optimization, we can enhance the linearity by a little margin"'

 

[Ferdinando1968]

I was referring to this:
'PD. I was able to find it on the Qudelix forum.
The Qudelix staff said:
"It's a built-in feature in ESS DAC. With some ESS DAC parameter optimization, we can enhance the linearity by a little margin"'

Oh sorry, I misunderstood your post.

 

[DeJaVu]

How come the 5K uses the phone’s battery? There may be something I’m not understanding in your setup. For me, with the same Cayin usb-c/lightning cable, disabling charging from within the app makes the 5K run from its own battery (maybe sucking a tiny trickle from the iPhone but not as much as a battery-less dongle).

Disabling charging does just that, disables charging. The 5K in this setup still draws power from the device to power itself(doesnt use its battery at all), without pulling the additional 200mA that charging uses.

 

[jasonb]

How come the 5K uses the phone’s battery? There may be something I’m not understanding in your setup. For me, with the same Cayin usb-c/lightning cable, disabling charging from within the app makes the 5K run from its own battery (maybe sucking a tiny trickle from the iPhone but not as much as a battery-less dongle).

I don’t use the 5K wired anymore, but I used it wired with an iPhone 13Pro for quite a while, probably like 18 months straight, almost everyday. I had charging disabled so it wasn’t charging the battery, but the 5K was definitely still running off of the phones battery. I literally never charged my 5K once when I was using it this way. The battery would drop a couple percent a month at most, just like a battery would do just from sitting around.

Assuming what you’re saying is correct, it was actually consuming the battery of your 5K? Like every now and then you actually had to charge it? I’m saying that I literally never had to plug it in to power and charge it when I used it this way. So pretty much every day for at least a couple hours a day for several months and I didn’t have to charge the battery because it wasn’t being depleted.

Over the course of about 18 months I’m going to blame about 5% of my iPhones battery health to me using the 5K in this way. That’s not terrible though really, and will be similar to probably most dongles.

 

[jasonb]

Disabling charging does just that, disables charging. The 5K in this setup still draws power from the device to power itself(doesnt use its battery at all), without pulling the additional 200mA that charging uses.

This is correct. Anyone that claims they get a different result I suspect is somehow confused. I literally used mine this way for months almost everyday and never had to charge the 5K. The battery dropped a percent or 2 a month at most.

 

[monsieurfromag3]

I don’t use the 5K wired anymore, but I used it wired with an iPhone 13Pro for quite a while, probably like 18 months straight, almost everyday. I had charging disabled so it wasn’t charging the battery, but the 5K was definitely still running off of the phones battery. I literally never charged my 5K once when I was using it this way. The battery would drop a couple percent a month at most, just like a battery would do just from sitting around.

Assuming what you’re saying is correct, it was actually consuming the battery of your 5K? Like every now and then you actually had to charge it? I’m saying that I literally never had to plug it in to power and charge it when I used it this way. So pretty much every day for at least a couple hours a day for several months and I didn’t have to charge the battery because it wasn’t being depleted.

Over the course of about 18 months I’m going to blame about 5% of my iPhones battery health to me using the 5K in this way. That’s not terrible though really, and will be similar to probably most dongles.

I seldom use my 5K wired, and when I do it’s not for long so I hadn’t had time to observe how it worked. Indeed it stops charging but still uses the phone’s battery like a regular dongle, as you say. I went off what I thought was logical and useful, and would have set it apart from other dongles.

 

[darmanastartes]

Has anyone else had a bug where Spotify on Android where
1. Spotify thinks that the Qudelix 5K is a car
2. Spotify starts autoplaying when the app is open

I don't want Spotify to autoplay. I was hoping the new Android update that allows you to select Bluetooth device type would fix the problem but it doesn't. It's very frustrating.

 

[monsieurfromag3]

Has anyone else had a bug where Spotify on Android where
1. Spotify thinks that the Qudelix 5K is a car
2. Spotify starts autoplaying when the app is open

I don't want Spotify to autoplay. I was hoping the new Android update that allows you to select Bluetooth device type would fix the problem but it doesn't. It's very frustrating.

It’s everytime for me on iPhone too, just as it was on Android. Neither Apple Music nor, iirc, Tidal did the same (I don’t think those have a Car mode, and they don’t autoplay). I found a thread once where Spotify replied to someone annoyed by autoplay that it happened on the device side and they had no control over it.

Certainly very annoying behavior in the 5K, which will cut music playing from another app if you just open Spotify, and pick up there.

 

[meirellm]

This is correct. Anyone that claims they get a different result I suspect is somehow confused. I literally used mine this way for months almost everyday and never had to charge the 5K. The battery dropped a percent or 2 a month at most.

Same behavior on mine. Just stops charging but does not consume the battery charge.