[Lurk650]

Part of why I want it is for the PEQ and better battery life. I don't think the headphones I'm going to use it with need any additional power over the ES100.

I'm talking Sound Quality, not power wise lol. Both are AK DACs so makes sense that nobody has posted anything about sound differences

 

[Lurk650]

tuned in for impressions as I want the shiny new 5K but from reading its not worth the upgrade SQ wise if you have a working ES100

I've read that. Only a hair better so not worth it with a working ES100, in my case. I'm gathering more impressions from people. My ES100 is still working solid after 2 years.

Missed PG 94 withe positive clarity impressions, that's good to hear....I don't use EQ ever so that doesn't apply to me. Funny as it is, I rarely actually use the buttons on my ES100, I rather just control everything from my phone.

 

[fonkepala]

I'm talking Sound Quality, not power wise lol. Both are AK DACs so makes sense that nobody has posted anything about sound differences

The 5K has an ESS chip.

I've read that. Only a hair better so not worth it with a working ES100, in my case. I'm gathering more impressions from people. My ES100 is still working solid after 2 years.

You do realize you're quoting yourself here? I'm assuming you meant to quote my earlier post. Anyway, yes, the SQ is purportedly only a hair better than the ES100. I have no way of knowing for sure as I don't have the ES100 to compare. It's good to know that your ES100 is still working fine after 2 years of use. There are lots of impressions from other people here in this thread, most if not all, are positive and they should be able to help you along nicely towards making a decision whether to buy the 5K or not. Purchase it or don't purchase it, it's ultimately your call. Neither I nor anyone else here is trying to give you the hard sell. Still, I do think the 5K is the spiritual successor to the ES100 and is in my opinion, the BT dac/amp to get in 2020. Just my 2 coppers' worth.

 

[jasonb]

The 5K has an ESS chip.

I tend to like the ESS type of sound.

My 5K is supposed to come tomorrow night. UPS says tomorrow by 9pm, and they usually get to my house very late in the evening.

 

[jasonb]

Has anyone used the 5K with a Focal Elear or Elex either balanced or not? I don't think I'd use it over Bluetooth, but maybe as a USB DAC/amp. It will have more power when used balanced vs my Meizu Pro USB-C dongle for sure and I'd imagine would sound better overall. I wasn't impressed with the ES100 and Elear combination, but maybe the 5K will do better with it.

 

[Lurk650]

The 5K has an ESS chip.



You do realize you're quoting yourself here? I'm assuming you meant to quote my earlier post. Anyway, yes, the SQ is purportedly only a hair better than the ES100. I have no way of knowing for sure as I don't have the ES100 to compare. It's good to know that your ES100 is still working fine after 2 years of use. There are lots of impressions from other people here in this thread, most if not all, are positive and they should be able to help you along nicely towards making a decision whether to buy the 5K or not. Purchase it or don't purchase it, it's ultimately your call. Neither I nor anyone else here is trying to give you the hard sell. Still, I do think the 5K is the spiritual successor to the ES100 and is in my opinion, the BT dac/amp to get in 2020. Just my 2 coppers' worth.

yep, browser was giving me issues, don't know how it quoted myself

Yeah I thought it was an ESS DAC and the BTR3K is AK, read too fast again when re-looking it up. Definitely up to me, just trying to stay in tune with group opinions

 

[monsieurfromag3]

That makes sense! So aptx Adaptive is considered (at least by the V60) as higher quality than LDAC? If you have had the chance to listen to the two codecs, what is your opinion of the differences?

I don’t think it’s the preferred codec on account of improved SQ, it’s just better optimized. You get technicalities comparable to LDAC (unless one really needs all of that good music they hear between 24 and 48 kHz ahem ahem) but with a data transfer rate comparable to plain aptX. And it will prioritize stability, which is a wise choice since audio cutting because a bit rate target could not be met is way worse than a short, mostly imperceptible dip.

The good people at Qudelix mentioned while they were with Radsone how the different codecs do not sound differently per se, but since there’s a lot of processing involved good engineers will implement each codec in a specific way. In my experience, since engineers know very well what kind of people are turned on by LDAC (and I myself do like that it’s there!), they tune that for clarity and audiophile detail, with a focus on upper mids and treble.
The various aptX flavors are bassier, more mainstream in a sense. In fact aptX Adaptive, like aptX HD, sounds like high-end mainstream - bassy, punchy, fun, but with more texture and detail than unrefined crap designed to appeal to people who only know Beats-like boom bass.

I personally like aptX Adaptive a bit better, it matches IMR iems very well, where LDAC is great for balanced armature analytical gear.
I turn the volume up a notch on aptX Adaptive vs LDAC, not sure if it’s a gain thing or the warmer tuning.

 

[LostInDaSauce]

Hello, anyone have issue of bluetooth play button not on qudelix not working? I can pause music playing in the background but cannot play/resume again. I feel like it's a software bug. I'm on Android 10 samsung Note 10 +.


Seems like when music is paused, all functions volume and play button is disabled to prevent accidental volume change.

App says volume is disabled when music is not playing to prevent accidental change. But play pause button is also disabled, so I can't press play on 5k, I have to go back to phone to play music to re enable controls on 5k....

 

[jkpenrose]

yep, browser was giving me issues, don't know how it quoted myself

Yeah I thought it was an ESS DAC and the BTR3K is AK, read too fast again when re-looking it up. Definitely up to me, just trying to stay in tune with group opinions

I think the early design specs indicated an AK, but they went with: Dual ES9218P SABRE HiFi® DAC for the actual implementation.

My 5K arrived this week and I anticipate doing some comparisons with the es100 in the next week or so... With me Meze 99 and soon to arrive ZMF VO

 

[jasonb]

I got mine and velcrod it to my K371 and plugged in the AutoEQ numbers into the PEQ. It sounds good so far. With my Pixel 4a it scales LDAC up to 990 without me forcing it in the developer settings. It starts at 492, then after a couple seconds goes to 660, then in another few seconds goes up to 990 and seems to stay there so far.



I kind of want to do something about this green cable with the gold end, but it works and I never leave my house with this anyway, so who really cares. Function over form, and this functions very well. I could easily cut up one of the cables supplied with my K371 and solder and heatsink it to look nicer and be the exact length I want it though. I'd just need to get a soldering iron.

 

[Lokiiami]

I got mine and velcrod it to my K371 and plugged in the AutoEQ numbers into the PEQ. It sounds good so far. With my Pixel 4a it scales LDAC up to 990 without me forcing it in the developer settings. It starts at 492, then after a couple seconds goes to 660, then in another few seconds goes up to 990 and seems to stay there so far.



I kind of want to do something about this green cable with the gold end, but it works and I never leave my house with this anyway, so who really cares. Function over form, and this functions very well. I could easily cut up one of the cables supplied with my K371 and solder and heatsink it to look nicer and be the exact length I want it though. I'd just need to get a soldering iron.

This is so brilliant. Can I also ask how do you set AutoEQ is PEQ?

 

[jasonb]

This is so brilliant. Can I also ask how do you set AutoEQ is PEQ?

This is the AutoEQ for the K371 to make it even closer to the Harman target and to reduce little dips and peaks. I do a few tweaks, like not doing the sub-bass cut because I enjoy the extra sub-bass that the K371 has.


Here is the link to info and EQ profiles for tons of other headphones. https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

 

[TK33]

I don’t think it’s the preferred codec on account of improved SQ, it’s just better optimized. You get technicalities comparable to LDAC (unless one really needs all of that good music they hear between 24 and 48 kHz ahem ahem) but with a data transfer rate comparable to plain aptX. And it will prioritize stability, which is a wise choice since audio cutting because a bit rate target could not be met is way worse than a short, mostly imperceptible dip.

The good people at Qudelix mentioned while they were with Radsone how the different codecs do not sound differently per se, but since there’s a lot of processing involved good engineers will implement each codec in a specific way. In my experience, since engineers know very well what kind of people are turned on by LDAC (and I myself do like that it’s there!), they tune that for clarity and audiophile detail, with a focus on upper mids and treble.
The various aptX flavors are bassier, more mainstream in a sense. In fact aptX Adaptive, like aptX HD, sounds like high-end mainstream - bassy, punchy, fun, but with more texture and detail than unrefined crap designed to appeal to people who only know Beats-like boom bass.

I personally like aptX Adaptive a bit better, it matches IMR iems very well, where LDAC is great for balanced armature analytical gear.
I turn the volume up a notch on aptX Adaptive vs LDAC, not sure if it’s a gain thing or the warmer tuning.

I agree with the description, although I am the opposite and prefer the LDAC sound over aptX. I only realized my phone was using aptX Adaptive instead of LDAC because I thought it sounded like a normal aptX (not HD) connection and something just seemed off so I started investigating. I didnt even realize the V60 had aptX Adaptive until I started having this issue and was pleasantly surprised to discover the new codec. As noted previously, I found that I prefer LDAC and disabled aptX Adaptive on the 5K. I do listen mostly to Qobuz with hires (24/96) tracks so the 990k bitrate is nice to have and gets pretty close to wired. I dont even use the headphone jack on the V60 anymore and just use my 5K over LDAC when I listen to music at night. I dont really feel like I am missing anything and my phone's battery is nice and full when I wake up the next morning.

 

[jasonb]

LDAC so far seems to sound better on the 5K, meanwhile I was preferring aptxHD on the ES100.

 

[fonkepala]

I got mine and velcrod it to my K371 and plugged in the AutoEQ numbers into the PEQ. It sounds good so far. With my Pixel 4a it scales LDAC up to 990 without me forcing it in the developer settings. It starts at 492, then after a couple seconds goes to 660, then in another few seconds goes up to 990 and seems to stay there so far.



I kind of want to do something about this green cable with the gold end, but it works and I never leave my house with this anyway, so who really cares. Function over form, and this functions very well. I could easily cut up one of the cables supplied with my K371 and solder and heatsink it to look nicer and be the exact length I want it though. I'd just need to get a soldering iron.

That looks brill! A bit OOT, but are you happy with your K371 so far? Any glaring shortcoming?