[parawizard]

I wonder what is the reason for such option unless it's for when two wired headsets are connected at the same time... I have mine set to auto, I switch between balanced and regular headphones all the time. Is there any benefit for manually setting it on 3.5 or 2.5 instead?

Could be when using 2.5mm balanced with a 3.5mm ground for instance. Also manually being able to switch my help in any automation failure, bug or hardware failure.

 

[ddlo]

Just got a Qudelix-5K to drive my iems on 2.5mm terminated cables. this baby is superb! i max the vol from the phone and using only normal gain at 50% vol to drive my fitear titan and got adequate vol level. bluetooth connectivity seems quite strong and stable on LDAC 990kb/s. the app is really powerful and well written (some competitors don't have one and none as as powerful as qudelix!).

at this price, it's difficult not to recommend this gem. if qudelix could release an update with 4.4mm, i'll go for it too

 

[xSDMx]

Just got a Qudelix-5K to drive my iems on 2.5mm terminated cables. this baby is superb! i max the vol from the phone and using only normal gain at 50% vol to drive my fitear titan and got adequate vol level. bluetooth connectivity seems quite strong and stable on LDAC 990kb/s. the app is really powerful and well written (some competitors don't have one and none as as powerful as qudelix!).

at this price, it's difficult not to recommend this gem. if qudelix could release an update with 4.4mm, i'll go for it too

4.4mm with a sw configurable physical knob pls

 

[David A Silva]

Breaking in a new amp with these albums in rotation

 

[Tom Brown]

4.4mm with a sw configurable physical knob pls

That sounds a lot like the FiiO Q3 and a couple of other existing portable DAC/amp units. The wheel has already been invented.

Personally, I find the Qudelix 5K to be a brilliant mix of features and compromises. I didn't love getting new cables but the 2.5mm connector is more appropriate on an ultra-portable device. The plastic case gives the 5K fantastic bluetooth range, although I understand FiiO has some sort of bluetooth solution for their metal case products. If I could increase the battery size, I would, but it isn't necessary. The device is really, really good, just how it is.

The only thing that would be nice to improve is the firmware stability. I've had to reset my device twice in the couple of months I've had it. It's no big deal but more stability is better than less.

 

[xSDMx]

That sounds a lot like the FiiO Q3 and a couple of other existing portable DAC/amp units. The wheel has already been invented.

Personally, I find the Qudelix 5K to be a brilliant mix of features and compromises. I didn't love getting new cables but the 2.5mm connector is more appropriate on an ultra-portable device. The plastic case gives the 5K fantastic bluetooth range, although I understand FiiO has some sort of bluetooth solution for their metal case products. If I could increase the battery size, I would, but it isn't necessary. The device is really, really good, just how it is.

The only thing that would be nice to improve is the firmware stability. I've had to reset my device twice in the couple of months I've had it. It's no big deal but more stability is better than less.

Except FiiO doesn't have the EQ, chrome extension, and overall software quality that Qudelix has.

 

[Tom Brown]

Except FiiO doesn't have the EQ, chrome extension, and overall software quality that Qudelix has.

For sure. Qudelix management software is a game changer.

On the EQ side, there are options for android. I prefer the Qudelix approach but AIMP has built in EQ and there are also other options.

I have no idea about iOS. I stay away from Apple products because I don't want to develop a gluten allergy.

 

[parawizard]

Qudelix software is really good. Fiio always let's me down with bugs and broken features that they do not fix but instead release yet another product.

 

[Jay Ros]

Is there any reason why the Qudelix 5K is limited to 24 bits?

In the Windows Speakers Properties only allows me to select 24 bit format. And when playing music, either from my Windows laptop in Exclusive Mode or from my iPhone through a lighting to usb cable, the app always shows 24 bit in the State / Bit Per Sample section, it doesn't matter if I'm listening to an 16/44 album or an 24/96, it always shows 24 bit.

The Sample Rate changes as it should, if I'm listening 44.1 it shows 44.1, if I'm listening 96 it shows 96, etc, etc.

It's probably the first and only DAC I've seen that forces everything to 24 bit. Even the realtek DAC inside my laptop changes from 16bit to 24 bit to 16 bit when playing music in Exclusive Mode.

Maybe not a big issue, but I'm just curious.

BTW, all the above I'm mentioning is via USB cable, I'm not using bluetooth for these examples.

 

[XTF1]

Is there any reason why the Qudelix 5K is limited to 24 bits?

In the Windows Speakers Properties only allows me to select 24 bit format. And when playing music, either from my Windows laptop in Exclusive Mode or from my iPhone through a lighting to usb cable, the app always shows 24 bit in the State / Bit Per Sample section, it doesn't matter if I'm listening to an 16/44 album or an 24/96, it always shows 24 bit.

The Sample Rate changes as it should, if I'm listening 44.1 it shows 44.1, if I'm listening 96 it shows 96, etc, etc.

It's probably the first and only DAC I've seen that forces everything to 24 bit. Even the realtek DAC inside my laptop changes from 16bit to 24 bit to 16 bit when playing music in Exclusive Mode.

Maybe not a big issue, but I'm just curious.

BTW, all the above I'm mentioning is via USB cable, I'm not using bluetooth for these examples.

The Q5K only supports UAC-1, so up to 24/96. It’s mentioned in the spec. I believe the limitation is from the QCC5124 USB interface.

 

[Jay Ros]

The Q5K only supports UAC-1, so up to 24/96. It’s mentioned in the spec. I believe the limitation is from the QCC5124 USB interface.

You said it yourself, up to 24/96, which means 16/44 and 16/48 should be available. Both the DAC, ES9219, and the QCC5124 are capable of up to 24/192. I understand, and I don't have and issue with Qudelix limiting the 5K to 24/96, probably for battery and heat issues, it's ok, it's enough for me.

My doubt, the reason I'm curious, is why they are limiting the 5K to 24 bits, and they don't allow 16bit/44.1 and 16bit/48, as you can see in my screenshots and inside the qudelix app. I'm not engineer nor programmer but, isn't 24 bits more expensive for the battery and more buffer demanding?.

If most music on streaming platforms is at 16/44 and 16/48, with only a few albums being uploaded at 24/48; Is there any reason for Qudelix to limit the DAC to 24 bits, when the DAC is perfectly capable of 16 bits?

There's even a "16-BIT Mode for Nintendo Switch" inside the app, but that one blocks completely the 24 bits, and now you can only choose between 16/44, 16/48 and 16/96. I'm curious about why they did that? Any othe dac gives you the option to go from 16/44 to 24/96.

 

[parawizard]

You said it yourself, up to 24/96, which means 16/44 and 16/48 should be available. Both the DAC, ES9219, and the QCC5124 are capable of up to 24/192. I understand, and I don't have and issue with Qudelix limiting the 5K to 24/96, probably for battery and heat issues, it's ok, it's enough for me.

My doubt, the reason I'm curious, is why they are limiting the 5K to 24 bits, and they don't allow 16bit/44.1 and 16bit/48, as you can see in my screenshots and inside the qudelix app. I'm not engineer nor programmer but, isn't 24 bits more expensive for the battery and more buffer demanding?.

If most music on streaming platforms is at 16/44 and 16/48, with only a few albums being uploaded at 24/48; Is there any reason for Qudelix to limit the DAC to 24 bits, when the DAC is perfectly capable of 16 bits?

There's even a "16-BIT Mode for Nintendo Switch" inside the app, but that one blocks completely the 24 bits, and now you can only choose between 16/44, 16/48 and 16/96. I'm curious about why they did that? Any othe dac gives you the option to go from 16/44 to 24/96.

I think it just defaults to higher bitrate but as you know you can set it to 16-bit instead if you want. It could be limitations to DSP/chipset/software/etc in the device that means that it can't show all the modes at once to Windows and can't switch at the driver level.

 

[XTF1]

You said it yourself, up to 24/96, which means 16/44 and 16/48 should be available. Both the DAC, ES9219, and the QCC5124 are capable of up to 24/192. I understand, and I don't have and issue with Qudelix limiting the 5K to 24/96, probably for battery and heat issues, it's ok, it's enough for me.

My doubt, the reason I'm curious, is why they are limiting the 5K to 24 bits, and they don't allow 16bit/44.1 and 16bit/48, as you can see in my screenshots and inside the qudelix app. I'm not engineer nor programmer but, isn't 24 bits more expensive for the battery and more buffer demanding?.

If most music on streaming platforms is at 16/44 and 16/48, with only a few albums being uploaded at 24/48; Is there any reason for Qudelix to limit the DAC to 24 bits, when the DAC is perfectly capable of 16 bits?

There's even a "16-BIT Mode for Nintendo Switch" inside the app, but that one blocks completely the 24 bits, and now you can only choose between 16/44, 16/48 and 16/96. I'm curious about why they did that? Any othe dac gives you the option to go from 16/44 to 24/96.

ES9219 and QCC5124 are capable of 24/192, but UAC-1 is capped at 24/96 and the USB bridge part of the QCC5124 only supports UAC-1. So it's not that Qudelix is limiting anything, it is constrained by the architecture they choose for the 5K. As an example, Fiio also uses the QCC5124 on the K9, but the USB input is handled by an XMOS 208 which supports UAC-2, and therefore does not have this 24/96 limitation (it also measures much better than the 5K on USB). But... besides the additional chip, the K9 only offers EQ on the Bluetooth stream (using the QCC5124 DSP), and there is no EQ on USB input--another architecture choice with its pros and cons.

As far as bit depth, the 5K only advertise 24-bits in the USB descriptor. I don't know whether UAC-1 allows multiple bit depths in the USB descriptor or not. I am not sure if it matters much: first the 5K may accept 16-bits content anyway, even if it does not advertise it, and if not, the host just needs to pad the 16 bits stream with "zero" up to 24 bits, a trivial operation with minimal CPU impact (especially if the host is a Windows PC!). Same thing on the 5K decoding side: I don't think 16 vs. 24 bits saves much resource if any, and I don't think it impacts battery life in any measurable way... Did you test it?

The 16-bit mode option is for compatibility purpose. I suppose the Nintendo Switch would only "talk" to UAC-1 16-bit devices...

As far as other DACs, the vast majority are UAC-2 compliant, so up to 32/768 (higher?) is possible, unless it is limited by the USB bridge or the DAC chip. Some DACs do have a UAC-1/UAC-2 switch for compatibility purpose.

 

[Tom Brown]

Keep in mind, 16 bit can be converted to 24 bit with no loss in quality.

Sample rate cannot change without quality loss with the exception of multiples. For some reason, developers could care less about resampling alias distortion. It's a shame.

 

[PopZeus]

If I could make one suggestion for a potential 5K revision, make the buttons shaped differently so that they're recognizable by touch.