Picked up the QT5 from
@kimD yesterday. I have about 4 hours of ear time with them so far.
I am not a fan of the cable's aesthetics. The braiding quality is pretty poor and uneven. It looks like a messy rope to be frank. The memory wire section refuses to stay in place above my ears, which is made worse by the fact that there is no chin gilder. Well, considering they are cramming 4BAs and 1DD in this price range, something had to give and seems like it was the cable.
As for sound, very early impression is it sounds decent but also rather different from what I have now. It is definitely not as linear and open sounding as the FLC8s, but is much thicker and fuller. There is quite a bit of bloom and echo in the upper bass and lower mids area which I think is the cause of the thickness. Overall sound is a bit colored and not as natural as the FLC8s or Z5, but this has more to do with my brain getting used to the signature than anything else right now.
Apart from that, treble is indeed impressive. Detailed and resolving but smooth as butter. Soundstage and imaging is also on a very high level. Also, detail retrieval and separation across the spectrum is quite good considering how thick the sound is. My only problem is how massive the upper bass and lower mids sound. A touch less quantity in this area and it would be damn near perfection. I will give more ear time and see (hear) how it goes.