Qudelix 5K Review and Comparison to ES100, FiiO BTR-5

[generic]

@pk500

The treble of the Qudelix is just too piercing and hot for me without EQ. It’s just too fatiguing for my ears. With Oratory’s EQ for my HD 560s, it’s better, but it almost feels somewhat veiled and flat. The hip-dac definitely is warmer and a bit rolled off in the highs, but that’s perfect for me.

Qudelix 5K = ESS Sabre 9218 chip
iFi Hip DAC = Burr-Brown DSD1793

The ESS Sabre family are sometimes considered the brightest mainstream DACs, while Burr-Brown the warmest. AKM falls somewhere in the middle, as they aim to present details with limited smoothing.

@Dynamic

I honestly can’t tell with most music. In fact, if you touch the upper blue button while wired (play pause), it can switch to BT with a blip in the music. The physical controls only work in BT mode. (Also, I think BT initially defaults the dac to normal mode)

I can’t hear much difference between wired and wireless with compressed sources (e.g., Youtube), but can often hear Bluetooth’s limitations with uncompressed music.