Qudelix 5K Reference DAC AMP

Product Information

On the other hands, the high-impedance headphones require a higher power amplifier. Those headphones usually have low sensitivity, and they are free from the white noise affected by the amplifier noise characteristics. Instead, they need higher power from the amplifier output to deliver enough loudness and headroom. 10-Band PEQ/GEQ (64-bit double precision)

In terms of hardware, the Qudelix 5K can be considered boring. Like many other Bluetooth dongles, it uses a pair of ES9219 chips without any extra analog stages. For the price of the device, this solution is more than acceptable. It's really small and portable with a durable boxy plastic build and a metal clip. It really is the size of a 9-volt battery while being extremely light as well. A bit mind-blowing considering the performance and battery life. It's a lot smaller than the BTR5 (don't have one to compare in photographs, but it is nearly half the size). It just adds plenty of clarity and excellent detail retrieval for the category, the 5K is resolving and detailed but not analytical or too digital sounding.They could sound a little different from each other. But, it doesn't mean that which one is better.

The Qudelix mobile app displays the real-time active LDAC bitrate. Qudelix-5K is the only receiver that provides accurate bitrate information.Latency: So apparently the chipset Qudelix is using doesn't support aptX Low Latency, and the USB DAC isn't working currently with the Nintendo Switch, so Switch owners, this isn't for you. aptX Adaptive's latency is fine on videos, maybe not ideal for competitive games, so I'm a bit upset that this is replacing aptX Low Latency, but it's definitely better than most other Bluetooth codecs.

If you like to equalize your earphones and have full control of the DAC functionality then the Qudelix 5K is the one to have.What sets Qudelix apart is that the company is an official Sony LDAC technical partner. Reportedly Qudelix was responsible for developing the LDAC solution for the Qualcomm QCC5000 platform. The QCC5124 receiver, as seen in just about every higher-end Bluetooth DAC/amp, relies on the work done by Qudelix to operate using the LDAC codec. The sound always felt blunt, with minimal tuning. It doesn't have the "refined" sound one would expect from a decent DAC, even tough it was rather neutral. Qudelix released a pair of wired IEMs called the QX-over. By having two ES9219C audio chips on board the 5K, Qudelix used the four separate audio outputs to create a digitally filtered active IEM system. Judging by the published impressions, while technically interesting, the QX-over didn’t really deliver sound-wise. Technical Specifications