Qudelix 5K Reference DAC AMP

Product Information

In terms of bugs and problems, I can’t really report much. Firmware updates over Bluetooth take a few minutes and sometimes fail; however, the 5K always remembers the last good version and boots up nicely.

This is the lowest battery life portable DAC i have ever had. I do use it in single DAC mode, not Dual which eat more power.A few weeks ago I made the leap off of the True Wireless train by grabbing my first pair of wired IEM's (Fiio FH3's) and a Bluetooth DAC, the Qudelix 5K. However, since i use it exclusively in one location at home for headphone use, i can use it while plugged into a charger. It is apparent that Qudelix is busy improving the software, and I had more than five app and firmware updates in a few months. These are not just bug fixes – I bought the 5K due to its 10-band PEQ. Then one fine day, Qudelix doubled the number of PEQ bands via a firmware update. I will go as far as to say that pairing the Qudelix 5K with naturally warm-sounding headphones can be too much. With the Moondrop Aria, I approached that line. The Monarch Mk1 are a better match and let me appreciate the detail retrieval of both devices. Overall, the listening experience is very palatable with all headphones. The copious DSP options allow me to craft correction curves, which, in my opinion, make the greatest sonic improvement. I can effortlessly wrangle the Monarch’s treble peak and add the missing sparkle on the Arias.

We've tried many DACs and Amplifier ICs and found ESS9219C is the best option for our goal. Besides the sound quality, the primary advantage of ESS9219C is that the built-in amplifier delivers the maximum output voltage up to 2V RMS. Furthermore, it supports the 1V RMS option at the same sound quality to save power consumption.

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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.