Portable alternative to qudelix 5k

Submitted by MyUserNameIsTooLong1 t3_11e4z9t in headphones

My biggest problem with using the 5k is battery life, its not great, so much so that I must use it with a portable charger. Its not a defected unit, I just have to run the preamp 9db lower because of the eq profile on my lcd i4s, which means they play at effectively top volume, which isn't particularly loud (please dont make this a db war, I just want something with more flexibility).

Is the 5k still the only portable device other than using Fiios music app to support full 10 band PEQ? Ibasso still use 6 bands. A&K use fixed bands. I dont trust fiio, as when a product reaches end of life, they have a tendency to stop all support of it, which makes me fear the app will no longer work that allows PEQ fuction.

I cant use any android music player that has peq because I exclusively use tidal (also dont make this a streaming war, its just the app I like using the most), which uses an encoder that doesn't work with any of them without converting the files into mp4, which is completely impractical.

All i really want is a larger 5k, one with more power and a bigger battery. I could get a external amp to plug into the 5k, but thats a lot of clutter and non of them are ergonomic, and they drain battery about as fast.

Is there any device coming out, or has had an update to its firmware to support a 10 band PEQ other than the ones I mentioned?

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RatherNope t1_jachx3a wrote

Reminds me of the old idea of bigger, cheaper, faster and you can only pick two. Large battery, PEQ, high portability, pick two.

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jacj1n1 wrote

I guess my use case is ridiculously niche. For most iems, the 5k would drive them perfectly.

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Nooseybear t1_jacxybc wrote

My solution is to use the Ifi Go Blu (more power on balanced out, good battery life) and use the PEQ from Poweramp Equaliser (which is system wide for Android and should therefore work with Tidal).

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jadopz7 wrote

Don't work offline. I like to use the i4s in the park. :)

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Nooseybear t1_jadsnuo wrote

Why would it not work offline?

Edit: for clarification, Poweramp Equaliser is not a 3rd party player but an Android systemwide equaliser.

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jaer6rd wrote

Because tidal offline mode doesn't allow any third party applications to take control at all. It streams in direct mode which bypasses all mixing on on your device. The reason the 5k works is because its peq is an actual hardware chip. It an actual digital dsp attenuator, which is drastically superior. Also it looks to be a GEQ not PEQ . Are the bands completely customisable, with their own select filter set and q value? No where in there marketing does it look like its using a PEQ, rather a fixed 5 band GEQ. Is that correct?

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Nooseybear t1_jaf2d6w wrote

Poweramp Equaliser is a PEQ with fully customisable bands. It's also quite cheap so worth a try just in case it does end up working for you. I use it for Spotify both online and offline without any problems. Didn't know that Tidal offline was so unnecessarily restrictive...

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AtLastLight t1_jacul53 wrote

UAPP has a decent built-in PEQ and you can listen to Tidal through it, though it won't be through the actual Tidal app. But as far as I know the q5k is really the only dongle with features like that unfortunately.

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jacvmws wrote

Does UAPP require a WiFi connection?

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AtLastLight t1_jad08im wrote

Yeah I forgot to mention that. It won't play any songs you have downloaded off Tidal, it just directly streams them.

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smalg2 t1_jacxdg4 wrote

Not sure I follow what you're saying about Tidal. On my phone it seems to work just fine with Wavelet (cumbersome but free) and Poweramp EQ (fully parametric, not free but cheap). There's also UAPP with the optional PEQ (more expensive though, and a different UI than the Tidal app). It won't give you any volume headroom, but offloading the EQ processing to your phone might help a little with the 5k's battery life, or allow you to use a Bluetooth receiver without EQ but with a bigger battery.

Edit: on second thought, I have enabled the enhanced session detection feature for both Wavelet and Poweramp EQ (Poweramp calls it "Advanced player tracking"). That's why I can EQ Tidal. It's a bit of an involved process, but well worth it to be able to EQ pretty much any application (even Reddit!)

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jadpqcj wrote

Sorry im really stupid. I should of stated that i use it offline 90% of the time since i listen mostly to music in my local park. Tidal cannot allow you to use 3rd party players when you are offline. Also, how do you get it on wavelet? It explicitly says it cannot connect to it, unless you use "legacy mode". People say that in the 3 dotted menu, but I cant find it anywhere.

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jadrrou wrote

I appreciate showing me the alternatives. Looks like for offline play, there is effectivly nothing else (everything is software based). I'll most likely just get a topping nx7 to act a the amp, and run 1.4v from the 5k SE (the minimum voltage the nx7 needs to run properly). Its battery is 8 times the size of the qudelix, so if that doesn't work, then nothing will. Thanks again.

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f3llyn t1_jaduu4r wrote

You could also get a full blown dap, but that's not really a lightweight solution.

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AbbottsOnion t1_jaeu23l wrote

I think you will have to wait until FIIO adds PEQ to one of their larger DAPs for a proper solution.

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 OP t1_jaexjsz wrote

I mean its on the m17. Doesn't get larger than that, but that thing is awfully expensive and I wouldn't be using a single feature on it except the PEQ (which isn't even on the device, unlike the 5k) and tidal. Seems like a waste, and I dont trust that fiio is going to have indefinite amount of time supporting it before it simply stops working. The devices themselves don't have the dsp chip to do PEQ, its pure software. The 5k and RME products are some of the very few that are actually hardware encoded DSP chips. A shame its so rare.

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