Hi all! Glad I found this forum, seems active and friendly 
So, I’m looking to get the fiio Q5/s and will add the am5 for some extra powah. Now… I’m looking for input from those of you who might have heard them both.
Is it worth the extra money to get the Q5s, if so, why?
Can you tell the difference between them? And what’s the biggest sound difference, in you opinion?
Thanks!
So essentially the main differences between the q5 and q5s are some small ergonomic and feature tweaks, and also a better dac in the q5s. So hearing the two, plugged in via otg they sounded pretty similar with the slight edge going to the q5s most likely because of the slightly better dac implementation imo. But if I was using them wired I don’t think I would worry about that tbh. But on bluetooth I think the q5s sounded fairly noticeably better because I think it could support higher quality codecs. So essentially if you were using it with otg or a pc I would say they sound close enough where the regular q5 would be a better deal. If you are using them in bluetooth though the q5s pulls ahead and is worth the extra cash imo
And it’s also that thing about wanting the latest and greatest, at least for me, haha!
I have an iPhone, so I’ll be running it wired most of the time.
Noticed that there’s different usb chip as well, but I guess it won’t matter (won’t be using the highest bitrate anyhow.
Thanks for the input!
Here’s a thread I started discussing briefly my experience with the Q5 and Q5s.
What exactly was the issues you had with the reg q5? I guess I never saw where you mentioned the issues. I personally don’t know someone who has had issues with the q5 or q5s besides some bluetooth thing
It’s pretty good, but a bit pricey for what it is tbh
USB connection issues. Could not connect them to anything and could not update their firmware. I also had issues getting them to turn on. I’d have to reset the entire unit to get the power to come on. The second unit I had actually died and I couldn’t get it to turn on at all before I returned it.
The Q5s has been perfect.
Interesting, I wonder if you got pretty unlucky with that one, good that you have no issues with the q5s
I actually purchased two Q5 units at different times. I purchased the second one hoping the first was just a bad unit, but the second was actually worse than the first.
I was very hesitant to purchase the Q5s because of the past Q5 failures but luckily I couldn’t be happier with the Q5s.
How about the Chord mojo?
I will only use wired since I have an iPhone (AAC)…
FroM what I’ve been reading it has far superior sound, any opinions?
The Q5s gives more features “just in case”. But still no WiFi (which the mojo doesn’t have either unless I get ploy) which would be dream feature, don’t know of any portable amp/dac that have this except some daps.
For wifi you would pretty much have to get a dap
Regarding the mojo, it’s got good sound that I somewhat prefer to the q5s but it’s not leaps and bounds better imo. They are going on sale though
At about 400 usd right now in Sweden, about 15$ more than the q5s
I think if you didn’t need balanced or those features the mojo might be my pick
Nope, not now. Might need in the future but by then there’s probably something else to get…
How would the mojos dac compare to Modi or other 100usd DACs like the khadas?
Some reviewers says the mojo crush most stationary DACs up to several hundred dollars.
Others think the opposite.
I think the mojo is pretty dang nice dac and amp wise, I think it’s a step up from something like a topping d10 or schiit modi 3 (this one for sure) or KTB, but I think the dacs in the 300 range like the d50s or su8 beat it out imo. Very respectable performance for a portable
anyone noticed channel imbalance with some tracks using q5s ??