As others said before, the difference and value for such dac/amp lies in your use case.
I don’t have the btr3k, but I have a dying es100 and received my new q5k a week ago. I didn’t find the courage to A/B them yet, but here is what I can say:
the sound shouldn’t be much different. I think we can safely say it will be 5% diff max.
if you want to drive headphones, more powerful should be better, but then, I could get my hp loud enough with my es100 already (in balanced, I don’t recall having tried SE)
what is important, then, is convenience, friability and ease of use. Fiability/robustness is hard to tell, but I would trust fiio a little bit more on this: bigger company = more test capabilities. On convenience, the q5K buttons can be a bit odd to use and feel a bit fragile. I don’t know fiio app, but q5K app hat a shitload of options for things like battery managing, sources, peq,… And it is a joy, even though a little cluttered to my taste.
The Fiio just drained battery faster. It needed charged after every listening period. The Qudelix is just a better version of the idea. You get so much more. I know the Fiio looks nicer but my Qudelix is still looking good and working well after a year. They do update it alot with downloads. If you do not want portability and blue tooth then there are many options. I rarely use Bluetooth so something like the new Moondrop is interesting to me but the K5 is a quality product and the buttons are easy to use after a bit of time.
Even without bluetooth, i can’t get around the button limitation many usb dongle have: I need play/pause and fwd/back buttons, because I can’t stand having to reach my tablet/phone to do that. On that part, the es100 is the best, as it has separated buttons for each of these functions.
But I guess I’m one of a very small group, as so little dongles have these functionalities, these days.
Bluetooth is pretty much my #1 reason for getting the device so connection stability and ease of use is my top requirement. I like everything the 5K offers, my biggest concern are the buttons right now
The buttons are fine once your used to them . There is nothing wrong with it. It has many capabilities. You want to drive full size headphone the new Moondrop be good but that is entirely different beast.
I feel like it depends on what’s convenient for you. Over ears are so inconvenient for me, so I’ve fully adopted the IEM life style. It comes down to whether or not someone is sat at a desk whilst they’re listening to music, or they’re on the go like my self.
I pretty much exclusively use IEMs and speakers, although I do break out my Hifiman Arya’s from time to time; reason being that I travel a lot for work, so IEMs are convenient on the road and when I’m home my speakers are just there and don’t require any extra hassle.
IEMs exclusively for me except for a pair of WH1000XM2s I’ve had for awhile. Which only ever get taken out for flights. Even when I’m sitting listening to music I just don’t find over ears very comfortable. A majority of my listening is done on the go so they just fit my needs better. Also like the ease of portability and space savings.
This was my observation with Olina. I don’t think I have heard anything under $200 that has the same imaging and 3D qualities. I know they exist, I just haven’t been lucky enough to put them in my ears.
I tend to use Steely Dan for testing the imaging on headphones and IEMs. Peg and Hey Nineteen have great mastering with depth and positioning in the recording ( impressive for the 70s ). The instrument and vocal placements are amazing.
I’m gonna update my impressions very soon. since my balanced cable arrived Olina just got bumped a huge step… it’s like 3.5 output of BTR3K bottlenecked Olina. it sounds noticably better on 2.5mm output.
I have 2.5mm cable on the T3+ and was planning on using it on the Olina now that I am unpacked ( I moved last week ). I like the T3+, but it has slid to number 6 on my list these days, so I would get more out of the Tripowin Altea on the Olina.
As a rule I find balanced cables help the stage and imaging. I don’t know if the isolation or the extra headroom make a bigger difference for that.
I don’t know if it’s the fact that the output is balanced or just having 80mW vs 25 mW makes the difference. but to my ear: 3.5 output of BTR3K, Xumee dongle, Oneplus 7 Pro input dac and KZ AZ09 Pro they all sound the same more or less. but 2.5 output of BTR3K is a clear step above them all.
And I have to emphasis that I’m quiet new to this hobby and have an amateur ear. but I could clearly hear the improvement
Similar situation. Love my Sundara to death, but thinking seriously about going the IEM + DAP route. Been reaching for my Fiio FH3 more and more, making me wonder what even better IEMs are capable of, for a fraction of the cost and equipment needs of over ears.
I’ve sold my two Audio Technica closed and open cans to focus on IEMs. I still have a set of CAL! for watching TV and a pair of earbuds for that open feeling.
My qudelix 5K showed up a week early! It’s on the charger now so I haven’t listened yet however I did snap a pic of it side by side with the BTR3K and I approve of the size!
I can definitely hear a difference between the two. Not enough time going back and forth to say which sound better to me but there is a definitely a noticeable difference. Below are a few key things that stood out to me compare to he BTR3K.
The app and all the configurability is right up my alley. I love tinkering so this is great!
Multi point Bluetooth works well which is important to me.
The BTR3K usines aptx when connected to my phone but the Q5K days it’s using LDAC which is weird to me
Oddly enough, the Q5K doesn’t get very loud when connected to my phone compared to my MacBook. The BTR3K actually gets louder on my phone then the Q5K does.
That’s all for now. I’m going to use only the Q5K for the next 2-3 days then I will spend a day A/Bing between the two for my final review
It uses LDAC on mine … maybe you’ve deselected LDAC in FIIO app. or try to change it in developer options
4.this is weird and shouldn’t happed!!
*consider that both of them will see improvement after using balanced output. in my case I’d say it got 20-30% better sounding to me. on SE 3K, Olina sounded really good and balanced. but on 2.5 it sounds “special”. most of it comes from 3D factor.
though I use it to watch movies so you may not notice that much of improvement by just listening to music.
