Do "Audiophile" players make sense?

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That's due to the NOS coloration the HM-602 has :). RE-262 works better out of flat sources like Clip+ and S:Flo2. Yep! Other than pre-order promotional push (at that time RE-262 was supposed to sell at $250, remember?), the combo made no sense sound wise.

QA350 is to my ears, a flat source. I did do a RMAA test on it, but I don't think it's valid. The line-in of Essence STX is so low in level that I had to crank the volume up in QA350 to the point of clipping in order to get any result. Clip+ with no load and full volume (Rockbox Vol: 0db) produced only -15dB Input, far from the -1dB level which RMAA requires. May be it's time to upgrade to this? :P
 
After spending sometime with QA350, I must say I am impressed. Don't worry - all the usability issues do remain, so this is still not for the normal user (read: almost everybody). This is either for those who remember that 'carrying' music meant those cassette walkmans or the bulky CD walkmans and for those who can sacrifice a lot to get used to the whims of using such a player.

What about the things it does well? The SQ for one. Mike @ Headfonia has mentioned in his review that the DAC section of QA350 (v1) is similar to Audinst MX-1 sans some extension at both sides, which is not such a bad comparison. I am not sure, but I think QA350 v2 might have at least fixed the low end up. It's pretty clean sounding, clear, flat. The sound stage is slightly larger than my DAPs, but seems just more open than something huge. I wish there was more depth and some more height though. Imaging and separation are good enough, better than many DAPs. It drives headphones and demanding IEMs well. The best part is the body and weight it brings to the music. Some of the 'thin sounding', but transparent IEMs do better with QA350 than with other sources.

The things it does better than other "audiophile" players -

  • No hiss with any of the IEMs or headphones I've tried.
  • Battery does not seem to take 6 hours to charge. With partial discharge, it took an hour and a half max. Not sure about the full discharge and charge, but it was not 6 hours.
  • Not colored. No added warmth and thickness to the sound. Not bass-heavy and I don't think it has rolled-off treble at least as far as I can say with my HF hearing.
  • No UI issues since there is no freakin' UI other than the shortened 8.0 name of the file :ohyeah:
  • It is not gap-less, but there is no silence inserted between tracks, just a very slight delay of a second, which I don't feel with all the albums.
  • The stated Output impedance is only 0.2 ohms, which I don't know how to verify. If it is anywhere less than 1 ohm, it is pretty good and can go with most IEMs including BA IEMs. Higher Output Z can screw up the signature sometimes.

Let's see if it will make it into ABI's "audiophile" player requirements

  1. Low battery - check
  2. No gapless - check
  3. No Replaygain - check
  4. Abysmal usability - check
  5. Abysmal browsing - check
  6. Ridiculous background hiss - cross
  7. Rolled off treble - cross
  8. Crosstalk of -20dB - Unknown
  9. Weighing as much as a sack of bricks - check
  10. Measuring as big as a fridge - check
  11. Poor Format support - check
  12. 6 Hours to charge - cross
  13. High Output Z - cross
  14. Outrageous pricing - cross

With a score of 8.5/14, it scores a bit better than others :P
 
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