LaLaLard
Member
I agree about the voltage output; however, I am not sure what the technical implications would be for FiiO to try and boost the output. Might doing that somehow require a trade-off somewhere else in the design? I have to think that FiiO knew the output voltage as a DAC would be lower than optimal so they must have done so for a reason rather than ignorance or indifference. While it isn't ideal, I don't believe that it effects the sound quality, it just requires the amplifier to work a little harder, but perhaps that is not always true.
I think the Q5s will be worth it for me and mine has already shipped so hopefully in a week I will know.
It's probably just my personal preference but one of my intention of buying Q5, apart from listening to music on the go, is to test different equipment with ease. At the moment I just go anywhere with my Q5 and when I need to test people's equipment I plug my Q5 into my iPhone. and use Q5's DAC output to connect to their preamps RCA input, then play some DSD/Hi-Res files I'm extremely familiar with. To me this is an easy and convenient way to do testing.
Since it sometimes incurs some AB testing between Q5 and other DACs too it would be much easier to do the comparison if Q5 is outputing the same 2V as most other DACs.
I think it might have got more to do with the power consumption. But I would hope Fiio could eventually solve the issue and make it work such that the higher output from DAC only impacts battery consumption when it's connected.