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Radsone Earstudio ES100 Bluetooth DAC & Amp Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
My understanding is that all the changes are cosmetic or physical...
My ES100 Mk1 is over 3 years old, with respect to the changes in the Mk2...
I've never had any issue with the LED
I did improve the shirt clip by adding a sticky foam pad to the back of the ES100. The Mk2 looks like a better design.
A lot of the silver has worn off the sides of my ES100.
The buttons are also worn.
I like black
Nowdays, I would buy a Qudelix 5K, rather than the ES100.
ehabheikal
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What is the headphone amplifier sinad for comparison to other dongles posted here.
Mine just broke. Cold solder joint, or defective component. First failed to connect reliably by bluetooth, then loud pop before playback on left channel, then high pitched buzzing, like pulsed wave at 250-500Hz.
Subjectively there was less hiss over bluetooth compared to USB. Also sound quality was better (even with compression for transmission). Too bad the device wasn't tested like this as well. I guess it was years ago now, when the site was newer. Most peoples devices now probably have batteries going bad, so they're likely pitching them - it was cool while it lasted. It was nice to have such a tiny device.
I have a Topping G5 now, which is better in every regard except size (and phone call functionality of course)
Subjectively there was less hiss over bluetooth compared to USB. Also sound quality was better (even with compression for transmission). Too bad the device wasn't tested like this as well. I guess it was years ago now, when the site was newer. Most peoples devices now probably have batteries going bad, so they're likely pitching them - it was cool while it lasted. It was nice to have such a tiny device.
I have a Topping G5 now, which is better in every regard except size (and phone call functionality of course)
It's pretty easy to get open if you want to have a look inside: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/EarStudio+ES100+Battery+Replacement/151475
I haven't used my ES100 since October last year when I bought the Qudelix 5K (which I'm extremely happy with).
The G5 is quite large, I miss the portability of my es100 already. Its sound was better than the review here implied, as well. The usb to PC mode sounded inferior to the high quality bluetooth codec IMO (and unfortunately Amir reviewed the 16/48 usb)
What is it that made you switch to the Qudelix 5K, already having an ES100?
The ES100 was almost 3 years old, it was looking quite worn and tatty and the battery life wasn't great (I investigated replacements, but they are impossible to source in the UK). The Q5K also resolved some other niggles I had with the ES100 (headphone socket location, button layout, the poor clip, micro USB connection, etc.) and the Qudelix software seemed to be much improved (although the DNA from the Radsone software is quite apparent in the earlier versions of the Qudelix software). I loved my ES100, but the Q5K is definitely a step up from a design and usability perspective.
Sucks you couldn't source a battery. Did you have the battery life saver function enabled? Charge limited to 80% which gives ~4x cycles @ 80%, ~320% increase in total lifespan?
Does the Q5K have this feature? It's extremely convenient. Newer (this year and last) Samsung phones have finally put an 85% charge limit function called "Protect Battery" which I've enabled. Most for the least is charging to 64, so I use an app called accubattery to beep at 64.
The G5 is very basic in the way it handles charging - I'm going to have to pay special attention to charge time after I figure out how long a 100% charge takes (eg 5h to full, 3h to ~80%).
Also, does the Q5K have a built in EQ? I really liked the ES100s, and it's something my G5 is missing. I'm looking for a good android eq that'll eq everything, and do a good job of it. Hopefully something fully customizable (Q, gain, shelf functions) but I'd settle for just sounding good and applied to everything
staticV3
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One of the best EQs around. 20-band PEQ, individual L/R EQ, the entire AutoEQ repo built into the App, presets, ...
And EQ is active for both Bluetooth and USB.
Nathan Raymond
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A parametric EQ, and also a ton of "Auto EQ" presents for many, many headphones. More on how to use it here:
https://forum.headphones.com/t/casetens-qudelix-5k-quick-start-guide/17366
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The battery is discontinued as mentioned in the iFixIt article...
I could only source the suggested replacement directly from China and the lead times were 3 or 4 months.
I read somewhere thay there's room internally for the next size up (with most similar dimensions obviously)
This all looks very compelling, especially with it sounding good as well. I did just drop 400 on a DAC and $50 for a pouch to hold it while on my bike, so it might be a couple weeks before I feel like spending any more (esp. on audio equipment!)
Does it have a microphone like the ES100, so in situations where you need to hear your surroundings a bit, you can (eg. On bus with sealed IEMs, eyes closed, listening for stop)
It's not a deal breaker if not, it's just a nice to have that I had no idea would be nice to have until I got my ES100
You should consider enabling the 80% charge limit if most of the time you're above 20% remaining when you get home and charge.
"Charging 0 to 80% causes 0.21 cycles in wear"
"Charging 30 to 80% causes 0.17 cycles in wear"
* cycles meaning 0-100% equivalent *
- AccuBattery app -
To normalize the cycles you multiply 0.21 by 1 / 0.8, which gives you .2625, or approximately 1/4th wear, or 4 times battery lifespan.
Only useful if you're not always getting home with just 3-8%. Hopefully that's not the case for you.
I can personally attest to the fact that partial charges do significantly increase battery lifespan. The longest I've experimented with a device is with a Samsung A50. I used it for a few months as a secondary line, then gave it to my mom. The entire time from August 2019 until November 2022, it was charged to 76%. Under normal use, the phone uses 45-70%, usually 60 per day.
According to AccuBattery, going from 0 to 76 uses 0.16 cycles.
Going from 0 to 64 uses 0.07 cycles, and approximately every 9% under 64 is 0.01 cycles wear (so good! Why don't they just use the bottom 64% and devices last forever!?!?)
So for 3 years 3 months, or 365*3.25 = 1187 days, an average of 0.16-0.01 = 0.15 cycles of wear were added to the battery.
0.15 * 1187 = 178 cycles of wear
For 7 months, or 213 days, 0.07 - 0.01 = 0.06 cycles of wear were added
0.06 * 213 = 13 cycles of wear
177 + 13 = 191
about 20 times the phone accidentally went to 100
subtract 20 * 0.13 (weighted average of 3y 3m and 7m) = 2.6 = 3
191 - 3 = 188 + 20 = 208
Lithium ion battery lifespan is said to be between 300 and 500 full (0 to 100%) charges. We'll use 400.
At this point, the battery is usually at 78-80% original capacity. After this point, capacity falls very quickly - by +25 full charges, capacity may be down to 60%.
208/400 = 52 percent
100% health = 100% capacity
0% health = 78% capacity
How much capacity does her A50 still have?
89%
89% is exactly 50%, accubattery says we should be at 52% depleted, or 88.56.
Online there are endless threads about A50s, A51s, and soon (if not already) A52s which were only charged once per day and had their batteries go. A50s probably start almost two years ago now.
Anyway, long post, but it's worth checking off that 80% charge option if you can
The Q5K has a very good MEMS mic, but I find it picks up rather a lot of mechanical noise from the case.
I'm well aware of the benefits of a 'partial' charge on the lifespan of LiPo batteries, I ran AccuBattery Pro on my phone for years before security changes in Android made it less able to provide useful information. With respect to the Q5K, the stock battery life is not great, I need all of it and i'm happy to replace a battery a couple of years down the line if I need to - although maybe I should order one now whilst they are still available! Battery details in this post for reference, teardown video is here.
If clipped to your shirt and you're sitting in a vehicle, would you say it's not too much noise to hear an announcement? Or does slight movement cause a deafening scratching sound? lol
We think alike - I was going to suggest buying your spare now if you didn't!
Glad you know about battery longevity - more people need to. The cost savings alone can be huge, plus the environmental benefit
I think I know what you're talking about with AccuBattery [I also bought Pro] - every so often I see that Task Killer (which I've done my best to disable on my 22, save rooting the dang thing) is "interfering"
From what I can tell, functionality isn't affected much if at all, it's just a(n extremely periodic) warning (Android 13, S22, OneUI 5.1{if that matters...})
I just use it now for the audible alarm you can make it make during the charge cycle. I set it to 64%, and unplug it there or a few percent after. My phone needs a top up every day, so whether I go from 5-64 twice, or 5-100 + 80-100, two charges need to happen. One way causes 1.98 cycles of wear, the other, 0.14 (you see why I go the route I do). I also sometimes verify my phone is actually charging at high speed with it occasionally.
It might not be as accurate at breaking down how much battery drain each app is responsible for as it was in Android 10/11, but with as much experience we have with the app now, that's not a feature that's very interesting. It's still good enough to tell you if any background apps are being greedy while doing nothing.
If you don't need it, you don't need it - I'm just saying it might be worth trying again if you had an issue that caused you to stop using it
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