Excelsior Upgrade to Experience Feiao Q5s Decoding Earrings

It has been more than a year since Feiao's flagship decoding earpiece Q5 went on the market. Even from the current perspective, it is still a decoding earpiece with strong performance and comprehensive functions. However, Feiao did not stop, but completed the release of its upgraded Q5s at its own pace. With the same listing price as Q5, we are all curious about what changes Q5s will bring?

Feiao Q5s product specifications

Output power: 220mW(PO/16 Ω)

>560mW(BAL/16Ω)

distortion:<0.002%(1kHz/32 Ω)

Signal-to-noise ratio:>115dB(A weight)

Output impedance: 1Ω

Audio output: 2.5mm balanced +4.4mm balanced +3.5mm single-ended + LINE OUT

Audio input: Micro USB/OPT/COAX/LINE IN

The sample rate is 768kHz/32bit.

DSD support: DSD64/128/256

Battery capacity: 3800mAh

Endurance: 9 hours.

Bluetooth support: AAC, SBC, aptXLL, aptX HD, LDAC, HWA

size: about 124mm × 64mm × 16mm

weight: about 195g

reference price: 2298 yuan

design and technology with whom is not inferior

, I have deeply felt the rapid progress in industrial design and workmanship in various products of Feiao, Q5 is one of them. Since it is an upgraded version, Feiao has mostly continued the elements of Q5 in the design and technology of Q5s. All aluminum alloy CNC technology has excellent texture. Although it is a square and tough body shape, it does not hold hands when holding it. Its round corner transition and diamond cutting technology ensure that this "tough guy" also has a soft side.

the sandblasting process on the aluminum alloy surface of the whole machine, the front and rear sides have large areas with different treatment methods from the fuselage-the front is wire drawing process, and the back is PU leather. The collision of different materials and processes makes Q5s have a rich visual level, and the delicate feeling of contact between leather and palm when held by hand is also impressive. I personally prefer this combination of materials and craftsmanship. The texture is very good. At the same time, it is wear-resistant and stain-resistant. There is no need to worry about the influence of fingerprints and sweat stains. It does not need to be used carefully.

▲ The back is made of PU leather in a large area, which not only enriches the visual level of Q5s, but also brings excellent grip.

the excellent design of a product, I think it should not only be reflected in the place that people can see at a glance, it should also be passed on through some details worth pondering and tasting. Such details are not absent on Q5s. In this regard, I will first introduce the "Feiao Red" and 45 ° string pattern, two Feiao family designs. The volume knob is a place where these two elements are collected and is still classic after many products. The concentric circle process on the front of the knob will present a transformed light effect at different angles. The fuselage on this side of the knob adopts the design of sinking slope, which not only makes the knob better integrated into the fuselage and provides users with more convenient operation space, but also makes the fuselage level of Q5s have more changes and details worth tasting.

▲ Q5s cancels the independent power switch and integrates it with the volume knob, making it easier to operate. The following input mode switch key is matched with 4 status indicators, so that users can perform this operation more intuitively.

▲ The three control buttons on the left are mainly used for playback control. The play pause button and the next button also take into account Bluetooth switch pairing and Bluetooth mode control.

RGB lamp effect is very popular now, and many IT products take "playing with lamps" as one of their selling points. Q5s also has RGB lights, which are hidden at the junction of Q5s and earpiece module. When the long strip of light is lit, the effect of darkening from the middle to both sides is further added to the visual perception of the whole machine. And its function is more than that. When Bluetooth input and USB decoding are in the state, it will also display lights of different colors according to the different Bluetooth encoding format and sampling rate format.

all-round warrior with continuous improvement

Q5s has a wealth of interface configurations, keys and switches. Compared with Q5, the right side of the fuselage has changed. The independent power switch of the latter is integrated into the volume knob on Q5s, while the original position of the power switch is changed to the input mode switch key, and four status indicators are designed with it, corresponding to the four input modes of USB, optical fiber, coaxial and circuit. Which input mode to use, the corresponding indicator will light up, so that users can more intuitively understand the current input status.

maintains the same layout as Q5. The two 3.5mm interfaces are coaxial/optical fiber/line input interface and line output interface respectively. Next to the interface are gain adjustment and bass switch. The silver trim circle of the two interfaces has been canceled, and the visual integrity has been improved. The three playback control buttons on the left side of the body have not changed. The playback pause button and the next button also take into account the Bluetooth switch pairing and Bluetooth mode control. The Micro USB interface on this side of Q5 is canceled on Q5s, and the charging function it is responsible for is all the Micro USB interface at the bottom.

▲ The standard AM3E balanced earphone module provides 3.5mm single-ended, 2.5mm balanced and 4.4mm balanced earphone output, and supports line output. One module can adapt most earphones in players' hands.

on Q5s, it still adopts the design of replaceable earpiece module, and at the same time, it can be fully compatible with Feiao's existing AM series earpiece module. Compared with the standard AM3A module on Q5, Feiao upgraded the Q5s ear module. Its standard AM3E module provides 3.5mm single-ended, 2.5mm balanced, 4.4mm balanced earphone output, and supports line output. The three earphone output interfaces it has, especially the double balance interface, should be able to meet the needs of enthusiasts.

▲ There are two 3.5mm interfaces on the top, one of which is a coaxial/optical fiber/line input interface, and the other is a line output interface. Next to the interface are gain adjustment and bass switch.

The Micro USB interface on AM3E is not only used for charging, but also assumes the functions of USB DAC and USB Audio. When used as a USB DAC, it can not only directly connect PC and notebook computer, but also connect with Apple's mobile devices such as iPad and iPhone through Lightning-to-Micro USB cable. As it has passed Apple's official MFi certification, its reliability is guaranteed. The above-mentioned patch cord and data cable are all standard in Q5s accessories, saving users the extra purchase cost and trouble.

▲ Rich accessories are the symbol of Feiao, including Lightning-to-Micro USB short line, 3.5mm recording line, coaxial adapter line, optical fiber conversion head, binding belt and storage mesh bag, etc. T5 screwdriver is convenient for users to replace ear module.

I noticed that the Q5s interface does not use the popular USB Type-C, which is also due to Apple's MFi authentication. Apple currently has only two lines that can pass certification for such products, one is USB A- Lightning and the other is Micro-Lightning. In the future, when Apple opens a third party with USB Type C- lightning cable for USB decoding earpiece, we are expected to see the corresponding interface on Feiao's earpiece module.

Bluetooth wireless has become the mainstream development trend in most audio products. The Bluetooth function introduced on Q5 has been further upgraded on Q5s. First, Q5s is upgraded to Qualcomm flagship Bluetooth chip CSR8675, which supports Bluetooth 5.0. In terms of Bluetooth audio coding protocol that everyone is most concerned about, Q5s provides comprehensive support for aptX HD, LDAC, HWA, aptX LL, aptX, AAC and SBC. In today's more and more mobile phones support aptX HD, LDAC, HWA and other high-quality Bluetooth audio protocols, this upgrade of Q5s can undoubtedly better ensure that the audio signals transmitted through Bluetooth have better quality, as can be seen from its wireless audio specifications reaching the certification of the small gold standard Hi-Res Wireless.

of course, there are still many users who feel that the sound quality in Bluetooth mode is not "Hi-Fi" enough. If you are one of them, then Q5s various usage modes can still meet your needs-except for connecting PC and notebook computers through Micro USB interface mentioned earlier, or connecting Apple devices through patch cord as USB DAC, you can also use it with other equipment through coaxial, optical fiber, and line input. It can be said that the comprehensiveness of Q5s allows players to make full use of the existing equipment in their hands to cooperate with it and display their respective abilities.

In addition to upgrading the Bluetooth chip, Q5s has also upgraded the components used internally in many places. It still uses a dual DAC design, and each of the left and right channels is equipped with an AKM AK4493EQ DAC chip, which makes it have lower distortion and higher signal-to-noise ratio. Dual DAC and six dual op amp chipsets form a fully balanced professional audio architecture. In addition, the use of 4-channel analog volume IC and Panasonic thin film capacitor also shows us Feiao's sincerity in "stacking" materials on Q5s hardware. On the USB decoding chip, Q5s still uses XMOS XUF208, with a clock matching management system, which can support a PCM sampling rate of 768kHz/32bit and can hardware DSD, up to DSD256.

Q5s also uses many low-noise LDO circuits, among which the analog, digital, low-on and amplification parts still use independent power supply to ensure the purity of sound quality. It is worth mentioning that Q5s will automatically judge the connected equipment to adjust the power consumption mode. For example, when Q5s is connected to a computer, it will automatically adjust the charging current according to the output capability of the USB port of the computer, while when connecting a mobile phone, it will use its own power without consuming the current at the device end. There is no need to worry about endurance. Q5s has 3800mAh polymer lithium ion battery built in, USB decoding or Bluetooth decoding can be used for more than 9 hours, optical fiber/coaxial mode can be used for more than 10 hours, AUX mode can be used for more than 25 hours, thus satisfying the daily use of players without any problem.

audition: to improve the sound quality of equipment

, I first used the iPad mini2 to connect with the Q5s through the Lightning-to-Micro USB cable, and compared the different listening senses of the 3.5mm interface directly connected to the iPad mini2 with the Q5s connection. The headphones for the audition include Feiao's own FH7 in-ear headphones and large earmuff headphones such as Sennheiser HD 600. Regardless of the sound quality, under the two connection modes, the most direct promotion brought by Q5s is thrust, especially when listening to HD600. If you push HD600 directly with iPad mini2, you can obviously feel the sound distortion caused by insufficient thrust and the sound pressure is not large enough.

switch to Q5s,HD600 can get normal hearing immediately. In terms of sound quality, the most obvious feeling is that the sound field of the earphone is well opened. The sound emitted by the headphones under Q5s is fuller and contoured, and the sound field is obviously released. Especially when listening to large-scale symphonies with HD600, not only can the position of each instrument be better positioned, but also their space and distance are expanded, so they will not be crowded together, and the listening feeling is magnificent.

three-frequency part, the low frequency that is not prominent enough when pushing the earphone directly with the iPad mini2 has obtained a deeper dive and quick response flexibility with the addition of Q5s. This feeling is quite obvious when listening to the drums in music. In the vocal part, what impressed me was that the relatively positive style of FH7 added a charm under Q5s, the fullness of the female voice was improved, and the rich details and the restoration of the voice were preserved. This change makes it more listening and a style that more people will like.

, Q5s endows it with a style of high transparency and strong resolution, rich in sound details and large amount of information, especially when matched with ring iron earplugs such as FH7, the high-frequency performance is even more eye-catching, the transient response is fast, the extremely high-frequency extension is sufficient, and the hearing is soft and clear. Then I used Xiaomi mobile phone 8, which supports aptX-HD and LDAC, to connect with Q5s via Bluetooth, and auditioned in LDAC state.

compared with the sound quality under the previous wired connection, I think the Bluetooth wireless connection can exert 70% or 80% of the power. The main difference is that the details of the sound are not as detailed as the former, but slightly reduced. The reduction of human voice, low-frequency sense of quantity, elasticity and high-frequency clear hearing still remain at an excellent level. There is no problem with the open sound field and the accuracy of positioning in large-scale music. I use Q5s to connect Windows PC and Macbook Air respectively through USB interface, both of which can be used directly without installing drivers.

Q5s completely inherits the characteristics of Q5 "all-round player". On this basis, it improves the performance of the product in terms of sound quality and function by upgrading the hardware configuration, and optimizes the design to improve the player's experience. The application of Qualcomm's latest Bluetooth chip makes Q5s make up for Q5's deficiency in supporting high-quality Bluetooth audio protocol, and at the same time conforms to the trend of Bluetooth wireless of various electronic products. In the relatively niche market of high-end portable earphones, Feiao Q5s not only reflects a kind of continuous improvement upgrade, but also has the kindness of "increasing the quantity without increasing the price. If you are shopping for such products, Q5s is worth your consideration.

https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404432383888719913Microcomputer Official Microblog10-28 15:02