Qudelix - 5K USB/Bluetooth Amplifier/DAC with LDAC, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, AAC (Dual ES9219-3.5mm unbalanced output; 2.5mm balanced output)

I used the QUDELIX 5K for a few months, sold it to switch to similar Bluetooth devices only to buy it again. The 5K is superior, and here is why: • Exceptional proprietary app, with instantaneous response time, undoubtedly the best on the market. Extensive EQ capabilities and customisation, making the devise a miniaturised professional amp. • Elegant and discrete design, with customisable light so you don’t feel festively decorated all year round. • Despite the minute design, the 5K has great control buttons, easy to locate and operate. • Truly integrated clip, which does not add bulk to the slick design. • Discrete battery life, 8hrs. • The crisp and balanced sound of the ES9219C DAC chipset. • Seamless automatic switching from Bluetooth amp to Dongle amp function (many other similar DAC amps require manual switching). • Finally, size and weight. This is the smallest and lightest Bluetooth DAC amp available. Mine is paired with IE200s and, clipped to the original Sennheiser cable, or 2.5 balanced cables by OpenHearth wrapped around the neck, is virtually impossible to feel. Obviously, a personal consideration but, based on my experience, the QUDELIX 5K is unrivalled in the space of ultraportable DAC AMPs.

While it is quite old compared to similar devices on the market, for my purposes this has to be one of the best designed personal hifi products available. Some quible about the construction but aside from the slightly loose buttons it is a very sturdy unit and the lightness is a feature not a bug (as much as I enjoy devices milled from solid blocks of aluminium and so on). I've come to appreciate the minimalistic milspec look and feel and the utility clip. I also like well thought out elements like the tiny nub on the Play/pause switch so it is easy to operate in your pocket by touch (the volume button is smooth by comparison). Other aspects I enjoy: - While not class leading the sound quality is very good indeed and the app allows you to tweak the EQ to your hearts desire to get the most from your IEMs and headphones. Sound is detailed and has pretty good separation and soundstage - all elements that can be tweaked via EQ. It's enjoyable enough that I don't find myself hankering after my other DAC amps when I'm listening to it. - Customisable - as with EQ most functional aspects of this device can be customised to your requirements. Both the phone and desktop apps are very comprehensive. You can upload EQ profiles via the Chrome app via the desktop app. - Rock solid and powerful Bluetooth connection - I can leave my phone on charge and move quite some distance from it without the connection breaking up. There's also something reassuring about how the Bluetooth light always blinks to confirm when you send any control instructions from your phone or other connected devices. - Powerful amplifier - you need to take care with volume settings as I've managed to blast my ears a couple of times - I recommend setting the volume up button to increments so you don't accidentally max out the volume while it's in your pocket. - Good battery life that seems to retain charge for many days while not in use. - Lightness and size - while wireless buds are more popular nowadays this tiny device is a great solution for turning your wired IEMs into lightweight and convenient Bluetooth earphones.

This tiny little DAC / Dongle is an absolute revelation in the world of DAC dongles! I have owned and used many of these headphone DAC amps in the past ranging from all the Audioquest Dragonflys, Apogee groove, FiiOs, Hidiz, Ibasso, Hiby, Shanling etc etc and this little guy is the best by quite some margin. This has superb bluetooth range in which this will connect from the other side of my house with little effort a distance of several metres through walls and up stairs etc although I do use it mainly via USB C connection into my PC. The DAC chip used in this is not the most modern or up to date ESS Sabre chip but its not always about having the latest chip inside but how it is implemented and the technology in this little guy is pretty awesome with good engineering and thought processes in manufacture. What sets this device apart from the vast majority of dongles is the amazing software which you can use with it, I downloaded both the control app to my phone AND the superb Chrome extension on my PC to give you an incredible range of options like DAC filters, power range like high or normal to drive an impressive range of headphones. The app also gives you battery life and management etc etc etc there is simply too many functions to mention although I do have to give a very special shout out to the parametric equaliser function which you can search for your headphone in the drop down list and dial it in and save it (the dongle saves all your stored information in its built in flash drive and even if you switch it off it restores all of the settings you dialed in) this EQ function will give you the best possible sound to the Harman curve to basically optimise your headphones of choice or you can simply play with no EQ and completely flat just using the standard settings for sound which is also superb in standard mode. This level of control and flexibility is unheard of even with the FiiO control app you don't get offered half as much. You can just use this dongle as a simple plug and play device without using the app or PC chrome PC extension and it would still be worth the money on sound quality alone. I suppose if I had to nit pick then a 4.4mm balanced socket rather than the slightly dated 2.5mm one would be prefered but I do not used any of my headphones in balanced mode just the unbalanced 3.5mm supplied also, so to me that is not important. 6 stars all the way!

This is such a good, balanced product in terms of features and price. But if you want better sound you can find it if you pay more. - it has good sound quality - it has great bluetooth connectivity, I can use it in different rooms, different floors, outside my bt source - LDAC significantly better sound quality than other bluetooth codecs, if you connect to mac or iPhone, use wire, because other codecs are hurting sound quality - I have it connected to 3 devices at the same time! 2 by bluetooth and one by USB and it picks the one that playes quite well. - I switched it eventually to be connected to mac by USB, same mac by Bluetooth and am Android phone, because mac does not support LDAC it hurts sound, but sometimes I just disconnect usb and go somewhere, so it switches from usb source to bluetooth in matter of seconds Connectivity of it is so much better than any other bluetooth device I have. Bose 700 does not connect half the time and take a minute to connect if it does, Topping G5 take a bit. This connects in a second, click, connected. The way how buttons are setup takes a bit of getting used to, app is good for nerds and equalization if you want to push your headphone somewhere else, but don't to make a reference headphones a consumer (V frequency response) curve headphones usually can't do that and it would only increase distortion and loose control. Battery life is better than Topping G5 which is 5 times the size and weight.

Quite simply a stunning piece of kit. I had to come up with a solution to losing the access to a 3.5mm audio out after changing phones from an S8 to an S25. I also have a need for a SONY LDAC receiver as I drive an old car without bluetooth. I saw a Youtube video of a guy raving about the Samsung AKG IEMs, that shipped with the S8, paired with the 5K. I never used theses IEMs as I thought they would be cheap and nasty, but I kept them in the box for 9 years. Well I ordered the Qudelix and it arrived in two days. I downloaded the app and paired Phone via LDAC into the 5K. Great sound. Another hour messing with the app, selecting custom EQ and balancing the channels, resulted in super sound. Then I tried phone via the included USB C to USB C into the K5. Even better. Truly marvellous gadget. The ability to tune the EQ via the App makes it such a powerful addition to your audio system. I love the form factor too; no nonsense or flashy logos, just good value utility. I know I’m going to use this thing a lot, and who would have thought the tiny bundled Samsung earphones would make me leave my MDR-1000X in the drawer! I’m tempted to get a pair of balanced IEMs just to see the extent of the K5’s talents.

With the accompanying iPhone app equaliser, the sound is excellent and you can set up the sound precisely to your system/liking. My old Boss Quite Comfort 35 II have a new lease of life now with rich bass, as well as crisp treble and mids, no need to upgrade. The unit has also given life to my manufacturer supplied car stereo, I previously just thought it was poor quality even when playing CDs, it now has a bass kick that was not there prior and the treble and mids now sound good. You could save a lot on a quality sound system, or headphones, by starting with this unit and seeing how well connected sound systems or headphones work with it. As it also works via Bluetooth you can make standard studio headphones wireless. Obviously Bluetooth is not as good quality as the cabled connection, but quality appears increased when compared to typical Bluetooth connections ( I understand it connects as 2 Bluetooth devices to increase data bandwidth and therefore quality, at least this is how it’s displayed in my iPhone Bluetooth settings and Bluetooth quality is improved - just to note most, if not all steaming service apps, throttle data bandwidths when they identify your listening using Bluetooth limiting data connections, so this can bottleneck data quality although to me, the sound quality is still greatly improved with the assistance of the equaliser app, unit etc, when compared to Bluetooth without the unit. The one big downside is the poor quality outer material. The unit looked like a badly looked after, 2 year plus old unit after just one day in my pocket. While I did have keys in my pocket, so partly my fault for scratching, I would never have expected it to look so bad after just one day in my pocket. The resale value dropped off a cliff. Considering how bad the outer finish is, I would expect the manufacturer to supply a rubber case as standard to protect the unit. You do need to purchase an apple lightning to usb camera adapter, if your using an iPhone 14 or lower (15 has usb c so can be plugged in directly with suppled usb c cable), to get the data transfer speeds required for high quality audio. I advise getting the camera adapter with USB and additional power socket to plug in or use with a power bank on the go, as the unit drains the iPhone battery quickly, so you will need to power/charge it when using for reasonable amounts of time. Overall the sound is excellent for this price point and therefore I highly recommend getting one.

I just got this gadget for my inear monitors from Westone. I am using a Sony Xperia 5ii, which does have a decent dac and headphone jack integrated. The reason for buying the Qudelix are - I am not using the inear only with this phone - having a small external thing to connect the headphones is not bad, with a short wire maybe, and why not balanced out - I loved the fact the Qudelix has a DSP which allows to tune the out around my inear monitors and the setting is applied no matter the app or where you have connected the Qudelix to,it will always sound the same and to your liking Ok, so a few impressions. The audio quality is brilliant, lets get that out of the way. The details are there, it sounds amazing and it has plenty of power for my Westone. Even playing unbalanced at 1V, I did set a bit of volume limiter, it works really well. The DSP is fantastic, as predicted, if not better. The equalization customization is brilliant and a little of colour changes the feeling of the music massively (see screen shot for an example of my setup). The buttons are definitely not intuitive, but honestly, I am not planning on using them, just powering on and off basically. I configured the light to be on so I know if the Qudelix is on, and I regognize the buttons. The device ia super small, so it is easy to just use! The clip is embedded and it is so light that it would be held by the cable easily if dropping by mistake Remember if you have a new generation phone, I disabled the aptx adaptive thing (see picture), so the LDAC become available straight away. To get it to 990kbps, go ro your blue tooth aettings and set the qudelix connection to maximise quality. Then check the app, it should show now 990kbps like mine does. If you love your music, even more if you do not have headphone jacks, you are going to love this little thing

Purchased a couple of simliar priced amps to this that all claimed to be able to drive my sennheiser HD800 but none of them came close really. Had to return them, purchased this little piece of wizardy that is barely the size of a matchbox. I honestly didn't have high hopes upon opening it and thought there was no way. This Is quite simply a masterpiece of technology, I'm so so impressed, not just the audio it puts out but the app support, customization, size, weight, everything. Had it almost 24 hours now and I've barely slept from tinkering with the settings and eq's and listening to all sorts of different music. I have it linked up to my desktop both wired and bluetooth, when wired it automatically uses it as a wired amp, unplug it to go make a cuppa? No problem, it seemlessly switches to bluetooth and chugs along fine and you can use your headset wirelessly. The thing weighs next to nothing, you can take it with you anywhere and fit it in any pocket. Ten out of ten.