THX AAA,YES! -Feiao Q3 & Q5s TC [Lucky Draw]]
In 2016, THX introduced the patented THX AAA amplifier architecture, which uses feedforward error correction and other designs to achieve much lower power consumption, noise and distortion than the traditional architecture. AAA refers to "apochromatic amplification", which is the same as AA (such as Leica 50 AA) apochromatic in the optical world, ensuring extremely high objective indicators and pure sound-free reduced timbre.
the emergence of this technology, it has brought a lot of impact to the cinema-level and car audio fields, and down to the portable audio field. Several iconic products (such as the Massdrop THX AAA 789) were even sold out of stock all over the world, making it difficult to find a machine.
Feiao, as a world-class giant in the field of portable earphones, was one of the first manufacturers to embrace THX AAA: in January 2019, Feiao tentatively launched 150 AM3C AAA-78 earphones modules with THX in the Japanese market to match its own X7, Q5 and other interchangeable earphones. AM3C became the world's first THX AAA portable earphones product.
, relying on the ultra-high sound quality brought by THX AAA, AM3C sold out instantly on the day of its sale. A large number of fans in Japan, Europe and the United States cried out about the pain of not being able to get the goods on forums such as HeadFi......
later, Feiao saw the market demand and changed the name of AM3C to AM3D and mass produced it. At the same time, it was put on the global market, no longer limited to the Japanese market. As we all know, many people buy Q5/X7 simply to use AM3D, and it is an operation to buy Canon body with EF85 1.2......
In 2020, Feiao plans three THX AAA products, which are the main characters of this article-low-end portable decoding earpiece Q3 and high-end Bluetooth portable decoding earpiece Q5S AM3D(TypeC version), and the flagship desktop decoding earpiece K9 to be launched at the end of the year.
while waiting for K9, let's first look at the performance of Q3 and Q5s TC ~
Benefit-related: The prototype is sent for testing, and the evaluation criteria are the same as those for self-purchased equipment.
Related Reading: Q5s TC has only changed compared to Q5sData Interface and Bluetooth Chip,the rest of the design is exactly the same, so those who are interested can refer to the Q5s evaluation I wrote before, and the same part will not be repeated in this article.
article.
Qiu Zijie TuesdayQ: Pure but not pure-Feiao Q5S AM3D zhuanlan.zhihu.com
Packaging & Accessories:
http://www.fiio.com<br> (Automatic QR code recognition)
Feiao has equipped Q3 and Q5s with three-dimensional identical packaging, designed for inner and outer boxes, which is Feiao's consistent high-quality packaging.
's huge positive THX LOGO and Apple MFI certification have shown the core competitiveness of Q5s TC.
makeup photo ~
Q3 accessories list: The content is quite rich, including not only A to C lines, but also C to C lines, C to L lines, and AUX lines to ensure connectivity with any front-end equipment. This C to L line is certified by Apple's official MFI, and its stability is not comparable to that of non-certified products.
porous bundle-mouth portable bag, silicone gasket and two sizes of silicone straps are simply the gospel of binding the party.
Q5s: On the basis of Q3, coaxial and optical fiber adapter wires (heads) and a screwdriver for disassembling the ear module are added.
size comparison, Q3 and Q5s belong to the three dimensions that can be easily estimated, which is smaller than most mid-range players, and there is no pressure to carry around.
Q3 design:
Q3 has the same shape as the classic Q1MK2, only the size of a credit card. It adopts a minimalist industrial design style. The round and slim sandblasted aluminum alloy body and the excellent hand feeling of the volume knob can only be experienced by hand. The all-metal body also plays a shielding role, and there will be no electromagnetic interference when Q3 is directly pasted on the mobile phone, which is understood by those who have used MOJO.
Q3 and Feiao flagship M15 is unified, with pure family lineage, and they are put together in harmony like father and son.
Q3, like M15, uses a full interface design, and no adapter is needed. The solid copper ring decoration with CD pattern borrowed from Sony at the interface significantly improves the texture and sense of grade. Among them, the 3.5mm jack is a three-in-one design, which can be used not only for earphones, but also for LineOut and LineIn. The volume of Q3 can be regarded as the extreme.
Q3 is the core of its user experience. I have always firmly supported analog knob volume control, which is more intuitive, accurate and fast than button control. The volume knob of Q3 is designed with aluminum alloy twill, which has perfect hand feeling and damping feeling. The red decorative ring also adds a lot of color to the whole black design.
volume knob is also a traditional feature of Feiao.
is full of functions, with hardware low frequency enhancement switch, gain switch button, TypeC charging/data interface and USB power switch. Low frequency gain is the ancestral feature of Feiao. After opening, it can pull the low frequency by about 6db, and the verb can hit the user's gospel. The green light in the middle of the gain button at high gain will come on. The power switch can only use the battery when connecting the mobile phone without taking power from the USB port of the mobile phone, thus reducing the loss of battery life of the mobile phone.
on the whole, I can give full marks for Q3's industrial design, because it is the inheritance of Q1MK2's perfect design, and its minimalist appearance is quite to my taste. Its extremely small and slim body ensures top portability, rich interfaces ensure connectivity and functionality, and analog potentiometers ensure intuitive and fast hand feel adjustment. Everything is just right.
I really can't find anything wrong......
Q5s TC design:
Q5s is completely different from that of Q3. It highlights the cold, sharp and aggressive characteristics through the design language of full right angles and the brushed panel. (No kidding, the edge of the panel can really cut paper, and the brushed surface can frustrate nails...)
is still made of litchi PU veneer, which can not only be placed on the table for anti-skid, but also prevent scratching during binding, and can also improve the appearance, texture and feel. Very practical, I hope other portable earphones can learn from it.
volume knob here can best reflect the metal texture of Q5s. The two Texture of drawing surface plate and sandblasting frame meet here. With CNC knob, it can be called a straight male killer.
its volume control also uses an analog potentiometer, which feels perfect, the knob is extremely fine, and the red circle decoration is in place.
potentiometer can be switched between USB, line input, coaxial and optical fiber, and is equipped with independent indicator lights, which is very practical when connecting multiple turntables at the same time.
TC Q5s is to replace the Micro-USB interface on AM3D with USB Type-C, which greatly facilitates everyone to connect various devices and charge in 2020, and no longer need to prepare an additional Micro-USB cable.
this change is not as simple as it seems, because Q5s is certified by Apple's official MFI, and changing the interface requires re-application for authentication, so it has not been implemented until now. However, the advantages of MFI certification are obvious. When matching Apple products, it can completely eliminate any compatibility problems and significantly improve its stability. I believe everyone has encountered the problem of fever and disconnection of the iPhone without MFI certification.
, however, unfortunately, the new AM3D still does not have a 2.5mm balance jack, only 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balance. The 2.5mm earphones in my hand need adapters to be used......
has familiar gain switch, low frequency enhancement switch, optical fiber/coaxial/line three-in-one input and line output interface.
switch type gain control is better than Q3 button type.
, as a Bluetooth decoding earpiece, has a very humanized design with complete playback control keys. The keys feel crisp (M15 cough cough cough) and blind operation across the trouser pocket is relatively easy.
, as Feiao's flagship portable ear, RGB lamps are a must (the aura beside the lamp factory instantly weakens 2333). Q5s uses the same strip indicator light as the previous generation and X7 series, which can visually display the current sampling rate. This light has moderate brightness and will not be abrupt and dazzling at night. The natural darkening of both ends looks very technological.
in general, the Q5s design is also very excellent and unique. The appearance is hale and hearty, the material is exquisite, the hand feeling is excellent, all kinds of functions and interfaces are complete, and basically there is no problem. I only hope that the 2.5mm interface can be added in the future.
but I still prefer the round style of Q3, radish and green vegetables ~
Features & Configuration & Sound Quality:
Q3 is a very pure product. It just does its duty of small and light USB decoding earphones without extra gimmicks.
it can't be easier to use-use the corresponding wire to connect to a mobile phone, tablet or PC or Mac, and then plug in headphones to enjoy the pure sound quality brought by THX AAA.
However, the hardware configuration of Q3 is not simple at all.
In order to ensure the core USB decoding experience, Q3 uses a desktop XMOS XUF208 as the USB interface, and with Thesycon customized drivers, Q3 directly has the top USB decoding capability of 32bit/768kHz DSD512.
The 32bit/768kHz DSD512 data stream separated from XUF208 is directly sent to AKM's latest flagship low power DAC chip, AK4462. Q3 should be the first mass production product on the market to adopt AK4462. This DAC comes down in one continuous line with the flagship AK449X series and is also equipped with Velvet Sound and OSR-Doubler. The sound is still AKM's soft and stretched style, giving Q3 a fairly high-quality sound foundation.
, the enlarged part directly uses THX AAA module. Feiao does not indicate the model. Personally, I estimate that it is a THX AAA-38 series slightly lower than AM3D.
the hardware foundation brought by this combination is basically superior to the products at the same price.
If there is a higher demand for input methods, it can be combined with Feiao's exclusive artifact BTA30 to form a complete set of digital/Bluetooth interface + high-quality DAC + THX AAA earpiece combination to meet any usage scenarios.
and Q5s TC, as a flagship portable Bluetooth decoding earpiece, has a lot of functions. It can connect various front ends through USB, Bluetooth, optical fiber, coaxial and analog input, and can quickly switch between various input terminals. It can be used as a desktop audio center.
Q5s TC is almost the same as that of Q5s. It is also a combination of XMOS XUF208 and dual AK4493EQ. The difference is that the Bluetooth receiving chip has been replaced by a new generation of Bluetooth 5.0 flagship QCC5124 from Qualcomm CSR8675. This upgrade not only brings lower power consumption, but also adds AptX Adaptive, a new Bluetooth coding protocol, to realize real full format reception.
is the AM3D earpiece module with standard Type-C interface in TC version. Finally, it can get rid of the limitation of AM3E and give full play to the complete strength of Q5s, thus eliminating the loss and trouble of selling E and buying D. After all, Q5s with AM3D is the real Q5s.
Q5s TC is basically the level of mainstream 5000 portable players, and the sound quality is certainly equivalent. However, the selling price is only half, so the stacking and cost performance are still the ultra-high level that Feiao has always adhered.
Q3 is equipped with a 1800mAh battery and Q5s is 3800mAh. Their USB decoding mode lasts about 9-10 hours, so it is no problem to meet the heavy use of one day. At the same time, they all support charging while using, and there is no need to consider charging when matching with computers.
sound quality, because all earpiece products using THX AAA technology, including Q3, Q5s, Massdrop 789, etc., have the same sound characteristics-with extremely high reduction, transparency, authenticity, and no audible and dyed pure sound bottom, their frequency response is a straight line, and the sound you hear is a faithful reflection of DAC and earphone orientation.
I have always supported giving the task of dyeing the system to headphones instead of the front end. I like the high-quality front end without personality, so as to give full play to the characteristics of the headset itself without introducing additional variables. At the same time, due to my need for earphone evaluation, I need a truly neutral front end to make AB, so the sound bottom of THX AAA style is the most appealing to me, which is why I chose SMSL SP200, which also uses THX AAA technology, as the main front end.
in other words, such a voice is also the most in line 「HI-FIdelity "defines that the front end of THX AAA is equipped with a high-reduction earphone, such as ER4SR, so that you can really feel the most authentic sound that music engineers want you to hear. I hope that every friend who has just come into contact with HIFI can establish a correct listening concept under this healthy system, and then discover the taste he likes, instead of being evaded by various HUFIs.
having said that, Q3 and Q5s, which also use AKM DAC and THX AAA earphones, can be said to be almost identical in sound style. They are both straightforward, balanced, positive and unstained tuning, with a little AKM soft sound bottom. The difference in sound between the two is reflected in the slightly higher analytical force and dynamics of Q5s, and the doubling of thrust of Q5s. It is difficult to hear the difference in other parts.
Q3 is single-ended 160mw/balanced 300mw, which is higher than that of almost all tail products. There is no pressure in the ear of the driving 99.99% (yes, that 0.01% is TinHiFi P2...)
Q5s TC is single-ended 280mw/balanced 560mw, which is only lower than M15 and K5Pro in Feiao products, and driving most full-size big ears will not have too much pressure (yes, P2 can be easily handled)
Therefore, the principle of choosing Q3 or Q5s only depends on your budget, volume preference, thrust requirement and input method (whether Bluetooth/optical fiber/coaxial is required), and the sound quality need not be considered too much.
author:
TuesdayQ Qiu Zijie
website: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/306344251
