You have no evidence whatsoever that the measurements you speak of have any effect on listening preferences. Not a single study.

Are you a amir fan? Someone openly admitted they could not tell the difference between a single genelec 8361 and a pair revel salon 2? Is that who you are trusting to make subjective arguments about things sounding worse and better? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Sorry its a video. https://youtu.be/Fa1y9JRip68 . Also check out Andrews video on SINAD https://youtu.be/DlwIGPEhfGU .

There are a load of measurements that go into how an amp performs that arnt covered by ASR. Golden sounds has a great write up about this. You are simply wrong about how psychoacoustics work.

I mean its on the m17. Doesn't get larger than that, but that thing is awfully expensive and I wouldn't be using a single feature on it except the PEQ (which isn't even on the device, unlike the 5k) and tidal. Seems like a waste, and I dont trust that fiio is going to have indefinite amount of time supporting it before it simply stops working. The devices themselves don't have the dsp chip to do PEQ, its pure software. The 5k and RME products are some of the very few that are actually hardware encoded DSP chips. A shame its so rare.

Because tidal offline mode doesn't allow any third party applications to take control at all. It streams in direct mode which bypasses all mixing on on your device. The reason the 5k works is because its peq is an actual hardware chip. It an actual digital dsp attenuator, which is drastically superior. Also it looks to be a GEQ not PEQ . Are the bands completely customisable, with their own select filter set and q value? No where in there marketing does it look like its using a PEQ, rather a fixed 5 band GEQ. Is that correct?

I just told you none of them have proper PEQ in the OP.

I appreciate showing me the alternatives. Looks like for offline play, there is effectivly nothing else (everything is software based). I'll most likely just get a topping nx7 to act a the amp, and run 1.4v from the 5k SE (the minimum voltage the nx7 needs to run properly). Its battery is 8 times the size of the qudelix, so if that doesn't work, then nothing will. Thanks again.

That pretty much no different than the battery charger. 😅

Sorry im really stupid. I should of stated that i use it offline 90% of the time since i listen mostly to music in my local park. Tidal cannot allow you to use 3rd party players when you are offline. Also, how do you get it on wavelet? It explicitly says it cannot connect to it, unless you use "legacy mode". People say that in the 3 dotted menu, but I cant find it anywhere.

Don't work offline. I like to use the i4s in the park. :)

Does UAPP require a WiFi connection?

I guess my use case is ridiculously niche. For most iems, the 5k would drive them perfectly.