So sanh topping nx4dsd vs fiio q1 mark ii năm 2024

American ExpressTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest314% 5,117 351614% 2,603 618914% 1,765 8881214% 1,347 1,1621814% 929 1,7172414% 720 2,284Axis BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326613% 2,595 574914% 1,765 8881214% 1,347 1,1621815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455Bank of BarodaTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326613% 2,595 574913% 1,758 8241213% 1,340 1,0771815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455Citi BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326613% 2,595 574915% 1,772 9531215% 1,354 1,2461815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455HDFC BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest315% 5,125 377615% 2,610 663915% 1,772 9531215% 1,354 1,2461815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455ICICI BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest312.99% 5,108 326613.99% 2,603 618913.99% 1,765 8881213.99% 1,347 1,1611814.99% 936 1,8432414.99% 727 2,453INDUSIND BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326613% 2,595 574913% 1,758 8241212% 1,333 9931812% 915 1,4652412% 706 1,946Kotak Mahindra BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest312% 5,100 301612% 2,588 529914% 1,765 8881214% 1,347 1,1621815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455RBL BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326614% 2,603 618915% 1,772 9531215% 1,354 1,2461815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455Standard Chartered BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326613% 2,595 574914% 1,765 8881214% 1,347 1,162YES BankTenureInterest%InstallmentInterest313% 5,108 326613% 2,595 574914% 1,765 8881214% 1,347 1,1621815% 936 1,8442415% 727 2,455

This is a review and and detailed measurements of FiiO Q1 Mark II Portable DAC and headphone amplifier. It is on a kind loan from a forum member. It retails for USD $100 from Amazon including free Prime shipping. The unit is attractively packaged and similar to build quality of Topping NX4 DSD which I used for comparison. Here you see them side by side:

The Fiio Q1 is about 25% smaller in volume so more pocketable than the NX4 DSD. As with Topping, they also have an excellent web page for the unit with the following rich set of specs:

The unit has both balanced and unbalanced headphone output per above. Alas, my balanced test fixture only has XLR (damn these guys for not standardizing on one connector) so I could not test that port.

Let's get into the measurements and see how she does.

Measurements Let's start with our usual dashboard in high-gain mode:

Ah, just 1.5 volt output at max volume in high gain. That is well shy of 2.0 volt I like to see in RCA output of the DACs. For headphone amps I like to see even higher output. So the output power will be anemic as you will see.

SINAD (signal above power of distortion and noise) is decent at 90 dB although far shy of 104 db of Topping NX4 DSD.

Let's look at output power (expressed in volts -- Watts = Volts ^ 2/impedance):

Response is exceptionally well behaved and load independent. The have made a conscious choice to limit gain and hence power and distortion. There is essentially no clipping to speak of which is very unusual for headphone amplifiers. What this means that you get the same fidelity until max volume.

Alas, power is very low with just 7 milliwatts at 300 ohms. Even at 33 ohm we don't have much on hand at 62 milliwatt.

Output impedance is very decent at 1.8 ohms or so:

This compares to 0.9 ohm on Topping NX4 DSD though.

Frequency response is boring which means it is good:

As you see channel matching looks excellent but let's look at it at different volume positions:

The FiiO Q1 Mark II nails this test with just 0.025 dB of deviation at all volume positions until the end! And this is in high-gain mode.

How does it pull this off? It uses an analog volume control but it digitizes its value and then uses that digital output to set the level in both channels. A normal analog volume control would have had different values at different positions for each channel. And a rotary encoder would have no max and min detents and probably cost more. I hope this becomes the standard solution in headphone amplifiers.

Listening Tests I tested the Fiio Q1 Mark II using my Hifiman HE-400i. You get no sound even in high gain below 12:00 position! It would get reasonably loud but not to my satisfaction. The Topping NX4 DSD was in entirely different class, pushing out tons more power and authoritative bass with no distortion to speak of.

I then tested the Q1 with my sensitive IEMs and there I got plenty of volume and with the help of bass boost switch, got decent amount of that without it being bothersome.

Conclusions I find no glaring faults in the design of Fiio Q1. It aims for a mid-level performance and it delivers that with no warts. It is best used with sensitive IEMs and people who like to listen to lower levels than I do. It is nicely made and has very rich format support including DSD. It has fantastic channel matching -- the best I have seen I think.

If you can afford an extra $50, the Topping NX4 DSD is much better performer. It has much more output, and better measured and subjective performance.