The QLS brand has long been filling the audio market with high-quality players for knowledgeable music lovers. Flagships and other models of the company were highly appreciated by lovers of quality sound. The only thing that limited their widespread distribution was the size of portable models, coupled with a format restriction (WAV only). The new QLS QA360LE audio player lacks a significant part of the shortcomings and is a very interesting offer for fans (and not only) of the brand.
The novelty was waiting for a very long time, and the first rumors about the appearance of a functional model from QLS are dated almost 2013, but the gadget appeared on our market about a year ago, gaining popularity every day. This is greatly facilitated by the experience of the company, which has accumulated over many years of marketing research.
Let's try to analyze in detail all the positive and negative sides of the new model by making a mini-review of the QLS QA360 player. Also, the opinions of specialists in this field and the reviews of ordinary gadget owners will be taken into account.
Model Features
One of the main features of the player is support for the proprietary DSD format. First, let's answer the question of what kind of format it is. The first such type of storage was developed by Sony in order to convert analog forms to digital. The DSD format itself involves storing a signal using pulse density modulation. The storage depth is typical for most containers (1 bit) at a frequency sampling of 2,822.4 kHz.
Such a format can easily reach peaks in the dynamic range of 120 dB, and in the frequency range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Also, the advantages of the container can include the ease of conversion to analog form without any errors in decoding along the way. Joint research and further development of two venerable brands “Sony” and “Philips” led to the fact that this format became the main one for the sound standard Super Audio CD.
Many similar players use this format, but with one caveat: before playing it, first it is converted to the more familiar PCM form, and only then it is transmitted to the DAC (digital analog converter). A review of the QLS QA360 audio player showed that it does not require additional conversion to play, so playback eliminates any dependence on firmware or other software algorithms, which is beneficial to sound quality.
Other functions
The gadget, in addition to its basic functions, can also act as an intermediary converter, transmitting a specific DSD format via a digital channel to an external DAC. Thus, QLS QA360 LE can be called a universal solution, where the gadget can act in its usual role - a player, or be a stationary transport converter. It should be noted separately that the brand offers its user a special remote control ($ 30) for such cases, which greatly simplifies the use of the gadget as a stationary assistant.
Stuffing QLS QA360
The review showed that the filling of the player is very serious. The company tried to achieve quality, so I didn’t save on the insides: an excellent DAC from the Cirus Logic 4398-series, a good low-pass filter in the face of the AD8620, and a PGA2311 volume control (150 steps). Here you can add an extremely high-quality amplifier based on ORA architecture, coupled with transistors.
The gadget is built on two separate boards, thereby sharing the power of the analog and digital parts, and the transitions between them are qualitatively filtered. The circuit has three freestanding quartz oscillators: DSD, a frequency of 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. Naturally, such an advanced filling, coupled with a distinctive design, simply can’t be cheap, but the company did not pick up the price tag, as Sony or Apple do, but limited itself to a budget slightly above average. On domestic resources, you can purchase a QLS QA360 player (price for spring 2016) for about 40 thousand rubles.
Contents of delivery
The gadget is packed in a nice black box made of fairly strong cardboard, which is typical for expensive Chinese devices. Inside the box is the player itself, soldered into a plastic film (apparently for reliability), and underneath it is a very impressive list of delivery packages. The company clearly made sure that the client, having bought the gadget, no longer needed anything.
After opening the package you will see:
- card reader;
- 16 gigabyte SD card;
- USB cable for charging the device;
- Power Supply;
- silicone case (if the QLS QA 360 Black version was purchased);
- a set of protective films (one is already glued to the screen);
- microfiber cloth (a good and rare thing);
- detailed manual and warranty card.
In general, the delivery set can be called excellent, in addition, the reviews of the owners confirm this fact.
Design
Appearance QA360 QLS, without exaggeration, pleases the eye and causes only positive emotions. As for the build quality, the company clearly surpassed almost all Chinese competing players in this matter, creating a pleasant image of an upscale thing.
The size of the player is probably the only stumbling block for many music lovers. In terms of size, it can be compared with similar Chinese-made “bricks” like the Hi-Fi Man 901 or iBasso DX series. But unlike the aforementioned models, our respondent is made entirely of high-quality aluminum alloy. The gadget has two colors: black and silver, and both are good in their own way. As for the quality of painting, it is also at the proper level: it does not chip, it is not erased and does not collect fingerprints.
Some owners of the player in their reviews complain about the "brick" of the device, but this moment quickly fades into the background after the user appreciates the control and sound of the gadget.
Control
Although the case has a very unusual shape, the whole design looks interesting and fresh. Management is built on buttons and switches, there are no sensors or jackets-twirls. The control mechanics themselves are pleasant to the touch, and pressing and other switching have peculiar clicks, which gives the device notes of solidity and elite.
The screen is harmoniously located on the front panel, and it’s extremely high-quality, allowing you to work with the QA360 QLS even on a bright and sunny day. Below you can see seven buttons for working with the main functionality of the device. Five are responsible for navigational actions, one is responsible for calling up the main menu and another serves as a return to the previous position (when held, it acts as “Home”).
Everyone will understand the control, especially since it is intuitively clear and does not cause any stupor or difficulty even for ardent laymen in technology. The only “trick” (as shown by the QLS QA360 player review) is holding the back button to delete the track (after confirmation), everything else is extremely easy to learn. Judging by the reviews of the owners of the gadget, they did not even have to look into the operating instructions to start working with the device.
Interface
The company's engineers developed the firmware in such a way that all the code worked without multithreading. This avoided many problems with the incorrect distribution of processor resources, and this eliminates the impact on sound, which is beneficial for many demanding music lovers.
Because of this, the QA360 QLS interface turned out to be as simple and straightforward as possible: no covers, graphic menus or other high-pixel luxury - everything is built on a clean tex. In general, judging by the reviews of the owners, such an asceticism benefits the gadget: the menu is as informative as possible, the screen is not littered with a blinking, floating or any other animated cover, and the device turns on and off in a matter of seconds.
Nevertheless, for those who like to customize everything for themselves, the developers left several loopholes, such as changing the color of the interface, the rate of scrolling texts and the speed of repetition of pressed buttons. The quick response of the gadget's functionality resembles those times when the CD players worked without any lags, friezes or delays - I pressed the button and enjoy. Many music lovers appreciate the new QLS QA360 precisely for this. Owner reviews are full of expressions "flies", "instantly" and "instantly", so this feature of the player can be noted as a significant plus.
Sound
If you could characterize the sound of the gadget in one expression, then this would be the word "volume". The QA360 QLS model literally draws sound canvases, creating an amazing effect of immersion in the selected composition (assuming high quality recording and headphones).
This effect in most cases is achieved due to enhanced detail and emphasis on high frequencies, but not in the case of our model. The player allows you to feel all the subtleties of the composition, pleasing with a solid and not tiring presentation without decomposing the music into separate sound fragments.
Bass feed
Low output frequencies are perfectly balanced and optimally tuned. Some bass lovers may think that the player is not so saturated with them, but this is just an illusion - the gadget plays out as many low frequencies as there are in the track, neither adding nor adding anything from itself.
Mid frequencies
Mids are incredibly musical. The gadget with the head involves the listener in the composition, revealing all the subtleties and emotions that were embedded in the track. The virtual scene that the device builds, although not the largest, is clearly palpable in order to see the location of the sound sources. This is especially felt on large-scale and dynamic recordings, such as choirs, symphonies or metal.
Also, the clear quality of the mid frequencies can be heard on the recordings of amateur groups, by the type of emotional unplugged compositions. Live concerts and high-quality recordings in their pure form will be fully understood and disclosed by the player, therefore, many professional audio makers have paid attention to this model.
High Frequency Features
High frequencies along with the others also deserve only positive ratings, especially since the composition is saturated in perfect balance: there are enough of them in quantity and they are good in quality. Some owners in their reviews complain about the too thin border of the separation of high frequencies, because while listening to some songs, the high-frequency sounds are slightly mixed, but this effect is noticeable not on all tracks. In addition, some experts believe that the apparent separation of high frequencies negatively affects the overall flow of the composition.
Summarizing
In general, the model came out very successful. Even despite such a large size, for which many owners and a solid price tag, the positive aspects of the gadget more than compensate for the shortcomings.
Distinctive and truly musical sound, incredible speed and excellent level of performance make the QLS player a HiEnd-gadget that will delight a true connoisseur of quality sound.