Pros: Transparent natural sound, solid build quality, great battery life, SD card support, lots of ports including optical, remote control support.
Cons: DC charging connector, no USB DAC, no EQ, no artwork display, a little bulky
Before I start my review I would like to Thank QLS for providing me with a review sample in exchange for my honest opinion. http://www.qlshifi.com/en/wzcapi/qa360.htm
Also despite my 4-star rating, as a professional DAP it deserves all 5 stars, but I had to take one off because it lacks a number of "consumer" DAP features.
Some of you will be surprised that after a number of my previous reviews where I complained about DAPs with simplified GUIs and bulkier designs, now I’m going to praise a product with similar limitations that I found to be irrelevant in comparison when looking at overall sound and build quality that left a remarkable impression with me. I don’t have to repeat myself going into details about today’s saturated DAP market, but I’m starting to notice one interesting trend. Some companies direct their focus on consumer appeal where GUI, form factor, and fancy controls take a priority over sound quality. On the other hand, you have companies that already build their reputation with full size HiFi systems and now trying to scale it down to a portable footprint. QLS (Shen Zhen QLS Electronic Technology Co.) is a perfect example of such company where they took design experience from their full size QA660/860 HiFi digital audio systems and shrunk it down to QA360 portable HiFi lossless DAP. Here is what I found after spending a few weeks testing this portable audio player.
QA360 arrived in a typical premium packaging with an exterior minimalistic sleeve and a black sturdy gift-box underneath. Inside you will find a dense foam cutout holding QA360 securely in place to prevent any damage during shipment. Once you take it out, you can’t help but notice how solid it feels in your hand, as well as 260g of weight this DAP brings to the table. But don't be fooled by its heft, it still has a manageable ergonomics with a slimmed down top edges and side grooves with recessed buttons.
With QA360 out, you get access to a box with accessories that reveals a few interesting clues about this DAP. First of all, you see a wall power charger (5V/2A) with a proprietary DC connector, so you know right away there is no typical micro-usb charging port. In addition, QLS also includes USB cable with the same DC connector so you can charge it from your smartphone usb wall charger. It’s not uncommon for some other DAPs to use proprietary charging connector, but in reality everybody switched to a common micro-usb port which supports 2A charging. It’s not the end of the world, just inconvenience, though I'm glad you get two charging cables as a spare or when traveling. Also, keep in mind this is a common DC connector which you can buy easily on eBay.
In addition to cables, you also find an extra screen protector (one is already applied) along with a cleaning cloth. A silicone skin case is included, more about it later, as well as a card reader. You will be surprised, but the card reader is for SD card, not the usual micro-SD card – this reveals another important clue about QA360 supporting full size SD cards which you can get cheaper and with higher capacity in comparison to micro-SD. As a matter of fact, QLS included a genuine Sandisk 16GB Ultra 40mb/s SD card, loaded with a lot of hi-res audio files. There was also a comprehensive User Guide which I found to be very helpful. One suggestion I do have for QLS is to include a pdf link to User Guide on their webpage - it will be useful for both current users and potential future buyers.
Unboxing and accessories.
I know for some people a protection case is not a necessity, just like a lot of us carry their smartphones naked. When it comes to QA360, I like how solid a cold metal frame feels in your hand, but at the same time you have to be realistic – it’s not the slimmest design and grip enhancement is very beneficial. This silicone form fitted case with all proper cutouts does a great job without obstructing anything. It leaves the whole front panel open, and provides adequate access to all the ports, including SD card. Plus, I don’t have to worry about QA360 sliding off any slippery or glass surface.
Silicone case.
As I mentioned before, design of QA360 is solid, with a nice weight to it, and some noticeable bulk. Without a doubt it’s classified as a portable player, but I can’t call it pocket friendly. I do have to admit that I got a bit spoiled using latest X3ii/X5ii and AK120ii, so anything outside would be bulky. But for people who like to carry their DAP stacked with a portable amp, this will not be any different in weight or thickness. Don’t want you to be discouraged because it’s still manageable, and for a better reference I have comparison pictures to other DAPs further in my review.
The casing of QA360 is a solid metal construction, no flex or bend, and black surface finish is scratch resistant, like the paint was baked into it. Top half of the front is allocated for a large display, measuring 2.4" diagonally across its rectangular shape. I'm not sure what type of display they used, but it has excellent contrast and visibility even under the sun. There is no artwork display or fancy GUI, but it's large enough to make all the relevant info visible in clear fonts. You do have a set of controls to change cursor color, main color, UI color, UI style, as well as brightness - so there is a level of customization, but nothing fancy. This is one of those cases where "less is more" makes a perfect sense, and I was pleased with a large display size where everything was easy to see in one shot.
Bottom half of the front panel is where you will find control buttons, 5 navigation buttons with 4 directional and center one for Enter/Play/Pause and 2 more buttons on the side for Menu and Back keys. All 7 buttons have the same shape, metal, with a nice tactile response, perfect spacing and placement for finger control without even looking, and functionality labeling etched next to them instead of being printed on the buttons. Also, the top front panel has 4 hex corner screws for easy access to disassemble the DAP. I would NOT recommend this, unless if you know what you are doing! QLS website has a detailed view of both sides of 2 printed wiring boards (pwb) used in the design where they cleverly partitioned power and filtering components on one side of the first board and DAC with other associated circuits on the other side of that board. The 2nd pwb has display screen with button contacts on one side, and processor and associated circuits on the other side. Considering clean layout of the components and clear routing of the connecting signals, I can see this was done by a professional team with a circuit design experience.
Top of the QA360 has a single IR port where you plug in optional IR receiver to control this DAP with a remote control. I will talk more about it later, but want to mention this add-on option worth every penny of $30 upgrade!!! The right side has volume up/down buttons, recessed with a body so you don't hit it accidentally. Then, you have a lock slider to prevent front panel buttons from being activated when screen is off. After time out you can still control play/pause and skip, so being able to lock that when in your pocket is definitely a good idea. Power button slider is below lock slider, and you also get a pinhole led indicator (red when charging, green when done). Having a power and lock buttons as sliders prevents from accidental powering up or locking the controls, and also creates a physical override if OS is stuck. Btw, turn on time was within a few seconds! Finally, left side has SD card slot with an easy access to remove the card.
Bottom of the DAP has all the ports, starting with 3.5mm Headphone (HO), 3.5mm shared Line Out (LO) and Optical port, Digital Coax port, and 5V DC power port – definitely a complete selection of ports, especially optical one which is typically found in high end DAPs. Also, I know a lot of people prefer a separate LO and Coax ports for use with their external setups. Furthermore, in a Menu setting you can disable Coax and Optical outputs to preserve the battery life, another very thoughtful design idea. My only comment here is that I wish HO would be at the top instead of the bottom. Since I'm typically listening to music when relaxing on the couch with DAP in upright position, when using QA360 I have to be careful with straight headphone connectors to make sure I don't bend the cable. This is not an issue with angled headphone connectors, and actually VERY convenient when QA360 is in my pocket with HO connector facing up and easy access to front panel buttons located closer to headphone port side.
Design details.
As I already mentioned, GUI interface is minimalistic, but due to a large screen with a clear layout of all the info - it works VERY well! Screen is partitioned in small blocks with info describing playback mode, volume level, battery indicator (wish they would add % number for more accuracy), type of file and corresponding bit rate, scrolling song name, folder name, current position and a total song playback time, play/pause icon, track number within a folder with a total number of songs in that folder, and track number relative to a total number of indexed tracks on SD card. With access to display config, I setup color scheme to my liking, but don't expect a high level of customization beyond that. From this main screen, when you press and hold Play/Enter button you have an option of adding the track to your Favorite folder/list. Pressing and holding Back button gives you an option to delete the track.
Also, don't expect cover art display, one of the limitations. Either if you consider this as advantage or disadvantage - just a matter of personal preference since in reality majority of our listening time is spent with screen-off to preserve battery life. And speaking of that, mp3 and FLAC playtime was consistent at around 11hours of playback. According to QLS, battery life will go down to 7-8 hours during the DSD playback which is expected. This indicates that SW code was optimized depending on audio format you are playing. As a matter of fact, QLS describes their OS build on the single threaded software framework where during playback CPU resources are allocated and optimized to a single task of reading and decoding of that particular song. And you can be rest assured that most of the formats in 16bit/24bit and 44.1kHz to 192kHz, as well as 1bit DSD64 will be supported (MP3, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, APE, ALAC, CUE, DSD, etc.).
Now, moving on to the Setting screen, it's activated (and de-activated) by pressing M-button. In there you get a plethora of setting options to customize playback with Play Mode and Play Range, Pause or Resume track on start up, Gap between the tracks, the track name scrolling time delay (in the main screen display), Managing digital outputs (on/off for optical and coax), Filter select (fast/slow), Direct DSD playback, a series of Volume adjustment options to fix the setting or cap the max setting or to allow free adjustment, L/R balance, different color adjustment options for the main screen, screen off and shutdown options, key speed (very useful for fast forward when you hold L/R keys to adjust how fast it will go), and last but not least - language selection and system info.
Back button brings up a file list with all of your stored songs, folders, sub-folders, and Favorite folder. The playback is through folders, so it will continue once you reach the last song in the folder. Since SD card came preloaded with a lot of hi-res files, some of them Chinese and other covers sang in English, I moved all of these directories to a separate folder. When clicking Back button, every folder and sub-folder was displayed in one flat list with sub-folder prefix which really helps to sort songs/artists/albums if you sub-divide everything by alphabet through letter folders.
GUI interface.
Before I get into sound analysis and comparison to other DAPs, I want to mention about Remote Control option which I found to be very useful in my opinion. This is one of the things that sets QA360 apart from regular "consumer" DAP and puts it into category of professional portable audio players. If I understand correctly, feature of the remote control and the remote control itself is carried over from their QA660 and QA860 HiFi system designs. This remote is like no other I have seen before. Yes, the main body of it is plastic and buttons are plastic, but the top of it is a thick aluminum plate - solid construction just like QA360 itself!
Since remote was obviously designed to cover all the functionality of QLS bigger systems, not every button is implemented, but a lot of them still work, including the following. OK/Play - to play/pause, Up/down (directional menu) and Skip next/prev - skips to next song, F+/F- - jump/skip between songs, Menu/Back - the same as on the DAP, << and >> buttons - fast forward and back through a track, F1 - adds to favorites, F0 - turns screen on/off, Light - dims and brightens the screen, Vol +/- - adjusts the volume, Mute - mutes the sound.
I'm sure some of you might be wondering, why do you even need a remote control?!? If you are planning to use it as DAP to carry in your pocket, there is obviously no need for it. But in a situation where you want to use QA360 as a source to drive your desktop amp and have a connection with either your favorite pair of cans with 3m cable "leash" or maybe speakers - now you can control the playback from a distance without getting off your chair. You can even control the volume if you connect HO instead of LO.
With remote control.
Sound analysis.
Now we get to the main attraction of the review - the sound! I typically look for neutral sound signature in DAP, letting headphones to shape/color the sound. With QA360 this neutral smooth signature with a little bit of brighter airy characteristics was taken to another level of a pleasantly transparent natural dynamic sound. It's like QA360 was breathing a new life into a sound, effortlessly flowing through the headphones. What I found especially interesting, QA360 uses CS4398 DAC which I have heard in a number of my other DAPs, and still it sounds different due to QAs unique amplifier section implementation.
Soundstage was spacious and airy, though I did find it to have more depth than width. The sound felt more out in space (due to depth) and very lightweight and organic, with a dark background without any hint of hissing. In particularly, bass was very well controlled and came out with a nice rumble (relative to headphones I used for listening), good extension down to sub-bass, though it wasn't as aggressive. Mids were smooth, natural, transparent, airy, and melodic. Treble also had a great extension, not harsh or grainy (the same about upper mids). I know I already mentioned "natural" many times, but that's how it felt, no matter if I was playing tracks with acoustic or electronic instruments, or if I was listening to male or female vocals.
Here is how it sounds with specific headphones at corresponding volume matched sound level (150 based on max volume setting).
R70x (120/150) - drives these 470 ohm cans with authority, natural, transparent airy spacious sound. Nice bass rumble, smooth organic sound.
EL-8C (109/150) - drives these planar magnetic cans without a problem, very spacious round sound (expands in width and depth, though limited by width of 360), soft polite bass (doesn't extend too deep), clean detailed mids (slightly forward, bright, fast, a touch of metallic sheen in upper mids), and a nice crisp treble.
MSR7 (93/150) - fast and snappy (great example of PRaT), a little bright (upper mids/treble), very nice bass rumble with a snappy tight mid-bass punch. Spacious sound.
B3P1 (105/150) - great pair up that brings up the best in Havi with their amazing soundstage, low end extension, neutral detailed mids, extended crisp treble.
UE600 (73/150) - probably the best pair-up I heard with these IEMs so far, zero hiss (always use these for my hiss test due to their high sensitivity), crunchy low end rumble, tight mid-bass punch, smooth detailed mids, extended crisp treble, excellent soundstage expansion.
W60 (77/150) - warm lush smooth sound, deep sub-bass, nice mid-bass punch, lower mids a bit warmer and thicker in comparison, upper mids smooth and clear, smooth treble. Spacious soundstage.
Pro 50 (77/150) - warm punchy smooth sound, deep sub-bass, strong mid-bass punch, brighter upper mids, great treble extension, and spacious soundstage.
Putting QA360 against other DAPs was another interesting test. First of all, from the pictures you can see how it looks in a contrast. If you are looking for the slimmest and the most pocket friendly DAP, QA360 might not satisfy this requirement. But if you're used to a portable amp strapped to a back of your DAP, QA360 will be a great alternative. To be honest, you don't even need an amp with this DAP. I tried it with FiiO E12A and Cayin C5 and found: w/E12A - very transparent sound characteristic, but some of the airiness is toned down, and width slightly reduced, with w/C5 - carbon copy transparent sound, even the same airy characteristics, only slight improvement in sound width. Thus you can definitely live without external amp to drive headphones directly, from your most sensitive IEMs, to your high impedance cans or even some planar magnetic headphones.
Next to some other DAPs in my review collection, here is what I found:
qa360 vs n6 - N6 sounds a little more aggressive, faster, with sharper edges, while qa360 sounds smoother, more natural, organic, and laidback. N6 has more depth/width in soundstage.
qa360 vs x5ii - X5ii sounds more aggressive, faster, with sharper edges. 360 has a better controlled bass, sound is smoother, more natural. Makes X5ii sounds a bit "digital" in comparison. Soundstage is actually similar.
qa360 vs lp5 - LP5 has a very similar level of smoothness and some airiness, but adds another level of detail retrieval, soundstage has slightly better width/depth.
qa360 vs ak120ii - 120ii is a little more aggressive, has the same level of warmth, similar level of details, soundstage is a little wider but depth is the same.
In general, these are all great DAPs which I enjoy a lot, but I felt like none of them offer the same level of natural smooth transparency and airiness as QA360 does.
Comparison to LP5, N6, X5ii, AK120ii.
Conclusion.
If I could summarize this DAP in one sentence, it would be: This DAP is about professional use rather than consumer eye-candy design. QA360 is all about playback quality and straight forward controls, rather than a slick design, fancy GUI, and unique hardware controls. It does miss some critical features such as USB DAC functionality, EQ control, artwork display, and there is no micro-USB charging port. But despite these negatives, it makes up in a solid industrial quality build and design, a lot of connection ports including optical one, support of SD card which is more cost/capacity efficient, and a unique IR remote control option. Of course, sound quality is excellent as well, and I felt addicted to it, spending a lot of time doing extended listening when I was planning just to do a short sound check. I personally think this DAP is not for everybody; definitely not for those who are looking to get a compact lightweight DAP for a basic everyday listening. I can see it more in use with a desktop setup where you would like an option of integrating it as an audio source with a remote control, and at the same time being able to disconnect all your cables, connect headphones directly, and take it with you on a journey!
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