QA360 QLS Player: review, specs, features and reviews

The QLS brand has been filling the audio market for quite some time with high-quality players for competent music lovers. Flagship and other models of the company were highly appreciated by fans of high-quality sound. The only thing that limited their wide-spread distribution is the size of portable models, coupled with the restriction on formats (only WAV). The new QLS QA360LE audio player is devoid of a significant part of the flaws and is a very interesting proposition 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 the functional model from QLS are dated almost 2013, but in our market the gadget appeared about a year ago, gaining popularity every day. This is largely due to the experience of the company, which has accumulated over many years of marketing research.

Let's try to disassemble the details of all the positive and negative sides of the new model, making a mini-review of the QLS QA360 player. Also in the calculation will be taken opinions of experts in this field and reviews of ordinary gadget owners.

Features of the model

One of the main features of the player is the support of a proprietary DSD-format. First, let's answer the question about what kind of format it is. The first such type of storage was developed by the company "Sony" in order to convert analog forms to digital ones. The DSD format itself means storing the signal using density-impulse modulation. The storage depth is typical for most containers (1 bit) with 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 band from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Also in the advantages of the container, you can turn on the ease of converting to an analog form without any errors in decoding along the way. Joint research and further development of the two venerable brands "Sony" and "Philips" led to the fact that this format became the main for the audio standard Super Audio CD.

Many similar players use this format, but with one caveat: before it is played, first converts to a more familiar PCM form, and then goes to the DAC (digital analog converter). The review of the QLS QA360 audio player showed that it does not require additional conversion for playback, so playback excludes any dependence on the firmware or other software algorithms, which is in favor of sound quality.

Other Functions

The gadget, in addition to its basic functions, can also act as a middleware converter, transferring a specific DSD format through 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 - the player, or be a stationary transport-converter. It should be separately noted that the brand offers its user a special console ($ 30) for such cases, which greatly simplifies the use of the gadget as a stationary helper.

QLS QA360 filling

The review showed that the stuffing of the player is very serious. The company tried to achieve quality, so it did not save on the insides: an excellent DAC from the Cirus Logic 4398-series, a good low-pass filter in the face of the AD8620, a volume control PGA2311 (150 steps). You can also add an extremely high-quality amplifier on the ORA architecture together with transistors.

The gadget is built on two separate boards, thereby separating the power of the analog and digital parts, and the transitions between them are filtered qualitatively. The circuit has three separately standing quartz oscillators: DSD, multiplicity 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. Naturally, such advanced stuffing, coupled with a distinctive design, simply can not cost cheap, but the company did not pick up the price tag, as Sony and Apple did, but limited to a budget just above average. On domestic resources, you can buy a player QLS QA360 (price for the spring of 2016) for about 40 thousand rubles.

Contents of delivery

The gadget is packed in a nice black box made of rather 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 under it is a very impressive list of delivery kit. The company clearly made sure that the customer, having bought the gadget, needed nothing more.

After opening the package you will see:

• The card reader;
• SD card for 16 gigabytes;
• USB cable to recharge the device;
• Power Supply;
• Silicone case (if QLS QA 360 Black version was purchased);
• A set of protective films (one already glued to the screen);
• A cloth made of microfiber (a good and rare thing);
• Detailed manual and warranty card.

In general, the package of supplies can be called excellent, in addition, the feedback of 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 outperformed almost all Chinese competing players in this matter, making a nice image of a high-class thing.

The size of the player - this is probably the only stumbling block for many music lovers. In size, it can be compared with similar "bricks" of Chinese production like Hi-Fi Man 901 or iBasso DX series. But unlike the above models, our respondent is made entirely of high-quality aluminum alloy. The gadget has two color solutions: black and silver, and both are good in their own way. As for the quality of the painting, it is also at the proper level: nothing is broken, does not rub off and does not collect fingerprints.

Some owners of the player in their reviews complain about the "brick" of the device, but this moment quickly goes to the background after the user appreciates the control and sound of the gadget.

Control

Although the case has a very unusual shape, the entire structure looks interesting and fresh. The control is built on buttons and switches, there are no sensors or krutilok-backs. The very mechanics of control is pleasant to the touch, and pressing and other switching have a kind of clicks, which gives the device a note of solidity and elitism.

The front panel harmoniously arranged the screen, and extremely high-quality, allowing you to work with QA360 QLS, even in a bright and sunny day. Below you can see seven buttons for working with the basic functionality of the device. Five are responsible for navigational activities, one is responsible for calling the main menu and one is returning to the previous position (when held, it triggers as "Home").

Everyone will understand the management, especially since it is intuitively understandable and does not cause any stupors or difficulties even in the ardent profane in technology. The only "trick" (as reviewed by the QLS QA360 player) is to hold the back button to delete the track (after confirmation), everything else is extremely easy to learn. Judging by the feedback of the owners of the gadget, they did not even have to look at the instruction manual to get started with the device.

Interface

The engineers of the company developed the firmware in such a way that all the code worked without multithreading. This allowed to avoid many problems with the wrong allocation of CPU resources, and this excludes the impact on the sound, which is at the hands of many demanding music lovers.

Because of this, QA360 QLS interface turned out to be as simple and simple as possible: no covers, graphic menus or other high-pixel luxury - everything was built on pure tex. In general, judging by the feedback of the owners, such austerity is beneficial to the gadget: the menu is maximally informative, the screen is not clogged with a flashing, floating or any other animated cover, and the device turns on and off in seconds.

Nevertheless, amateurs to adjust everything for themselves developers left a few loopholes, such as changing the color of the interface, the tempo of scrolling texts and the speed of repetition of pressed buttons. The fast response of the gadget's functionality resembles those times when the CD players worked without any lags, friezes or delays - clicked on the button and enjoy. Many music lovers just for this and appreciate the new QLS QA360. Responses of owners 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 describe the sound of the gadget in one expression, then it would be the word "volume". Model QA360 QLS literally draws soundbanks, creating an amazing effect of immersion in the chosen composition (provided high quality recording and headphones).

This effect is achieved in most cases due to increased 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 the whole and not tiring pitch without laying out the music for separate sound fragments.

Low frequency feed

The low frequencies at the output 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 as many low frequencies as there are in the track, neither adding nor adding anything from itself.

Medium Frequency

The middle frequencies are incredibly musical. The gadget with the head involves the listener in the composition, revealing all the subtleties and emotions that were laid in the track. The virtual scene, which the device builds, though not the largest, but clearly palpable, in order to see the location of sound sources. This is especially felt on large-scale and dynamic records, like choruses, symphonies or metal.

Also, the explicit quality of mid-range frequencies can be heard on the records of amateur bands, by the type of emotional unplugged songs. Live concerts and high-quality recording in its pure form will be fully understood and disclosed by the player, so many professional sound engineers paid attention to this model.

High frequency features

High frequencies along with the others also deserve only positive assessments, especially since the saturation of the composition is in perfect balancing: there are enough of them and they are good in quality. Some owners in their reviews complain about the too thin border between high frequencies, because while listening to some songs, the RF sounds mix a little, but this effect is not noticeable on all tracks. In addition, some experts believe that a clear separation of high frequencies negatively affects the overall delivery of the composition.

Summarizing

In general, the model came out very successful. Even in spite of such a large size, for which many owners and a solid price tag are hating it, the positive side of the gadget more than compensates for the shortcomings.

Distinctive and truly musical sound, incredible speed and excellent performance make the QLS player a HiEnd gadget that will delight the real connoisseur of quality sound.