Rory Gallagher, Bill Nelson, Bent and others
are all telling me the SMSL is sounding better, warmer, more complete, rounded



Still trying to work out the remote problem....

Battery swap again and then I will.

It's always nice to read about good customer service, Mike, and I'm glad you've got your remote woes sorted now.

I turn the amp itself off but leave it permanently connected to the mains. As you say, for the money they are crazy good. I'm looking forward to hearing what Jules has to say when he gets his.

Hope to have mine in a couple of days or so ...

Yep, it will replace my SMSL A2 - if I connect a DAC to that I can't have remote controlled volume.
With the Q5 I get digital sound and a remote control ... 

I finally got my SMSL Q5 Pro home tonight. It replaces a Caiman (original) DAC and SMSL SA-S3 amp.

It's hard to convey just how small and cute it is. Not so the sound, which is big, detailed and has a surprising turn of bass. Just listening to the bass line in Your Blue Room from Passengers (as posted in Playing Now...) and the Q5 sounds marvellous into my Fostex speakers driven by USB from my PC.

I then increased the voltage in my Paul Hynes PR3 power supply to its maximum (about 15.5V) and swapped it in for the SMPS.  Not a big difference but it sounds even more natural and flowing.  I seem to remember from Paul that there is a fixed resistor I can change for voltage range but I may have to swap the transformer out to reach 19V DC.  For now, 15.5V works fine.

A superb product for a second system, or a primary system on a tight budget.

How much might SMSL amps be affected by cables ?

I have 2 systems with SMSL amps.
Borrowed the QED digital cable from one for the main system on Martin's visit and left it there.

Swapped the Blue Jeans out of one to Coherent RCA and nasty jackplug adaptor into SMSL with TDL speakers.
Not paying so much attention but did it sound smoother, better ?
Difficult as listening to Land of grey and Pink which I love.

Blue jeans digital went to SMSL driving Linn Saras. QED out
Again seemed to be a better sound. Fuller, nicer. Meddle BTW.

Little bit of tiddling around sometime.

I will have to put up with the intense pain of listening to tracks I adore with different cables.
Might not hold the cables up to me ears to listen to them first.

<later>
The issue of Analogue input with RCA and Digital also needs a h ear

Here's a stray thought that's just percolated its way to the top.  It's been demonstrated, at the ASBO, that a Q5 makes a good partner for a Pi.  I was wondering if the addition of an Audioquest Jitterbug to the party, not necessarily in the signal path, but in a spare USB socket on the Pi or the Q5, and/or on the NAS (if you've gone that route) would make any sort of improvement.  Just an idle "what if" for anyone with the urge to experiment a bit.  

TBH my Q5 is not in a system that would show up any improvements unless they were huge, which I wouldn't expect this to be, otherwise, I'd try one of my Jitterbugs in it myself.  I could (and may well try to) bung one in the Pi but that's not the experiment, and I'm buggered if I'm taking stuff out of 3 different systems to build a fourth just to have a bit of a listen.  If someone's building one from scratch though...   

No, same here, I'm using the SPDIF out from the Pi into my Bushmaster at the moment. I'd never come across the iFI until now, but it looks very similar to the Jitterbug. I'll probably sacrifice the Jitterbug currently in one of my PCs and try it in the Pi.