Akliam PD5

Introduction:-

Hey, guys in today's review I have the Akliam PD5. This is a sidegrade to one of my favourite dongle dac/budget dongle dac The Akliam PD4 Plus.

I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.




The retail price for the Akliam PD5 is around $68


This is a review unit from Akliam, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.


Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006668897990.html?


I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.


So lets get started!

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Review:-



1. The packaging of the PD5 is very simple, it comes in this small box with some papers, the dongle dac, the usb cable and a Usb c to Usb A converter.









2. It uses the AKM AK4493SEQ along with 2*RT6863 OP-Amps



3. These are the same op-amps used in the ibasso dc04 pro






4. It supports upto 768KHz/32Bit and DSD512



5. The weight of the dongle is only 21g and is quite light weight.



6. There is a small glass window in the back which lets us see the components, which is a very nice touch in my opinion






7. It has 60 independent volume steps



8. I have tried the filters in the PD5, but I have heard no discerning difference. There are 6 filters available.






9. I will show a schematic about the button and what it can do, you can read it below






10. From the 3.5mm it can support upto 130mw in high gain and upto 255mw from the 4.4mm in high gain





11. There is a faint led which blinks red and blue when a certain action like changing the gain or switching filters is done



12. Unlike the PD4 Plus the PD5 can go to minimum volume and stay silent.



13. The background of the PD5 is completely pitch black and I heard no hiss when using my most sensitive iems



14. Now before talking sound I want to say one thing, is that it is very hard to judge sound characteristics of a dac. And the sound is clearly dependant on the iem you are using and also comparing it with other dongle dac’s



15. Now the sound of the PD5 contrary to the popular believe of AKM Chips, it is very neutral



16. When I first used the PD5 I was a bit taken aback as to hwo different the sound is from a typical AKM dac chip. Generally the AKM chips are warm sounding but this one sound clean and authorative!




17. When listening to song like crack crack crackle by classy I felt the bass to be a bit more neutral than I usually prefer and it had this really surgical precision about it which I found is more reminiscent of the expensive Fiio ka17



18. The mids of the songs containing male vocals and female vocals from my test list, were exactly I would expect for the iems to sound like.



19. The treble notes of the PD5 are very sharp and precise



20. The technicalities is where it was surprising for me. I found the PD5 to be even more technical that its brother the PD4 plus.



21. It paired fantastically with warmer pair of iems like the Nova, penon fan 2 etc.



22. The soundstage of the PD5 and Imaging was on par with the PD4 plus. In some places I felt it was a bit more precise than the PD4 plus. But that was after severely a-b ing it.



23. Seeing the battery life I got around 15.5 hours with the moondrop chu 2 at around 30% volume via the 3.5 in low gain on my 5000mah smartphone.





24. Comparing to the PD4 plus I think the PD5 is even more detailed and the treble details are even more sharpened. But the PD4 plus has more power than the PD5



25. v/s the Cda M1p the PD5 is very neutral sounding dac, whereas the Colorfly is a warm sounding dongle dac. The Colorfly is also quite heavy and does make it hard to use it daily, but the pd5 is very light.



26. So yeah thats my review of the Akliam PD5. Please do comment if you have any doubts or questions. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day ahead! Bye!

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If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.

Again a big thanks to Akliam for making this review happen.

Have a great day ahead Bye!