Seldom without a computer of some sort since graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1978, I have been a full-time Linux user since 2005, a full-time Solaris and SunOS user from 1986 through 2005, and UNIX System V user before that.
On the technical side of things, I have spent a great deal of my career as a consultant, doing data analysis and visualization; especially spatial data analysis. I have a substantial amount of related programming experience, using C, awk, Java, Python, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and lately Groovy. I'm looking at Julia with great interest. I have also built a few desktop and web-based applications, primarily in Java and lately in Grails with lots of JavaScript on the front end and PostgreSQL as my database of choice.
Aside from that, I spend a considerable amount of time writing proposals, technical reports and - of course - stuff on https://www.opensource.com.
Authored Comments
Scott, you are most welcome! I hope you enjoy the madness that is also known as "curating music tags"...
Harish Pillay, thanks for your note!
My son has a somewhat older Fiio (not in the house to check the model number), but I've never really carefully listened to any of their products, so all I can talk about are the features, not the sound. Said that, it seems to me the Q1 is serving a different market than the Fulla.
First of all, it contains a battery, so it can be used together with a phone or tablet to listen and to augment the power. The Fulla contains an auxiliary power INPUT which can be fed by a cell or tablet charger, in case its signal source is not capable of providing enough power. Given that, the Q1 sounds like a good idea for those long flights where the phone's battery might not last, whereas if one were to use a Fulla for that, they would need to be able to access a USB charging port at their seat.
Second, the Fulla has both fixed and variable line-level outputs as well as the headphone out; so given a set of powered speakers or a power amplifier, its variable line out can drive those; and given an integrated amp or receiver or pre-amp, its fixed level out can drive those.
Third, the Q1 has a "bass boost" switch, if that's useful.
Aside from that, the Fulla uses a pretty high-end DAC chipset, the AKM4390, which is seen in lots of pricier gear, and provides about 2X the power into 32 ohms.
And not insignificantly, the Fiio is 2/3 the price of the Fulla.