iBasso DX100 Reference DAP Impression

[behwatch]

kudos to you for owning a stax 009 rig...
but I youtubed that jap "song".. no offence but that doesnt do your stax justice. lol.

Wat other genres do you listen to?

That jap song is tough when miku sings each word within 0.5 secs and not many players, rigs can catch those words clearly. Yup the words are distinguishable from each other with the right rigs.

I listen to Charlotte Church and JPop especially Ayumi thats why vocals are important to me and the balance from the bass to the highs must be right for me to hear everything.

 

[Randius]

I listen to Charlotte Church and JPop especially Ayumi thats why vocals are important to me and the balance from the bass to the highs must be right for me to hear everything.

I also listen to JPop and that includes Ayumi as well. Are there any tracks from her or any songs from any other artiste that you find to be less than satisfactory when listening on the DX100?

 

[alamakazam_]

powerful spending power

 

[chesterqw]

bo wei gong...

 

[behwatch]

I also listen to JPop and that includes Ayumi as well. Are there any tracks from her or any songs from any other artiste that you find to be less than satisfactory when listening on the DX100?

The vocals is too far in the background... Cant hear any singers clearly due to the instruments and bass masking the vocals in all the songs. Maybe it is my ability to catch vocal lousier and bass louder than other ppl.... You can try "Party Queen" by Ayumi. At 1.39, the pouring sound should be coming from behind far right...

My audio journey comes from SF5pro > CD900ST > K702 > JH13 to SR-009. Most of them are vocal emphasized with large soundstage... My amp+dac is from Pico amp+dac to Fostex HP-A3.

Even when I go from my Z1070 to dock line out with Pico amp, I find the soundstage of Pico shrink half a size. So comparing with DX100 I find it is the same experience. But Pico is a forward vocal amp so I forgive its smaller soundstage as its dac has better soundstage than its amp.

 

[dqwong]

My dx100 just came back from repairs in china. Ibasso has very good turn around time, they even replaced my badly scratched dented alunimum case for free.

Must say the new 1.17 firmware is really responsive given the ridiculous amount of songs I have.

So far the sound quality of the new firmware sounds good to my ears.

Guess this dap will be relegated to become my in car audio player.

 

[behwatch]

My dx100 just came back from repairs in china. Ibasso has very good turn around time, they even replaced my badly scratched dented alunimum case for free.

Must say the new 1.17 firmware is really responsive given the ridiculous amount of songs I have.

So far the sound quality of the new firmware sounds good to my ears.

Guess this dap will be relegated to become my in car audio player.

Wow thats really good service

 

[chesterljh]

honestly, i tried a few DX100 and still feel colorfly C4 has still the best sound over the Ibasso. batt life especially for the DX100 is so much shorter.

DX100 is more lag than the colorfly C4.

i can only see the advantage being i can surf net with the DX100. other than that Colorfly C4 is still better and alot cheaper than the DX100

just my 2 cents worth

 

[chesterljh]

Congrats. You guys just saved yourselves a lot of money since DX100 sounds only average and likely the other DAPs such as HM-801 and C4 are not gonna sound any better than the Z1070 too. I agree on the laidback vocal but not the rest. Bass muddy and not clear on DX100? That totally makes me wonder what tracks were you guys listening to and the earphones you all are using.

i disagree that the C4 is worst than the Z1070. i believe you havent tried it before. its recommended that you try it before commenting on this.

my honest opinion is C4 is way better than DX100. i personally have not tried Z1070 but u should try it.

 

[Randius]

i disagree that the C4 is worst than the Z1070. i believe you havent tried it before. its recommended that you try it before commenting on this.

my honest opinion is C4 is way better than DX100. i personally have not tried Z1070 but u should try it.

And in my "honest" opinion (and I had tried the HM-801 and C4 before getting DX100), C4, HM-801 and DX100 are all about the same level of performance, none of which really outshines the others by a huge margin. They have their own strengths and weaknesses and suit different people's preferences. Frankly speaking, I am not the least bit interested in your "honest" opinion because that is coming from your own preference and I consider that as biased, just as biased as mine for DX100.

If behwatch thinks that the Z1070 is better than DX100 (and likely C4 and HM-801 as well since I THINK they are on the same level), that's completely fine but what he commented on the bass and sound stage, contradicts what other owners of DX100 and myself are hearing and thus I am wondering what tracks did he listen to and the equipment he is pairing with the DAP. A pity that you can only interpret that I am belittling the C4 and get so defensive about it.

 

[nekatrall]

how to argue
he havent tried the z1070

btw all have what we call the house sound signature

personally i love my cowon for its flat freq
and more importantly the battery life
tempted by dx100 but its just the battery life that puts me off

 

[dqwong]

I guess the reason why some may think the Z1070 sounds better could be due to the DSP effects present(Clearbass,ClearStereo and etc) on the Sony.


From my own test if I switch off all the effects, then the Z1070 just sound pretty much like any of the other Wolfson based DAC like the Cowon / Ipod Gen 5 / Iphone3GS. It's abit more cold and analytical.

On another note, I am hoping that when Apple refresh their Ipod, they could use something from ESS or AKM... The Crystal DAC used now isn't really good enough for (my)audiophile standards as there's still some audible HF/grainy noise in the strings/piano music.

 

[angel99999]

IMO there's no need to compare as much.
IEM are generally very easy to drive and adding a amp to the chain doesn't do much improvements as opposed to full sized cans.

 

[d5855n]

In my own experience, I tried the colorfly before I tried the DX100. As mentioned earlier, I did a comparison of colorfly with iHiFi 812V2. I wasn't really impressed with the performance of the colorfly in comparison with the 812V2. To me it didn't have much difference and so I decided to stick with my 812V2. On that day, I didn't have a chance to test the Hifiman 601 or 603 as some others were testing it, and there was no stock for 801. However when I did a comparison with DX100 and the 812V2, the performance of DX100 over the 812V2 was immediately obvious. Thus I made the decision to get the DX100. The relatively short battery life (as compared with Sony or Cowon) is not a problem for me as I don't use the DX100 whole day while I am out on the street, but rather as a music player while I am traveling on plane or train etc and in the hotel rooms when I am on business trips.

 

[Promethus]

Any idea if it's possible to get the DX100 charger plug that is usb terminated on the other end so I can use it with my Yoobao portable charger?

 

[d5855n]

Any idea if it's possible to get the DX100 charger plug that is usb terminated on the other end so I can use it with my Yoobao portable charger?

How many volt is the Yoobao charger? If I am not wrong, portable charger usually is 5v while the DX100 is at 12v. Not sure if it can be charged?

 

[LovelyDinner]

How many volt is the Yoobao charger? If I am not wrong, portable charger usually is 5v while the DX100 is at 12v. Not sure if it can be charged?

Yoobao and New trent portable chargers usually have wall socket output

 

[Promethus]

Mine is the 11200mah ver. One of the port is capable of charging ipad, galaxy tab. I thought it can charge dx100 as well... lol

 

[d5855n]

Mine is the 11200mah ver. One of the port is capable of charging ipad, galaxy tab. I thought it can charge dx100 as well... lol

Bro, 11200mah is great. But if I am not wrong, the voltage is important. What is the voltage for ipad and galaxy tab? Any bro/sis here can verify please?

 

[d5855n]

Hi all, while I am surfing this site and writing this, am listening to my DX100 with TF10. Now I don't find this such great anymore as compared to when I just got them. Why? Ever since I got the HiFiman HE400 that is. The sound of the HE400 is really enjoyable. Haven't found such great enjoyment with my music for a long time, since I started traveling very frequently one year back. Now my home system is kind of like white elephant... But to listen to the HE400, I need to adjust the gain to the highest, and volume at around 190-200 in order to enjoy the good sound. I can't wait to go back and use the HE400 on my home system. Another good thing is, while traveling, I can still purchase/download great music of high-res from website such as Linn, Presto Classical etc...