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Author Topic: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's (iBasso DX50)  (Read 12981 times)

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DigitalFreak

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Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's (iBasso DX50)
« on: September 28, 2013, 07:08:56 AM »
Recently, after purchasing an iBasso DX50 and being shocked how stupidly buggy it was I got my trusty old iPhone video cam working and decided to make my feelings public concerning the piss poor user experience these so called audiophile DAP makers provide. Overall, most people have been supportive of my views while others who feel I'm being to harsh have chosen to either say nothing or try and discuss it cordially on a head-fi thread I created for the video. Of coarse the fan boys have shown up here and there and I was forced to delete some rather ignorant and insulting comments from my YouTube video thread but for the most part they seem to have chosen to thankfully STFU. I'm guessing it's because the video has garnered so much support which was a big surprise for me and in a span of only a week I've generated over 600 views and have had an additional 23 users subscribe to my channel. Considering my YouTube channel is a piddly little channel those numbers are quite huge for me. Thought you guys would maybe like a look at me letting my hair down and saying my piece in not so candid fashion. Links of the YouTube video and the head-fi thread I created are listed below. Feel free to comment on youTube or here. I'm rather interested in what some of you guys might think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EKAp1yZDhM

http://www.head-fi.org/t/682750/the-sad-state-of-the-so-called-audiophile-dap-market
« Last Edit: December 19, 2013, 08:56:26 AM by purrin »
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Marvey

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2013, 03:10:07 PM »
I've never cared for any of the iBasso stuff. It seems their stuff always looks good on paper, but once in my hands, they either sound like shit, don't work right, or both. As to why they've been successful at selling shit, I have no idea. I'm sure the HF hype machine and fanboys who haven't used anything better have something to do with that.

Cough, cough. iBasso DX100? Remember that one? Why would the DX50 be even better? (They could improve the DX100 x3 and it would still suck.) Anax managed to brick the DX100 by not doing anything. Slow and strange UI. It also sounded like ass, unless one's idea of high resolution was "ESS Sabre" treble.

Well anyways, thanks for the impressions and words of caution. I know a few folks here were trying to decide AK120 vs. DX50.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 03:16:49 PM by purrin »
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donunus

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2013, 03:15:35 PM »
^ I don't like Ibasso either. The amps I've tried from them seem to have a cheapish consumerish sound. Even cheaper fiio's sound better overall IMO
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Kunlun

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2013, 03:51:27 PM »
How are the newer ipods and ipod-touches?

I have an old 5.5th gen which I pair with an amp.
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DigitalFreak

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2013, 04:31:00 PM »
Quote from: purrin on September 28, 2013, 03:10:07 PM
I've never cared for any of the iBasso stuff. It seems their stuff always looks good on paper, but once in my hands, they either sound like shit, don't work right, or both. As to why they've been successful at selling shit, I have no idea. I'm sure the HF hype machine and fanboys who haven't used anything better have something to do with that.

Cough, cough. iBasso DX100? Remember that one? Why would the DX50 be even better? (They could improve the DX100 x3 and it would still suck.) Anax managed to brick the DX100 by not doing anything. Slow and strange UI. It also sounded like ass, unless one's idea of high resolution was "ESS Sabre" treble.

Well anyways, thanks for the impressions and words of caution. I know a few folks here were trying to decide AK120 vs. DX50.

Hi Marv, thanks for your input. Believe it or not the DX50 isn't overly harsh sounding and the treble regions seem to be acceptably well behaved making it a not half bad sounding DAP for it's price point. I just wish iBasso hadn't acted like idiots and taken their time with the FW instead of shipping the freaking thing out all buggy. I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to think the audiophile DAP market is nothing more then a lot of bullshit and the companies are only there to con as much money at they can out of your pocket while providing as little as possible in return. I'm going to exchange my DX50 and hope iBasso follows through on the FW updates. I know I'm taking a chance but I'm getting tired of walking around with a three piece brick in my backpack and always having to be super careful I don't drop or bang my CLAS rig against something. I've tried the iPod with lone amp route and although it's a good improvement I'm still left wanting due to the crap iPod DAC. Why can't these freaking companies invest a few extra months into their products and actually release a player that functions as advertised? Boggles my mind the amount of people out there who can't admit the audiophile DAP market is full of duds. It also boggles the mind how some people like to toss the words troll and basher at you for just speaking the truth.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 04:37:41 PM by DigitalFreak »
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The science of properly driving headphones is a mystery for me. For starters where the hell is the steering wheel?
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MuppetFace

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2013, 04:49:26 PM »
From a sonic standpoint I didn't think the DX100 was that bad actually, and I'm no fan of sharp overly processed treble. What set it apart from other all-in-ones was the ridiculous range of attenuation; you could literally drive anything from sensitive IEMs all the way up to HiFiMan orthos without any hiss or lack of power at either end, which is not without its appeal (mainly office listening rather than taking it on-the-go). I remember preferring its sound to the HiFiMan DAPs at the time, at least.

LOL. I actually like the "brick" look, too. There's something pleasing about bulky rectangular electronics like the original Gameboy or Sony's older Mini Disc Walkman. HiFiMan's newest HM901 model is alluring to me because of that, plus I like the textured parts that look like the grips on older cameras and all the mechanical parts --- buttons, dials, etc. Sadly the new HM-700 series looks like it's going for some super slick design that loses all of these charms.

Touch screens just bother me on a fundamental level, the idea of smearing the surface you use for viewing. The Astell & Kern players really nailed the UI in that regard, implementing the scroll dial on the side for finer adjustments while maintaining the core convenience of a touch screen. The DX100 was a pain in the ass to use for a number of reasons though, and the software was ridiculously buggy. iBasso patched it a bunch of times, but it seemed to fix some things while breaking others. iRiver and Sony seem much more stable.

As far as sound quality, usability, and form factor go, I really haven't found anything I prefer over Sony's Walkman line. I've got A and F series models, and I'm looking forward to getting their anniversary model, both from a practical standpoint and as a sentimental artifact. I may pick up the AK120 at some point, but I keep holding back due to the possibility of something better coming out in the interim.
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ader

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2013, 05:00:37 PM »
Quote from: purrin on September 28, 2013, 03:10:07 PM
I've never cared for any of the iBasso stuff. It seems their stuff always looks good on paper, but once in my hands, they either sound like shit, don't work right, or both. As to why they've been successful at selling shit, I have no idea. I'm sure the HF hype machine and fanboys who haven't used anything better have something to do with that.

I remember ibasso being one of the most hyped brands on the forum when I first started lurking (late 2008-early 2009).  I haven't heard anything of theirs personally, so I won't comment on whether or not it was just, but find the atmospheric change interesting, is all.

-Edit-

My "favorite" buggy DAP issue was how hard it was to actually power off the HM801.  Most of the time holding down its power button would keep the battery draining for some reason.  Like, I'd "turn it off", put it in my jacket pocket before going into work, then go back to it and find it's a thousand degrees and the battery's almost dead.  After awhile I just started pulling the battery out every time I had to turn it off.  Fucking terrible.

It may have also blown out the woofers in my first pair of ES5's; not sure if it was that, or if they just came that way.  This was with the GAME card, which was specially made for IEMs.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 05:12:04 PM by ader »
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burnspbesq

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2013, 06:46:00 PM »
Quote from: Kunlun on September 28, 2013, 03:51:27 PM
How are the newer ipods and ipod-touches?

I have an old 5.5th gen which I pair with an amp.

I think they're pretty good.  The 5th-gen iPods with the Wolfson chips are still widely considered to be the best iPods ever in terms of SQ (and I have one, and it's nice), but they're limited to 44.1/16.  In contrast, all the current iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touch can do 48/24, and in my view each successive generation of Cirrus DAC/amp chipsets is a little better than the one before.  I use my iPod Touch with a Fostex HP-P1, and the combination is very nice.

I went back to the iPod Touch, and bought the Fostex, after three months with a AK 100.  I really liked the sound of the AK 100 with UERMs, but the interface drove me nuts.

Like MF, I'm really intrigued by the anniversary Walkman, and will certainly give it a listen when it shows up at Sony Style in my local mall.  It's hard for me to get my head around the price of the AK 120.  If the rumors of 128 gig models in the next release of iPad and iPad Mini turn out to be true, I will be all over that.

The other thing I'm thinking about is a WiFi drive.  It's one more thing to carry, but if it works well you've added 500 gigs to a terabyte to the storage capacity of your iOS device, and a 1 terabyte portable is what we all want, right?
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DaveBSC

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2013, 07:15:41 PM »
Quote from: ader on September 28, 2013, 05:00:37 PM
My "favorite" buggy DAP issue was how hard it was to actually power off the HM801.  Most of the time holding down its power button would keep the battery draining for some reason.  Like, I'd "turn it off", put it in my jacket pocket before going into work, then go back to it and find it's a thousand degrees and the battery's almost dead.  After awhile I just started pulling the battery out every time I had to turn it off.  Fucking terrible.

I've never had that issue with mine, never has it once required a battery pull. The UI is extremely basic but perfectly workable, not that different from the early days of AA powered MP3 players from iRiver and Cowon with "+" button interfaces. What bugs me about the 801 is its handling of high res. 24/48 is very iffy, and 24/88 almost never works. 24/96 usually works, but handling FLAC decoding in 24/96 seems to take 100% of its little CPU, and it slows the interface to an absolute crawl.

It did take them a few FW revisions to work out all of the kinks though, and AFAIK you still need to use a Class 4 SD card only, and some may still cause problems. Luckily I picked the right brand. I don't really travel with mine, I use a Cowon S9 for that, so the big brick shape doesn't bother me at all.

The S9 is actually a very interesting little player. The UI is completely Flash based. In typical Cowon fashion the default is beyond horrid, but you can replace all of it with pretty much whatever you want. It's kind of like Foobar in that respect, it can look basically however you want it to look. Mine is setup as a combination of multiple home screens with widgets ala Android, with a playback screen that is a direct clone of an iPod.

I'm most interested in the HM-901, and to a much lesser extent the AK120. Neither has my ideal DAC, but you take what you can get. The new Sony is very interesting and will probably have a much more usable UI than any of the others, but I'm still not in love with the idea of a high-end Android based DAP, at least standard Android. It's high latency and kind of does random things at random times in terms of background processes. It really wasn't made with that sort of use in mind. From what I understand the Sony also may not have the muscle to drive high-current low impedance cans or very high impedance cans.
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ader

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Re: Check Out My Rant Concerning Audiophile DAP's
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2013, 08:10:17 PM »
*shrug* Mine was probably just screwed up.

If my lack of commentary on such didn't make it clear, I thought the UI was fine. 
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