Do you need an audiophile grade MP3 player when you already have an audiophile grade portable amp? - Page 4

Personally I would not go for the ibasso as if you read the various threads it is very buggy. I guess if you like fiddling about with that sort of stuff great. I have had my CLAS/iPod Classic combo now for almost 12 months, all I do is plug and play, no messing around with updates to download, no buggy systems to fix and great sound, in fact, with really high quality amp and headphones incredible sound quality. I listen through an SR71-B with Final Audio Design Piano Forte IX and it is the most amazing sound.. And, no updates, no bugs. Another thing is that ibasso seem to pump out equipment at an alarming rate so the chances of all that hard earned cash being spent on something that will be out of date in less than a year is very strong with that brand.



I know that won't be a popular view as there is a lot of love for the ibasso but there it is, part of the enjoyment is not having to fuss around I feel!

Oh yes, the blackbird gives an inky black background. I use Wav files on my classic as there is plenty of storage space. Combined it might not be the cheapest option but I feel it is one of the most satisfying musically.
Edited by ianmedium - 9/24/12 at 11:35pm

The DX100 isn't as buggy as you make it sound; with proper tagging, all displays fine, tags & album art; gap-less works seamlessly. Also the iPod can't do high-rez.

Saying that iBasso is pumping out new equipment at an alarming rate vs. Apple's product release history isn't fair. And 10 years of spare part availability and free labour isn't quite Apple's policy either, is it?

Edited by the wizard of oz - 9/25/12 at 4:39am

You have some valid points but forget the CLAS in my equation. At some point if Apple offer the ability to allow hi rez on its mobile devices then the solo is equipped to deal with at as it offers 24/192, true, it offers only a one year warranty (the same as the ibasso) but not ten years free labour (assuming ibasso are around to honour that in ten years!)

I am not making it sound buggy, just read the threads, huge volumes of issues and difficulties in setting the player up.. Read the CLAS thread and see if you see the same. I agree apple bring out new products alarmingly quickly as well and make their old ones redundant quicker however the classic is still for sale and is still the same as it was in late 2009 so that is not too bad.

Anyway, this is not a bash ibasso, I am sure in many ways it is an excellent player but it is fair to point out it's limitations as fans of it are as quick to point out the limitations of other devices. Remember also with the classic/CLAS combo if the player section were to go wrong which is more likely than the CLAS component then one can just replace it, with an all in one unit it is not as simple.

I think as well I am trying to point out to the OP one of the biggest issues I have with headfi and that is that we all can get caught up on the latest and greatest and ride that wave instead of perhaps waiting and seeing how the latest and greatest is after a year (assuming it has not been replaced by the manufacturer by another latest and greatest which in the case of ibasso and hifiman is highly likely!)

I am truly glad your enjoying your player, I too am enjoying my set up. Hopefully between our views the OP can come to his own balanced decision, it is not my intent to convince him my set up is better than yours, each has its own merits and faults.

The DX100 really isn't as bad as it is made out to be on the threads. Yes there are a couple bugs left that do need to be addressed and I bet they will in the near future. Ibasso has been pretty good about releasing updates. One thing that is not common with DAP Manufacturers from China. But as long as your tags are properly tagged, everything should work rather smoothly. My unit takes less than a minute to boot up and once I start accessing my music via Playlists it's very much smooth, even comparable to Apple, not quite as smooth but not a far-shot either.

 

This is coming from someone who owns an iphone4 and has abandoned it for music purposes for a couple reasons. 1: apples ridiculous means of controlling you through its inane software (I've lost my contacts on my phone due to the stupidity of the software!), and 2: the sound quality is mediocre at best in comparison to my DX100. Now I know adding a CLAS and an Amp will close that gap. But it still doesn't beat the DX100 as a single unit. So taking that into consideration you are having to spend more money on the a 3 piece rig that is significantly bigger than the DX100 and doesn't offer any real advantages over it in sound quality. Not worth it IMO. That 10 years of warranty support (free labor) was also a great selling point on this unit. Otherwise I would have opted for a 3 year extended warranty from square trade. But with that type of support I figured I could just save that money and not worry about it. You will never get that type of support from Apple or any other company for that matter.
 

Edited by lee730 - 9/27/12 at 8:59pm

I'm fairly happy with my current portable setup which consists of the DIYmod iPod 5.5G with a 64GB CF card, silver LOD --> iBasso D2+(will upgrade this in the future) -->Fitear MH334 customs.

 

Most of the money was spent on the IEM, the headphones will make the most difference with your setup. A good source is important, the amp helps fine tune the sound signature to your preference. The thing with amps is that spending a ton of money will not guarantee you great SQ, my IEM are quite sensitive and some of the higher end amps don't play well with it(hiss).

True synergy is key but as you move up the chain that extra money on the source itself can really make an IEM/headphone shine. The DX100 happens to have done that with all my equipment (besides the Audiotechnica W3000ANVs, bad synergy). The iphone4 amped sounds pretty good I must admit but still not comparable in sound.
 

I am tying to buy this too for my Miracle. Not sure i am going to use it as a "desktop" device since I already have a DAC1 + RPX-35 for my HD800 and HDVD800 is underway. The thing about Apple V.S other HIFI DAP is that: Apple product natively can only play at the best "CD" quality format. (16bit,44K). If you have a $400 dollar headphone that happens to be a Monster Beat, you will not notice any different between loss and 320K mp3s. However, if you have a hifi grade $400+ dollars phones such as DT880, HD650 or K702, you will hear the difference. And if you have HD800, T1 or HE6, you will hear more "noise" in the recording than the actual music~~~~ And because the sample rate is limited, the high frequency will be cutoff. The lack of enough bit per sample will give a more "rough" curve due to limited quantizations. Put it in short, if you do not fix the DAC and play bad source materials, your system will be put to waste.

 

P.S.

For most of pop and rock music recorded today, they are been remastered by people that think Dr. Dre is a pro studio phone and use them for work. Thus, even buying their CD, and rip it to FLAC or WAV, they will just sound like mp3s you downloaded form iTunes. In fact, I think they the source recording they use to make the CD is form mp3........... If you really want to know the difference between hi res music and normal mp3s, you can go to HDtracks and buy some real recordings that is done by proper people with proper equipments. Even with only 2 channel, they will sound much much more realistic than any 5.1 gaming headphones with DTS on it. Classic and Jazz are the 2 genes that reveals it easiest.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with the DX100. It continues to amaze me :).
 

X 1000000 

 

I just re-ripped to lossless about 400 CDs because over the years I always ripped MP3 128 (I found a few at 64 )  and even though my DAC/AMPs do a decent job opening up like 70% of them, the diff between MP3 and lossless is extremely huge.

 

If your a MAC guy like moi iTunes does a good job ripping and usually get's all the data. I would think it would do good in Windows too if you have it.

Another for MAC is XLD but I found it did not recognize some of my older and/or obscure albums where iTunes 99% of the time does.