kawaivpc1 said:

I love this tiny device guys!!! It truly has 20 hours of battery life. It sounds much better than R10 / DX100!
It sounds 1.8 times more detailed and spacious. This product is clearly an upgrade from R10. It works well with my Nexus tablet and desktop. I'm totally impressed. It has a big sound stage, clarity, long battery life, durability, small size, etc. I prefer this over R10, Sony PHA2, HM901, and Geek Out 1000!

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Interesting. Are you going to do a review of it?

I have already written enough here.
Just buy it. You'll hear what I'm talking about.

Appreciate the comments and information everyone provided.  That table from burgunder is really helpful.  

Any idea what the output impedance on this guy? I'm using CIEMs so need a low impedance source.  If it sounds better than R10, definately worth the price as it can be interfaced to another protable device such as the smartphone.  Will have to see if this can match my DAC2 or better it.  If it does, it will be a bit upsetting as the DAC2 is 5X the price.  I use the DAC2 with my CIEM only, and is the best I've heard after trying out many DAPs and sources including R10, AK240, Anedio D2.  All low impedance sources.  At the moment, I'm not in possession of a quality portable source, so this could be a great discovery!
 
Would be a first AKM chip based source I will have tried.  

I originally came across this due to its AKM chip.  I've always been a huge fan of Sabre DAC's, but ended up taking a chance with the CEntrance DACmini, which uses an AKM chip.  I've been really happy with it and have since bought the CEntrance Hifi-M8 also.  I still think I prefer Sabre implementations, such as in my DX90, but the AKM-based products I've had the opportunity to experience have been great to listen to.
 
Based on this line in the specs:
Headphone impedance 8 ~ 300Ω recommended
 
I would guess output impedance would be less than 1ohm.

so I had an opportunity to demo a Ibasso D55 amp for a weekend. Here are some of my thoughts
 
Sound - it does indeed sound really good. Sound stage is expansive and more realistic than my Geek out 100 + JH16FP combo. The signature it definitely more on the neutral/brighter side, but it pairs really well with my JH16FP. Overall its a very resolving, crisp, and airy sound. No issues with sibilance or piercing highs, though I found the signature a bit fatiguing after 3 hours
 
Build Quality - left a bit to be desired. The faceplate cut outs don't match the ports, IE the input and output 3.5mm jacks are not centered on the circular cutouts of the face plate. The volume knob did not feel very solid and wiggled a bit. The knob did have a reassuring click when the device was turned on and off.
 
EMI shielding - it either really sucks or is not existent or I got a defective unit, but this is the most sensitive amp I've owned to cell phones and things of that sort. The EMI was present in both mid and high gain settings, and it got worse the closer I put my phone to it. 
 
Android/windows compatibility - this was also a bit disappointing. The device didn't work with either my phone (HTC One m8 running GPE Lollipop) or my tablet (Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact running stock 4.4.4). Tried with both native android decoding and UAPP. In the case of the phone it just didn't work and UAPP just threw a usb initialization error. With the Tablet it gave me a "Device draws too much current" error. I think this has something to do with the XMOS chip using a non-standard usb controller. On my laptop(Surface Pro 3) I had to install the included Theyscon driver in order for it to work. The native windows one didn't, even if I just wanted to do 16/44.
 
So I guess you guys can decide for yourself. It is the best sub $500 dac amp I've ever heard, but does leave a lot to be desired in terms of usability. I was specifically looking for a dac/amp for IEMs that I could use across all my mobile devices, and this didn't fit that criteria

Right, it worked on my Shield tablet (5.0.1) and Nexus 7 (4.4.1), but not on HTC 816 Desire cell phone (4.4.4) and Samsung Galaxy S3.
My phone failed to initialize it. It worked on my desktop and laptop without an issue.
I don't understand why it didn't work on your laptop. D55 comes with a small USB stick which contains its driver installers and a pdf manual. If you install them, D55 will work fine. You need to set XMos as default speakers on control panel.

Sound quality wise, it's second to none. Geek Out 1000 has more details but D55 still makes sense on its own right.

oh yeah sorry if the laptop part wasn't clear. The D55 does work just fine with the included drivers that were on the USB drive. I was just trying to say that it doesn't work natively with windows and requires the user to install that driver. Other upsampling DAC's I've owned/tried worked natively at 16/44 sampling and just needed proprietary drivers to go up to 24/96 or 24/196
 
After rereading my previous post, I realized that most of my impressions were negative, but all in all I really liked how this unit sounds. Its on par with the $500+ Dac/amps like the Cypher labs PDAC and the ALO International+ at significantly less of a price. I just couldn't justify buying one given its non-compatibility with my specific android devices
 
Quote:

kawaivpc1 said:

Right, it worked on my Shield tablet (5.0.1) and Nexus 7 (4.4.1), but not on HTC 816 Desire cell phone (4.4.4) and Samsung Galaxy S3.
My phone failed to initialize it. It worked on my desktop and laptop without an issue.
I don't understand why it didn't work on your laptop. D55 comes with a small USB stick which contains its driver installers and a pdf manual. If you install them, D55 will work fine. You need to set XMos as default speakers on control panel.

Sound quality wise, it's second to none. Geek Out 1000 has more details but D55 still makes sense on its own right.

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kawaivpc1 said:

Right, it worked on my Shield tablet (5.0.1) and Nexus 7 (4.4.1), but not on HTC 816 Desire cell phone (4.4.4) and Samsung Galaxy S3.
My phone failed to initialize it. It worked on my desktop and laptop without an issue.
I don't understand why it didn't work on your laptop. D55 comes with a small USB stick which contains its driver installers and a pdf manual. If you install them, D55 will work fine. You need to set XMos as default speakers on control panel.

Sound quality wise, it's second to none. Geek Out 1000 has more details but D55 still makes sense on its own right.

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i noticed that you mentioned the d55 as an option in "the ultimate dap" thread
http://www.head-fi.org/t/749336/the-ultimate-dap-512gb-storage-10-000mah-battery-features-of-note-4-32bit-382khz-dsd-wi-fi-support
 
but in this thread it appears that no one has it working as usb otg.  have you been able to use it with your "ultimate dap"?

jk47 said:

i noticed that you mentioned the d55 as an option in "the ultimate dap" thread
http://www.head-fi.org/t/749336/the-ultimate-dap-512gb-storage-10-000mah-battery-features-of-note-4-32bit-382khz-dsd-wi-fi-support

but in this thread it appears that no one has it working as usb otg.  have you been able to use it with your "ultimate dap"?

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Nope, I believe it will be compatible. It works on all of my android tablets.
HTC cellphones have issues with USB Audio. His phone is an HTC phone.
The only portable DACs that work fine on HTC phones are Fiio amps which are designed for HTC.

My HTC phone couldn't initialize and run Meridian Explorer but Samsung phone could.
Based on that, I can assume that Samsung Note 4 is compatible with iBasso products. It has more USB power and compatibility.
HTC phones can't initialize or run Geek Out due to power shortage. They can't do this with an external battery and a Y cable either. Samsung Note 4 can do this without an issue.
Note 3 can initialize Geek Out as well but it's slightly buggier.

One more thing, Note 3 works with iBasso / Hibino's DH1 which has the same XMOS 32bit interface.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/723200/hibino-ibasso-micro-precision-dh1-portable-dsd-dac-headphone-amp
DH1 is a successor of D55.

I think HTC's upcoming M9 Hima phone will be more compatible with portable DACs.
It will feature Android Lollipop OS which supports USB Audio.

If you're interested in iBasso, check out their latest DH1 portable DAC as well.
It came out last year. It seems superior to D55.
DH1 supports DSD and 32bit 192kHz PCM. It's from Hibino as well.
If iBasso guys are into making better products each time, DH1 could be better than D55.
D55 came out during the late 2013 and it supports 24bit 192kHz PCM but no DSD.
Nothing is certain as I haven't listened to DH1. D55 sounds indeed good. I'm going to keep this. D55's battery has never died once. It's still running after all these weeks!

kawaivpc1 said:

If you're interested in iBasso, check out their latest DH1 portable DAC as well.
It came out last year. It seems superior to D55.
DH1 supports DSD and 32bit 192kHz PCM. It's from Hibino as well.
If iBasso guys are into making better products each time, DH1 could be better than D55.
D55 came out during the late 2013 and it supports 24bit 192kHz PCM but no DSD.
Nothing is certain as I haven't listened to DH1. D55 sounds indeed good. I'm going to keep this. D55's battery has never died once. It's still running after all these weeks!

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 by way of background,  i currently have an ibasso dx90, which i like very much.   i only listen to classical and some jazz, and only to 16bit, 44.1khz that i've ripped from cd's.  i listen with k812's or er-4pt's.
 
the dx90 seems very clean, full extension and good separation.  the biggest thing i think could be improved is the size of the soundstage.
 
i'm trying to figure out whether to do "the ultimate dap" mods on my note 4, and if so, which dac/amp to use.  the question for me, of course, is whether it's worth the money and effort.  what would make it worthwhile would be a significant step up in sq.  
 
i don't know if you've heard the dx90, but if so where does it fit in this hierarchy?  also since the dx90 uses sabres, and the d55 [and dh1?] uses a different dac chip, are the signatures notably different?
 
come to think of it, i could just use the dx90 as a source via line out to one of these dac/amps.  any big step up in sq?
 
 
[btw, i'm fully aware that sq is subjective, blah, blah, blah, but you've heard these things and i haven't so i'm curious about your thinking.]

jk47 said:

 by way of background,  i currently have an ibasso dx90, which i like very much.   i only listen to classical and some jazz, and only to 16bit, 44.1khz that i've ripped from cd's.  i listen with k812's or er-4pt's.

the dx90 seems very clean, full extension and good separation.  the biggest thing i think could be improved is the size of the soundstage.

i'm trying to figure out whether to do "the ultimate dap" mods on my note 4, and if so, which dac/amp to use.  the question for me, of course, is whether it's worth the money and effort.  what would make it worthwhile would be a significant step up in sq.  

i don't know if you've heard the dx90, but if so where does it fit in this hierarchy?  also since the dx90 uses sabres, and the d55 [and dh1?] uses a different dac chip, are the signatures notably different?

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DX90 sounds worse than all of the gears I have mentioned here. R10 / DX100 sounds at least five times more detailed than DX90.
Geek Out and D55 are on par with DX100 / R10. I think Geek Out is the most detailed among three.
R10 / DX100 is better than HM901. HM901 is still better than DX90.

I haven't heard anything else.
AKM chips sound as good as sabre. Geek Out uses sabre too. Try to read reviews and find out what you need.
I can't help unless someone gives me money to buy all the gears and compare.

kawaivpc1 said:

DX90 sounds worse than all of the gears I have mentioned here. R10 / DX100 sounds at least five times more detailed than DX90.
Geek Out and D55 are on par with DX100 / R10. I think Geek Out is the most detailed among three.
R10 / DX100 is better than HM901. HM901 is still better than DX90.

I haven't heard anything else.
AKM chips sound as good as sabre. Geek Out uses sabre too. Try to read reviews and find out what you need.
I can't help unless someone gives me money to buy all the gears and compare.

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any thoughts on whether the line out from the dx90 would work as a source for this?

jk47 said:

any thoughts on whether the line out from the dx90 would work as a source for this?

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it can work but it will sound not as good.