hifichris said:

 

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My take on the DX80, with included measurements:

http://www.head-fi.org/products/ibasso-audio-dx80-high-resolution-audio-player/reviews/14595​

Click to expand...

I notice you mention hiss. What is odd is I get none, even with my JH13 Pro Freqphase. My hearing goes to 17khz and nothing. I have tried the JH13's with the Whiplash and stock cable. 

jamato8 said:

 
I notice you mention hiss. What is odd is I get none, even with my JH13 Pro Freqphase. My hearing goes to 17khz and nothing. I have tried the JH13's with the Whiplash and stock cable. 

Click to expand...

I get quite a lot of hiss, especially when nothing is playing, with my Grado GR10e earbuds. I get no hiss at all with my Klipsch x10 earbuds.

scottes7 said:

 
I get quite a lot of hiss, especially when nothing is playing, with my Grado GR10e earbuds. I get no hiss at all with my Klipsch x10 earbuds.

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On my Whiplash cable (for the JH13Pros) which is terminated so that I can use it balanced or single ended, depending upon which adapter I use, I get hiss with one adapter for SE and none with the other SE adapter. It boils down to the cable because the same 4 feet with a 3 inch adapter will hiss with one and zero with the other adapter. Odd. 
 
I have also noticed that a few complain of hissing with the Chord Mojo but again, I get none on mine. And to add, I can't stand hissing. 

jamato8 said:

 
Odd. 

Click to expand...

Speaking of "odd" - if I grip my Grado cable with both hands, the hiss goes away.
 
The Grados do not hiss on my Audioengine D1, not my Creative Labs X-Fi box, nor my NAD amp. Just on the DX80.
 
It's driving me nuts, since I like the sound of the Grado far better than the Klipsch earbuds.

I guess it's people's sensitivity to hissing.I get some on mojo only on certain quiet music and silent moments b/n and in tracks, tho it never bothered me since im an analogue child,I always found cd silence fascinating, but after hearing top of the top analogue stuff, it has lots of noise that never comes in the way of great gear.
Im not sure what it means technically in digital players, maybe someone can explain,but I never thought it is a sign of low quality and with Hugo there was quite a bit of hissing with some earphones, tho I've never seen a 3*** review of it anywhere because of that

emusic13 said:

Just wondering, so if that was the case, why was it not explained sooner if it is known on all CS4398 hardware? If it was there from the beginning during testing, wouldnt it have been better to let customers know instead of having them believe a future firmware update could fix it? Ever try it with really sensitive iems? It is not pleasant at all.

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Yeah it's like subwoofer thump on my ES5. Sometimes R, sometimes L. It's quite scary. BTW it's not only press pause/play, it comes when pressing fwd/bck to change tracks (if press N times in sucession, there will be N times of thumps), as well as when track is finished and it auto proceeds to play next track... There will be a thump in between. I've never heard DACs will give such thumps by design, when changing tracks, not at least on Fiio X3ii and AK240 or even my Marantz CDP which are all using CS4398. Hmm...

I bought the DX80 with the impression (and hope) that the thump would be resolved soon with future fw updates. It would be a shame if nothing can be done.


BTW, to give an idea of the relative "sensitivity" with some other phones, if any of you can relate, ....

My typical listening volume level on DX80 low gain:
ES5 - 55 to 60 ---> powerful subwoofer thump with air/compression pressure can be felt
JH13FP, DN2000 - 65 to 70 ---> still obvious with a very slight reduction in intensity
PX100II, XBA-A1, Focal Spirit Classic, Momentum2 - 85 to 90 ---> thump (more like a thud) can be felt but with little pressure

On Cayin N5 low gain:
ES5 - 13 to 15
JH13FP, DN2000 - 18 to 20
PX100II, XBA-A1, Focal Spirit Classic, Momentum2 - 25 to 30


On Fiio X5 low gain:
ES5 - 25 to 28
JH13FP, DN2000 - 35 to 38
PX100II, XBA-A1, Focal Spirit Classic, Momentum2 - 45 to 55

samuelboy said:

Yeah it's like subwoofer thump on my ES5. Sometimes R, sometimes L. It's quite scary. BTW it's not only press pause/play, it comes when pressing fwd/bck to change tracks (if press N times in sucession, there will be N times of thumps), as well as when track is finished and it auto proceeds to play next track... There will be a thump in between. I've never heard DACs will give such thumps by design, when changing tracks, not at least on Fiio X3ii and AK240 or even my Marantz CDP which are all using CS4398. Hmm...

Click to expand...

 
I'm pretty sure the pop/thump issue between tracks and pause/play could be resolved by the firmware eventually, though a bit more tricky on DSD than PCM.
 
CS4398 doesn't have internal intelligent startup mute/fade like the AK43xx series chips etc, but that is kind of irrelevant for during-playback thumps when the DAC chip is already powered up.
 
Line output devices can minimize the DC offset thump by high output impedance and analogue filter (servo, output capacitor, etc), but the thump is an inevitable consequence of high powered low impedance amplifier, so the amp maker has to be extra careful about protection to ensure it doesn't stress the sensitive IEMs.
 
Recent DAPs tend to be a bit more proactive on the digital end to ensure the amp doesn't see a sudden DC surge, usually by sending an infinitesimally short fade in/out to ensure no residual DC is remaining. Similarly for gapless, it's often an unnoticeable "fade" to prevent sudden DC shift between tracks. Getting it right is not as simple as joining two tracks end-to-end, so it needs a bit of tinkering on the software.

samuelboy said:

Yeah it's like subwoofer thump on my ES5. Sometimes R, sometimes L. It's quite scary. BTW it's not only press pause/play, it comes when pressing fwd/bck to change tracks (if press N times in sucession, there will be N times of thumps), as well as when track is finished and it auto proceeds to play next track... There will be a thump in between. I've never heard DACs will give such thumps by design, when changing tracks, not at least on Fiio X3ii and AK240 or even my Marantz CDP which are all using CS4398. Hmm...

I bought the DX80 with the impression (and hope) that the thump would be resolved soon with future fw updates. It would be a shame if nothing can be done.
55

Click to expand...

Exactly. Isnt that a bit misleading if it cannot be fixed with software updates? You say you cannot hear it on your other CS4398 dacs. I know it is a new product and I am patient about bugs but if it could not have been fixed, it would have been nice to know earlier from iBasso. And as Sandaladio said

sandalaudio said:

I'm pretty sure the pop/thump issue between tracks and pause/play could be resolved by the firmware eventually, though a bit more tricky on DSD than PCM.

CS4398 doesn't have internal intelligent startup mute/fade like the AK43xx series chips etc, but that is kind of irrelevant for during-playback thumps when the DAC chip is already powered up.

Line output devices can minimize the DC offset thump by high output impedance and analogue filter (servo, output capacitor, etc), but the thump is an inevitable consequence of high powered low impedance amplifier, so the amp maker has to be extra careful about protection to ensure it doesn't stress the sensitive IEMs.

Recent DAPs tend to be a bit more proactive on the digital end to ensure the amp doesn't see a sudden DC surge

Click to expand...

If it is stressing my iems, how is that any good?

sandalaudio said:

I'm pretty sure the pop/thump issue between tracks and pause/play could be resolved by the firmware eventually, though a bit more tricky on DSD than PCM.

CS4398 doesn't have internal intelligent startup mute/fade like the AK43xx series chips etc, but that is kind of irrelevant for during-playback thumps when the DAC chip is already powered up.

Line output devices can minimize the DC offset thump by high output impedance and analogue filter (servo, output capacitor, etc), but the thump is an inevitable consequence of high powered low impedance amplifier, so the amp maker has to be extra careful about protection to ensure it doesn't stress the sensitive IEMs.

Recent DAPs tend to be a bit more proactive on the digital end to ensure the amp doesn't see a sudden DC surge, usually by sending an infinitesimally short fade in/out to ensure no residual DC is remaining. Similarly for gapless, it's often an unnoticeable "fade" to prevent sudden DC shift between tracks. Getting it right is not as simple as joining two tracks end-to-end, so it needs a bit of tinkering on the software.

Click to expand...

Your post inspires some hope. So it would seem like a work-around instead of real elimination. Either way, I guess users don't care, as long as there is no thump lol...

jamato8 said:

I notice you mention hiss. What is odd is I get none, even with my JH13 Pro Freqphase. My hearing goes to 17khz and nothing. I have tried the JH13's with the Whiplash and stock cable. 

Click to expand...

 
Well, it also depends on how sensitive to hiss someone is - I am pretty sensitive, others aren't. I know people who don't hear any hiss with the same source, IEMs and volume, whereas others do.
Btw, I don't want to stretch that hiss topic, my perception is just that it is about on the same level as the HiFiMe 9018d, Shanling M2 and BlackBerry Q10. Still, the DX80 I have here has got a much lower amount of hiss than the DX50 I used to own, so if you are generally not as hiss-sensitive as me, don't have über-sensitive in-ears and didn't hear any note-worthy hiss with the DX50, chances are high that you won't either with the DX80.

sandalaudio said:

......... .........
Recent DAPs tend to be a bit more proactive on the digital end to ensure the amp doesn't see a sudden DC surge, usually by sending an infinitesimally short fade in/out to ensure no residual DC is remaining. Similarly for gapless, it's often an unnoticeable "fade" to prevent sudden DC shift between tracks. Getting it right is not as simple as joining two tracks end-to-end, so it needs a bit of tinkering on the software.

Click to expand...

 
I read in the review of HifiChris that Ibasso has stated that the thumping issue is hardware related and can't be fixed by firmware. If Ibasso said it so explicitly, im not very hopeful about a fix. 
I was thinking along the same lines, like an infinitesimal small fade-out , just to release the charge from the amp-section. But i think Ibasso knows what they are talking about.
 
I'll receive my DX80 this afternoon. I already bought a microsd of 16 Gb, especially for the firmware update. So i'm prepared.  
I just hope the thumping issue won't spoil my fun.

The only time I hear the thump (pressure) noise is on boot up for a split second, just as the internal amp switches on. I don't hear anything between tracks, skipping tracks or changing albums etc. I'll add every file I use is 16/44 FLAC. No MP3, no other formats.

hifichris said:

 

My take on the DX80, with included measurements:

http://www.head-fi.org/products/ibasso-audio-dx80-high-resolution-audio-player/reviews/14595​

Click to expand...

That spectrum of the “blobb” sound looks great! DX80's ability to pass low frequencies from the DAC to the phone output is just amazing!

h20fidelity said:

The only time I hear the thump (pressure) noise is on boot up for a split second, just as the internal amp switches on. I don't hear anything between tracks, skipping tracks or changing albums etc. I'll add every file I use is 16/44 FLAC. No MP3, no other formats.

Click to expand...

 
There seems to be a glitch that causes a large DC offset in certain circumstances. Not all the time.
A shift of this magnitude is quite thumping on the ears, as you can see by the comparison with the audio signal.
The offset is not due to the music, as it settles down to zero after a couple of seconds.
 
The plots are just a signal sweep at 100mV/div 1 second/div during playback.