[nc8000]

I normally average about 5 hours per charge

 

[athmospheric]

It's another day of listening to 2.1.0. I'm trying to get used to the new FW. Maybe it's a bad synergy but ath-a900x for me sounded far better on 2.0.0 and by far I mean that I loved 2.0.0 and now I almost hate 2.1.0. Would be ideal if I could confront my experiences with someone with the same set-up.
 
Quote:

  One man's opinion: I really dislike this update. Let me start by saying I've only had the unit for a couple weeks. It shipped with 2.0... That's what I've been using and I love the sound. But I updated, thinking it was the thing to do. When I first listened to 2.1 I literally felt sick. Gone was all the smoothness, the musicality, the almost tube-like quality I loved about 2.0. To my ears (with westone um-3x's with um56... and a friends w4s), what I heard was harsher (harsh may be too harsh a word, but it's the one that comes to mind)... A tad bass deficient (and I'm not by any means a bass-head).... In a word soul-less. More analytical. Perhaps a bit more open... Maybe a little wider...and "clean"... But it didn't matter for gone was the soothing sound I had been raving about. [...]

 
Didn't notice at first but yes, there is a harshness on vocals and trebles with some songs and it's really annoying. Sound is smoother through LO with amp but hey I didn't notice any harshness ever with 2.0.0 / HO / LO.
 
Next thing I hate is lack of soundstage deep. With 2.0.0 I could easily locate and follow sound sources due to different distances and locations (almost three dimensional space). Sounds appear from various points of the background and now with 2.1.0 all reach only from the right and the left side and relatively close. I think this deep in soundstage is (was) a key element that distinguished DX90 from DX50, well worth the price difference.
 
Did I mentioned 2.1.0 bugs? Songs don't play in the order / a few times player skipped half track and jumped to the end of the file. I don't care about workarounds here. It should work flawlessly as before.

 

[cn11]

   
Didn't notice at first but yes, there is a harshness on vocals and trebles with some songs and it's really annoying. Sound is smoother through LO with amp but hey I didn't notice any harshness ever with 2.0.0 / HO / LO.
 
Next thing I hate is lack of soundstage deep. With 2.0.0 I could easily locate and follow sound sources due to different distances and locations (almost three dimensional space). Sounds appear from various points of the background and now with 2.1.0 all reach only from the right and the left side and relatively close. I think this deep in soundstage is (was) a key element that distinguished DX90 from DX50, well worth the price difference.
 
Did I mentioned 2.1.0 bugs? Songs don't play in the order / a few times player skipped half track and jumped to the end of the file. I don't care about workarounds here. It should work flawlessly as before.

 
I'm getting this stupid bug too. I'm really unimpressed with how iBasso releases so many flawed updates. I'm thinking of going back to 2.0.5 (instead of 2.0.0), as I love the more responsive button activation time, and the option for charge only which allows for listening while powering up. 
 
Edit:  Back on 2.0.5, and not looking back for a while, until the next update is confirmed to be stable and a noticeable upgrade.

 

[jamato8]

   
I'm getting this stupid bug too. I'm really unimpressed with how iBasso releases so many flawed updates. I'm thinking of going back to 2.0.5 (instead of 2.0.0), as I love the more responsive button activation time, and the option for charge only which allows for listening while powering up. 
 
Edit:  Back on 2.0.5, and not looking back for a while, until the next update is confirmed to be stable and a noticeable upgrade.

The latest FW does allow for charge only. 

 

[cn11]

The latest FW does allow for charge only. 

Ah sorry, I meant as opposed to the 2.0.0 firmware not having that option.

 

[lhamp]

  One man's opinion: I really dislike this update. Let me start by saying I've only had the unit for a couple weeks. It shipped with 2.0... That's what I've been using and I love the sound. But I updated, thinking it was the thing to do. When I first listened to 2.1 I literally felt sick. Gone was all the smoothness, the musicality, the almost tube-like quality I loved about 2.0. To my ears (with westone um-3x's with um56... and a friends w4s), what I heard was harsher (harsh may be too harsh a word, but it's the one that comes to mind)... A tad bass deficient (and I'm not by any means a bass-head).... In a word soul-less. More analytical. Perhaps a bit more open... Maybe a little wider...and "clean"... But it didn't matter for gone was the soothing sound I had been raving about. 

I'm a Mac user so I couldn't go back to 2.0, at least not easily. So, desperate for a fix, I tried 2.0.5. To my surprise, I was ok with it... To me, much closer to what made 2.0 special... And light years better than 2.1.

Again, these are my impressions...I know many others around here would disagree. But I know what I like and 2.1 isn't it. Just thought I'd share... I'm sure some will agree.

 
Feel the need to update this (maybe even erase it). After returning to 2.0 for a few days I had a nagging feeling i had to give 2.1 another chance. While updating, it occurred to me that previously moving to 2.1, I had deleted the update from my dx90, but I hadn't emptied the trash on my mac. So this time I did it correctly (I might be slow, but eventually I get it) and BINGO!
 
Which is to say that I'm on the 2.1 wagon now. I find that it's nearly as "smooth" and "musical" as 2.0, but with more all around balance and more detail.
 
Apologies to all I had disagreed with. You were right. At least to my ear you were.

 

[wizard327]

Totally agree. Love the sound on FW 2.10

 

[Hurzer]

Does anybody happen to have any sound impression of the DX90 with the ES5? I'm curious to find out how they could potentially complement each other...

 

[pearljam50000]

How is the dx90 with HD800 as DAC/amp?

 

[lin0003]

Not too good, but it's not too bad either. You'd be a lot better getting an Essence One or something for the HD800. 

 

[Barra]

The hd800 and LCD 2 can both drive the dx90 and x5 to their full potential and make these daps sound wonderful. But these TOTL HPs still have more to give as these daps cannot drive them to their full potential that can be gotten out of a proper desktop. That being said, I am considering getting a hd800 just to pair with these daps. My mjolnir is not a good match for the hd800 so I would only pair with the daps for some time. That is how good the hd800 sounds straight out of the daps. I can always rework my desktop later, but I've gotta have that sound.

 

[jamato8]

Please don't talk about the hd800. I don't want to buy another headphone! :^)

 

[headwhacker]

wrong thread

 

[Jensenchua]

Tried my DX90>> Violectric V200>>HD800 sounded just incredible, the soundstage is just indescribable~~ jamato8 is time for you to get your hand on HD800!!

 

[athmospheric]

I've just returned to 2.0 FW and the difference between 2.1 is a night and day. Now I remember why I bought DX90 over DX50 and the fact this DAP has two dac chips. Soundstage again is incredibly vast and has a depth(!). I suspect that in blind test I couldn't distinguish DX90 2.1 of the iphone 5s which despite a worse musicality sounds very simiar to the 2.1. I know how it sounds, it's however my personal opinion.
 
Update
I could swear I hear some micro details with 2.0 I haven't heard with 2.1, What? Maybe it's because of different scene creation. Now there is no harshness at all, better separation, better musicality, just another level. ath-a900x gains significantly. I'm just amazed.