[Greed]

   
I mean quite literally that the amp (at least on paper) is more powerful, has a lower output impedance, and is made by an amp manufacturer. The DAC and that stuff is up to you, but CIEMs cannot technically be driven as well via the AK120. Portable phones, yes, but with nearly 4Ω output, the AK120 isn't quite as able to put the full resolution of a song into your earphones- unless they are high Ω earphones.

That's not to say that there are not issues with the DX50 output. I have no idea. But iBasso make very good amps and I assume the DX50 is no slouch. I will be reviewing one a bit later so I can chime in from a position of experience. For now, I'm talking about on paper, but on paper, unless lies, nearly always pans out in terms of getting the actual output up to snuff. 

 
Ah, okay I understand now. Personally, the lower output impedance is a none issue for me because I find the AK120 to pair nicely with pretty much everything I've thrown at it. With regards to power, I totally agree - I'd love to have more room to play regarding dynamic range etc. The amp in the DX50 is good, still unsure if I think it is better than the AK120. As a package, it still gives up some quality(IMO) but so far not enough to justify keeping the AK120. G/UI wise - both are rather fluid, with the AK120 slight edging it out. Load times are faster, and rendering is as well on the AK120. With refinement, I can see the DX50 equaling the fluidity and stability of the AK120. Too early to tell, but I'm very happy with the sonics of the DX50 thus far. Going to try it line out to my Pico Power to see how much I can improve its performance. If anyone is wondering the DX50 stacks nearly perfect ontop of the Pico Power. 

 

[CJG888]

IBasso should now release a balanced portable DAC/amp (SPDIF coax input) in a similar case to the DX50, at a similar price....

...and a proper leather case to hold them together.

That would be a game changer at this price point.

 

[icefalkon]

   
Are you saying the imod kicks the DX50's ass and the DX50 kicks the imod's butt?

 
LOL
 
um...
 
yeah. 
 

 

[shigzeo]

   
Ah, okay I understand now. Personally, the lower output impedance is a none issue for me because I find the AK120 to pair nicely with pretty much everything I've thrown at it. With regards to power, I totally agree - I'd love to have more room to play regarding dynamic range etc. The amp in the DX50 is good, still unsure if I think it is better than the AK120. As a package, it still gives up some quality(IMO) but so far not enough to justify keeping the AK120. G/UI wise - both are rather fluid, with the AK120 slight edging it out. Load times are faster, and rendering is as well on the AK120. With refinement, I can see the DX50 equaling the fluidity and stability of the AK120. Too early to tell, but I'm very happy with the sonics of the DX50 thus far. Going to try it line out to my Pico Power to see how much I can improve its performance. If anyone is wondering the DX50 stacks nearly perfect ontop of the Pico Power. 

 
Thank you for the clarification of what you mean. I'm tackling this on a purely technical perspective for now. The low Ω output of the DX50 is better suited for IEMs whose impedance swings can swing well below the ~4Ω of the AK120, and therefore, cause distortion of the output signal. In this regard, bass signal, overall linearity, phase, and basically everything _should_ be better fleshed out than via the AK120.
 
That said, preferences trump everything: some people prefer added distortion and lower output resolution capabilities. I don't know why, but they do. From a technical perspective, there is no way the AK120 can stand up to the DX50, but from a perspective perspective , there is no accounting for preferences.
 
Of course, if the DX50 were limited by software, that is another thing. I somehow doubt that is the case though.

 

[daseinpdx]

Iriver should oem the hardware manufacturing to ibasso so that they can focus on Sales and Marketing, Customer Services and firmware development. In the end, everyone goes home with a perfect DAP.

 
I am not sure what you mean.  The AK100 is still a better build than the DX50.  The best argument for the DX50 is that it might be a better value than the AK100.  As far as I can tell, there is actually nothing wrong with irivers manufacturing process.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

IBasso should now release a balanced portable DAC/amp (SPDIF coax input) in a similar case to the DX50, at a similar price....

...and a proper leather case to hold them together.

That would be a game changer at this price point.

Or DX75 with a higher end DAC chip with both hirose balance phone out and balance line out, put in the market at the same time next year when the AK product comes out... Thats a game changer

 

[Greed]

   
Thank you for the clarification of what you mean. I'm tackling this on a purely technical perspective for now. The low Ω output of the DX50 is better suited for IEMs whose impedance swings can swing well below the ~4Ω of the AK120, and therefore, cause distortion of the output signal. In this regard, bass signal, overall linearity, phase, and basically everything _should_ be better fleshed out than via the AK120.
 
That said, preferences trump everything: some people prefer added distortion and lower output resolution capabilities. I don't know why, but they do. From a technical perspective, there is no way the AK120 can stand up to the DX50, but from a perspective perspective , there is no accounting for preferences.
 
Of course, if the DX50 were limited by software, that is another thing. I somehow doubt that is the case though.

 
I definitely see your points and agree, in a perfect world the AK120's output impedance would be below 1 and cost half of what it does now... that would make me happy, but that just isn't the case. It seems that all these DAPs have trade offs - and from what I've read and have had the opportunity to demo- the AK120 was the closest to what I was looking for. 
 
PS: Technically the Beyerdynamic DT1350 measures better than many TOTL headphones - that doesn't mean it sounds better. 

 
Measurements are only a tool for me. My ears are #1. 

 

[M-13]

  PS: Technically the Beyerdynamic DT1350 measures better than many TOTL headphones - that doesn't mean it sounds better. 

 
Measurements are only a tool for me. My ears are #1.

LOL. That little thing does measure well!
I miss my DT1350... the new facelift version has me curious, but that non-detacable microphonic cable would bother me in the end I would probably sell it again.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

   
I am not sure what you mean.  The AK100 is still a better build than the DX50.  The best argument for the DX50 is that it might be a better value than the AK100.  As far as I can tell, there is actually nothing wrong with irivers manufacturing process.

to my ears, DX50 sounds better than AK100 in terms of detail retrieval... imho only.. I know there are people who feel otherwise...
 
I see that iriver really excels in sales (good distribution network so that more people can buy it), marketing (influences people to feel better about the product, e.g. changing the name, setting up a website with diagrams), customer service (trained fluent English agents instead of one liner email saying "it works on my computer, you better check yours" type comment) and a more reliable firmware...
 
whereas for ibasso, they are experienced doing the hardware design for portable DAC/AMP and tune the hardware to produce good sound while maintaining the cost down...DX50 is a testament of that..
 
If both work together, they just may produce not only a good product but an end to end satisfactory sales experience to all or more customers...
 
or they may not..

 

[icefalkon]

  to my ears, DX50 sounds better than AK100 in terms of detail retrieval... imho only.. I know there are people who feel otherwise...
 
I see that iriver really excels in sales (good distribution network so that more people can buy it), marketing (influences people to feel better about the product, e.g. changing the name, setting up a website with diagrams), customer service (trained fluent English agents instead of one liner email saying "it works on my computer, you better check yours" type comment) and a more reliable firmware...
 
whereas for ibasso, they are experienced doing the hardware design for portable DAC/AMP and tune the hardware to produce good sound while maintaining the cost down...DX50 is a testament of that..
 
If both work together, they just may produce not only a good product but an end to end satisfactory sales experience to all or more customers...
 
or they may not..

 
LOL you're kidding right? This little product has been watched by all eyes since it's announcement. and iBasso has just as many mouths touting their goodness as iRiver does. What is fact is that iRiver has more "flash" than iBasso does...hell it's a bigger enterprise. 
 
What makes me laugh is all the hypothesis of what direction the company should take. You know...for a cheap ass unit that can play hi fidelity files there sure is a lot of....they should make this, they should make that nonsense going on. How about guys just try to figure the damn thing out, let iBasso catch up with all the glitches and run with the unit in hand instead of mind wandering about what "could" be done. 
 
As for working together...? Again...is that naivety or are you joking? They are competitors for the same niche group of individuals...one is trying to undermine the other by coming out with a product that does "almost" the same thing at a third of the cost. If there are issues with the cheaper product...hell...deal with it. It only costs 1/3 of what an AK costs. 
 
Now...if I may...
 
How are you guys loading music onto your units? This is what's going on and it's weird...
 
I load a Sd card up with tunes using MM...pop it into the DX50 and it scans the card. However...say I go to My Music / All Music and pick a song. It plays the song.
 
HOWEVER...when I hit forward...it just plays the song again. Now I have set it to Random Play...so it's not on repeat...
 
So...I go BACK into My Music / All Music and select another song...it plays the song.
 
When I hit forward, it plays the previous song (the first one) again!
 
So...I go BACK into My Music / All Music and select a THIRD song...it plays the song.
 
When I hit forward...wait for it...
 
You guessed it...it now plays the previous songs only. The unit isn't forwarding to any songs that I haven't manually hit PLAY on.
 
So i'm thinking...maybe I'm doing something wrong here. I tried this with 2 Sandisk cards so far and it's the same thing. 
 
My next experiment is to just create a folder on the microSD card and throw some music into it and see what happens. 
 
Has anyone else had this, or does anyone have a solution to it?
 
Thanks!

 

[shigzeo]

   
I definitely see your points and agree, in a perfect world the AK120's output impedance would be below 1 and cost half of what it does now... that would make me happy, but that just isn't the case. It seems that all these DAPs have trade offs - and from what I've read and have had the opportunity to demo- the AK120 was the closest to what I was looking for. 
 
PS: Technically the Beyerdynamic DT1350 measures better than many TOTL headphones - that doesn't mean it sounds better. 

 
Measurements are only a tool for me. My ears are #1. 

 
RE: measurements. Headphones are interpretation tools. They make music sound a certain way. Amps/receivers/DACs generally do their best to put sound out in the purest way possible subject to design constraints. Some makers go for lots of voltage with low current, and are mainly good for high Ω headphones. No matter how good they sound with high Ω, they will measure poorly with a low Ω load. headphones are completely different. They are made with a specific purpose in mind. That is why comparing measurements for headphones and for amps/DACs is quite different. 

If a DAC or amp measured like a headphone did, it would severely limit the range of headphones or speakers it can be used with. Severely. They are meant to measure flat so that all the interpretation is done outside their boxes, by speakers and headphones or EQ circuits. 

 

[Mimouille]

Not really.  A very powerful amp making a lower listening level a more pleasure full experience.  I like the sound of the DX50 but the DX100 will allow you to hear more information a the same listening level.  

Agree with this, this is what sealed the dealed for me between ak120 and 901 on iems.

 

[DMinor]

   
LOL
 
um...
 
yeah. 
 

 
Steve you need to clarify which one kicks first. They can't kick at the same time.

 

[00lunar]

I'm aware that comparison pictures were flying around here for a while. Still, I took some pictures for people here to see EXACTLY how big/small is DX50 among other, popular DAP-s. Enjoy. Btw. That thing is a beast regarding its SQ. Was able to compare it to my ol' faithful DYIMod, which had his a** kicked.

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[mkinmkin]

I am regret to order DX50 TOO LATE when I read more 60 pages. Now I am waiting for the 3rd batch shipment and hope iBasso can ship it earlier than Sep-16.