iBasso Audio DX80 High Resolution Audio Player

IBASSO DX80 (short) Review:

SOUND: 8/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8.5/10
INTERFACE: 7.5/10
VALUE: 8/10

I love Ibasso, really respect there products, especially the DX90 wich I still use everyday after 3 years and have lot of pleasure to listen to, i'm still amaze by the clear, neutral and analytical sound it produce a lot!

The DX80 in another hand is a much bigger DAP without changeable battery possibility, but as seen nowadays, all DAP take this path so I finally get use to it.
It use the same Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC than the Xduoo X3 wich is less expansive, smaller and have 2 SD slots too and a very solid metal body.
Sound of DX80 is similar but more powerfull and energic, as well as warmer than X3. About this, the DX80 have the advantage of muscle, it can drive lot of headphones and high impendance earphones easily, wich is very very usefull don't get me wrong.

CONSTRUCTION & ACCESSORIES:



Unboxing is quite pleasant and there were lot of attention giving to it. The box is really nice and its always appreciate to have a protective case, even if basic. Coaxial cable too is always appreciate.



Construction is very sturdy, built ad look lime a tank. Its all make of metal and its big and heavy, unfortubately the front volume buttons interface can sometime be push by accident because it do not have Hold option side buttons.

Battery life isn't extremely long too, about average, and must of all, battery CAN'T be change like the DX50 and DX90 wich was a releive in the longevity perspective. I really don't like disposable products, I like them when they have a long life potential. This direction that the DX80 follow is perhaps shamefull, but as said, all DAP and even phone do not have changeable battery nowadays.

SOUND:


The DX80 DO sound good, I will not lie about this, it have an easy listening feeling to it, quite bassy and warmish sound with good mids presence but an average separation.

Soundstage isn't very deep too but have great wideness, it's more the lack of air between instruments, details are there but not fowarded, as said, easy listening wich can be more enjoyable with analytical earphones or headphones.
The dynamic is very good and fast, exciting too, I really like to listen to 64ohm at high gain earbuds with this player, and as said, it really is good for vocals but I don't find this player to have lot of texture and details.

COMPARAISON:

DX90 is another beast compared to it, sounding more elegant and mature without selling his musicality off. DX80 will please to a wider crownd perhaps, but if you like classical music and instrumental or crave for details you will prefer the DX90.
The low go deeper than the DX90, and mids are more foward too, less high and overall details, soundstage is less fluid too. DX80 could sound less dry for some type of music, especially pop and electro or beat driven music, in this type of music it can give real pleasure to the ears. As it body, it have a ''muscular'' type of sound presentation.

CONCLUSION:

Ibasoo DX80 isn't bad at all and can keep with competition today, especially for amping power and sound quality, it have great warm musicality with wide sound and good but smooth treble. Being an hardcore inveterate fan of excellent but now discoutinued Ibasso DX90, I rarely as been as subjective about a review than this one, so its to be take with grain of salt. But thinking about it, its the perfect in between DAP of DX50 more bassy and warm sound and DX90 more precise and audiophile targeted DAP. Ibasso is one of the nices and more promising chinese audio company and they aren't finish to surprise us. Can't wait to see what they plan for the futur.

I recently picked up an iBasso DX80 and decided to do a bit of a test with the available DAPs/DACs that I have at my disposal. I’m not exactly a collector but have ended up with a few, so this was a way for me to test the DX80 and decide about whether to sell some of the others, and I’d thought I’d post my impressions here in case it’s of use to anyone considering picking up one of these DAPs. So we have:

1. iBasso DX80. Only about 5 hours burn in time (because I’m inpatient like that)
2. Cowon Plenue D
3. Cowon J3
4. Cowon S9

 

 

DAC test:

1. DX80 DAC function and Fiio Olympus 2-E10K for comparison

Previous DAPs/DAC I’ve owned:
I’ve previously had a Fiio X3II, which I ran through a Fiio E17K DAC/Amp, and an Audioquest Dragonfly Black, but I wasn’t really sold on the sound. Pity I didn’t keep the Fiio E17K for a bit of a test with these though. I also had a Cowon iAudio E2 – great sound from a little highly portable menu-less piece.

Testing:
All testing was done without EQ, with the Sharp Roll-off setting and low gain on the DX80, and with low gain and bass switch off for the Fiio Olympus 2-E10K. Latest firmware versions for all DAPs.
Headphones used in this comparison:

1. Sennheiser HD380Pro
2. Sennheiser Momentum 2 over-ears
3. Sennheiser Momentum 1 on-ears

The Sennheiser 380Pros were the main headphones used for comparisons, as I think overall these have the flattest presentation of these sets. The Momentum 2’s are my go-to headphone, so later I used these and the Momentum 1’s for comparing the DX80 and Plenue D in more detail and with EQ options.

Level matching was done using an iPhone with a decibel meter and placing the 380s near the mic, then switching the jack between players while playing the same A-B section of one song, to get a solid 85-86 dB from each. Maybe a little crude, but the only technique for level matching I have, and I think is a realistic comparison of how you actually use a player anyway.

For this test I chose a range of styles, but all the kind of music that I’m actually going to play on a regular basis, and all in 44 KHz FLAC format. I’m a huge metal fan and really want a player to be able to respond well to busy, flat out music that needs precision and clarity:

1. Clavicula Salomonis, Darkend: https://darkend.bandcamp.com/track/clavicula-salomonis. Black metal. Heavy, with some real flat out double bass drumming; precisely the kind of thing that just sounds ‘loud’ and fatiguing with some players
2. In Yumen - Xibalba, Rotting Christ: https://rottingchrist.bandcamp.com/track/in-yumen-xibalba. If you’ve never heard of Rotting Christ they play kind of esoteric, tribal-ish metal, but with a real rocky vibe. This song has multiple sections, starting slow, going through tremolo picked verse sections and into a half time rocky chorus, plus guitar solo. A good varied test.
3. Disembodiment – Shade Empire: https://candlelightrecordsuk.bandcamp.com/track/disembodiment. At 13:00 this is a miniature symphony. Orchestral metal with multiple changing sections from light, detailed mellow parts to heavy with a steady solid beat, plus electronica thrown in for good measure.
4. Corrosion Juncture – Stömb: https://stomb.bandcamp.com/track/corrosion-juncture. A really well recorded album, great black background, guitar tone and drum details. A “djent” band for lack of a better word. So this song has deep crunchy guitars, but also a high pitched guitar line in the “chorus” that could be grating or overwhelming through a player with poor presentation of treble, so this was a “potentially annoying treble” test.
5. Wardruna – Solringen: https://youtu.be/KuwpQc6Diqs. Nordic folk, very earthy with plenty of organic sounding instruments and both male and female vocals.
6. Others: Neoclassical, dubstep, orchestral metal: Truth Will Prevail, Chaostar: https://chaostar.bandcamp.com/track/truth-will-prevail; I Am.. The Assassin of the Gods, Chaostar: https://youtu.be/cKCw4rRcNCA; The Vampire from Nazareth, Septic Flesh: https://septicflesh.bandcamp.com/track/the-vampire-from-nazareth.

Gapless playback test: Uneven Structure, Februus album: http://music.basickrecords.com/album/februus. Basically an album-length piece of music divided intro tracks, where one track flows seamlessly into another.

Impressions:

Hard-hitting, busy metal songs/sections:
S9 vs J3:
The J3 is slightly more resolving than the S9. Weirdly, depending on the track the J3 would seem like it had more bass, e.g. Clavicula Salomonis, but at other times the S9 would, e.g. In Yumen – Xibalba. Similarly, the solo in In Yumen – Xibalba felt ‘tinnier’ on the J3 than S9, but in other parts of the song the J3 was notably clearer in presentation than the S9. Overall they’re very similar and there’s not much difference between them apart from a bit of extra separation with the J3.

J3/S9 vs Plenue D:
Surprisingly, there’s not as much separating the J3 from the Plenue D here as I expected. Overall the Plenue D definitely has a greater feeling of space and more separation between instruments than the J3, but the J3 holds up well.

 

Cowons vs DX80:
The DX80 has even more separation between instruments than any of the Cowon players (a finding across all the songs, below), and greater clarity of little details like drum rolls.

 

Bass presentation:
The DX80 seems more bottom heavy than the Plenue D/J3/S9 but there’s something missing; sometimes it felt like the bass didn’t extend as deep down, at other times it felt like the bass went even deeper than the Plenue D. Perhaps the bass just doesn’t quite hit you as much, or it may depend on song context, e.g. the difference between a busy section and something like Corrosion Junction where the guitars are a touch slower. The Cowons seem to have a slightly more controlled punchy bass, where the DX80 can come across as more bottom heavy in places, but – for me at least – seemed to be lacking the same driving power in the more flat out sections. The bass is “there”, you can hear it, but it doesn’t drive into you the same way you might want it if you want heavy to really hit you as heavy.

Treble:
On Corrosion Juncture – my “potentially annoying treble” test – the DX80 was less trebly than the others in a good way. The Plenue D has less prominent/irritating treble than the S9 or J3 and I think would be less fatiguing over long durations.

Other aspects of presentation:
One thing I noticed with the DX80 in sections where music would “pull back”, i.e. coming off the end of a busy, heavy section into a quieter segment, is that the sound would “feel” like there was a greater drop-off. I had this feeling at multiple points and couldn’t quite pinpoint it – it certainly didn’t seem to be an artifact where the DX80 was set louder, so the drop off was a greater “real” difference in decibels; more that the pull-back felt like a greater drop and therefore had more impact. It made these sections seem more dynamic and musical - and therefore also more dynamic when things picked up again.

Slower sections, orchestral pieces:
There’s definite gradient in the ability of the players to resolve and present the individual details of the instruments, where DX80 tops them, then DX80 > Plenue D > J3 > S9. Particularly where there are multiple instruments or harmonised vocals with the DX80 you can make out the individual singers or details in the instruments with a clarity that isn’t the same on the Cowons, as well as small details. The Plenue D does do well, but across multiple tracks I consistently felt more space with the DX80. There’s also this feeling that the DX80 presents the detail as being right there in your head without so much, I don’t know, “effort” required from the listener. In the long term this seems like the kind of presentation that will be perfect for long listening sessions with little fatigue.

Gapless test:
DX80: Slight break between “Awe” and “Quittance” that breaks the flow for just that vital split second. Detail is fantastic, but without the true gapless there’s a real loss in the music. The second to last song in the album builds towards the last track “Finale”, and there’s a seamless transition in the songwriting, but the DX80 has a little jump of maybe 0.3-0.5 seconds that just manages to spoil the moment. I check again to see if “Gapless” is on – it is. I try with Gapless off to see what happens, and sure the Gapless off has a slightly longer space in between tracks, maybe 0.8 seconds, but there’s no doubt it isn’t a smooth transition even with it on. The difference between Gapless on or off is really minimal here.

J3: The transition to “Finale” is flawless - at least for the first few seconds of the track, then there’s a break which I notice coincides with the artwork refreshing, so I try playing it back again with the screen off. Now it’s perfect.

S9: The S9 manages gapless even with the screen on.

Plenue D: True gapless, even with screen on and artwork showing.

DAC test:
DX80 DAC function vs Fiio Olympus 2-E10K
In all honesty both of these good DACs, I’ve listened to plenty of music and movies via the Fiio. Voices are a bit more balanced and natural with the DX80 – the Fiio has an overall bassier presentation, even with the bass off. The same with music: the Fiio is bassier, but does have a nice smooth sound. Both have excellent black backgrounds. I got the Fiio for only $100 NZD and it’s a great buy. The DX80 does have more resolution and detail, but it’s five times that price. Overall the DX80 sounds and operates just as well as a DAC as it does a DAP from my testing. One thing is you have to turn on the DX80 first and then select USB settings and put it on DAC mode before connecting (shown in picture below), or it will default to opening up the SD card memory as a USB connection. (Maybe there’s a way to change this, but I haven’t found it).

Headphone comparison:
The above comparisons were all done with the 380 Pros. I’ve heard everyone in Hi Fi forums etc talk about needing to find a good match between DAP and Headphones. In all honesty in my experience thus far I’ve generally found that the better the headphone, the better it sounds regardless of the DAP. But here things got a little interesting: the Momentum 2’s have always been my go-to headphone with the Cowon players and also my previous Fiio X3II. But here I felt at times that the 380 Pros seemed a better match with the DX80, at least without EQ. The Momentum 1 on-ear’s I’d had sitting around for a while without using them, so was really surprised at just how much punch the bass had, even compared to the Momentum 2 over-ears. They even brought the bass out punchier and more intense in the DX80. Pity is I’d just sold these headphones and posted them off the next day (that’ll learn me, selling my audio gear just when it could be handy!). But of course, on-ear headphones just don’t have the same space and a more in-your-face presentation of music. Once I got into EQing the music, the Momentum 2 over-ears came alive a bit more with the DX80.

 

Summary:

S9 & J3:
Overall I was really impressed with how well the S9 and J3 held out, especially since were both released some time ago now (the S9 in 2008 and J3 in 2010 I think). Both also have Bluetooth, which the Plenue D and DX80 don’t, and both have the ability to alter playback speed (and pitch correct so it doesn’t sound too low when slowed down, etc). I’m a drummer and this is a very handy feature for figuring out what someone’s playing in fast drum lines. Sure you can do that on a computer, but really handy while you’re sitting at a kit to pick up the S9 or J3 and play something slow so you can figure it out right there and then.

Funnily going into this I had this impression that the S9 had a slightly warmer, more organic sound, than the J3. But now I’m thinking maybe I had this feeling because the J3 has slightly more space and separation between instruments, which could maybe make it feel more "clinical". After playing A-B sections of tracks I’m not hearing the warmer/colder impression I had any more. I think after this I’ll be keeping the J3, as it has an SD card slot (my S9 is only 4 GB) and longer battery life.

Battery life:
The S9, J3 and Plenue D have the famous battery life Cowon is/was famous for – approx. 55 hours or so for the J3 and approx. 100 hours for the Plenue D. The only time I’ve run the battery down on the Plenue D was when I first got it and had ‘Sleep’ mode turned on – it doesn’t fully turn off and slowly drains the battery, so I went back a few weeks later, tried to start it up and nothing. Now with it off I don’t even know how long the battery lasts: I’ve connected it to a PC to transfer newly purchased music without it ever running out. Sadly, the more expensive Plenue’s (M2, 1, etc.) are lacking this and have battery lives approximately the same as most other Hi-Fi DAPs out there.

DX80:
The DX80 definitely has a greater resolution, noticeably a step up from the Plenue D. But the DX80 doesn’t seem to have any way to lock the buttons – with the Plenue D, J3 and S9 you can lock controls, throw it in your pocket and not worry. But the DX80 can suddenly stop if you accidentally hit the play/pause button while walking around. On the other hand as a mark against the Plenue D one thing I realized while testing is that there’s no real way to set the Plenue D to permanently on. After listening to a song on the other DAPs, I’d switch back and have to start the Plenue D up again, wait for it to go through a database update (which you also can’t turn off) and then play. With the DX80 it would just sit there with a black screen, look completely turned off: hit play and it’s straight into action. In real life use probably means that if you’re interrupted for a while, going straight back to where you left off is so much easier.

Considering the perfect gapless with the J3 and S9 (and Plenue D) it’s annoying the DX80 can’t do true gapless – it’s always disappointing when new technology goes backwards. I seem to remember this was also one of the reasons I sold off the Fiio X3II.

What now?
So, after all this I’m a bit torn. I was thinking the DX80 would be an upgrade from the Plenue D. In many ways it is: clarity and resolution, and has a great DAC function which the Plenue D doesn’t. I like the simple interface of the DX80 and “no extra crap you don’t need” approach to the design and UI (which you also have with the Plenue D). But the bass might take a bit of getting used to – don’t get me wrong it’s heavy and goes very deep, but just doesn’t quite hit me the same as the Cowons. That is one benefit of Cowon players – with JetEffect you can push things way beyond the limit. Some people hate EQ, but for me, when the music goes heavy I want it to be *heavy*. Plus, EQ means you’re less at the mercy of the particular headphone/IEM you have and can have greater control over the extent of bass. With Cowon you’re never left wanting for more EQ as it can go above and beyond what you’d ever be comfortable with. I can see how people had described the Plenue D as an upgrade to the J3; it’s got a similar but more resolved sound, and great portability and battery life.
 
But I’m thinking I may hold onto the DX80 and J3; simply because it would be handy to have at least one player with Bluetooth - the J3 - which also has the playback speed alteration I find handy, and if I really want to listen to an album requiring true gapless I’ll have a suitable DAP on hand.

I’m kicking myself a little for selling my previous Fiio E17K headphone amp last year as I’d love to hear how the DX80 sounds with a bit extra, or simply a different, bass filter than the EQ built into the DX80. I’d be keen to hear from anyone who’s paired a DX80 with a Headstage as I only ever hear good things about the sound from those amps. I’d also be keen to hear how a DX80 stacks up to an Astell & Kern player like the AK70 or AK300 if anyone has done directly comparisons.
 
Right, hope this is handy for someone out there, I'm off to listen some more

[size=17.03px]Introduction: Unfamiliar Territory[/size]

 
A couple of years ago, I was telling my father-in-law about my audio and music hobby. He asked me if the equipment I had was made by "Pioneer, Sony" or another well known brand. I explained that those were, generally speaking, mass-market brands, and that the equipment favored by hard-core audiophiles these days was often made by "boutique"  or specialty brands with names like Wilson, ProAc, Audio Note or Primaluna (I didn't even mention Schiit!) - names well known in the audio community but unheard of in the larger, consumer electronics markets.

The more deeply I've ventured into the world of high-end, portable audio, the more I've come to understand how my father-in-law felt while I rattled off the names of obscure brands of audio equipment he'd never heard of.

It's true that the home audio speakers-and-amp enthusiast will encounter some more familiar names when venturing into this corner of the hobby: Sennheiser, AKG and Grado, among others, make some well respected headphones. Oppo, revered for their universal DVD and audio disc players, makes some portable gear like headphone amps. And lately, even familiar, home hi-fi brands like the venerable, value-oriented NAD and the very high-end, French manufacturer, Focal have gotten into the portable market.

But... hang out long enough on Head-fi.org and you'll enter a market also populated by small brands you (the home audio enthusiast) have never heard of; names like Dunu, Final Audio Design, Fidue, Campfire Audio, Dita, and (the subject of this review) iBasso.

The iBasso DX80 Digital Audio Player

You can check out this post to see why I decided to go with a stand-alone DAP rather than an iPhone with an external DAC/amplifier. Having now lived with my iBasso DX80 for about five months, I'm glad I did. I have found the all-in-one, special purpose DAP to be a convenient way to get high-end sound on the go, without having to plug another piece of hardware into my cell phone in order to accomplish the same thing.

I selected the iBasso DX80 after doing my research on the Internet in general and on Head-fi.org in particular. With dual Cirrus 4398 DAC chips (one per channel), a (mostly) metal body, a largish touch screen, three physical navigation buttons (which I love - more on that in a bit), dual MicroSD card slots supporting (theoretically) up to 2 terabytes of storage, the ability to function as an external DAC for your laptop, and more - and all of this at a current street price of just over US $300 - the value proposition on this unit seemed very high.

Unboxing Photos!

At first I wasn't going to bother including my own unboxing photos of the DX80 since they're available all over Head-fi.  Yet I know that you, my beloved readers, love them, so here we go...

Here's the outer box of the DX80.

... and from the top.

The retail box is kind of a clamshell affair. (Note that in this picture I've already installed one of the included screen protectors.)

There is a wedge-shaped box of accessories packed under the main unit. Here we see the warranty card, Quick Start Guide and one of the two supplied screen protectors.

Here's the mini-plug to coaxial cable, for taking a digital (SPDIF) signal out of the DX80 and feeding it to an external DAC.

A reassuringly beefy USB to micro-USB cable, used for charging, transferring music files and employing the DX80 as an external DAC with a laptop or other computer.

Some people believe in the need for audio gear to be "burned in" to in order to reach its full sonic potential. Others do not. Clearly, iBasso does, which is why they supply this nifty burn-in cable. It provides a resistive load to mimic a pair of earphones. Plug it in to the headphone jack, set a playlist or album on "repeat" and it will allow you to silently burn in the DX80 without abusing your favorite ear phones.

iBasso also thoughtfully includes a silicone rubber case for the DX80. Although, like all such cases, it's a bit of a dust magnet, its grippy texture helps prevent drops and its springy consistency provides some nice impact protection. The Korean company Dignis also makes a leather case for the DX80.

Shamelessly stolen from another web site, here's a photo of the DX80, naked except for its retail screen protector.

User Experience: Touch Screen Interface

As is the case with a lot of Chinese brand digital audio players, the DX80 uses a customized version of Android for its operating system and touch screen user interface.

This seems like a good time to report that iBasso has been quite diligent about pushing out regular firmware updates for the DX80. (Here is the download page where you can find firmware update files for various iBasso products.) Updating the DX80 firmware is a fairly trivial procedure – download and expand the file, which will be called "update.IMG." Make sure the file is located in the root directory of the microSD card in Slot #2 and either choose Update Firmware from the Advanced menu or reboot holding down the power and Volume Up buttons to get you into an early start up menu that will give you the option to update the firmware. At this point, as of firmware version 1.5.8, the DX80 firmware is quite solid, with just one, minor bug* remaining, but, for my purposes, no showstoppers.

Let's take a look at the user interface.

There are two ways to interact with your DX80.

The first is by using the touchscreen. You can tap the touchscreen to select tracks. You can also swipe left from the currently playing song to access the My Music screen, or swipe right to access the Settings screen. Here's a visual tour of the touchscreen interface:

This is the Now Playing screen. The navigation widgets and scrubber bar are pretty self explanatory. Notice, too, the little icon on the right above the scrubber bar, indicating that the entire album should repeat. Tapping there will give you several other repeat options. As shown here, a single tap on the album art brings up the Volume and Battery charge display overlaying the top of the album art....

... and a second tap reveals icons that (from left to right) when tapped will display (from left to right) Song Info (size, format, bitrate, etc.), add the current song to a Playlist and remove the song from a Playlist.

Swiping across the Now Playing screen from left to right gets you to the My Music screen, showing all the ways you can organize and access your music collection. I find myself using Album view most often.

The Album view, list mode. Tap the icon in the upper right margin and you can see your albums like this...

Album mode, thumbnail view!​

Here we see Artist view...

... and the Genre view.

Swiping right to left from the Now Playing screen takes you to this Preferences screen.

Here are the Advanced Options, where you can set things like display brightness and time until the DX80 automatically powers off. Rescan Library merits its own screen shot...

Whenever you've added new music files to either of your Micro SD cards, you'll want to rescan that card with this screen. This rebuilds the index of all your files so that the DX80 can access them by their various metadata (album, artist, genre and so on).

Finally, a downward swipe from almost any screen brings you this handy-dandy shortcut to the most frequently used Advanced Settings. Gapless Playback should be enabled for albums (e.g., live concert recordings) meant to be played with no pause between tracks. The Gain setting can be set to either high or low, depending on the sensitivity of your 'phones (with the caveat that High Gain mode will tend to drain the DX80  battery more quickly). Low Gain works fine for most IEM's, but if you're driving a pair of less sensitive, full-size "cans," High Gain may be your better choice. The Digital Filter setting is supposed to shape the way your files sound, but honestly, I haven't found it to make that much of a difference. The next row of buttons toggles that way the DX80 behaves when plugged into a computer's USB port. (Reader mode mounts the DX80's memory as a removable volume on your computer, allowing you to transfer files to the DX80. DAC mode allows the DX80 to function as an external DAC for your computer - very handy!) And in the bottom row, you can set the playback repeat mode.

User Experience: Buttons!

For all of the power and flexibility of the touch screen controls, my favorite UI feature of the DX80 consists of three large, physical buttons just below the screen; from left to right, as expected, we have Skip Backward, Play/Pause and Skip Forward. (Additionally, a long press on these buttons will Skim Backward in the current track, Lock The Screen And Buttons, and Skim Forward in the current track, respectively.) This means that you can control many of the DX80's playback functions without having to look at the touchscreen. You'll deeply appreciate this when listening to music in the dark at bedtime or when you want to control the unit without removing it from your pocket. Add to this the physical volume increase and decrease buttons on the right side of the DX80 and you get a lot of everyday control without having to actually look at the unit. This is brilliant, and deeply appreciated, especially compared to listening to music on today's smartphones that require you to deal with the touchscreen to do almost anything except adjust the volume.

The Sound

I find the sound of the DX80 to be quite lovely: airy, neutral and uncolored, which in my book is a good thing. You get the sound of your music files without a lot of editorializing, although, of course, you can use the built in graphic equalizer screen to tailor the sound to suit your tastes if you like. I tend not to "EQ" my music - probably a silly holdover from my home audiophile snobbery - but others love to equalize their music.

This "neutral-ish" assessment of the sonic character of the DX80 comes with two caveats.

First, the only other portable, digital players I've ever spent significant time with over the years were a first-generation (!!) iPod and a series of iPhones, so my DAP listening experience isn't as broad and varied as some.

Second, like your feelings about any portable music player, your perception of the DX80's sonics will be VERY significantly influenced by the headphones or earphones with which they are paired. With  a pair of Sennheiser IE80's, I found the sound to be overwhelmingly bloated and bass-heavy (for my tastes, of course). With the Dunu DN-2000j and the Musicmaker Shockwave III, the highs were (to my treble-sensitive ears) punishingly bright on pop music with a more compressed, "modern" sound signature, such as Lorde's Pure Herione. But paired with the Final Audio Design Heaven VII, the Hifiman RE-600 "Songbird" or (especially!) the luscious KEF M200 IEM's, the sound is just beautiful and supremely musical. To my surprise, I have found that, paired with the right earphones, the iBasso DX80 can deliver a musical experience that's extremely immersive and emotionally satisfying. It's different than listening to my full-size home stereo rig, but no less enjoyable in its own, unique way. And I can take it with me wherever I go!

I'll have a lot more to say about my IEM travels in my next blog post! But for now, I'd highly recommend the iBasso DX80 to anyone looking for a standalone Digital Audio Player. It's well built, well priced, works almost perfectly and sounds great.

Click to expand...

By the way, iBasso has a new, "statement" model in the works, to be called the DX200. Hopefully I'll get my hands on one when it's released so I can share how it stacks up compared to the DX80.

Until next time, be kind to others and enjoy your music!

---

*"one minor bug" - Under the current 1.5.8 firmware, if you power off (automatically or by hand) the DX80 while listening to an album, when powered back on, the tracks will be in alphabetical order rather than album order. Annoying, but a couple of screen taps gets you back to album sort order. As far as I can tell, this is the sole remaining DX80 firmware bug.

Hey, folks, hope you enjoyed this review. It's also available, in a somewhat prettier form, on my audio blog, here.