DX220: First Impressions from Chicago.
I got a chance over the weekend to try out the 220 at this year's Axpona. I had plenty of time with it for the most hilarious reason: there was a Star Wars convention in town at the same time. As it turns out the overlap between Audio geeks and Star Wars geeks is pretty sizable, and the Force was stronger at the convention, so booths at Axpona were sometimes left lonely. (By the by, I'm also a huge Star Wars geek but I have my priorities straight (grin)).
A–huge–thanks to
@icefalkon and
@jamato8 who were manning the iBasso display! Great guys who were wonderful to talk to about the DX220, audio, soldering, pizza, and just life in general! (One more time, Chicago deep dish is not pizza!).
The downside, as expected, is that it's impossible to get any definitive sense of the sound of any device at conventions. Even with Star Wars siphoning away any numbers of nerds, the hall was still noisy, and with open back headphones sonic nuances are largely lost. So, I'll share what I'm sure about first, which is what I could see rather than hear.
1) Form Factor: Visually, the DX220 is nice, really nice. It has an anodized aluminum chassis similar to the 200, though it is a bit thicker. What makes it nice is the glossy glass on the back, and mostly, the screen. The display is outstanding, stunning really. It's flush and pretty much edge to edge on the front. It's bright, high resolution, clear, and colors are eye-poppingly good. IBasso really capitalized on this upgraded screen with a dazzling new UI for both Android and Mango. Also, the reworked volume control is just the right kind of tactile. The whole effect is just gorgeous and makes it a pleasure to use. Once you hold the 220 in your hand and swipe around the new UX it isn't all that easy to let go.
However, for those of you who are hoping for improved user performance I had a mixed impression. I believe the processor is upgraded, but I found it lagged at times, and actually, I never had a problem with the performance on the 200. I was told by Jamato that the FW on the demo unit was only the second iteration, which means it may get updated even before shipping. I'm sure we can expect it to improve quite a bit over time and eventually take full advantage of the hardware.
Of course this is just the surface level, the sound is what counts the most. I had a chance to compare the 220+stock amp8 with my modded DX208EX using the same DSD512 files. I didn't try out the new amp1-mkII because I only had a 4.4. plug. Again, there was enough background noise, that I can't be sure of anything. Here is what I can say:
2) Audio: Sonically, the DX220 is good, really good. I went in thinking that there is no way that this thing, in stock form, is going to compare with my heavily upgraded 208EX with Fidelizer Advanced ROM. I thought the advantage of the 208EX+Fidelizer was going to be so clear that I could pick it out even in convention conditions. The fact that I left without being able to know what I expected to know means that iBasso really did a job of overhauling the DX200 into the DX220. If the improvements are not widescale worthy of a DX300, they must be strategic, targeting the right areas.
Since the 220 was announced, there was some speculation that it may be more of a cosmetic upgrade, with a better processor and larger screen, but without major substantative improvements to sound. I don't think this is the case. I can comfortably say that the 220 improves on the sound of the 200. I can't rightly say by how much, but Jamoto referred to the 220 as the "matured" sound of the 200, and I agree. The signature is in line with the 200: neutral, airy, with good dynamics, but it is more refined. Even with amp8, the 220 has gone further in the direction of a "reference" sound with better clarity and naturalness of timbres. The 200 always had a great soundstage but was held back by a haziness and artificiality in its rendering. The 220, I think, has an even more spacious staging and has made strides in delivering a cleaner, more resolved signal.
I tried to find out as much as I could about what exactly was upgraded as far as the internals from John and Steve. I don't think iBasso wants to disclose too many specifics for obvious reasons, but this is what I could piece together. Any mistakes are mine and I could surely have misunderstood.
We already knew that the DAC chips are the same configuration of dual ESS9028 pro. The ESS9038 is just not feasible for a portable device at this time. What it seems like is that the two Accusilicon clocks are also the same, but the three remaining clocks have gotten upgraded. The implementation of the clocks/converters has gotten redesigned and I think the power regulators have also been updated, possibly to the ones used in the Ti model. I'm not sure about this but John told me that the iBasso engineers looked at some of the suggestions for improving the regulators but found that the ones they were currently using still measured better. So, they did not switch to different regulators from they're current stock of components. I would be surprised however if they didn't move the 220 into their 200Ti level regulators. I have to reiterate that this was not made clear to me. Steve was able to share that the internal shielding has been improved as well. Wild speculation on my part is that the effects of the TDK sheeting promoted by
@Whitigir and @chaiyuta–may–have contributed to this.
3) Price and Release Date: In regard to time, the DX220 is close, really close. Steve and John couldn't confirm anything at Axpona because, of course, iBasso wants to reveal that for themselves, but the word "imminent" was used. When I pressed further as to whether that meant months or weeks, I got the impression that it is definitely the latter if not sooner? As for price, again not sure, but it looks like more than the DX200 but in keeping with iBasso's commendable practice of affordable pricing. It seems like a reasonable bit more, bucking the inflationary trend of other companies. I think Steve and I may have talked a little too loudly about AK when their booth was just a few paces away.
So, to sum up what we kind of know so far: In terms of form factor, I think the DX220 could've been designated as an DX300; the upgrade is that dramatic. In regard to sound, the DX200 is not a DX300, but a significant refinement of the base DX200 design. There are improvements in SQ that take the DX200 further and, to my ears, in the right direction. I won't be sure until I have it in a quiet environment. I haven't said much at all about how the 220 compares to the 208EX simply because I couldn't tell. The areas where the EX makes such a marked advance on the 200, e.g., low level detail retrieval, spatial cues, blackness of background are all but lost in a convention setting with open backs. So, I really do need to get the 220 into my own home, but I do mean that in every way....
I really do need to get the 220 into my own home.
