[Womaz]

Yeah, I was in the same situation with the Tidal app. It works perfectly on my IOS devices, and other android DAPs. It was slow as molasses on the DX200. I never figured out why because I switched to UAPP and never looked back. Unfortunately UAPP does have a learning curve, but the developer is one of the most helpful and engaged guys out there. It also does sound significantly better than Tidal and has options for EQ, etc. It is also really cheap. Just a thought if you can’t figure things out with Tidal.

Yes I think I will have to look at this as tidal is the only reason I have the DAP. I don’t even keep my own music on it anymore .
I have no idea what UAPP involves, but I presume it would replace what I did with the lurker upgrade. I will investigate . My other alternative is a move back to A&K as they appear to have some new DAPs out that work with tidal without the need to side load, however I do enjoy my Dx200 so loathe to change this. Thanks for your posts , very helpful

 

[edwardsean]

Yes I think I will have to look at this as tidal is the only reason I have the DAP. I don’t even keep my own music on it anymore .
I have no idea what UAPP involves, but I presume it would replace what I did with the lurker upgrade. I will investigate . My other alternative is a move back to A&K as they appear to have some new DAPs out that work with tidal without the need to side load, however I do enjoy my Dx200 so loathe to change this. Thanks for your posts , very helpful

Hey real quick, just to let you know, UAPP-USB Audio Player Pro-is not firmware that would require you to flash and all. It’s just an app on the google play store. If you already have Lurker installed you have the play store and can just search for and buy UAPP. It’s not much. There is a menu you slide/swipe out from the left side. You’ll find Tidal, and can set up your account. You don’t really need to fool around with any other settings though you want to set the internal driver to hires. Hope it all works out (don’t backslide with A&K).

 

[Womaz]

Hey real quick, just to let you know, UAPP-USB Audio Player Pro-is not firmware that would require you to flash and all. It’s just an app on the google play store. If you already have Lurker installed you have the play store and can just search for and buy UAPP. It’s not much. There is a menu you slide/swipe out from the left side. You’ll find Tidal, and can set up your account. You don’t really need to fool around with any other settings though you want to set the internal driver to hires. Hope it all works out (don’t backslide with A&K).

That all sounds simple. What could possibly go wrong I will look into this
I moved from A&K to the DX200 so yes that would be a costly backtrack

 

[Whitigir]

After doing a bunch of reading I’m going to explore Fidlelizer Purist ROM. I’ve been so impressed with the DX200, even against desktop gear costing multiples more. I’m going to throw in with it and improve it any way I can.

I just have a basic question. On the download section the Purist ROM and XMOS update are listed together. Do I need to update my XMOS to 1.2 in order for the Purist ROM to work?

Also @Whitigir noted that Advanced ROM tuned the sound slightly warmer, how significant is this. I’m running a bunch of processing on my audio files including convolution of analog gear and the sound is already quite warm. What I’m really looking for is increased clarity and detail with less grain.

The “warmth” is very little, and ofcourse with much less grain. I am not sure how it would affect your experiences with your processing running though

 

[Stealer]

Is there any setting where we can set to wake the Player with double tap instead of depressing ths power button?

 

[Whitigir]

Could you please share your measurements?

I don’t know how to do this ?

 

[Womaz]

Hey real quick, just to let you know, UAPP-USB Audio Player Pro-is not firmware that would require you to flash and all. It’s just an app on the google play store. If you already have Lurker installed you have the play store and can just search for and buy UAPP. It’s not much. There is a menu you slide/swipe out from the left side. You’ll find Tidal, and can set up your account. You don’t really need to fool around with any other settings though you want to set the internal driver to hires. Hope it all works out (don’t backslide with A&K).

At £5.99 it was worth a go. You are right TIDAL is much smoother and much more responsive. My only issue is I download TIDAL albums to my 200 to use offline when on the go and holidays and I do not think I can do this using UAPP.
I could of course use Tidal with UAPP and then go back to the other method to access the downloaded content. This is not ideal though.
The UAPP may also take some getting used to as the Menu system seems a bit clunky to me. Thanks again

 

[twister6]

The AMP9 is still a prototype. They have put it into an AMP8 shell. They also didn’t mention anything about an AMP9s for balanced 4.4mm. There is no release date yet for the AMP9.

Overall the AMP9 sounded smooth as one would expect out of a Nutube (I have the Nutube for my Analog2Paper TUR-06 too so familiar with its sound). The AMP9 is microphonic with taps therefore it’s not isolated from vibrations.

I think it would be nice if they created a little window to see the Nutube glow (the Cayin N8 does that).

I have to say that with Paul silent about the AMP9, I wonder if it’s #1 official iBasso global product or a Japan specific, or #2 if it’s a proof of concept where it may or may not make it to production.

I need to talk to the iBasso Japan guys more.



There was also the gold DX200 which was pretty hefty. I didn’t give it a listen though :

Great impressions Sean! Wonder if there is a separate thread for the latest PortaFest and if you're planing to share more about other products, along with @ExpatinJapan, we need headpie pics to go along with it

With amp9, I think you are right and it was there to demonstrate the sound for now. I'm sure it's a big mechanical design challenge. As you pointed out with reference to N8 which I just recently reviewed, cayin had to design a special spring loaded suspension to keep NuTube steady, to eliminate the microphonics. Can't wait to see how amp9 turned out to be.

 

[Lurker0]

I don’t know how to do this ?

For me, that renders the value of your impression to zero. Because:

Total improvement is 10-15%:

you can "measure" sound improvements (if any), but can't support battery life improvement with any numbers. I'd expect quite opposite

OK, with Android 8.1+my add-on 1.13, Mango plays 16/44 wav (1KHz sine wave) at volume 70, high gain, with bundled burning-in cable attached, for 8h56m49s from full charge to turning off. With 2.9.210L0 the best result was 9h20m41s, and I know why with Oreo the result is slightly worse. And, when I announced that firmware with improved battery life, I've published the result.

So, if nobody has measured the battery life "before" and "after", how can you say about improvement? Isn't it just "feeling", i.e. the same level of (mis)trust as "10-15% improvements" in sound?

Now look at

5/ a good Apollo player for PCM

In description of my add-on, I claim that pre-installed Hiby plays PCM bit perfect up to 32/384. What about this Apollo? Does it downsample all to 16/44, or supports high sampling rates, but 16 bits only? Nobody knows! So, why it is good, or any better than Mango/Hiby/UAPP/Neutron?

I hope you've got the point. From you (and @WindowsX) I don't see any numbers that can be checked and compared. Only words and emotions.

 

[AnakChan]

Great impressions Sean! Wonder if there is a separate thread for the latest PortaFest and if you're planing to share more about other products, along with @ExpatinJapan, we need headpie pics to go along with it

With amp9, I think you are right and it was there to demonstrate the sound for now. I'm sure it's a big mechanical design challenge. As you pointed out with reference to N8 which I just recently reviewed, cayin had to design a special spring loaded suspension to keep NuTube steady, to eliminate the microphonics. Can't wait to see how amp9 turned out to be.

Sadly this time I didn't have much time to do a proper show report. I did spend about 3 hrs there and stopped by a few booths (e.g. the Cayin and listened to the N8, Hifiman's Shangri La Jr, but didn't listen to their newHE1000SE, Stax' closed enclosure to their SR-003/SRS-002, Sony's DMP-Z1, Velcos HPS-500/HPT-700), but there were lots more I hadn't stopped by.

 

[Whitigir]

For me, that renders the value of your impression to zero. Because:
you can "measure" sound improvements (if any), but can't support battery life improvement with any numbers. I'd expect quite opposite

OK, with Android 8.1+my add-on 1.13, Mango plays 16/44 wav (1KHz sine wave) at volume 70, high gain, with bundled burning-in cable attached, for 8h56m49s from full charge to turning off. With 2.9.210L0 the best result was 9h20m41s, and I know why with Oreo the result is slightly worse. And, when I announced that firmware with improved battery life, I've published the result.

So, if nobody has measured the battery life "before" and "after", how can you say about improvement? Isn't it just "feeling", i.e. the same level of (mis)trust as "10-15% improvements" in sound?

Now look at

In description of my add-on, I claim that pre-installed Hiby plays PCM bit perfect up to 32/384. What about this Apollo? Does it downsample all to 16/44, or supports high sampling rates, but 16 bits only? Nobody knows! So, why it is good, or any better than Mango/Hiby/UAPP/Neutron?

I hope you've got the point. From you (and @WindowsX) I don't see any numbers that can be checked and compared. Only words and emotions.

The 10-15% improvements is exactly from my feeling and hearing impressions. I always use this scale to decide which gears is better to me, and this number is absolutely not related to any Measurements. Now, if you and everybody else don’t like how I interprete this, then I will simply stop using number to express in posts. Even though I will still do it for my daily gears selections when I decide to upgrade.

Now, if using the same measurements, I would say battery life improved around 20-30% when being in Android OS and idling with WiFi on. The exact number, it will have to be from experts like you, if you can help

Again, I can not debate against you or anyone else who is in-depth into coding and programming, perhap this is something you can debate with @WindowsX if he would take it on ? I have no idea.

Me, on the other hands, only have my ears to judge. Whenever I hear something that I like and deemed to be an improvements then I will just stick with it, the same for when I modify stuff, or buying new stuff. Not every time buying new stuff is good either. I had that period with my desktop DAC, but I learned some valuable lessons from that experiences too.

I would also clarify this, all my impressions are just from personal experiences, I don’t ask everyone to believe it, or to agree with it. As I always said, Don’t believe me, hearing is believing. You decide for yourself if you want to give it a spin or not.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Great impressions Sean! Wonder if there is a separate thread for the latest PortaFest and if you're planing to share more about other products, along with @ExpatinJapan, we need headpie pics to go along with it

With amp9, I think you are right and it was there to demonstrate the sound for now. I'm sure it's a big mechanical design challenge. As you pointed out with reference to N8 which I just recently reviewed, cayin had to design a special spring loaded suspension to keep NuTube steady, to eliminate the microphonics. Can't wait to see how amp9 turned out to be.

Didnt make it today, probably not tomorrow either.
Family weekend #twokids #papalife

 

[Whitigir]

Didnt make it today, probably not tomorrow either.
Family weekend #twokids #papalife

Enjoy it , hobby is meant to be a fall back only and not primarily or prioritized over family. When you are there, please give DMP-Z1 a heavy Spin for me, or listen to it the whole day if possible .

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Enjoy it , hobby is meant to be a fall back only and not primarily or prioritized over family. When you are there, please give DMP-Z1 a heavy Spin for me, or listen to it the whole day if possible .

true. Family first.

The e-earphone and Fujiya Avic shows share a few vendors and presenters. But the e-earphone show gets a few others from
South East Asia that I dont see at the FA show.

The e-earphone show is nice due to the high ceilings and sense of space. Fujiya avic is on several floors with lower ceilings.

The e-earphone is across town whilst the Fujiya avic show (and shop) is close to my house. A 5 minute bicycle ride.

So its a hard choice. Theres afew things I wanted to try also. Hopefully someone goes and does a report.

 

[Lurker0]

hearing is believing

Then all you need is a good sound processor: EQ and other "enhancers"