[HK_sends]

Definitely benefits from a burn in, give it at least 100hrs before you start with a more critical analysis.

Critical Analysis...Ha! I'm gettin' too old to wait for more critical analysis. I'm just going sit back and enjoy as the sound quality expands and evolves around me...
Loved your review, BTW. It was one of the deciding factors for me to try iBasso again.

Cheers and All the Best!
-HK sends

 

[alan_g]

I'll see if I can do one after I finish burning in my AMP8

thanks shawnb

 

[kalo86]

Hello guys!
I noticed that the great function in Neutron "PCM to DSD" is quite stunning!
The bottle neck of the DX220 is the not-so-powerfull CPU, that's why we can only use the DSD64 for the in real time conversion.

Since the conversion from a generic file format (mp3, FLAC, WAV) to DSD64/128/256/512 is macking the difference, I thought why not make a try converting some files to DSD?
Now I am trying the XRecode software.and I am able to use it without external sound card:

https://xrecode.com/

Can you please try as well and let me know what are your impressions?

Thanks!
kalo86

Nobody?

 

[Sunstealer]

I'll give it a go. JRiver Media Centre is free to trial for 1 month. XiSRC is also worth trying.

 

[ballhead]

can I connect balanced headphone out (2.5 or 4.4, have amp8 too) to balanced speaker amp (xlr's)? I know it will be double amping, but are there any other problems?

 

[duyanh43]

can I connect balanced headphone out (2.5 or 4.4, have amp8 too) to balanced speaker amp (xlr's)? I know it will be double amping, but are there any other problems?

@Whitigir once mentioned amp8 max volume double amping is, for some aspects, better than amp1's lineout

 

[kalo86]

I'll give it a go. JRiver Media Centre is free to trial for 1 month. XiSRC is also worth trying.

With XRecode you can output until DSD512 but the converted file is sort of huge and it's quite impossible for me to spot the difference between the DSD128 vs DSD256 vs DSD512.

 

[icefalkon]

With XRecode you can output until DSD512 but the converted file is sort of huge and it's quite impossible for me to spot the difference between the DSD128 vs DSD256 vs DSD512.

It doesn’t matter what program you use to convert to DSD512...the files will always be exceptionally huge.

 

[kalo86]

It doesn’t matter what program you use to convert to DSD512...the files will always be exceptionally huge.

Sure, it is due to the bitrate by itself.
But I wonder if the sound card is playing a crucial role during the conversion.

 

[Whitigir]

Sure, it is due to the bitrate by itself.
But I wonder if the sound card is playing a crucial role during the conversion.

No, hardware do not play a role in offline conversion. Only live conversion will

offline conversions are all affected by the algorithms or the program that uses it

 

[kalo86]

I made a test:

1. Play a track as a PCM (WAV 44.1kHz 16bit) in Neutron
2. Play the same track with the function PCM to DSD64 (I hear positive differences)
3. Offline conversion of the same track into DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DSD512
4. Play all the files in Mango OS or Neutron and try to spot the difference. Nothing. I cannot hear differences.

Did you hear differences?

 

[fokta]

I made a test:

1. Play a track as a PCM (WAV 44.1kHz 16bit) in Neutron
2. Play the same track with the function PCM to DSD64 (I hear positive differences)
3. Offline conversion of the same track into DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DSD512
4. Play all the files in Mango OS or Neutron and try to spot the difference. Nothing. I cannot hear differences.

Did you hear differences?

Just give my 2 cents, it also depends on you IEM and music file genre you want to listen.
For me, listening to Acoustic song or live performance will get more benefit in DSD. You can distinguished between Mid Bass produce by Guitar or drum, not overlapping. since usually DSD can make better separation then FLAC song.
But if you listening EDM, disco, RAP, which fast beat, is a bit difficult to catch that, so DSD will not have benefit then FLAC. Playing via SPOTIFY will sufficient enough for those Genre. IMO

My DSD song is around 15 songs, and already more then 20 Gb... so I just only convert if the song is worthy...
and playing DSD, will make your DX220 Hot.. make sure when you listen it, u took off the casing...

 

[kalo86]

Just give my 2 cents, it also depends on you IEM and music file genre you want to listen.
For me, listening to Acoustic song or live performance will get more benefit in DSD. You can distinguished between Mid Bass produce by Guitar or drum, not overlapping. since usually DSD can make better separation then FLAC song.
But if you listening EDM, disco, RAP, which fast beat, is a bit difficult to catch that, so DSD will not have benefit then FLAC, or even SPOTIFY will sufficient enough..

My DSD song is around 15 songs, and already more then 20 Gb... so I just only convert if the song is worthy...
and playing DSD, will make your DX220 Hot.. make sure you listen it, took off the casing...

I usually listen to orchestral tracks and there is a difference in Neutron when you use the PCM to DSD function. My curiosity pushed me to try the realtime conversion to DSD128 but DX220 starts lagging due to the low performance of the CPU. That's why I thought to make this test with the offline conversion.
But it is so strange because with Neutron I can spot the difference between a PCM and the converted DSD64.

 

[fokta]

I usually listen to orchestral tracks and there is a difference in Neutron when you use the PCM to DSD function. My curiosity pushed me to try the realtime conversion to DSD128 but DX220 starts lagging due to the low performance of the CPU. That's why I thought to make this test with the offline conversion.
But it is so strange because with Neutron I can spot the difference between a PCM and the converted DSD64.

OOO.. now I understand, Sorry never try the online conversion, so can't say more.
Majority I used Offline... usually convert to DSD64 or DSD128 since majority of any DAP can play until that level...

if you said your genre is orchestra, well I can say DSD will benefit you.

Regarding you can spot the difference, its good right ?

 

[kalo86]

The things are two:

1. Neutron is making some magic with the realtime PCM to DSD64 conversion
2. Neutron is better than Mango OS

It's strange because without DSD conversion I find Mango OS better in terms of audio quality.