Well, that's quite a bold assertion without having internal knowledge how exactly the signal processing is done and how the software is implemented.
The software just handles the digital part before the DAC. The analoge signal after the DAC is processed in hardware and this is the same for Android and MangoOS.
Therefore I disagree, because the player software just reads the file and converts it into a bytestream to feed the DAC. And i would assume that both players (Android Player and the MangoOS Player) are behaving in the same way, that e.g. a bytestream from a FLAC file is bytewise identical.
Surely both players can be based on the same conversion routines and software libraries, especially when both OS are based on linux (Andoid is actually also based on Linux). The timing of the OS might be sligthly different, but how do you know if the timing is really critical here without having developed the player or having implemented software to feed a DAC?
I assume that the software just has to ensure that the bytestream doesn't get stuck and has enough buffer to always feed the DAC.
Exactly only the iBasso engineers and software developers can confirm if there are differences between the Android Player and the MangoOS Player that could result in a different bytestream. Or if some sound processing is done in software and not in hardware. Personally i don't think it is.
timing is always the critical parts of any digital things, and everything digital, period.
It isn’t as simple as you think it is. I don’t know much about the base OS and it coding, but I know enough about digital music and what it is to be saying that. A little off timing, different set of algorithms, and even Different OS would require different ways the whole system behave in compatibility in it entirety. In some way that even New firmware without intentional tweaking of the algorithms itself can still sound different.
but then again, you don’t have to be able to tell the differences because you are never meant to be. It doesn’t meant that it doesn’t happen.
I would tag
@Windows X in here as he is developer of Fidelizer program. It basically makes the OS handling everything more fluidly and efficiently and also have observable performances gain. I witness it both on my Windows 10 PC and Dx200. He maybe able to tell us some things as of why or how ?
the only one thing I am so sure of is that different app, and different OS would always sound different, so technically sound performances can never sound the same from different apps or OS. Even sometimes when I install different useless Apps or software in my PC, the differences could be observed. So logically I would just say this, MangoOS is purely handling music decoding and nothing else, where as in Android, even-though the same set of algorithms are being used, the handling would be different, and the whole thing would behave different which would alter the sound.
so what I really want to say is that, it is impossible to have different playback apps to perform the same in opposed of some people who thinks that Technically there should not be any differences.
However, allows me to stop this Can of worms. I don’t pay much attentions to subtles changes anymore, and have begin to generally accept what is acceptable nowadays. For example, I am tired of chasing the differences in cables materials...exotic metals...etc....and settled for all thing OCC as long as this OCC copper is authentic, and that is good enough.
There is nothing perfect, and when enough is enough, that is it. Since all thing is imperfect, you can always keep on chasing the rabbit hole, and it goes far beyond “the sky is the limits”. Hell, I just learned 2 new things of what Audiophiles have claimed all along, but isn’t measured. It is about why different metal would sound different, and also why cryogenic metal would also improve upon this. Performances....but again, god....please allows me to stay content at this limit .... LOL
