[dpastern]

Well, I'm having all kinds of problem with my DX220 - not a good introduction to the brand

Can't play any music, keep getting "mango app crashed". Have tried several artist folders on the microSD card, rebooted the DAP, and several headphones, same issue all of the time. And yes, I scanned the microSD without issue after inserting the card and file manager on the device shows content.

Was going to test tonight by copying data across to the internal storage and seeing if I get the same error message. Connected the player to my computer's USB port, turned the DAP on, Windows 10 refuses to see it as a drive. Nada. Nothing. Device Manager shows unknown device, but that'll be for the USB DAC I suspect and i haven't installed the Windows driver for the DAC functionality. The user manual doesn't really say much about connecting the DAP to a computer so I'm not sure if there's something I have to do at the DAP end to get it working. I've went through the settings and can't find anything to suggest so. Very frustrating.

edit: searched through the thread and found this post:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/dx2...9-now-available-and-dc01.898388/post-15399888

Kind of unintuitive. I'll be honest, I dislike android OS, it's terrible imho. Sadly, there's no DAPs using alternatives like iOS which is far superior imho! I managed to get it (file transfer) working - some feedback for iBasso - it should auto switch to MTP connection method when connected to a PC - my AK unit does and pretty much every other USB mass storage device that I've used in 15+ years IT support has worked that way too. It's probably an Android thing.

I have my microSD card from my AK unit, so will swap that out and see what happens. If both microSD cards won't play, my instinct is that it's a microSD slot issue. I hope not...

2nd edit: I just clicked on the new storage warning that pops up on the main screen and told the unit to "use as portable storage". Not sure if that was the correct thing to do or not. Tried mango app again and same error message.

3rd edit: just a though - does the unit support .m4a files (I have a bunch of albums that I bought via iTunes on the card). I had a look at the specs on the product page on iBasso's website but it doesn't list .m4a. It would be very disappointing if the product doesn't support the .m4a format.

 

[jamato8]

Well, I'm having all kinds of problem with my DX220 - not a good introduction to the brand

Can't play any music, keep getting "mango app crashed". Have tried several artist folders on the microSD card, rebooted the DAP, and several headphones, same issue all of the time. And yes, I scanned the microSD without issue after inserting the card and file manager on the device shows content.

Was going to test tonight by copying data across to the internal storage and seeing if I get the same error message. Connected the player to my computer's USB port, turned the DAP on, Windows 10 refuses to see it as a drive. Nada. Nothing. Device Manager shows unknown device, but that'll be for the USB DAC I suspect and i haven't installed the Windows driver for the DAC functionality. The user manual doesn't really say much about connecting the DAP to a computer so I'm not sure if there's something I have to do at the DAP end to get it working. I've went through the settings and can't find anything to suggest so. Very frustrating.

I have my microSD card from my AK unit, so will swap that out and see what happens. If both microSD cards won't play, my instinct is that it's a microSD slot issue. I hope not...

edit: I just clicked on the new storage warning that pops up on the main screen and told the unit to "use as portable storage". Not sure if that was the correct thing to do or not. Tried mango app again and same error message.

2nd edit: just a though - does the unit support .m4a files (I have a bunch of albums that I bought via iTunes on the card). I had a look at the specs on the product page on iBasso's website but it doesn't list .m4a. It would be very disappointing if the product doesn't support the .m4a format.

If you are getting crashes then I would do a factory reset. Also check to be sure you are on the latest firmware. There is a driver for Windows and you also have to go into setting if you want to use it as a DAC and change from DAP to DAC.

 

[DaYooper]

As for having your computer "see" the dap, when you connect it you need to be in android OS and after you plug it in swipe down from the top and you will see an area where you will see "usb connected" tap on that and a sub menu appears where you can select transfer files. I know this is in the user manual.

 

[dpastern]

As for having your computer "see" the dap, when you connect it you need to be in android OS and after you plug it in swipe down from the top and you will see an area where you will see "usb connected" tap on that and a sub menu appears where you can select transfer files. I know this is in the user manual.

I searched through the user manual several times and couldn't find reference to this. The only time the word 'connected" appears in the user manual is on p23 and in reference to wifi. I also searched for PC. I just went through and searched for "computer" and found it on p17. uggh! I did read through the entire manual before even firing the unit up, but I have a very bad memory, and at 62 pages, the chances of me remembering everything in the user manual were practically nil lol!

Still, issue sorted, successfully connected to PC, files transferred. Onto testing the mango app crashes.

If I reset the device, will it wipe it back to default firmware?

 

[jamato8]

I searched through the user manual several times and couldn't find reference to this. The only time the word 'connected" appears in the user manual is on p23 and in reference to wifi. I also searched for PC. I just went through and searched for "computer" and found it on p17. uggh! I did read through the entire manual before even firing the unit up, but I have a very bad memory, and at 62 pages, the chances of me remembering everything in the user manual were practically nil lol!

Still, issue sorted, successfully connected to PC, files transferred. Onto testing the mango app crashes.

If I reset the device, will it wipe it back to default firmware?

No, but you will have to rescan your SD card or reload downloaded music to the internal memory.

 

[dpastern]

No, but you will have to rescan your SD card or reload downloaded music to the internal memory.

Thanks. I can live with that - re-scanning only takes around 6 minutes for a 256GB card. Wasn't using the internal memory at all.

Some updates - finally music! Copied an album to the internal drive, removed the microSD card, scanned the internal drive and plugged in my CCA C10 IEMs and music. Of course, this poses more questions. Gain was set to low, and I had to whack the volume up to 100 and even then it wasn't what I'd call a listenable volume. And I don't tend to listen at loud volumes. Tried my Sennheiser HD600 phones and as to be expected, even lower volume - to be fair, they are much harder to drive.

I set the gain to high and it was better, but not great with the Sennheisers. I then re-tried the CCAs and it was much better. I would have expected sensitive IEMs to not require high gain. I have zero issues with these IEMs in either the AK unit or my iPhone 6. Is this (100) a normal volume level @ low gain for reasonable sensitive IEMs?

Sound - good soundstage. Warm'ish sound, certainly warmer than either my iPhone or AK 120 II unit, but almost no real top end, which I'd describe as very muted. Details sounded better than my iPhone, but not as good as my aging AK unit. But, this is on a very quick listen. So far, a wee bit disappointing to be honest.

I'm still to test the AK unit's microSD card and re-test the Samsung microSD card just in case the iBasso unit was having some sort of weird non-logical hissy fit.

 

[dpastern]

Updates:

Got it working, but it's being really weird. I ended up removing the microSD card, connected the DAP to my Windows 10 laptop, copied a test folder of music to the internal storage and it worked. I then took out the Sandisk microSD card from my AK unit and tested that in my DX220 and it worked (obviously scanning the new card first). And, just to make things more confusing, the Samsung microSD card that was originally in the DX220 worked in the AK unit. I did note that several songs that I tested originally on the DX220 unit refused to play on the AK unit - but interestingly, some of the songs did play on the AK unit, but wouldn't on the DX220 unit. I put the Samsung microSD back in the DX220 unit, re-scanned and re-tested and this time it worked. Weird...

Another issue was volume (initial testing with the internal storage on the DX220 unit) - with cheapie CCA C10 IEMs (still pretty sensitive), I had to set gain to high and volume to 80 before volume was decent (I don't listen very loud by the way). Even worse was it sounded like mids were recessed and highs were severely recessed. At this stage, the unit sounded worse than both my iPhone 6 and AK 120 II unit.

After putting the Samsung microSD back in the DX220 unit, another weird thing happened - the unit turned off by itself and refused to turn back on for 5 minutes or so. I mean, I'm not stupid, I know how to press a button...then it just suddenly powered up again after trying to turn it on. Nothing different was done. Weird. Anyway, after finally turning back on, and testing the microSD card, it was working. And, it sounded much, much better, bettering the iPhone 6 and beating the AK unit in many areas. It was a very enjoyable experience. Volume sorted itself out too - I was able to set the gain to mid and volume to 80 and it was plenty loud.

I am at a loss as to why the unit has been so temperamental. I've owned my AK 120 II unit for 7 years and had zero issues with it.

So areas of design improvement that I would like to suggest:

1. when the unit is plugged into a computer, please automatically set it to MTP mode. Having to change the mode from charging to file transfer is not what I'd call intuitive. I do not need to do this with my AK unit - it charges and operates on a file transfer level without any intervention from myself when plugged into a computer.

2. auto-scan when microSD card inserted. My AK unit does this.

These aren't huge issues, but they are annoyances and what I consider poor UI design (well, not poor, but could do better). I have many years experience in IT support, and I have used pretty much every major operating system in the past 20 odd years (Windows 3.1 and above, including NT and advanced server; OS 8.6 and above; BeOS, Linux since '97, freeBSD, openBSD, Solaris, AmigaOS etc). I admit that I am very fussy on UI.

Anyway, the unit is working. Weird issues have abounded and left me stumped as to no logical rhyme or reason, but it's working now. I will continue to test and monitor the unit for weirdness and will do a factory reset if issues persist.

Positives - once working, the sound quality was beautiful. Much better soundstage and placement than my AK unit, a tiny bit more detail. Bass is a bit better on the AK unit, but not by much (a tiny bit more "slam"). The DX220 is perhaps a bit more organic in sound. Vocals weren't quite as forward in the mix as with the AK unit, but it was very close, and the DX220 unit sounded a bit more "bodied".

Thanks everyone for your patience and help, much appreciated.

 

[jamato8]

Updates:

Got it working, but it's being really weird. I ended up removing the microSD card, connected the DAP to my Windows 10 laptop, copied a test folder of music to the internal storage and it worked. I then took out the Sandisk microSD card from my AK unit and tested that in my DX220 and it worked (obviously scanning the new card first). And, just to make things more confusing, the Samsung microSD card that was originally in the DX220 worked in the AK unit. I did note that several songs that I tested originally on the DX220 unit refused to play on the AK unit - but interestingly, some of the songs did play on the AK unit, but wouldn't on the DX220 unit. I put the Samsung microSD back in the DX220 unit, re-scanned and re-tested and this time it worked. Weird...

Another issue was volume (initial testing with the internal storage on the DX220 unit) - with cheapie CCA C10 IEMs (still pretty sensitive), I had to set gain to high and volume to 80 before volume was decent (I don't listen very loud by the way). Even worse was it sounded like mids were recessed and highs were severely recessed. At this stage, the unit sounded worse than both my iPhone 6 and AK 120 II unit.

After putting the Samsung microSD back in the DX220 unit, another weird thing happened - the unit turned off by itself and refused to turn back on for 5 minutes or so. I mean, I'm not stupid, I know how to press a button...then it just suddenly powered up again after trying to turn it on. Nothing different was done. Weird. Anyway, after finally turning back on, and testing the microSD card, it was working. And, it sounded much, much better, bettering the iPhone 6 and beating the AK unit in many areas. It was a very enjoyable experience. Volume sorted itself out too - I was able to set the gain to mid and volume to 80 and it was plenty loud.

I am at a loss as to why the unit has been so temperamental. I've owned my AK 120 II unit for 7 years and had zero issues with it.

So areas of design improvement that I would like to suggest:

1. when the unit is plugged into a computer, please automatically set it to MTP mode. Having to change the mode from charging to file transfer is not what I'd call intuitive. I do not need to do this with my AK unit - it charges and operates on a file transfer level without any intervention from myself when plugged into a computer.

2. auto-scan when microSD card inserted. My AK unit does this.

These aren't huge issues, but they are annoyances and what I consider poor UI design (well, not poor, but could do better). I have many years experience in IT support, and I have used pretty much every major operating system in the past 20 odd years (Windows 3.1 and above, including NT and advanced server; OS 8.6 and above; BeOS, Linux since '97, freeBSD, openBSD, Solaris, AmigaOS etc). I admit that I am very fussy on UI.

Anyway, the unit is working. Weird issues have abounded and left me stumped as to no logical rhyme or reason, but it's working now. I will continue to test and monitor the unit for weirdness and will do a factory reset if issues persist.

Positives - once working, the sound quality was beautiful. Much better soundstage and placement than my AK unit, a tiny bit more detail. Bass is a bit better on the AK unit, but not by much (a tiny bit more "slam"). The DX220 is perhaps a bit more organic in sound. Vocals weren't quite as forward in the mix as with the AK unit, but it was very close, and the DX220 unit sounded a bit more "bodied".

Thanks everyone for your patience and help, much appreciated.

You need to give some time to the learning curve. Also if the DX220 is new it needs to burn in for everything to open up and the detail retrieval to be there. I have a lot of daps and the 220 is one of the best. Also for more power, the AMP8 is excellent and really good with IEMs as well.

 

[MaxD]

I suspect its not a learning curve issue here, I have seven dap's and I come from a similar background, The AK Daps look funky and have nice SQ. I have two witch I use regularly and the software is strait down the line. four ways to alter the volume *** . Its different with the DX220.... It has 'Personality' . I suffered the same issues at first, but after getting all the AMP's and even customising my AMP8 and getting a custom made case. So I learned to live with the 'Personality'. While Ibasso do try to fix bugs and add features, it takes them forever. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for these things to get fixed. I have to say I stick with my SR25 or SE200 for daily use as they just work. You have to love the sound of the DX220 and accept its 'Charms' if you want to end up loving it like most of us do...

They never put this into the reviews right, Its a bit like getting married ....

 

[mrjaybird]

Just got ibasso dx220

 

[jamato8]

I suspect its not a learning curve issue here, I have seven dap's and I come from a similar background, The AK Daps look funky and have nice SQ. I have two witch I use regularly and the software is strait down the line. four ways to alter the volume *** . Its different with the DX220.... It has 'Personality' . I suffered the same issues at first, but after getting all the AMP's and even customising my AMP8 and getting a custom made case. So I learned to live with the 'Personality'. While Ibasso do try to fix bugs and add features, it takes them forever. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for these things to get fixed. I have to say I stick with my SR25 or SE200 for daily use as they just work. You have to love the sound of the DX220 and accept its 'Charms' if you want to end up loving it like most of us do...

They never put this into the reviews right, Its a bit like getting married ....

Strange, I use the DX220 daily and don't have any issues. I have AK as well and Sony. I don't experience any real bugs and talk about a long time to do any fixes, try Sony who is very slow to never, as in daps and my Sony cameras. And AK isn't that fast either. I do like using the AMP8 a lot. It is all good. For the music! :^)

 

[mrjaybird]

Strange, I use the DX220 daily and don't have any issues. I have AK as well and Sony. I don't experience any real bugs and talk about a long time to do any fixes, try Sony who is very slow to never, as in daps and my Sony cameras. And AK isn't that fast either. I do like using the AMP8 a lot. It is all good. For the music! :^)

My dx220 works fine too. However, is charging really this slow? Feels like it takes five minutes to charge 1%.

 

[MaxD]

Just got ibasso dx220

Ohhh nice match. Oden magic....

Strange, I use the DX220 daily and don't have any issues.

Yup, I don't have issues anymore, but I suspect I went blind to any issues when I mudded the amp 8 , It is a lovely DAP, but it is slower and slightly more prone to issues than the SE200. I have a 1TB SD so that could be the issue. The screen on the DX220 is brilliant and much better than the SE200.

 

[jamato8]

Ohhh nice match. Oden magic....

Yup, I don't have issues anymore, but I suspect I went blind to any issues when I mudded the amp 8 , It is a lovely DAP, but it is slower and slightly more prone to issues than the SE200. I have a 1TB SD so that could be the issue. The screen on the DX220 is brilliant and much better than the SE200.

If you let it run all the way down, it seems to take longer for the charging to kick in. I wish all my daps charged faster. Sometimes the DX220Max seems to take forever. The one up on that is that the battery will last longer, less heat, but I like fast charging for sure!

 

[MaxD]

If you let it run all the way down, it seems to take longer for the charging to kick in.

Yes same here, an electronics mate had an idea that worked for me, Apparently the fast charge chargers sort of negotiate a charging protocol. Anyway long story short I put a USB meter on the path between the charger and the DX220 which negotiated a better way ! well that's what it seems, anyway it reduced charging time by one third for me.

And an added bonus you can see when the device is really fully charged rather than the guess the screen gives you, I managed to pack in nerly an extra hour of battery time (mWh) by using a USB meter. And they are really not much money ether. I use it for all my charging of DAP's now.