Nonsense. People have been waiting for the M11 plus to be upgraded to Android 12 as they said they will. Go to the support page, click on firmware. See where that takes you. At least iBasso is not telling you something when they don’t intend to do it.
The present DX260 when tweaked and optimized runs very fast. Out of box it is a bit laggy. I used to own one and have guides on it. To get "desktop mode" you would have to go with DX340 with 2 watts and pay a lot more. The "new" DX260 will have a faster SOC than Fiio and can be optimized and tweaked. I will try and get a loaner so I can make guides for it when it comes out but expect things will be very similar to DX180/340. In US you have Bloom who is an EXCELLENT company. If DAP needs repair they take care of everything including shipping to China and back.
R2R would be great.... but I'd like to not spend more money
with a less sophisticated amp section, it might be possible to aim at around 1k
Ibasso so could do it. The SS case that 340 has is not cheap. Already have the DAC so even if paired with current 260 Amp section which outputs 1 watt just would need tuning. I doubt they would do a tube. That would add to cost and mean going back to swap Amp card and that would be too similar to dx340.1 bit dac in light weight case would be awesome. It would compliment Dx340 for those times when you want light weight pocket DAP or don't have budget to spend $1700 or 1800 with tax. They would get back or get those people who can't deal with carrying around 500 grams which is a common complaint. To use CS dacs is OK but the difference in SQ between 180 and 260 is not worth twice the price. 180 is best value and will likely has same SOC as 260mkII will have. Ibasso is not going to give it anything above 340s SOC which is same as Dx180.
It would have to measure exceptionally well tho, should team up with Holo Audio.
Very interesting read, thank you! What would be the cost driver, if they just ad the nunchaku as is to their 1bit or r2r dac and use the shell, battery, soc and display of the dx180?
We can discuss here since we are talking about ideas for "new" DX260. Some people may not want tube amp card as only amp option, although could have same config as Nun or AMP16 allowing switch from tube to non-tube. AMP16 does not have LO. People may want that on new DX260. Current DX260 does not have replaceable amp cards. The DX240 did. Adding the ability to swap cards adds cost and if Ibasso has a ton of DX260 cases already made it would mean they could not be used. Would current size of DX260 have enough room for tube amp even? Check out AMP16 for example. If they did 1 bit DAC and added swap cards it would be so much like DX340 that it could eat into sales of DX340. They are going to have R2R in D17 later this year but not available yet and my guess they will have R2R/D17 based DAP likely as DX360 but that could be over a year before its out. I read somewhere that R2R is more expensive to make. Just putting in 1 bit DAC and keeping everything else the same except tuning would make "new" DX260 easy to make as they have the DAC, software etc. IT would just be a DX340 but without some of its more costly features and abilities to swap cards, DC12V In, battery bypass, separate amp/DAP battery, no SS case .. and they could tune it differently to have it not same as DX340. Replacement of CS DACs would make paying 2 times price of DX180 worth it for SQ. My guess is DX180 sells better than DX260. DX340 is selling like crazy. If they are just going to keep CS DACs with 665 SOC Android 13 it makes more sense to just not do a DX260 model until DX280 comes out ideally with 1 bit DAC. I owned both DX180 and DX260 at same time so could the difference between the 2. Amp section is a bit better on DX260 and micro details are better than DX180. 1 bit DAC there is a huge difference in SQ. It is an AWESOME DAC.
Set the wheel to only respond when the display is on. No more issue with volume change in pocket. Still works blind just fine, press in wheel, adjust volume, press in wheel. Done. It's brilliant.
yes, ibasso seems to be ahead of the competition by a healthy margin. The D17 will probably be my next device as from what i know yet it seems to fit my preferences perfectly. would love to have an additional more portable solution for on the go. i am sure ibasso will not stop releasing exciting devices tho and i am not in a hurry
