[jamato8]

I could be wrong but I think the DAP has to specify that high gain is unity gain or else high gain could be just for boosting signal. Personally, I didn't read the manual for the DX320 so I wouldn't know.

Most gains are unity gain, no boost. And in the past I have asked ibasso about this. Regular gain is unit gain from the amp and the rest use a resistor to decrease the gain and this is quite normal.

 

[Brooding Sonata]

Most gains are unity gain, no boost. And in the past I have asked ibasso about this. Regular gain is unit gain from the amp and the rest use a resistor to decrease the gain and this is quite normal.

Interesting couple of posts, thanks. I didn't quite understand a bit of the wording in this one though. "Most" gains are unity gain - you mean most high gains? Same with "regular gain" in the next sentence - contextually it seems you are saying "high gain" here?

Your explanation would suggest the "purest" sound would come from high, and any extra noise, hum etc associated with boosted volume should be absent on high (unless on the recording itself) . It does conflict with what I understood and what I seem to have read. I though the gains above low were boosted and this was the norm with amplification. But if iBasso told you otherwise, who am I to argue. But then what is the point of the lower gains? If you can just lower volume anyway? Just so you can adjust volume in more increments?




edit: Listening now with the Arias on the high gain and volume down to low 30s. Does sound great in the ways you mentioned, though it's it's hard to A/B it properly and also 1.30am, so who knows how much that's my mind. Will play with it a bit more tomorrow, though

 

[zanril]

I noticed that my DX320 sometimes doesn't output any sound on Apple Music after I play the first track. I have to skip the track then return to it to "refresh" it and get the music playing again. This happens randomly and doesn't seem to be isolated to just one particular track... Does anyone else run into this issue with Apple Music on their DX320?

 

[sanakimpro]

Friends, I've a question on Amp13.

I have Amp11.2 and Amp14, 90% of the time on Amp14 + IER-Z1R and combo sounds great! Now, for my Beyer T1 OG (my first "top-tier HP from 2015"), I'm thinking either to:

1. Re-terminate to 4.4mm BAL to use with Amp14.. (gotta buy Pentaconn 4.4mm plug and solder it myself)
2. Or... buy Amp13? Obviously, #2 is easier but more expensive..
3. (unlikely) Get external amp and use Amp14's LO e.g. I've heard good things and reviewers using Cayin C9

Question is: how does Amp13 sound vs Amp14? I've read it's more "intimate/less airy/smaller sound stage but less clinical, slower bass". I'm looking to mellow out T1's bright signature and Amp11.2 doesn't help with that.. Can I really hear difference between two amp cards with different Korg Nutubes implementations?

All insights welcome. Thx

bump.. any thoughts?

 

[Ichos]

bump.. any thoughts?

You can have a look at my review which includes a comparison.

https://ichos-reviews.com/ibasso-amp14-review/

 

[samandhi]

Interesting couple of posts, thanks. I didn't quite understand a bit of the wording in this one though. "Most" gains are unity gain - you mean most high gains? Same with "regular gain" in the next sentence - contextually it seems you are saying "high gain" here?

Your explanation would suggest the "purest" sound would come from high, and any extra noise, hum etc associated with boosted volume should be absent on high (unless on the recording itself) . It does conflict with what I understood and what I seem to have read. I though the gains above low were boosted and this was the norm with amplification. But if iBasso told you otherwise, who am I to argue. But then what is the point of the lower gains? If you can just lower volume anyway? Just so you can adjust volume in more increments?




edit: Listening now with the Arias on the high gain and volume down to low 30s. Does sound great in the ways you mentioned, though it's it's hard to A/B it properly and also 1.30am, so who knows how much that's my mind. Will play with it a bit more tomorrow, though

Basically look at it like using subtractive EQ rather than additive EQ. You aren't adding to the signal (or boosting it). When you are on high gain, that is the normal output (unboosted). When you use medium or low gain it simply subtracts from the normal gain (which is confusingly referred to as high gain) by using resistors and such. So when they say that there is no boost, it means just that, just like you might do when using subtractive EQ it starts at full signal, and you subtract the frequencies that you don't want to hear to make the "normal" ones sound louder. I hope this makes sense?!

P.S. This is also the reason that I leave mine in high gain all the time. There IS a noticeable difference with some music. When you go with medium or low gain, you lose some dynamics in the sound, and some technicalities. Basically, you are making the device be "less" than it is by default. Besides, I only have one IEM that is sensitive enough to worry about noise anyhow (9ohms), and on high gain, while it does get pretty loud at just 10dBSPL, I never hear any noise (which makes sense, since you aren't really boosting the signal beyond "normal" anyhow.

P.S.S Also keep in mind that when we are referring to gain this doesn't necessarily translate to volume in all cases. Gain is the dB level before amplification, and volume is the dB level after amplification (to simplify it). Having said that, you COULD use your gain settings for those songs that frequently "clip" to help with this while still being able to get a good enough volume to satisfactorily listen to them. This would work in much the same way as if you added too much bass via EQ to a song and it clipped. If you turn down the gain in the EQ app, you could get that extra bass, but also not clip.... Hopefully I didn't add more confusion?! The difference here is that one is a software gain and the other uses the hardware to achieve it.

 

[Brooding Sonata]

Basically look at it like using subtractive EQ rather than additive EQ. You aren't adding to the signal (or boosting it). When you are on high gain, that is the normal output (unboosted). When you use medium or low gain it simply subtracts from the normal gain (which is confusingly referred to as high gain) by using resistors and such. So when they say that there is no boost, it means just that, just like you might do when using subtractive EQ it starts at full signal, and you subtract the frequencies that you don't want to hear to make the "normal" ones sound louder. I hope this makes sense?!

P.S. This is also the reason that I leave mine in high gain all the time. There IS a noticeable difference with some music. When you go with medium or low gain, you lose some dynamics in the sound, and some technicalities. Basically, you are making the device be "less" than it is by default. Besides, I only have one IEM that is sensitive enough to worry about noise anyhow (9ohms), and on high gain, while it does get pretty loud at just 10dBSPL, I never hear any noise (which makes sense, since you aren't really boosting the signal beyond "normal" anyhow.

P.S.S Also keep in mind that when we are referring to gain this doesn't necessarily translate to volume in all cases. Gain is the dB level before amplification, and volume is the dB level after amplification (to simplify it). Having said that, you COULD use your gain settings for those songs that frequently "clip" to help with this while still being able to get a good enough volume to satisfactorily listen to them. This would work in much the same way as if you added too much bass via EQ to a song and it clipped. If you turn down the gain in the EQ app, you could get that extra bass, but also not clip.... Hopefully I didn't add more confusion?! The difference here is that one is a software gain and the other uses the hardware to achieve it.

Thanks for the post. I understand the concept well enough, it just ran contrary to what I'd read previously about higher gains being boosted and thus less "pure" than lower ones, hence going for as low a gain as you can achieve a decent volume with. This also allows you finer control over the volume, with more acceptable increments.

So then I thought that maybe this applies to some equipment, but not the DX320, if unity gain has indeed been confirmed with iBasso as high gain. Then again, jamato8 seemed to imply that this is also the norm, rather than specific to the iBasso, so I guess that's what confused me, rather than comprehending the concept of high gain being unity gain and the lower ones being the "altered" ones. The assertion that this is what is typical on a player or amp.

It still leaves the question that if this is the case then what are the lower gains for, other than driving ultra-sensitive IEMs or maybe having more increments of control. Because the other way around, where low is the unity gain, you can justify the higher gains as being there for harder-to-drive speakers/phones.

As per my previous post, my Arias DID sound great on high gain and 30 ish volume last night, possibly with a bit more dynamism and bass definition. This was around 1.30am though, and I'm only a human with a flawed human brain. Will do some more testing later.

edit: Another thought - with Amp 12 it is recommended to use only low or medium gain. Does that mean unity gain with Amp 12 is medium gain?

 

[samandhi]

Thanks for the post. I understand the concept well enough, it just ran contrary to what I'd read previously about higher gains being boosted and thus less "pure" than lower ones, hence going for as low a gain as you can achieve a decent volume with. This also allows you finer control over the volume, with more acceptable increments.

So then I thought that maybe this applies to some equipment, but not the DX320, if unity gain has indeed been confirmed with iBasso as high gain. Then again, jamato8 seemed to imply that this is also the norm, rather than specific to the iBasso, so I guess that's what confused me, rather than comprehending the concept of high gain being unity gain and the lower ones being the "altered" ones. The assertion that this is what is typical on a player or amp.

It still leaves the question that if this is the case then what are the lower gains for, other than driving ultra-sensitive IEMs or maybe having more increments of control. Because the other way around, where low is the unity gain, you can justify the higher gains as being there for harder-to-drive speakers/phones.

As per my previous post, my Arias DID sound great on high gain and 30 ish volume last night, possibly with a bit more dynamism and bass definition. This was around 1.30am though, and I'm only a human with a flawed human brain. Will do some more testing later.

edit: Another thought - with Amp 12 it is recommended to use only low or medium gain. Does that mean unity gain with Amp 12 is medium gain?

You are welcome!

Most portables will have "unity gain" in place. And jamato8 is correct here. And there is very good reason that it is the "norm" (especially for portables).

I think you have the right of it. The lower gains are mainly for sensitive IEMs and having finer control over your overall volume.

So, the technical definition of the concept is this: A unity gain buffer (also called a unity-gain amplifier) is an op-amp circuit which has a voltage gain of 1. What this means is that the op amp does not provide any amplification to the signal. The reason it is called a unity gain buffer (or amplifier) is because the output voltage signal is the same as the input voltage (hence the name unity). This is especially important on portable devices that are not capable of making a ton of current (being battery powered) because an op amp circuit is a circuit with a very high input impedance. This high input impedance is the reason unity gain buffers are used. When a circuit has a very high input impedance, very little current is drawn from the circuit. Bottom line is that the Unity circuit draws very little current, not disturbing the original circuit, and giving the same voltage input signal as the output. They also act as isolation buffers, isolating a circuit so that the power of a circuit is disturbed very little as well.

Some music might be more noticeable than others where your hearing, and noticing it, is concerned. So, YMMV and it might be more desirable to listen in medium or even low gain even knowing you aren't getting "all" the potential sound you could be getting; just like a tube amp that adds distortion to the sound.

No, I believe that the normal signal is still high gain on the Amp12 card. But remember that this card is capable of over 2W and 2Amperes of current, which could both damage your IEMs and/or your ears easily with higher dB of volume.

 

[Brooding Sonata]

Thank you. That all makes sense. I will stick with high gain for now, and give it another try with the Dali Katch as well as my Shure cans too. New IEMs and cans are on the agenda I think, but man the Arias sound great for the price.

Listening to Zappa's You Are What You Is right now on high with the Arias and it sounds great. I've also been doing a bit of A/B testing on this track and a couple of others vs the Cowon J3, just switching the earphones over. It's actually reminding me what a great device the J3 is. I think the DX320 sounds better, with better instrument separation and clarity, but it's not night and day. I wonder how I'd fare in a blind test. I suppose lack of full burn in on the DX320 may theoretically be a factor also.

 

[samandhi]

Thank you. That all makes sense. I will stick with high gain for now, and give it another try with the Dali Katch as well as my Shure cans too. New IEMs and cans are on the agenda I think, but man the Arias sound great for the price.

Listening to Zappa's You Are What You Is right now on high with the Arias and it sounds great. I've also been doing a bit of A/B testing on this track and a couple of others vs the Cowon J3, just switching the earphones over. It's actually reminding me what a great device the J3 is. I think the DX320 sounds better, with better instrument separation and clarity, but it's not night and day. I wonder how I'd fare in a blind test. I suppose lack of full burn in on the DX320 may theoretically be a factor also.

You are welcome!

Just remember, it isn't necessary to know all of this to enjoy your music. Let your ears be the judge, and if one way sounds better than another, don't be ashamed to use it as much as it is enjoyable to you.

And as for getting more IEMs and headphones, if you are REALLY enjoying what you currently have, then is there really any reason to "upgrade" beyond simple curiosity? I have some expensive head sets, and I have some budget sets, and I can say (from my experience and preferences), I like some of my budget gear as much or even more than the expensive stuff, and vice versa, depending on my mood, time of day, music playing, etc.... I happen to have quite a few sets, but not because I collect them. It is more because each one I have has a different enough presentation that they are unique in my collection. I love to have ALL sorts of tuning and presentations. At some point they ALL get used, and I get rid of the ones that sit in my drawer unused.

Anyhow, enjoy the music!

 

[sanakimpro]

FWIW, on p39 of DX320 manual: "There are three gain settings. The low gain has the lowest noise floor, it is good for ultra sensitive IEMs."

Depending on how iBasso implemented the gain (unity high gain and step-down vs unity low gain and step up), there may be different optimum choices. ASR also has a discussion titled "Study: Headphone Amp Gains: Low or High?" which empirically shows that low-gain has higher signal-to-noise ratio and lower noise - at least on the two amps they measured.

I'm assuming since iBasso says the low gain has lowest noise floor, it's the unity low gain and step-up case, so I'll stick to low gain as long as it's sufficiently loud for the IEM/headphone. But I may be wrong as well, YMMW.

After some careful listening of classical music (Beethoven - Overture Op 84, Debussy - Claire de Lune) on Amp11Mk2, 3.5mm, I think High Gain/Low Gain doesn't produce audible difference, assuming you have sufficient volume and no clipping. Both sound great once volume matched with similar staging, dynamics, background noise hiss.. Maybe slightly more background noise hiss on HG but may be placebo.

 

[Airsculpture]

You are welcome!

Just remember, it isn't necessary to know all of this to enjoy your music. Let your ears be the judge, and if one way sounds better than another, don't be ashamed to use it as much as it is enjoyable to you.

And as for getting more IEMs and headphones, if you are REALLY enjoying what you currently have, then is there really any reason to "upgrade" beyond simple curiosity? I have some expensive head sets, and I have some budget sets, and I can say (from my experience and preferences), I like some of my budget gear as much or even more than the expensive stuff, and vice versa, depending on my mood, time of day, music playing, etc.... I happen to have quite a few sets, but not because I collect them. It is more because each one I have has a different enough presentation that they are unique in my collection. I love to have ALL sorts of tuning and presentations. At some point they ALL get used, and I get rid of the ones that sit in my drawer unused.

Anyhow, enjoy the music!

This is very true. I use EQ. There I said it. On all my DAPs and IEMs and headphones.

I‘m not ashamed to say it and I enjoy my music a lot more because of it

 

[ozz007]

This is very true. I use EQ. There I said it. On all my DAPs and IEMs and headphones.

I‘m not ashamed to say it and I enjoy my music a lot more because of it

Amen Brother. I do the same just to get more out of my music and headpbones.

 

[NPWS]

I noticed that my DX320 sometimes doesn't output any sound on Apple Music after I play the first track. I have to skip the track then return to it to "refresh" it and get the music playing again. This happens randomly and doesn't seem to be isolated to just one particular track... Does anyone else run into this issue with Apple Music on their DX320?

yeah sometimes it get stuck and loading, until I play other song then play that song before.
may I ask you, can you download all your playlist from apple music to micro sd on dx320? thanks

 

[zanril]

yeah sometimes it get stuck and loading, until I play other song then play that song before.
may I ask you, can you download all your playlist from apple music to micro sd on dx320? thanks

Yea seems like you're experiencing the exact same problem as me but I have no idea what causes it. It sometimes happens with the mango player but never as frequent as on Apple Music. I've checked and yes, I'm able to download my playlists onto my sd card, you just have to dive into the settings and change the download location