[dleblanc343]

#014 has arrived.

Neat, @aaf evo has #013 and I’m #015.

Enjoy!!

#205 reporting in from headphones.com with overnight shipping, insane pairing with Subtonic STORM.

You’re an insane pairing with Storm & DX320MAX hehe

 

[boromcom]

111 is here!

 

[Whitigir]

111 is here!

Nice number, mine is 11 and I wonder who is going to get 111. High-five! Now, I wonder if 001 is going to join us or….that belong to Paul lol

I find it interesting that the people are just picking up on T+A. I had the HA200 for about two years and replaced with ADI-2 Pro last year and didn't look back. It is a good device but it has a colored sound, and the minimum output impedance is 8 ohms. Looks nice with a good build, though. But $9000? No, thanks. I would not do it again.

These days I am not even turning my ADI-2 Pro on. Just Expanse + 320MAX.

I don’t even turn on my desktop anymore, just 800s and 320Ti. Yes, I do fit it in my pocket and get around. It is a lot better, especially that I don’t have to deal with the protruding interconnect and the thickness of stack

 

[boromcom]

Nice number, mine is 11 and I wonder who is going to get 111. High-five! Now, I wonder if 001 is going to join us or….that belong to Paul lol

I don’t even turn on my desktop anymore, just 800s and 320Ti. Yes, I do fit it in my pocket and get around. It is a lot better, especially that I don’t have to deal with the protruding interconnect and the thickness of stack

Hahaha

 

[Shawnb]

volume output in andriod is nothing compared to Mango. I was using max gain and volume in android and it easnt that loud compared to Mango and I have to dail it down about a 1/4 and drop to the lowest gain.

Going to have to play around a lot more.

 

[Damz87]

Boring #027 for me, but I don’t care, I’m happy just to have one because this DAP sounds incredible

 

[Whitigir]

Boring #027 for me, but I don’t care, I’m happy just to have one because this DAP sounds incredible

Agreed! Welcome to the club! Enjoy your stay!

 

[boromcom]

Boring #027 for me, but I don’t care, I’m happy just to have one because this DAP sounds incredible

Hype!!!

 

[tamtrum]

Coming off of the Fiio Q7 here are my impressions:
Q7 tonality sounds like it has a mild bass shelf out to like 150 hz, mids a bit recessed, and there's a peak in the upper treble somewhere that exaggerates hi-hats which comes off as unpleasant for me every now and then. 320maxti tonality sounds pretty ruler flat throughout. Treble sounds just right to me, cymbals have a decay that is very plesant for my ears and it doesn't sound overly-done or smoothed over and recessed (kinda what hiby rs6 does).

Comparing technical perspective for things that stand out most to me:
-320maxti has better timbre than Q7, pianos and vocals sound really good. Q7 came off as dry in the mids for female vocals which can be fine if that's how you like to roll.
-320max has better macro and micro overall. it makes loud things sound bigger and Q7 has a characteristic where the lower sounding aspects of my music sound a bit smoothed over.
-For as imaging goes, I thought the Q7 layered things well but 320max just makes things so clear as far as positional cues.
-For staging, since the Q7 sounds like it has some mid recession, vocals can be pulled back making it sound like the stage is bigger, this makes the stage a bit artificial for me. Since 320Max is more neutral sounding tonal wise, the staging of instruments and vocals and whatever else is being thrown at my ears, sound more coherent and natural.

Overall, I can't really fault Q7 for anything, it is $750, which is quite human-reachable and it gets a lot of things right. 320max takes it a few steps up but obviously for almost 5x the price, not something everyone can easily purchase.

Now for my favorite part, gripes:
-Volume knob is stepped, so inbetween volume steps you can hear brief moments of static as the mechanical wipers go from one set of resistors to the next, this can be unpleasant.
-the analog and digital charging is separate. you have to charge BOTH analog and digital via the 12V and usb type c port if you want to fully charge both analog and digital sections of the 320max.
-Can't double tap to wake the screen, why? what year are we in?
-No systemwide eq, this gripe applies to practically all android based daps but I'll still complain.
-If you hold the 320Max upright in its case, the 320max will slowly slide out. Please design the case better.
-The screen protector isn't installed at the factory, why? Several other DAP manufacturers provide this convenience for significantly less costing offerings.

In summary, 320max sounds amazing, there are inconveniences that you pay for as I mentioned above which makes me a bit annoyed. I hope iBasso can fix these shortcomings.

 

[Shawnb]

Who pre-installes the screen protector? None of the TOTL ones I've own have ever cone pre-installed.
As for tap to wake that requires extra parts that were sacrificed to fit all the audio goodness inside.

 

[tamtrum]

Who pre-installes the screen protector? None of the TOTL ones I've own have ever cone pre-installed.
As for tap to wake that requires extra parts that were sacrificed to fit all the audio goodness inside.

HiBy RS8 comes with the screen protector pre-installed.

 

[AsciiJC]

Who pre-installes the screen protector? None of the TOTL ones I've own have ever cone pre-installed.
As for tap to wake that requires extra parts that were sacrificed to fit all the audio goodness inside.

Ibasso: I sure hope people enjoy the fact we apply screen protectors so that the screens don't get damaged!

I would consider this a good thing, what Ibasso and other dap makers are doing.

 

[Shawnb]

HiBy RS8 comes with the screen protector pre-installed.

Nice! Yeah I wish more did it as well. I've never been able to apply it without bubbles so I've always held off.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Coming off of the Fiio Q7 here are my impressions:
Q7 tonality sounds like it has a mild bass shelf out to like 150 hz, mids a bit recessed, and there's a peak in the upper treble somewhere that exaggerates hi-hats which comes off as unpleasant for me every now and then. 320maxti tonality sounds pretty ruler flat throughout. Treble sounds just right to me, cymbals have a decay that is very plesant for my ears and it doesn't sound overly-done or smoothed over and recessed (kinda what hiby rs6 does).

Comparing technical perspective for things that stand out most to me:
-320maxti has better timbre than Q7, pianos and vocals sound really good. Q7 came off as dry in the mids for female vocals which can be fine if that's how you like to roll.
-320max has better macro and micro overall. it makes loud things sound bigger and Q7 has a characteristic where the lower sounding aspects of my music sound a bit smoothed over.
-For as imaging goes, I thought the Q7 layered things well but 320max just makes things so clear as far as positional cues.
-For staging, since the Q7 sounds like it has some mid recession, vocals can be pulled back making it sound like the stage is bigger, this makes the stage a bit artificial for me. Since 320Max is more neutral sounding tonal wise, the staging of instruments and vocals and whatever else is being thrown at my ears, sound more coherent and natural.

Overall, I can't really fault Q7 for anything, it is $750, which is quite human-reachable and it gets a lot of things right. 320max takes it a few steps up but obviously for almost 5x the price, not something everyone can easily purchase.

Now for my favorite part, gripes:
-Volume knob is stepped, so inbetween volume steps you can hear brief moments of static as the mechanical wipers go from one set of resistors to the next, this can be unpleasant.
-the analog and digital charging is separate. you have to charge BOTH analog and digital via the 12V and usb type c port if you want to fully charge both analog and digital sections of the 320max.
-Can't double tap to wake the screen, why? what year are we in?
-No systemwide eq, this gripe applies to practically all android based daps but I'll still complain.
-If you hold the 320Max upright in its case, the 320max will slowly slide out. Please design the case better.
-The screen protector isn't installed at the factory, why? Several other DAP manufacturers provide this convenience for significantly less costing offerings.

In summary, 320max sounds amazing, there are inconveniences that you pay for as I mentioned above which makes me a bit annoyed. I hope iBasso can fix these shortcomings.

How did you compare the two? Especially if you are using a multi driver IEM with 3-4 ohms average impedance, the difference you are hearing might come from an output impedance difference rather than the tuning of the device. Anyway...

M17 which is pretty much the same as Q7 (dual DACs won't have any effect on the sound), hits noticeably harder with full sized HPs but MAX sounds slightly cleaner which might be thr result of leaner mid-bass. At least with Expanse I am guessing the so called supercapacitor of Q7/M17 is providing that massive dynamics.

I think both M17 and Q7 have excellent price/performance.

 

[tamtrum]

Nice! Yeah I wish more did it as well. I've never been able to apply it without bubbles so I've always held off.

I feel that. I need like a class 100 cleanroom environment to properly apply screen protectors hah.