DX340 iBasso developed Discret DAC, Easily replaceable batteries, Amp Modules! ***New firmware on 1st page. v1.04 local update. ***

[voja]

if i want absolute best, rs8 is the way to go?

iBasso DX320MAX Ti.

 

[mattclarke18]

iBasso DX320MAX Ti.

Still beats the 340 in super gain?

 

[nioh]

if i want absolute best, rs8 is the way to go?

There are many “best” flagship DAPs. In the end it all comes down to the sound signature mostly.
You can see people selling off the Dx340 because of reasons like not enough bass etc. Read/Search comments in different threads and make up your own mind.

If you come to a Dx340 thread and ask for recommendations, of course the answer will be Dx340 or another iBasso DAP.
Same goes for every other thread.

 

[nioh]

If that
Ibasso will have D17/R2R based DAP and you will be able to replace battery yourself. 3k and you can't do that in the Hiby. No thanks. Will wait for ibasso. From 320 experience first Amp card will likely be the "worst" one. This DAC has great potential and filters/harmonics can be tweaked more based on our feedback. For me I love it how it is now and put my money where my mouth is.

FiiO K11 R2R is an amazing R2R DAC at an incredible price of €169. D17 will have to do 10 or 20 times better depending on how it’s going to be priced.

 

[voja]

Once I get my 2nd 340 I am going to compare both head to head as it's on the new FW and will report my observations.

Matt, this is exactly what we need. The only way to accurately do A/B comparisons. I wanted to do this for my DAP reviews, but getting two costly DAPs is big $. I was lucky enough to have two iBasso SR2 headphones, which allowed me to do various A/B comparisons, including the difference in sound when using different pads. You are already of immense value to this thread and community, and once your second DX340 arrives... Expect us to rely on your comparisons!

Still beats the 340 in super gain?

I haven't given the DX340 a listen yet. Am still burning it in. I only tried its Line Out, and it was audibly different. Line Out is a story of its own. DX340 and DX320MAX Ti have two completely different DAC architectures.

I would be seriously surprised if the DX320MAX did not beat the DX340 in all configurations (except for that AMP18 monstrosity). What sets the DX320MAX from any other DAP ever created is how puristic its hardware design is, how pure the signal path is. I won't go over all details, but it uses a stepped attenuator for volume control. DX340 has a readily-available setting and design called Super Gain. However, DX320MAX Ti has a secret setting [analog, not software], when you put the volume knob [stepped attenuator] on max. position, allowing the signal path to omit ALL resistors.

This is the diagram I created for my DX320MAX Ti review. I hope it explains what I am talking about. When the volume wheel is at maximum position, it's at position 1 in the diagram. As you can see, no resistor is in the signal path (the resistor you see will only be activated at position 2).

This unlocks the true beast that the DX320MAX Ti is.

 

[davidmolliere]

So have received my DX340 Thursday and I must say I am pretty impressed with this one… It sits much closer to Max in terms of technicalities and power (with DC mode) while retaining the DX3xx flexibility with amp switching. Now I wonder how iBasso with handle the 340 Max as DX340 is getting much much closer if not equal to much pricier offerings. I do hope they keep the in house DAC section (or build on it further) in fact as it’s such a great balance between musicality (full bodied mids, outstanding note weight both down low and up top… piano sounds exquisite) and technicality (great separation and imaging, excellent resolution).

if i want absolute best, rs8 is the way to go?

Haven’t you heard? There is no absolute best in this hobby… depends on many things including if you use IEMs exlusively or headphones and which headphones, your use cases (on the to, at the office / home…) but also synergy if of the essence! While I do own what I have considered the ultimate DAP (N30 LE) among the 50+ I have owned over the past 5 years (including RS8 btw) there are cases where synergy will be better with other DAPs. Even more true with RS8 which I wouldn’t consider « reference » (not a criticism, just a fact). RS8 pairs beautifully to me with reference or more detail oriented IEMs, on some pairings with my more organic IEMs like Sharona it’s not working as well.

DX340 is such a leap over DX300 (which I owned) and DX320 (which I auditioned many times), getting closer to Max (owned 300 Max too) but the added flexibility of amp cards is clearly a strong item of the DX3xx series just like N6ii/N6iii which have DAC cards (I wished someday to have both on one DAP, multi DAC / amp possibilities). This being said, DX340 DAC is really something… I have owned and enjoyed both Cayin N7 and Hiby R8II with 1 bit DACs, but DX340 is ahead of both in my books.

I must say I am very impressed by DX340 and I am pretty sure people’s mind will be blown with the extra ceiling DX340 can reach with different amp cards (not that AMP15 is not good and it’s not burnt it yet for me), can’t wait for AMP16, AMP17 and AMP18… I’ll buy all of them. And I haven’t tried DC mode yet, something I appreciated greatly when I didn’t have an external amp like EA4 with FiiO M17. Need to dig my iFi Audio Power Elite 12V and try that this afternoon…

I can already tell since I plugged DX340 on LP EA4 amp that that DAC section is just superb and on par and possibly above much pricier DAPs. In fact on some pairings I pick DX340 over N30 with EA4, I love how DX340 is both organic and full with amazing note weight and yet with superb note separation and resolution. This is something I appreciated with N7 specifically, R8II to me was less articulate but that might be due to its amp section which can’t be changed. DX340 retains the same qualities of N7 with a big difference of better dynamics due to better amplification and bonus with the amp card switching.

 

[voja]

FiiO K11 R2R is an amazing R2R DAC at an incredible price of €169. D17 will have to do 10 or 20 times better depending on how it’s going to be priced.

It all comes down to sound, as you stated in your previous reply, lol. There is no "x times" better. We don't have a scale. We know the price of something, and the buyer determines whether the price is justified. If the buyer's sound perception hears the qualities that they subjectively determine to be worth the price, the product is worth it to that buyer.

$20,000 cables exist. Hell, even that's not the highest price for speaker cables! We from the outside can comment as much as we want, "ooh, I get the same performance with my $20 cable", but if the buyer of that product hears the difference, the difference is real to him. Sound perception is unique to each human, what people don't realize is that the differences one believes to hear, are the differences he ACTUALLY perceives to hear=he hears. I won't go on another one of my rants on psychology and the power of the brain, but rest assured that the magic is happening in the brain. You can go off about objective data all you want, sound perception takes place in the brain, and brain can manipulate and "convince" itself of many things that do not exist. The funny thing is that these when convinced, whatever that is, is real to us.

 

[zeroshiki]

And ofcourse the battery replacement (great feature) , after years the rs8 becomes an expensive brick if the battery is dead (ofcourse you can get hiby replace the battery but this will cost you a dime)

i thought rs8 was one of the first dap released with openable backcase to easily replace battery? hiby did this first for sure, it was either r6pro2 or rs8. and now this has been copied by ibasso, also since dx320max ti.

 

[Peekayoh]

FiiO K11 R2R is an amazing R2R DAC at an incredible price of €169. D17 will have to do 10 or 20 times better depending on how it’s going to be priced.

The law of diminishing returns says not. Is the RS8 twice as good as the DX340? I think not. Some would argue the DX340 is better regardless of price. I wouldn't know, at almost $4k is out of my price league.

 

[damascato]

I tried, in terms of resolution and staging DX340 is significantly better not to mention price....

I politely disagree, I own both and RS8 is better in every single aspects to my ears (maybe losing in speed)

 

[Monkeyk2010]

i thought rs8 was one of the first dap released with openable backcase to easily replace battery? hiby did this first for sure, it was either r6pro2 or rs8. and now this has been copied by ibasso, also since dx320max ti.

Ah I didn't know that (I thought you had to send it back for battery replacement) , well everything is perspective, for me it's the best dap I ever owned but for somebody else it's not to their liking. That's great about the hobby different music taste, different hardware taste, different tuning taste, etcetc

 

[damascato]

if i want absolute best, rs8 is the way to go?

There are others that I have not tried like the n30le which people rave about…

 

[nioh]

It all comes down to sound, as you stated in your previous reply, lol. There is no "x times" better. We don't have a scale. We know the price of something, and the buyer determines whether the price is justified. If the buyer's sound perception hears the qualities that they subjectively determine to be worth the price, the product is worth it to that buyer.

$20,000 cables exist. Hell, even that's not the highest price for speaker cables! We from the outside can comment as much as we want, "ooh, I get the same performance with my $20 cable", but if the buyer of that product hears the difference, the difference is real to him. Sound perception is unique to each human, what people don't realize is that the differences one believes to hear, are the differences he ACTUALLY perceives to hear=he hears. I won't go on another one of my rants on psychology and the power of the brain, but rest assured that the magic is happening in the brain. You can go off about objective data all you want, sound perception takes place in the brain, and brain can manipulate and "convince" itself of many things that do not exist. The funny thing is that these when convinced, whatever that is, is real to us.

What I meant is at $169 the K11 R2R is already incredibly good "to my ears" and it's also feature rich, powerful etc.
If the D17 is going to cost 10 times more, it better be damn good and it better not be flat and boring as usual or I won't waste my money on another paperweight

 

[ogre59]

I don't think anybody here would laugh at that, not anyone who has heard the Elite. The 340 (which I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing) may be an order of magnitude above the Elite but there's no doubt that the Elite is orders of magnitude above pretty much every mid tier dap and several flagships. I had never had any iBasso device before but the absolute hype and almost universal praise for the Elite caused me to pick one up. When I first heard it I was floored; I couldn't believe what I was hearing for the first time with tracks I was intimately familiar with. In 30 years I never really understood what "reference" meant until I heard music coming through that little box. The preision of it - the absolutely cleanliness of the sound, the incisiveness, detail, spaciousness, clarity, resolution, depth, width - I could just go on..... I finally understood what "warm and warmish" devices were doing to the transducers. Now I understood that reference isn't boring, if I want emotional warmth, grab a warm iem and let pure music flow into it.

Once I took a bite of the iBasso Apple, I was hooked. I couldn't listen to my Shanlings, my Lotoo, or 1AM2 anymore. I was real close to getting the 320 Max but the need for 2 different chargers held me back. That's just not practical or functional for my lifestyle and travel. So I picked up the 320 and truly, I found it far superior to all my other DAPs but still sitting behind what I was experiencing from the Elite. "What kind of wizardry is this? " I thought. How that a little Dongle can sound this good and Trump all these $1K to $2K devices? Then I started reading how the 340 and Elite share the same musical signatures. By and large that was confirmed here over and over and also by Bloom when I wrote to them for advice and input. I love the 320 and had I never heard the Elite, I'd probably just have stuck with it... But now I'm reading that the 320 is a toy compared to the 340 and that the 340 towers over the Elite. The thought of that is mind blowing to me and I cant wait to experience it myself.

All that to say @ogre59, there is no shame in being enamored with the Elite - its exceptional; just a little impractical for me for on the go portable use, especially if you saw the pics of my elite sandwich stack a few pages back. If I can get all of that and more in one compact, albeit heavy unit, .... I'm ecstatic.

Thank you. There is a direct comparison between the DC-Elite and DX340 in the latest video review ( ) of the DX340. I'm hoping Twister6 full review of the DX340 will also do a head-to-head with the DC-Elite. I'm just wondering if the Step-Attenuator and Rohm DAC are that special sauce that make the DC-Elite so great, and why the Step-Attenuator was not implemented in the DX340 (maybe because it's a bit inconvenient in a portable to turn, especially in the pocket. By the way the DC-Elite stays home for me. It's just too cumbersome as a portable and it sounds so much better then my Jotunhiem desktop with my earbuds like the Maven2

 

[quaddac]

if i want absolute best, rs8 is the way to go?

There is no such thing as the absolute best. There is definitely something like the absolute most expensive.

If you want the highest level of sound, check out the DX340. If the DX340 doesn't suit you, you can simply sell it for a small loss.
Besides, these days it is a very good practice to rent equipment from a dealer and I highly recommend this option. Thanks to this, I got rid of many persistent fantasies that the most expensive is the best.

In the end, you always have to evaluate what you hear yourself. You will only get general knowledge from other users. In the case of the DX340, the predominance of positive opinions is simply overwhelming and this is an excellent starting point when it comes to taking further steps.

I follow the opinions about the DX340 very closely in various places. I am not surprised by the comments that someone likes the DX340 more than the MAX TI. Why not?

The DX340 is a very well-developed signature, with excellent details, dynamics, stage, expressive textures, bass. If you add to this excellent tone, organic without dryness and digital coating, sibilance and sharpness, what else would you like? ...

Power? - you got it.
So maybe functionalities: desktop mode, replaceable battery, android13? - you got it.
Maybe a good display? - you got it.
Maybe a great look? - you got it.
Replaceable AMP modules? - you got it (will be).
Do you like tube mode? - see replaceable AMP modules.
Great DAC?: - connect DX340 to your favorite amplifier, then you will be convinced.
Two systems, mango os, andro?: - there.

The weight is mentioned as a weaker side? OK ... I'm done here

P.S.
The synergy aspect remains.

The only thing I miss at the moment is a TPU casing with nice transparency. I really like the look of DX340.