iBasso DX160 - The listening experience only gets better and better. ******NEW FW 1.09 - link 1st page.******

[paglioz]

Are your current headphones the "Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9i" ? I thought those were normally wireless and they have ANC (Automatic Noise Cancellation) ? IF those are what you have, I would not try to run ANC and with a balanced input, even if you could find a cable. (As the H9i's ANC circuit is UN-balanced.) Also unsure if you are listening with, or without the ANC turned on. That ANC circuit will surely affect the quality of the sound you hear. ANC has improved over the years, and it does a good job of eliminating Ambient Noise in your listening area... But even the Best ANC "colors" the sound; usually most noticeable in the high frequencies.
If your H9i, is not the B&O disregard this...

With the DX160, I would not expect to hear the best that the DX160 can do when using ANC. Though most Noise Reductions headphones can turn off that circuit, I wonder if there are still some extra circuitry that the sound has to travel through that could affect the sound quality.
Recommend you take your DX160 to an Audio store, (with some music you like on it), And try out some earphones/headphones with/without balanced cables. Or better yet, meet up with a fellow Headfi-er in your City/Area for a lunch and try out a few of his/her headphone or earphone through balanced and unbalanced. Italy should have a few !

I think there are some other forums that can recommend earphones/headphones better than this one for the DX160.

Yes the headphones are those.
But I use them wired and turned off to avoid ANC.
Even if used wired and turned off is it impossible to use them balanced?
Here In Italy is impossible with Covid to go in a store and try the headphones.
I have to chose without testing them
Thanks

 

[kwangomango]

What's the reason for the standby battery drain when wifi is enabled on this device? Is there a way to fix it other than enabling airplane mode every time i have finished listening? If i don't enable airplane mode i find the device is dead after a few days in standby.

Anyone have a similar problem? I stopped listening to music at around 60% battery last night and left WiFi on. In standby for 24hrs and the battery is now dead.

 

[YouAreGoForTLI]

Are amp modules are going back out of fashion w/ Fiio moving away from them & this new iBasso model?
Were they not popular with DX150 users? I guess it would not be too surprising since for DX150 + an extra amp, the price is suddenly a lot closer to a DX200.

I know this is old but Id imagine moving away from them is better business sense... More stock to allocate and distribute, more SKUS, they'd all have a different rate of failure, some wont sell leaving resellers with stock they cant move.

Would have been a lot more successful if there was an agreed standard... I mean, a lot of these DAPS copy each others industrial design so they may as well agree on a standardised port.

I think once USB-C 3.1 is standard across these devices they'll make a comeback. You can run a damn top of the line Video Card though that standard and have plenty of bandwidth left.

 

[YouAreGoForTLI]

It’s easy, people get obnubilated by fancy words, overstated/false claims in this audiophile snake oil train and manufacturers take advantage of that, putting crappy hardware at gold expenses.

As someone who doesn’t ever found significative differences between DAC or solid state amps in controlled blind A/B tests (let alone DAPs), I’m more focused towards user experiencie, clean output power and plenty of connectivity with nice battery and expandable options.

Sadly, most part of the time the manufacturers forget this very basics, with very few exceptions.

Yep... I just got the DX160 and It's great so far..........
But these companies leave so many pointless android apps/back ground services in when they port android over..
I'm in the process of going under the hood to gut most of them and I'm already getting 20% better battery and performance.
I wish it had the 2.5mm, 4.4mm is just a less common version..... I can make my own 2.5mm cables with jacks from the local electronics store if get stuck at least.

I'm just waiting for some cork-sniffer to tell me "Actually 4.4mm is better than 2.5mm because its crystalline-fractal alignment will give you crunchier mids while maintaining those glassy highs"

 

[paglioz]

Strange thing.
Added some albums in the ibasso memory
Then arrived a micro sd
Moved the albums in the sd,erased database ,new scan.
Now some albums don’t have the cover that before was present .
Why?

 

[superuser1]

I'm just waiting for some cork-sniffer to tell me "Actually 4.4mm is better than 2.5mm because its crystalline-fractal alignment will give you crunchier mids while maintaining those glassy highs"

I see you just joined.. you don't waste time do you!

 

[twister6]

I see you just joined.. you don't waste time do you!

The funny thing, a few years ago I had to use 2.5m to 4.4mm adapters because only WM1Z had 4.4mm jack. Now, I have to use 4.4mm to 2.5mm adapter just so I can use my cables with A&K DAPs (who are too stubborn to switch because it means admitting their defeat to Sony). Right now, it is only A&K and a handful of pint-size daps (ap80 pro, r3 pro, etc) which don't have room for 4.4mm socket and use 2.5mm instead, while majority of others switched to 4.4mm... But anyway.

 

[YouAreGoForTLI]

I see you just joined.. you don't waste time do you!

Ha ha ha.... too cynical? I've played guitar for over 20 years now and a few other instruments along the way. Guitarist have the best snake oil collections and they are only rivalled by "audiophiles".

At least this crap is constantly evolving.... I can understand how misinformation can spread before users have had a chance to test snake oil claims.

The Guitar industry went so hard on selling "vintage/older is better" they cant innovate.
Some companies have had great ideas too.

 

[jamato8]

Yep... I just got the DX160 and It's great so far..........
But these companies leave so many pointless android apps/back ground services in when they port android over..
I'm in the process of going under the hood to gut most of them and I'm already getting 20% better battery and performance.
I wish it had the 2.5mm, 4.4mm is just a less common version..... I can make my own 2.5mm cables with jacks from the local electronics store if get stuck at least.

I'm just waiting for some cork-sniffer to tell me "Actually 4.4mm is better than 2.5mm because its crystalline-fractal alignment will give you crunchier mids while maintaining those glassy highs"

Do some work. The 4.4 has more contact area because there are two contacts per point and the 4.4 is much more sturdy. The 2.5 is known to break or bend and is just plain fragile. So I will take 4.4 any day of the week, including days that don't count.

 

[twister6]

Ha ha ha.... too cynical? I've played guitar for over 20 years now and a few other instruments along the way. Guitarist have the best snake oil collections and they are only rivalled by "audiophiles".

At least this crap is constantly evolving.... I can understand how misinformation can spread before users have had a chance to test snake oil claims.

The Guitar industry went so hard on selling "vintage/older is better" they cant innovate.
Some companies have had great ideas too.

I hate to get off-topic, but aside from durability issues (too many bent 2.5mm plugs, lesson learned never to carry cables in my pocket lol!!!!), 2.5mm BAL TRRS uses 2 differential pairs of signals, L+/L- and R+/R- without a common ground shielding. 4.4mm Pentaconn TRRRS adds a fifth contact with a common GND to L+/L- and R+/R-.

So, it's not just an improvement in durability, but it's actually practical from a design perspective. For example, when using balanced LO going to balanced amplifier, or even to shield cables from EMI interference so the wires don't act like an antenna picking up the crap around you. Some cable manufacturers now even offer adapters to convert 2.5mm + 3.5mm (only GND pin) to 4.4mm.

... and as it was just mentioned above, larger area of contact which means lower resistance.

 

[Tommy34]

Anyone have a similar problem? I stopped listening to music at around 60% battery last night and left WiFi on. In standby for 24hrs and the battery is now dead.

My battery drains quick on my DX160 as well. I have battery optimization turned off on some apps though, so maybe it may help turning it back on. I wonder if there is a good app in the play store that might help with the battery issue. I wish I could tap to wake the screen also. I hate having to constantly press the power button just to wake the screen up.

 

[Detectit]

Been a while since I have been here... Was curious... Was someone been able to compare the 2020 mod soundwise next to Rev. 1?

My battery drains quick on my DX160 as well. I have battery optimization turned off on some apps though, so maybe it may help turning it back on. I wonder if there is a good app in the play store that might help with the battery issue. I wish I could tap to wake the screen also. I hate having to constantly press the power button just to wake the screen up.

If you are on Lurker firmware with root install and setup the app Naptime. It serves well to save battery when its idle.

 

[emklap]

Yep... I just got the DX160 and It's great so far..........
But these companies leave so many pointless android apps/back ground services in when they port android over..
I'm in the process of going under the hood to gut most of them and I'm already getting 20% better battery and performance.

agree, too many useless background software on many devices. Can you post your results when finished so we all can benefit?

 

[Detectit]

agree, too many useless background software on many devices. Can you post your results when finished so we all can benefit?

There is no bloatware on the DX160.... I have removed unnecessary apps but they were minimal i could remove.
It just of the poor energy management of Android 8.1

 

[davidcotton]

Try allowing permissions for google stuff as well for those using lurker.