[Crispoo]

Took me some time testing and listening. So I listened to some local MQA tracks with the Mango player and basic UAPP. DX160's mango player does unfold MQA to hardware level. Despite my hearing loss, I was able to hear differences with playing MQA songs between the players.

 

[alota]

What do you mean deceptive? Here, DX160, using native Mango app, and I get full MQA hw unfolding:

read previous post
seems that full mq is only for mango. so this dap has no full hardware support with other players
i bought this player fr streaming use

 

[Crispoo]

read previous post
seems that full mq is only for mango. so this dap has no full hardware support with other players
i bought this player fr streaming use

But I dont think its ibasso's fault. They have certification and a powerful builtin player to utilize it.

I think the problem is with other players not being able to tap into that HW level MQA unfolding.

 

[alota]

Honestly i disagree from my experience with lg v30 that is just a smartphone and works with all players. But i will see when arrives mine

 

[alota]

Just for curiosity

 

[SubSTI]

Just for curiosity

Using Tidal Masters MQA is unfolding full on the DX160, so the ad is correct.

But I dont think its ibasso's fault. They have certification and a powerful builtin player to utilize it.

I think the problem is with other players not being able to tap into that HW level MQA unfolding.

Mango player fully unfolds MQA, so does Neutron.
I am interested if UAPP with the MQA plug-in will do the same, in that case you have one player which can do it all.

 

[Crispoo]

There is difference heard between mango player vs basic UAPP when playing MQA files. Unfortunately I do not have the MQA plugin for UAPP. I hope someone that does have access to both can test and share insights.

 

[alota]

well...mine is on the road. i hope arrives next week. first will try without mqa add-on

 

[JRichardson1228]

Just buy it and invest another $7 and get UAPP or Neutron. These applications have so much more to offer than a working gapless alone. Unless you are really tight with the Mango player you won't regret it.

Noob question from someone who's never had an Android device before: how simple is the process to get UAPP on the 160? As I understand, you have to download the Play store through APK and go from there, correct? I don't need the Lurker mod or anything? If I eventually bite, I'd be going with UAPP because of gapless and Album Artist support.

 

[Tommy34]

I can't hear a difference between Mango or Neutron, but the extra advantages of Neutron for me are:
+ uPNP playback
+ Streaming to Chromecast Audio
+ Gapless playback works
+ Spectrum Analyzer
+ Highly configurable to your own liking

- No Tidal playback
- UI is something you need to get used to, will take some time to figure out where you need to be for a setting

You can try the evaluation version of Neutron for free for 5 days

Yeah I'm not too concerned with having no Tidal playback online or offline. If I wanted to listen through Tidal, I would use their app. I have seen screenshots of Neutron's UI and yes it does look...different haha.

So, for you personally, do you enjoy using more from UAPP or Neutron?

 

[anandabd]

I purchased DX160 recently and paired with my BGVP DM6. I have explored and used the device extensively and quite happy with the overall experience. I never intended to use it with Bluetooth headphones as for that my Galaxy S10 is better I guess. When I tested the few BT headphones I didn’t see much issue if the player is in my pocket or close by. But the if I move about 15 20 feet away the signal cuts. It doesn’t work as well as Galaxy S10. I don’t have wifi noise issues. The only thing is, when I am touching the screen with and browsing songs, sometimes I find a bit of noise. But that doesn’t bother me because its really subtle and momentary, once I am in the playlist and songs are played from any app its excellent and noise free.

And the player actually opened up with time, I felt initially there is not much difference with S10 and DX160. But now after putting 10-12 hours of play time the DX160 is quite better by far the best sound I have listened so far in my limited experience.



Now I want to upgrade my IEM. Unfortunately, in India the availability of quality IEM is quite limited. Fortunately, we have an official Campfire distributor. They have Polaris, IO, Andromeda 2020, Andromeda B stock (old version), Solaris (long wait time and out of my range). I want to upgrade from DM6. I listen to Indian classical music a lot with acoustic tabla, violin, male and female voice, music separation may be important. Which Campfire should I get? Should I go with Andromeda 2020? Will it be overkill for DX160? I have no way of trying and returning them in India.

 

[superuser1]

I purchased DX160 recently and paired with my BGVP DM6. I have explored and used the device extensively and quite happy with the overall experience. I never intended to use it with Bluetooth headphones as for that my Galaxy S10 is better I guess. When I tested the few BT headphones I didn’t see much issue if the player is in my pocket or close by. But the if I move about 15 20 feet away the signal cuts. It doesn’t work as well as Galaxy S10. I don’t have wifi noise issues. The only thing is, when I am touching the screen with and browsing songs, sometimes I find a bit of noise. But that doesn’t bother me because its really subtle and momentary, once I am in the playlist and songs are played from any app its excellent and noise free.

And the player actually opened up with time, I felt initially there is not much difference with S10 and DX160. But now after putting 10-12 hours of play time the DX160 is quite better by far the best sound I have listened so far in my limited experience.



Now I want to upgrade my IEM. Unfortunately, in India the availability of quality IEM is quite limited. Fortunately, we have an official Campfire distributor. They have Polaris, IO, Andromeda 2020, Andromeda B stock (old version), Solaris (long wait time and out of my range). I want to upgrade from DM6. I listen to Indian classical music a lot with acoustic tabla, violin, male and female voice, music separation may be important. Which Campfire should I get? Should I go with Andromeda 2020? Will it be overkill for DX160? I have no way of trying and returning them in India.

I bought one from HPZ and am very happy with it. I am just wondering why you prefer Campfire instead of anything else as i reckon the Andros wont do much justice to the tablas as far i can recall from memory. Any other brands you would like to short list?

 

[anandabd]

I bought one from HPZ and am very happy with it. I am just wondering why you prefer Campfire instead of anything else as i reckon the Andros wont do much justice to the tablas as far i can recall from memory. Any other brands you would like to short list?

It's just the Campfire is having an authorized dealer with after sales service. Andromeda is highly reputed with balanced armature which I thought would be good for Indian classical music. Please feel free to suggest other brands also. I just thought by reading reviews that Andromeda 2020 is a good investment overall.

 

[mayurs]

I use my Andro 2019 with the DX160 and the pairing is absolutely the best I have heard from the Andro so far on the 4.4 Balanced out. Just get the Andro and be done with it. I see no reason to upgrade from this combo anytome soon.

And no, UAPP does only the first unfolding on the DX160 and you need another MQA renderer after that for full unfolding. But the Tidal app and the Mango player do a full unfolding as has been advertised.

 

[superuser1]

I use my Andro 2019 with the DX160 and the pairing is absolutely the best I have heard from the Andro so far on the 4.4 Balanced out. Just get the Andro and be done with it. I see no reason to upgrade from this combo anytome soon.

And no, UAPP does only the first unfolding on the DX160 and you need another MQA renderer after that for full unfolding. But the Tidal app and the Mango player do a full unfolding as has been advertised.

Good to know that the timbre of the tablas are to your liking. I personally thought there was something a bit off. Thank you for the clarification.