[psu85dave]

Thank you both for your input!

I think, when it is time (and I think it is approaching) that I may employ both methods, as mine seems to be a bit loose on the back (the whole thing I think). I dunno' because I haven't really made it a priority since it isn't needed yet, and I keep the DX in the stock case. It just seems as though the last time I had it out (to clean dirt and stuff from the back) I could shift the glass back just by pressing on it.

Anyone that has changed their battery have a good rec for a battery (that isn't falsely advertised)? I know I can get one from just about anywhere, but IME they aren't as advertised, and half of them are over half dead to begin with (total life

I just purchased a battery from Ibasso for $15 plus $10 shipping to the US. No identification marks to find specifications.

 

[superuser1]

I just purchased a battery from Ibasso for $15 plus $10 shipping to the US. No identification marks to find specifications.

dang that sucks. I wish we knew the specs of the battery so that we could try sourcing one locally with a higher capacity.

 

[samandhi]

dang that sucks. I wish we knew the specs of the battery so that we could try sourcing one locally with a higher capacity.

My thoughts as well.

 

[kwangomango]

A new Firmware for the DX160 1.09 Enjoy!

http://www.ibasso.com/uploadfiles/download/DX160FW-ota-1.09.zip

Change log and instructions in the download.

@Paul - iBasso

The bug where the DX160 doesn't go to sleep when connected to WiFi still exists. Has this ever been investigated? My device is sat here doing nothing with the screen off and it has lost 5% battery in a matter of minutes. It will be dead in a few hours.

If you disable WiFi, then the battery drain goes away.

 

[Dex7771]

Who know, is ibasso dc06 better than ibasso dx160? I heard it's close to dx200, but I don't believe it's better even than dx160

 

[Pretardo]

I have been using DX160 for several years on a daily basis, for the form factor you are hard pressed to find another DAP that has a better sound quality. The battery is decreasing but for my purpose, it is fine since only use it for around 2 hours each time.
However, I have the frozen screen upon startup more frequently. Now I have about 1/3 to even 1/2 of the times when I switched DX160 on, I have a frozen screen, and I have hard restart to make it work. It becoming very annoying and I am starting to look a replacement for DX160.

I’ve had a similar issue. My latest reset seems to be working. My thinking is that newer apps are not working with the new firmware.
History:
I have been running my DX160 with the Lurker mod and it has been awesome. However, I have been noticing that some glitches have been occurring and battery drain seemed higher than usual. I decided to look and see if there was a new firmware update and sure enough there was. This is when the troubles began. After the firmware upgrade and lurker mod, I still had battery drain and started to get Touch screen freezes. I could clear these by pressing the power button to turn off the screen and then turning it back on. However the freezes became more frequent to the point of being unusable.
In my latest wipe and reinstall l, I decided to load the lurker mod, wipe and reload the SD card and just use Mango. This seemed to work with little battery drain and no touch screen freezes.
Working outward from there, I added the screen lock and let it sit for a while and checked the device periodically. All clear so on to the next step.
Finally, I signed into the play store and downloaded Spotify. So far it seems to be working and no screen freezes.
I’m stopping here for a day to see what happens, but this is the baseline for a useable device for me.

What this does raise is the big issue with Android DAPs. They only work so long as the apps you use will function on them. It doesn’t matter if you buy a flagship player and throw down a few grand. The apps will march on and they will slowly leave your player behind. if you don’t own your music, you will end up with an expensive brick.

This makes me wonder if DAPs will move away from Android eventually or we will just have dongle DACs and Bluetooth amps.

 

[samandhi]

I’ve had a similar issue. My latest reset seems to be working. My thinking is that newer apps are not working with the new firmware.
History:
I have been running my DX160 with the Lurker mod and it has been awesome. However, I have been noticing that some glitches have been occurring and battery drain seemed higher than usual. I decided to look and see if there was a new firmware update and sure enough there was. This is when the troubles began. After the firmware upgrade and lurker mod, I still had battery drain and started to get Touch screen freezes. I could clear these by pressing the power button to turn off the screen and then turning it back on. However the freezes became more frequent to the point of being unusable.
In my latest wipe and reinstall l, I decided to load the lurker mod, wipe and reload the SD card and just use Mango. This seemed to work with little battery drain and no touch screen freezes.
Working outward from there, I added the screen lock and let it sit for a while and checked the device periodically. All clear so on to the next step.
Finally, I signed into the play store and downloaded Spotify. So far it seems to be working and no screen freezes.
I’m stopping here for a day to see what happens, but this is the baseline for a useable device for me.

What this does raise is the big issue with Android DAPs. They only work so long as the apps you use will function on them. It doesn’t matter if you buy a flagship player and throw down a few grand. The apps will march on and they will slowly leave your player behind. if you don’t own your music, you will end up with an expensive brick.

This makes me wonder if DAPs will move away from Android eventually or we will just have dongle DACs and Bluetooth amps.

I totally agree with this, and that is also why I never update any apps that I use on it unless there is a FW update that moves it to a newer, more current version. Since the last 2 FW updates have only fixed some bugs (that I have never noticed anyhow), I skipped those also.

Because of this, I don't seem to have any of these issues. Yes, I will be stuck with the same versions of those apps as I had from an earlier time, and I might be missing some newer features, they still work (UAPP, Neutron, etc...). It is actually the same with my phone being an older model by now (Samsung Note 9). I simply never update. The problem is that if/when I need to do a factory reset, I will have to reload all the apps I previously had on it, and they will be the newest version which might not work properly. Good thing there is a good site that allows you to choose the version of app you want to install. I am more worried about the time when something like Amazon Music won't work anymore because you pretty much have to keep those up to date to get the functionality.

For this reason alone, I wish iBasso would release the source code of their older DAPs so that a new ROM could be made by the community and still have full function of all the hardware. Though I am certain that if someone really wanted to, they could make that happen. I DO get the reasons they won't ever do this but am just saying.....

 

[superuser1]

For this reason alone, I wish iBasso would release the source code of their older DAPs so that a new ROM could be made by the community and still have full function of all the hardware. Though I am certain that if someone really wanted to, they could make that happen. I DO get the reasons they won't ever do this but am just saying.....

Imagine having a custom ROM with a low power kernel and baked in pure audio mode, all made by enthusiasts.

 

[Pretardo]

It makes me want to think that a small Linux distro that works on a Raspberry PI would be a good start. Something that doesn’t mess with the audio chain and delivers bit-perfect with the option for system-wide EQ.

 

[samandhi]

Imagine having a custom ROM with a low power kernel and baked in pure audio mode, all made by enthusiasts.

It makes me want to think that a small Linux distro that works on a Raspberry PI would be a good start. Something that doesn’t mess with the audio chain and delivers bit-perfect with the option for system-wide EQ.

IKR? With something brand new, and still receiving updates, I might not be as interested, but with something at the end of its (official) life, this would be fantastic IMHO. Though, I am not sure I would want a Linux distro as much as I would like android, and only then because of some of the music apps I really love.

Mango OS is built on Linux, so maybe simply reverse engineering it, or adding features could be possible if that were the route chosen to attempt?! And, since it has already been ported to the DX160, I would think it is not only possible, but not too difficult (for someone equipped to do such a thing, myself not included)...

 

[Rfx9123]

@samandhi
Since the memory of the DX160 is quite small, the number of installed apps will remain manageable. You don't necessarily need an automatic update function via an app store for this. I download newer app versions as APKs via PC, install them on the player and test them. If there are errors, uninstall and reinstall the older app APK. As far as the operating system goes, I think Android is the right choice for that because the user isn't stuck with just a few or sometimes just one playback app. You are more flexible, everyone has different wishes and preferences, be it the range of functions, operation or appearance.

 

[Pretardo]

The reason I was thinking about a Linux distro over Android (a Googled linux distro of a sort) is that you get locked to Google Services which is perfect for draining your battery and keeping you locked to Google’s update cycle. I was thinking that a Linux version of streaming services might work on a dap with some work. Both Tidal and Spotify work on Linux (from what I’ve read but not personally confirmed).
I would think that Linux apps would be longer lived and have fewer update cycles than Android apps.

 

[samandhi]

The reason I was thinking about a Linux distro over Android (a Googled linux distro of a sort) is that you get locked to Google Services which is perfect for draining your battery and keeping you locked to Google’s update cycle. I was thinking that a Linux version of streaming services might work on a dap with some work. Both Tidal and Spotify work on Linux (from what I’ve read but not personally confirmed).
I would think that Linux apps would be longer lived and have fewer update cycles than Android apps.

Those are some good points! I suppose the deal-breaker for me though on this idea is that I am totally hooked to Neutron player, and UAPP, which really suck on windows, and (I don't think) have an app for Linux. The DSP (especially on Neutron) has just so many options above and beyond what any other player has been able to accomplish to this point....

But.... having said that, if there were something out there and Linux was the only choice, I certainly wouldn't complain. That would mean that there are enough people that care about it to make it happen... Bottom line, and since you can change the battery in this, this SHOULD have a way to ensure its future (like the old iPods that you could change the battery in, I still have the Photo version BTW).

Like phones, some of us don't want to have to "upgrade" every so often, and with today's technology it might get better over time, but how much more accurate can sound reproduction get, and how much jitter can you remove if there is already 0, and.... (you get my point right)? At this point it isn't really about accuracy anyhow, it is more about synergy and preferences IMO...

 

[samandhi]

I don't know if they have been tweaking the efficiency of the Mango android app, or if Neutron has issues introduced in new(er) versions making it LESS efficient on our DX, but I have been listening to Mango android for about 2 hours now, and am only down to 90% battery. This coming from a 2019 version (read, not a fresh battery by any means). By comparison to Neutron, which I normally use, it is a huge difference. They used to be pretty similar in battery usage.

I do like how Neutron sounds better (to my ears), but for (what appears to be) the better battery usage, the sound isn't so much different that I can't live with it. I may stick with Mango android while out and about, and I won't have to worry too much if I will get a full day without charging.

 

[Khan SW]

Can anyone confirm if they are able to use the usb-dac function on windows 11? I have the driver installed, and have tried several different usb ports with the supplied cable that came with the DX160. I know the computer connection is working because I can view files if needed for transferring but when I switch to usb-dac mode I get an error message after 5 seconds stating that the last usb device I connected has malfunctioned. Has anyone successfully used it as a DAC on windows 11 or is this broken?

@Paul - iBasso can you chime in on this?