[jamato8]

As far as Tidal goes that's a fair assumption, I dealt with the same thing trying to use Tidal with the LG Quad DAC. I installed Tidal 2.24 from APK mirror because that's the last stable release that works with LG, we'll see if that works for the DX170.

And also a fair assumption with the stress on the plug. I will say though that I have used other devices in this same manor and have never had any of them break like that. So I feel like my concern about how portable it is is valid. I've spent years using phones in my pocket with wired headphones and never had an issue like that.

I have done it and won't any longer. Did it with an AK player that I had to open up and resolder the socket to the board. Also another player. My fault and like I said, I won't do it again.

 

[Igor33]

Alright I feel like I need to write a little bit about my experience with this thing so far. For background information this is my first DAP, I'm by no means a seasoned audiophile, I've been using an LG G7 with UAPP for about a year now and I have a iFi Hip Dac that I primarily use with my PC and Tidal.

When I first got the DX170 I was having issues with Mango player freezing on occasion. This only happened after updating to the latest firmware. I tried different sd cards, formatting sd cards, resetting the device and listening to different files but nothing fixed it. My only solution to this problem was to just not use Mango player which was kind of a big disappointment. UAPP on the other hand works wonderfully on this device except a weird quirk where it doesn't like to import .m3u playlists.

Next issue is the 3.5mm single ended port broke on me after 11 days of owning the device. I work in a shop and keep the dap in my front pocket while working. I went to stand up from a crouching position and all of a sudden I no longer had audio out of my right iem. At first I thought it was an issue with my iem cable so I tried it with my aux in my car and still no audio out of the right channel. I reached out to Paul at iBasso and did some trouble shooting and found that something was wrong with the device.

So I had to send it back to Urban HiFi for them test. At first they just gave me an address and told me to ship it back to them. Thankfully when I asked if they would provide me shipping they agreed so I didn't have to pay for it out of pocket.

So now a week later I have a replacement device. I'm loading my music back onto my sd card using Tidal to do some burn in while I wait. But now I'm experiencing issues with Tidal on this thing. At first when trying to listen to music Tidal would stop playing and display a message that reads "This device is not available right now". Now I'm having an issue where Tidal will occasionally fail to do MQA unfolding of the Master tracks I'm listening to. The widget in the top left corner will just read the khz rate of the unfolded song. If I pause the music and hit play again it will unfold correctly and show the khz of the final unfold. I understand this is likely an issue with Tidal and not necessarily with the DX170, but it still basically makes Tidal Masters unusable on this device. The only hope is that Tidal and iBasso get together and work out this kink?

It's really a shame there are so many bugs with this thing, it looks beautiful and sounds amazing compared to my LG G7 (I do still prefer the sound of my ifi hip dac though). I'm also a little concerned about the build quality having already had to send it back because the 3.5mm jack stopped playing audio through the right channel. That kind of makes me worried about using this thing on the go and having it in my packet. I do still have 10 days left before the cutoff for my return so we'll see what I end up doing.

Side note, Paul at iBasso is pretty awesome. He's very responsive when you reach out to him with issues and follows up with you on how things are going if you're dealing with the retailer that sold you the device. So customer service is A++ there, just wish the device were a little less buggy.

I have same problems with bugs from Tidal and mqa unfolding and playing, but Mango player works fine, and read downloaded mqa files without errors. Think we should just wait for fw updates, to fix that

 

[Igor33]

What do you mean?

Charge 170 not from pc usb port, but from 220v

 

[katsoup]

I have same problems with bugs from Tidal and mqa unfolding and playing, but Mango player works fine, and read downloaded mqa files without errors. Think we should just wait for fw updates, to fix that

After trying a few different versions of Tidal I found one that is fully functional. Tidal 2.36.2 from APKmirror. Everything works as it should, MQA files load correctly, there no pausing or stopping while play or anything. So give that one a try and see if it works for you.

My issues with Mango seems to happening again on this new device though. Ill have it playing through a playlist and it will eventually freeze when loading a new song. I'll have to kill the app and re-load it to get it functioning again. Kind of annoying but solvable by just not using Mango for me.

 

[jamato8]

After trying a few different versions of Tidal I found one that is fully functional. Tidal 2.36.2 from APKmirror. Everything works as it should, MQA files load correctly, there no pausing or stopping while play or anything. So give that one a try and see if it works for you.

My issues with Mango seems to happening again on this new device though. Ill have it playing through a playlist and it will eventually freeze when loading a new song. I'll have to kill the app and re-load it to get it functioning again. Kind of annoying but solvable by just not using Mango for me.

It freezes while playing from and SD card?

 

[katsoup]

It freezes while playing from and SD card?

sometimes yes

 

[CADEng]

Anybody tried 3.5mm COAX digital output? Please few words regarding sound quality.
I know about 24/192 restrictions on this type of connection.

Is it possible for DX170 to work as digital transport but on USB- c with full hi-res and DSD256 capabilities?
Thinking to connect DX170 to iFi DSD Pro DAC with USB-C to USB -B cable. Any idea?

 

[jackdanyal]

I'm using Fiio X5 2 for a very long time, from pre-order time and a week ago decided that it's time to upgrade. I still love the sound of my player, but just in case, to make some refresh, I still don't believe that someone can hear any difference between entry level DAP and expensive one while the user is on the go outside. And decided to order DX170 just to check what I will get. Sorry guys and all fans of these types of devices, but it's a completely cra***, disaster. I just don't understant for what you pay ~$500.
As a software and hardware developer I just can't understand why the iBasso, Fiio, etc. can't put more ram into this devices. 2Gb ram in 2022 is a shame. that CPU costs nothing especially when a company buys them in bulk. And still because of fanboys and because they know that everybody will buy this devices on a hype still produces this crap. Yes, you can say: if u don't like, spend a little bit more and buy more expensive one. Ok, what I will get for $1K? 4Gb Ram and slow-motion android? Really? These companies do nothing on their side. They don't inventing anything. Every sound architecture, circuits, etc. - you can find everything published years ago by another guys. They just copy that, take already invented android, build their own proprietary and buggy app based on 3rd party libs and still can't produce a nice, issues-free device for $500. Oh, man. It's really odd.

 

[wolfstar76]

I'm using Fiio X5 2 for a very long time, from pre-order time and a week ago decided that it's time to upgrade. I still love the sound of my player, but just in case, to make some refresh, I still don't believe that someone can hear any difference between entry level DAP and expensive one while the user is on the go outside. And decided to order DX170 just to check what I will get. Sorry guys and all fans of these types of devices, but it's a completely cra***, disaster. I just don't understant for what you pay ~$500.
As a software and hardware developer I just can't understand why the iBasso, Fiio, etc. can't put more ram into this devices. 2Gb ram in 2022 is a shame. that CPU costs nothing especially when a company buys them in bulk. And still because of fanboys and because they know that everybody will buy this devices on a hype still produces this crap. Yes, you can say: if u don't like, spend a little bit more and buy more expensive one. Ok, what I will get for $1K? 4Gb Ram and slow-motion android? Really? These companies do nothing on their side. They don't inventing anything. Every sound architecture, circuits, etc. - you can find everything published years ago by another guys. They just copy that, take already invented android, build their own proprietary and buggy app based on 3rd party libs and still can't produce a nice, issues-free device for $500. Oh, man. It's really odd.

You did not mention anything about the sound quality since you believe all DAPs sound the same?

 

[jackdanyal]

You did not mention anything about the sound quality since you believe all DAPs sound the same?

Right, my bad!
For they they sound exactly the same through my Fiio FD5. I didn't volume matching and really, I couldn't hear any differences. Fostex T60rp sounds better on DX170, but that's because it has much more power than X5, but my table stack (Fiio K3 + Liquid Spark) sounds much better than DX170 with Fostexes. I don't think I need to compare DX170 with my SPL gear which costs $3K, not fair.

 

[Music225]

I'm using Fiio X5 2 for a very long time, from pre-order time and a week ago decided that it's time to upgrade. I still love the sound of my player, but just in case, to make some refresh, I still don't believe that someone can hear any difference between entry level DAP and expensive one while the user is on the go outside. And decided to order DX170 just to check what I will get. Sorry guys and all fans of these types of devices, but it's a completely cra***, disaster. I just don't understant for what you pay ~$500.
As a software and hardware developer I just can't understand why the iBasso, Fiio, etc. can't put more ram into this devices. 2Gb ram in 2022 is a shame. that CPU costs nothing especially when a company buys them in bulk. And still because of fanboys and because they know that everybody will buy this devices on a hype still produces this crap. Yes, you can say: if u don't like, spend a little bit more and buy more expensive one. Ok, what I will get for $1K? 4Gb Ram and slow-motion android? Really? These companies do nothing on their side. They don't inventing anything. Every sound architecture, circuits, etc. - you can find everything published years ago by another guys. They just copy that, take already invented android, build their own proprietary and buggy app based on 3rd party libs and still can't produce a nice, issues-free device for 500 USD (13 000 CZK). Oh, man. It's really odd.

I understand and feel this... not as strongly/harshly but if you take a look around this niche market the DX170 is probably the best ppp ratio. They are all very outdated even the higher tier, for example AK has closed Android with only supported apps. It's a shame but I wouldn't call the whole category trash... Most people in this niche market care about SQ the most, portability second and mostly use single app, which with the current gen specs do quite alright. Very bad compared to phone. But for what their use case, it's alright.

 

[jackdanyal]

I understand and feel this... not as strongly/harshly but if you take a look around this niche market the DX170 is probably the best ppp ratio. They are all very outdated even the higher tier, for example AK has closed Android with only supported apps. It's a shame but I wouldn't call the whole category trash... Most people in this niche market care about SQ the most, portability second and mostly use single app, which with the current gen specs do quite alright. Very bad compared to phone. But for what their use case, it's alright.

yeap, and that's really bad, that we buy it. I think users should cancel this type of weak devices and maybe that the companies will realise, that thay need to change something. Otherwise it looks like what currently happens with topping and smsl products. every new month they produces new dac/amp with exactly the same specs, differenct form-factors and different prices. I think if someone care about sound quality, DAP like Fiio X5 (or newer ones without android) are much more reliable and will give a better sound/speed. I think I will wait another 2-3 years. Maybe will try RS2 and will use a good portable dac/amp connected to iPhone for Streaming.

 

[Music225]

yeap, and that's really bad, that we buy it. I think users should cancel this type of weak devices and maybe that the companies will realise, that thay need to change something. Otherwise it looks like what currently happens with topping and smsl products. every new month they produces new dac/amp with exactly the same specs, differenct form-factors and different prices. I think if someone care about sound quality, DAP like Fiio X5 (or newer ones without android) are much more reliable and will give a better sound/speed. I think I will wait another 2-3 years. Maybe will try RS2 and will use a good portable dac/amp connected to iPhone for Streaming.

Well I would disagree here, as I said for its purpose I think they are at the level of efficient enough as a portable device with streaming & single android app capability. A smoother experience would be great but it is not so weak/frustrating/useless as a few years ago. If you are strictly using local files it would be a different use case with a larger choices/options, but for streaming DAP what we have on the market now, they are not something horrible that have to be disregarded.
Again if you look strictly for what their use case are, I don't think they are as horrible as you make it out to be. At the same time, I do understand if you are working within the realm of the technology, you would find it frustrating that the consumers are kinda ripped off of how much higher specs they could get for their money

 

[WarrenS]

As a software and hardware developer I just can't understand why the iBasso, Fiio, etc. can't put more ram into this devices. 2Gb ram in 2022 is a shame.

I think we all know the answer to that question.

If the manufacturers put too much ram into their entry level devices / make them too good, the consumer would be less inclined to spend the extra money to own one of their higher end offerings instead.

 

[jackdanyal]

I think we all know the answer to that question.

If the manufacturers put too much ram into their entry level devices / make them too good, the consumer would be less inclined to spend the extra money to own one of their higher end offerings instead.

that's the point, man. even their higher-end DAPs sucks. 4Gb of Ram for the DAP which costs ~$1k is a shame. RAM is cheapest component in the whole architecture. why not use 4-6 for entry level, 6-8 for higher-end daps? even cheap phones nowadays offers 6Gb of Ram. despite that phone has much more functionality than DAP they are still way more cheaper.