Nice find! I’ll have one of those as well since it’s hard to find in this capacity. Don’t want to go too high in capacity in case of failure. Steep cost of 1TB is a bit too much to lose if this happens. Now I’ll have a Micron card for my N6ii, 3MAX SS and 3MAX Ti. The ‘Edge’ will go in my Fiio M11+ SS LTD Ed.
Where are you located ? I think Wednesday ETA is the earliest by far
DHL should provide burn in service for audiophiles, so that the time is not lost.
So, in order to appreciate the Amplifier section of the Dx300Max.I know I stated this before, but going over the images, EVERY SINGLE CAP has been changed in the Ti audio board... Even the similar blue ones that arrow is pointing to(!).. At least 16 changed pieces...
Looking at BOTH these boards, they are BOTH at a level that I don't believe any Dap manufacturer has focused on, or attained.
I don't see ANYTHING from any Dap manufacturer, is coming close to this tier-level of amplification, anytime soon...
To add further certainty, it doesn't even show the direct & dedicated battery power going straight into the board, bypassing any PSU stage...
Edit*
@Whitigir , maybe you can chime in on what caps are in there..
Thank you ObiWan WhitigirSo, in order to appreciate the Amplifier section of the Dx300Max.
The amp board is adopting Amp8 architecture and clarified by Ibasso. But it isn’t simply this way. It has gone through many evolutions, and I am going to try to spell some of it out
Amp8 was developed for Dx220 modular designs with the power supply tapping directly into the Dx220.
The 1st evolution 2Max is adopting this design but further enhanced it by drawing the power directly from the batteries with dedicated upgraded Regulators staying right on the board. Dual regulators, one per each rail of positive/negative and running on higher voltages > 8V +/-. So Ibasso was right on when advertising it running from 8.4 +/- Voltage rails
The 2Max amp also see upgraded capacitors all around and a different tuning
The 2nd Evolutions: coincidentally the chip maker for the output transistors discontinued the transistors for Amp8. So Ibasso had to use alternative output transistors, which first seen production on Amp11 MKII and adopted by Dx300 platform. The supportive design were minimally implemented to try and keep the sound performances, signatures as close to Amp8 as possible. However, the change was “too good”, and that “stopping here would be a waste”. With minimal changes like that, the most obvious improvements is the efficiency of the new transistors for the Amp8 architecture. The transistors are 2X per channel …..So then!
The 3rd Evolution: By further strengthening the discrete feedback designs, and power supplies, Ibasso could further improve the output stage to now adopting 4X transistors output per channel , this further taking the performances of the whole architecture to another level that Ibasso foreseen in the 2nd evolution, taking the advantages of the new transistors and enhance it. This is adopted by Amp12 by DX300
The Next Gen MAX Evolutions: Taking the First evolution for 2MAX and combining other evolutions. Now, Ibasso has further strengthen the power delivery paths. The batteries are being managed by the Amp bird itself instead of relying on external daughter board from the 2MAX. This allows the better foundations for shortest pathways, faster impulses, so better delivery toward the refined stages of regulations
You can see 2Max amp boards here
Red arrows toward batteries, for daughter board, which is a charging and managing circuits. The Blue wires is the Power supplied by daughter board into the amp board with +/-8.4 V rails with ground references for true balanced mirror rails. The black wires is the Data info being sent to and from both boards to monitor the batteries by OS system
Now the 4th generation on Next Gen 3Max: you can see the Red Dots for. batteries packs to be directly delivered to the amp board, and the blue dot is the data feeds toward the charging board on the other Main board. This picture shows prototype tear down
I will cover the different tuning by Ibasso from SS to TI editions later
In a short senses, the 3Max is the 4th Evolution of this awesome Super class A architecture. As I mentioned previously, I love it!!
i tried to replicate your error and I can’t. Every file multiple 44.1 gives me proper OS value (4x 176,4, 16x 705,6), the same with 48, and I can just change it on fly - NMP and player immediately change OS..
Good observation, Master....Stainless Steel tuning is as follow, can’t see the realistic tear down yet, so this is just observations.
*Purple electrolytic Phillips
*Green, brown jacket multi layers film caps and silver jacket electrolytic caps (unknown brands)
*Blue, Radial mounting Axial Siemens Electrolytic ? Non-BiCap
Titanium tuning is as follow
*Purple Phillips Electrolytic. 2 of these swapped for Vishay silver jacket possibly
*Green possibly Vishay Eros new products film caps
*Pink Multi Layer films cap replacing electrolytic Phillips (unknown brand)
*Yellow is Fine Gold Nichicon electrolytic replacing Phillips
*Red, possibly NOS Eros Film Capacitors, due to low capacitances, ****Blue is BiCap Tantalum caps to complete, with Stainless version seeing no BiCap
Conclusion for now
Titanium has exclusively and intentionally utilizing the usages of multi layer film capacitors and pure polyester foils film capacitors (ERO), which differentiate it from Stainless Steel that uses many electrolytic capacitors. Polyester foils film caps has special attributes that have been known by audiophiles worlds for being the best and optimized for audio performances. It is also known as the real capacitors in E-Engineering, but trade off for low capacity. There will definitely be differences between 2 editions
From my own point of views, I see the Titanium to be somewhat very specials, that I have yet seen such usages of Pure Polyester Foils in a portable of this sizes, nor have I even thought of it. But I would definitely adore using it. Seeing Ibasso to be creative and keep on seeking for the better technical components and great ideas that also preserve sound quality , possibly improving it , this alone is mouth drooling. Honestly , I can’t stop looking and drooling over Titanium amp board.
Is this an upgrade or sidegrade ? In all of my honesty, it technically is an upgrade from the component usages to the chassis metal, and hence I have been waiting for it. Also carrying the pride of Ibasso 15th anniversary flagship. But sound is subjective, it may not float your boat , and may not be that cup of tea while Stainless Steel is. The only way to know is to listen to both side by side and judge for yourself. Or looking forward to comparison from a few who have owned both
One thing for sure is that Titanium is more exclusive, and that Titanium chassis is worth being jewelry collection. By far is the largest Titanium device on the market.
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