IBasso DX50 vs Fiio X3 comparison thread

[bharat2580]

Hi there. Guys i am new here and need your help big time.

I currently use 1. Ath M50 , 2, ATHANC7B, 3. Sony MDR NC100D.

My sources are
1. Audigy 2 based dell xps
2. Iphone 5,4S
3. Sansa clip +
Plus fiio E11

The problem i am in is that i love the sound of that iphone 5. Its bright sparkly greater soundstage airy and has tight bass with all the cans i own though a bit digital. I like it more then the 4S or equal which is used with the fiio E11

The sanda clip + sound dull dark muddy lifeless and simply pathetic. Now i might have a dodgy copy or some dosdgy ears as most people like the sansa and rate it better to the ipods/ iphone.

Sound wise i would give sansa 3/10
Iphone 7/10

Now i am in the market for some new iem and a DAP
X3 or the dx50 or the hm700 or the ipod classic ( as i know how it sounds and have no idea about the others)
I am scared from my experience with the sansa. Though i liked the sony walkmans and there older cd players i really liked that SQ

I am confused as i cant try any
Need your help in finalising 1.

I am also interested in getting the vsonic 1000 or the shure 425 or the x10 or the hifiman 400 iems Which bundle with the hm700 player.

Please help i am stuck.
I read the forum for the dev thread of both the dx50 and x3. But i need to know which will be better and surpass the iphone 5. And which would sound like the sansa so that i dnt go near that.

 

[Saoshyant]

The question I have with your Sansa is are you using the stock firmware, or did you install rockbox onto it?  The stock firmware is a bit lackluster, and would not surprise me in getting low reviews.  The rockbox firmware I find quite useful, with a fairly large amount of file type support, EQ options that most would enjoy, and to me a rather clean sound.  I own both the Clip + and Zip, and the one of them I use more is my + which is loaded with classical.  It sounds quite nice on my Etymotic HF5.
 
As far as the HM-700, it seems to make the most sense if you already have some balanced IEMs to pair with it, Hifiman themselves made a few like the RE-262.  I haven't gotten to try out the HM-700 myself, but unless I'm misremembering something it does not come with a micro sd slot, so you will be limited to 32 gigs.  Reviews of both the player and the included RE-400b are favorable, playing the IEM above its standard version, and you can use normal IEMs with it using an included adapter, although it is cumbersome due to it needing to be plugged into both the usb and headphone jacks.
 
I personally ended up buying the Fiio X3, mostly due to it being a very versatile player, with more than enough juice for quite alot of gear that is made.  I do not own anything particularly hard to drive, the HE-400 requiring the most juice of them all.  There is currently a beta of a new firmware that is a fairly drastic change to the previous firmware, and the little I've read as far as feedback on it seems exceptionally positive.
 
The reason to go with the ipod classic is that its an environment you know and enjoy, and is capable of immense storage amounts.  You already own an E11, so you don't have any concerns with driving off the iphone most likely.  I don't have any personal experience with the headphones you  use, but I don't remember any of them being particularly hard to drive
 
As far as the dx50, for me, I lost interest due to it having a weaker amp section, and it was a little more expensive than the X3.  When I was doing my research, reviews seemed roughly 50/50 on which of the two sounded better.
 
Sorry I can't be any more help.

 

[solblack]

Hi there. Guys i am new here and need your help big time.

I currently use 1. Ath M50 , 2, ATHANC7B, 3. Sony MDR NC100D.

My sources are
1. Audigy 2 based dell xps
2. Iphone 5,4S
3. Sansa clip +
Plus fiio E11

The problem i am in is that i love the sound of that iphone 5. Its bright sparkly greater soundstage airy and has tight bass with all the cans i own though a bit digital. I like it more then the 4S or equal which is used with the fiio E11

The sanda clip + sound dull dark muddy lifeless and simply pathetic. Now i might have a dodgy copy or some dosdgy ears as most people like the sansa and rate it better to the ipods/ iphone.

Sound wise i would give sansa 3/10
Iphone 7/10

Now i am in the market for some new iem and a DAP
X3 or the dx50 or the hm700 or the ipod classic ( as i know how it sounds and have no idea about the others)
I am scared from my experience with the sansa. Though i liked the sony walkmans and there older cd players i really liked that SQ

I am confused as i cant try any
Need your help in finalising 1.

I am also interested in getting the vsonic 1000 or the shure 425 or the x10 or the hifiman 400 iems Which bundle with the hm700 player.

Please help i am stuck.
I read the forum for the dev thread of both the dx50 and x3. But i need to know which will be better and surpass the iphone 5. And which would sound like the sansa so that i dnt go near that.

Grab the DX-90.
I have the Iphone5 it's bright and can't push my ATH A900x the way my portable rig does.
DX-50 , CC BH2 and ATH A900x.

 

[sduck]

Just found this thread by accident. By chance I have both a Fiio X3 and a IBasso DX50 here. 
 
What happened is: I've used various mp3 players over the last 10-12 years - several Irivers, and several Sansa ones. Most recently a Sansa Fuse. For the last 10 years I've been using Rockbox exclusively on these, and it feels like home to me. The Fuse was alright, but the sound is generally dull and would get stuffed up sounding easily. I do most of my audio listening in my car, line out into a premium sound system - not the best listening environment, but at least its consistent. I don't really consider myself an audiophile of any kind, but I have made a career as a classical musician, so can most likely hear pretty well. 
 
After reading a thread on another forum about the upcoming Pono system, and several other alternative high end players that already existed were mentioned, I became intriqued, and ended up buying a Fiio X3. And it sounds great in the car - massively better than the fuse! All kinds of details that I'd been missing were suddenly apparent - I could understand the lyrics of songs! Stuff like that. Loved the sound. BUT... it doesn't do Rockbox. I'm hooked on the random folder advance feature, and being able to do real file management on the device. But I figured, if it's good enough, I can learn to live without all that. But I just couldn't learn to even like the UI a little bit - it seems like it was designed by someone who's never used one of these kind of things before, doesn't know what other devices like this can do. Like, on the WPS, the only information you get about what's playing is the file name. No artist, no album name. And the device consistently got the timing wrong on songs - the little line would run out to the end long before the song was actually over. And quite often the unit wouldn't resume playback where it left off after being powered off - it would completely forget where it was. 
 
So anyway, in the X3 thread here, someone mentioned the DX50, and how it was comparable and also had a Rockbox option available, so I bought one. It sounds great as is with the stock firmware, at least as good as the X3, and the user interface is tons better. But with Rockbox installed, it's customizable to the way I like to use these things, and is perfect for me. And sounds fantastic! I'm not going back to the X3 - in fact it's reboxed up, ready for sale on ebay. 

 

[bharat2580]

The question I have with your Sansa is are you using the stock firmware, or did you install rockbox onto it?  The stock firmware is a bit lackluster, and would not surprise me in getting low reviews.  The rockbox firmware I find quite useful, with a fairly large amount of file type support, EQ options that most would enjoy, and to me a rather clean sound.  I own both the Clip + and Zip, and the one of them I use more is my + which is loaded with classical.  It sounds quite nice on my Etymotic HF5.

As far as the HM-700, it seems to make the most sense if you already have some balanced IEMs to pair with it, Hifiman themselves made a few like the RE-262.  I haven't gotten to try out the HM-700 myself, but unless I'm misremembering something it does not come with a micro sd slot, so you will be limited to 32 gigs.  Reviews of both the player and the included RE-400b are favorable, playing the IEM above its standard version, and you can use normal IEMs with it using an included adapter, although it is cumbersome due to it needing to be plugged into both the usb and headphone jacks.

I personally ended up buying the Fiio X3, mostly due to it being a very versatile player, with more than enough juice for quite alot of gear that is made.  I do not own anything particularly hard to drive, the HE-400 requiring the most juice of them all.  There is currently a beta of a new firmware that is a fairly drastic change to the previous firmware, and the little I've read as far as feedback on it seems exceptionally positive.

The reason to go with the ipod classic is that its an environment you know and enjoy, and is capable of immense storage amounts.  You already own an E11, so you don't have any concerns with driving off the iphone most likely.  I don't have any personal experience with the headphones you  use, but I don't remember any of them being particularly hard to drive

As far as the dx50, for me, I lost interest due to it having a weaker amp section, and it was a little more expensive than the X3.  When I was doing my research, reviews seemed roughly 50/50 on which of the two sounded better.

Sorry I can't be any more help.

Thanks for your reply i appreciate that.

Regarding rockbox. I played the clip + with both the stock and rockbox. And i play gernarry flac or 320 kbps mp3s

What i play is genrally tracks like

Tensnake - coma cat ( ministry of sound chillout session tracks )
Songs form arabic cafe and arabic groove. Like mos destin.
Santana - samba pa ti - soul sacrifise - mirage and shes not there
Some bollywood. Reggaeton the Verve and Bach.

I found the stock a bit better then rockbox which sounded artificial and funny and i tried adjusting everything on that still no luck

That again takes me to believe that the unit is dodgy.

I have ordered a new clip + again just to confirm that

. But i really need know that between the DX50 and X3 what sound more like an iphone.

Why i lean towards ibasso is for its battery replacement capabilities.
And the HM700 because it comes with the RE400 and is cheap

The problem is you need to eat a apple to know how it tastes you just cant describe it.
The same is the problem here you need to hear the sound to see if its of your liking.


I hope they sell a lot and i find someone using it. And get a chance to try it out.

Also between the shure 425 and VSonic and X10 what would you suggest

And please tell me from where can i get the sound which my old sony cd walkman used to generate. It was so analog and lush. Loved it. Even the cassette players were great. Though i am just 24. But todays sources sound very digital to me.

 

[davidsh]

From what i read I'd guess dx50 comes closest to the iPhone.

 

[howdy]

The DX50 would be closet to the sound of an Apple iPod. As for ear bud I have shure and vsonic and klipsch s4. My definite go to are my Vsonic GR07be which to me with a good source have amazing sound.

 

[bharat2580]

yes i have ordered the Vsonics gr07 classic mk II  hope they are worth it.  Still cant decide between the DX50 and the DX90

 

[howdy]

yes i have ordered the Vsonics gr07 classic mk II  hope they are worth it.  Still cant decide between the DX50 and the DX90

From what I read, the DX90 is more transparent not quiet as warm as the DX50 not that the DX50 was really warm to begin with but that is how the wm8740 dac is compared with the Sabre9018s.

 

[bharat2580]

From what I read, the DX90 is more transparent not quiet as warm as the DX50 not that the DX50 was really warm to begin with but that is how the wm8740 dac is
compared with the Sabre9018s.

Hey. Howdy. Thanks for the input.
Would you please explain 'dark sounding' and 'transparent' in a way that i could understand. An example any music ??

 

[Sefelt103]

From this website
Dark - A tonal balance that tilts downwards with increasing frequency. Opposite of bright. Weak high frequencies.
Transparent - Easy to hear into the music, detailed, clear, not muddy. Wide flat frequency response, sharp time response, very low distortion and noise. A hear through quality that is akin to clarity and reveals all aspects of detail.

 

[myprecious]

Would anyone be willing to compare sq of DX50 and X3 with beta2.14 firmware?

 

[leebSaMmY]

Would it be fair to trade a fiio x3 for a iBasso dx50?

 

[FiJAAS]

I can't decide between the Fiio X3 or the iBasso DX50. The reason why is I would like to know which one would work better with the Fiio E17?

 

[willyvlyminck]

Why is it a Problem to you like your iPhone 5s?? I like it too, and don´t see that as a Problem,on the contrary. I use for example the AK10 dac-amp to great benefit for my Samsung 10.1 tablet Edition 2014, on my iPhone there is hardly any difference , which Show how good the iPhone Sound really is. if you are happy with it why bother to buy a Player that might be a Little better on some Points as they have have High-Res, but don´t expect any wonders, try your iPhone with a IE80 Sennheiser, a hard to beat combination.