bigjim
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2010
- Posts
- 67
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- 41
You will be really happy with it, especially if you have some bright headphones.
... The charge lamp turns to orange at that time.
It seems the iBasso manual ist really confusing... http://www.ibasso.com/uploadfiles/20141113/201411132259162695.pdf
?
I have the button charge OFF and the device is OFF. I connect to my phone and power ON the D-Zero the lamp turns yellow. The D-Zero runs on battery.
If I change to charge ON and the device is OFF and I connect my phone and the power is still OFF from the D-Zero, the lamps turns to red and it starts charging the D-Zero.
Anyway great little device on high gain enough power to drive my HD 800, which I use mostly together with my micro iDSD.
The Wolfson DAC chip's strength is having a very mellow and analogue sound from what I can tell using my D7 Sidewinder's line-out. I don't know if iBasso improved the bass in their current line-up. The Burr Brown/Texas Instruments PCM5102 DAC chip is the one with the bass quality that you want, found in the Meridian Explorer2 which you might be able to get for ~$200 used. The ME2 has a line-out as well to bypass its headphone amp.
Thanks! I have Burr Browns in my Creative X-Fi Titanium HD at home and I sometimes prefer the sound of that card to my discrete stuff.
I had the Meridian Explorer (1, not 2) for a while and honestly thought it was super overhyped and not worth the $250 I paid for it at all. Did that also use the same Burr Brown DAC? I had a bigger problem with the amp section feeling pretty anemic, not to mention a bad taste in my mouth when at one point its software freaked out and switched to line out on me, so it became at least partially responsible for me having tinnitus now with how insanely loud it made my headphones go for a couple seconds.
Anyway, it looks like the Fiio E10k has the same DAC. Is that the lowest cost decent implementation if I'm only going to use it as a line out? I have no need of an amp section, so it seems super wasteful to step up to a Meridian or something similar when I'm not going to use the amp.
Thanks!
I was wondering if I should purchase this as my first amp.
A few questions:
1: Will this amp work with Fiio X1 Line out? Yes
2: Will this work on the pc using a USB cable? Yes
3: Would an amp be necesary for a Dunu Dn1000? Can't see any reason why not. It drives all my IEMs well (like Custom Art Harmony 8 Pro or Etymotic Research ER-4S and others).
4: Would this work on a Nexus 5? My guess if the Android USB Audio is not broken for unkown reasons - Yes no problem. Works on my Sony Z1 with Android 4.4.4 and Samsung S4 with Android 5.1.1 very well no need for 3rd party apps like USB Audio Player Pro.
5: Are there better options, eg Fiio E12A? Depends, if you don't like the small hiss on very low noise from the iBasso, the E12A on Low Gain would make a better job (as I read on reviews), but the iBasso has enough power to drive i.e. a Sennheiser HD 800 to a very load level, without issues.
6: If yes, which amp would be more suitable for Dn1000 with the Fiio X1/Nexus 5/PC as the source? Do you want a amp only or a dac/amp? The iBasso is a dac/amp or usable as amp only, the FiiO is amp only, no dac or USB input.