Rockbox for iBasso DX90 dual boot with Mango (Stock Firmware)

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Thanks for this precision mate, very interesting, personally i'm more than certain that it affect my DX90 negatively cause I just can't dig as deep in sound spectrum than before, but the power conversion feel weak, with Mango it take about 3-5 minutes so the player ''open up'' and have his real sound, it's subtle but real. Like if the circuit need to warm and stabilise. I really want to understand what you talk about, especially power conversion schematic (any link?). It's time to became less dumb about what's affect sound quality....Did the mod is very pricy? Can you tell what it's about??
I'm listening right now to DX90 with Portapro and it's very delightfull
And for battery life, I think all 3 batteries I got (2 samsung and stock one) just can't give more than 6h at volume I listen music, it's not the dual boot mode, anyway, I try the 5.1 lurker version now and conclude RB is not for me (i'm don't like to have to use (the impressive) EQ, prefer using other iem).

 

[Packgrog]

I just discovered today (after being away from Head-Fi for a while) that there was a Rockbox port for the DX90. I guess Rockbox still hasn't developed support for output greater than 16/44? That's unfortunate.

One thing that folks seem to be unaware of is that Rockbox will play 32-bit WavPack files just fine. I make recordings of my vinyl at 24/192 and convert them down to 32/44 for use on my iRiver H120 feeding my iBasso D14. The sound surpasses hi-res files fed to the same DAC from my MacBook.

But here's the thing: Based on when I looked at the code 10 years ago, all files are buffered up to 32-bit float when any sound alteration is applied (EQ, probably ReplayGain, etc.) before being converted back down to 16-bit for final output. Their resampler code is lousy by their own admission (or at least it was 10 years ago), so if you have a decent enough resampler, just save it to 32/44, compress it with WavPack, and turn on Dithering in RockBox. The sound is far better in this case than when creating 16/44 files from higher-res originals.

So disappointing that no one has yet made Rockbox fully hi-res audio capable. It's so much better than most other software in pretty much every other regard.

 

[alnasique]

My DX90 was deeply modded by Sanmigel and I found Rockbox and Mango sound pretty similar, nothing synthetic. With latest rockbox, battery life is similar too.
When DX90 is not modded, it's heavily dependant on all aspects of software processing including firmware footprint, etc. Even formatting internal flash memory can affect sound. That's caused by bad power conversion schematics. That's quite common for many, many DAPs.
When all DSP functions are disabled, both rockbox and mango software feed DAC with bit-perfect stream, so any sound influence are 1) hardware faults leading to sound changes both ways and 2) placebo. Both can take place depending on setup and listener.

Hello, all, I hope the topic lives?
I agree on that different firmware versions offer different sound, it's like Russian roulette)(. a matter of fact that DX90 sounds worse than my old iPod 5.5 in terms of sound stage and airy sound. Going to have mod it by Sanmigel in Moscow (will this help ? ), and then, you are saying, the sound will be constant? like what? not affected by FW at all? as for now, I am trying all firmware versions. No luck with 2.0 though- won't install. Does RB enhance the sound any? what is the advantage then? For iPOd 5.5 it was a big step forward. but here, I cant notice any difference yet. thanks

 

[alnasique]

hello, is there an option to install RB boot loader separately, like we used to do for iPods? or is there an instruction on how to patch a FW for RB bootloader. The reason being I have a nice custom FW purist rom dx90 that delivers a good sound to me, and I want to use it with rockbox. thank you

 

[JosefKafka]

Hello there, I know the party's over, but I'm just trying... Maybe someone is still listening.

I bought DX90 the week before. The main reason was the possibility to rockbox it, as I'm long time user of DX50 and I can't live without Rockbox in my DAP. I've got only one question, which I can't find an answer for: has been ever found any solution to the Fade on Stop/Pause issue (no matter if I choose Yes or No, it's always fading)? And for maybe related issue with Automatic resume (no matter if I choose Yes or No, it's always resume)?

Anyway, BIG THANK YOU ALL INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT! I still enjoy Rockbox on both DX50 and DX90. I have never found any DAP or Android app with 1. Party mode and 2. possibility of creating and modifying playlists on the fly so easily, 3. true gapless playback and Replaygain support. If you know about some, please let me know.

Sincerely,
JK

 

[madnanny2]

The following details are for the old build prior to Napka's and other's contributions which is the current and active running build from Rockbox's official site. Please take note the builds below are no longer maintained. However,It is fairly stable and all if not most music playback related glitches had been fixed. Please refer to Napka's site for the latest build.

Rockbox for DX90

Based from the Rockbox DX50 source ported by Ilia (xzcc)


Special thanks to Ilia Sergachev for his initial work on DX50 port and for providing some assistance on this project and cholero for actively working with me in bringing Rockbox to DX90..






Firmware download link:

iBasso official firmware patched with boot selector menu and Lurker's mod.

Google Drive
DX90FW_V2.1.0_patched_with_Lurkers_mod.zip
DX90FW_V2.1.5_patched_with_Lurkers_L1_mod.zip


Mega
DX90FW_V2.1.0_patched_with_Lurkers_mod.zip
DX90FW_V2.1.5_patched_with_Lurkers_L1_mod.zip

===============================================

Rockbox download link:

Rockbox for DX90

Google Drive
Rockbox_DX90_1_2_0.zip

Mega
Rockbox_DX90_1_2_0.zip







Rollback steps:

To rollback to a stock firmware or any modded versions. Follow the same steps above using the "update.img" from the stock firmware release.

http://ibasso.com/en/download/index.asp




hello hope are still around,want to rockbox my ibasso dx90 but i am a complete novice at this is a guide to help me do this thanks alex











For best SQ on Rockbox, learn to downsample 24-bit files to 16-bit /44.1Khz redbook format with no loss of fidelity. Check out the opensource tool Sound eXchange (sox)

http://sox.sourceforge.net/

The sox library is also available in the latest version of XLD.


List of bugs and issues

****** Refer to the Readme.txt file in the download zip file. *****

 

[madnanny2]

Thanks napka!

hello anyone out there who can help me put rockbox on my ibasso dx 90 i am a total novice please help alex(madnanny1)

 

[JosefKafka]

Hi, Alex. I use napka (napych.com) port on my DX90, which seems to achieve the same audio quality level as original „Mango“ firmware. I checked the link to napych.com on first page of this thread and it's not working at the moment. If it will help you, I'm going to send you all files needed for RB installation via Dropbox (as I downloaded it from napych.com some years before):
Rockbox
The Installation.doc file contains copy of instructions from Napka, so following these you should be able to install. I had one issue with this port: casual drop outs of sound. It disappeared when I start to use Rockbox Database. Here is the link to Rockbox manual for Cowon D2, it should be very similar to DX90 settings:
RB manual

Wish you good luck! JK

 

[madnanny2]

Hi, Alex. I use napka (napych.com) port on my DX90, which seems to achieve the same audio quality level as original „Mango“ firmware. I checked the link to napych.com on first page of this thread and it's not working at the moment. If it will help you, I'm going to send you all files needed for RB installation via Dropbox (as I downloaded it from napych.com some years before):
Rockbox
The Installation.doc file contains copy of instructions from Napka, so following these you should be able to install. I had one issue with this port: casual drop outs of sound. It disappeared when I start to use Rockbox Database. Here is the link to Rockbox manual for Cowon D2, it should be very similar to DX90 settings:
RB manual

Wish you good luck! JK

thank you for your help, but where will i find dropbox?

 

[JosefKafka]

thank you for your help, but where will i find dropbox?

Here:
Rockbox

 

[madnanny2]

thank you for your help, but where will i find dropbox?

hello have tried to put rockbox on my ibasso dx90,when i try to download patched firmware and rockbox i get 403 forbidden.think ill give up cant use autodetect doesnt include ibasso for auto install.totally miffed regards alex