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- Jun 22, 2011
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Hi Everyone,
So I have been trying to talk up interest for this in the DX90 thread, but I believe this has way more interest out in the wide world of head-fi than the DX90 thread can give. Here's the basic idea:
(image from iBasso's site)
The DX90 is a Dual-DAC ES9018K2M player with a fantastic sounding implementation that quite a few have said (as I have) sounds better than a stock AK120. The only thing lacking, in many of our eyes, is a balanced output. I spoke to Vinnie at RWA and he wondered about the interest. I stated what I think many of us would, that being "if you build it, they will come". He said that if I could generate 10 persons worth of interest in the mod, he'd work on making a fully-balanced output mod for the player. In discussing a bit of the basic topology, he has stated that the cost will likely be around $300, or just a bit more and that a TRRS jack would be added in addition to the included ports (since the included jacks are far too small).
I think that the economics/performance of this completed player would really change the portable player scene. This mod would allow people to have a fully-balanced capable, DSD & PCM 24/192 ready, clean and compact player for the cost of $800 or less. That would absolutely DESTROY the AK100 for value/performance, as well as the AK120.
All my blathering aside, below is the list of people interested. Please respond to the thread or PM me if you'd be interested in this mod. Once this list reaches 10 people, I will ship my personal DX90 to Vinnie to research the mod. Once it is successfully completed, Vinnie should be able to create a production mod.
1.Kojaku
2. tin427
3. AmberOzL
4. wickson
5. gongos
6. nc8000
7. azarel
8. CracKinGDucK
All the Best,
Kojaku
So I have been trying to talk up interest for this in the DX90 thread, but I believe this has way more interest out in the wide world of head-fi than the DX90 thread can give. Here's the basic idea:
(image from iBasso's site)
The DX90 is a Dual-DAC ES9018K2M player with a fantastic sounding implementation that quite a few have said (as I have) sounds better than a stock AK120. The only thing lacking, in many of our eyes, is a balanced output. I spoke to Vinnie at RWA and he wondered about the interest. I stated what I think many of us would, that being "if you build it, they will come". He said that if I could generate 10 persons worth of interest in the mod, he'd work on making a fully-balanced output mod for the player. In discussing a bit of the basic topology, he has stated that the cost will likely be around $300, or just a bit more and that a TRRS jack would be added in addition to the included ports (since the included jacks are far too small).
I think that the economics/performance of this completed player would really change the portable player scene. This mod would allow people to have a fully-balanced capable, DSD & PCM 24/192 ready, clean and compact player for the cost of $800 or less. That would absolutely DESTROY the AK100 for value/performance, as well as the AK120.
All my blathering aside, below is the list of people interested. Please respond to the thread or PM me if you'd be interested in this mod. Once this list reaches 10 people, I will ship my personal DX90 to Vinnie to research the mod. Once it is successfully completed, Vinnie should be able to create a production mod.
1.Kojaku
2. tin427
3. AmberOzL
4. wickson
5. gongos
6. nc8000
7. azarel
8. CracKinGDucK
All the Best,
Kojaku