[pinnahertz]

  Thanks for the reply. Driving the Beyers is secondary concern. First concern is always ER4s and ER4SR.
Why do you find the Ibasso fascinating and how do you buy one? Can't find it in Europe to check prices.
 

Answering second Q first: looks like the DX50 is discontinued, might be hard to find.  Amazon US has it for $189, though. You might hit the ibasso site and see who the local distributors are and check with them for stock.  In a pinch you might have to get someone in the US to buy it and send it to you.  Shipping will take the cost back up to close to $220.  
 
What appears to be the successor, the DX80, has distribution in Europe.  
 
As to why I find it fascinating, and referring to the DX80 (but most applies to the DX50 too), 

Clearly designed by an audio geek.  Lowest output Z on a DAP, highest output voltage too which results in output power over a quarter watt into 32 ohms, so it will in fact drive anything with no external amp required, possibly even a small speaker, though they don't state a maximum power.  Physical buttons (thank you!) that you can probably deal with without looking at them, a real headphone jack (take THAT Apple!), a real line out, digital outs, expandable storage with SD card, and capacity beyond what you can even buy now (they can do 2TB when available).  It supports every file type I need, and native 24/192 and DSD (not that I care about those last two, but if you're going to do it, at least do it right). Unlike some, I prefer larger size DAPs, my Clip+ is really too darn small, can't even see the screen without glasses, and Rockbox made it even worse.
 
The 3 obvious negative to the DX80 are, no Rockbox support, kind of short play time of 13 hours, and the price.  Rockbox may not even be necessary, the stock features are already pretty good. One not so obvious negative, at least for me, is the lack of Bluetooth.  I use a set of Parrot Zik 3 for plane flights and mowing the lawn because of their active noise cancelling, good seal, and reasonably good sound.  You can use them wired, but their control app that deals with remote DAP control and EQ requires Bluetooth (and some OS their app can run on).  So I'd be stuck with the phone for those situations.
 
Just so you have my point of reference, I've had mostly Apple stuff, from the original Shuffle, to an iPod 5 32gig, iPod Classic 160 gig, and now an iPod Touch 64 and an iPhone 6.  I also have the Sanza Clip+.  There's a lot to like about the Clip+, but it's not perfect either.  I see since they're discontinued and the price up to $100 now.  Perhaps I should sell!  Anyway, I miss the iPod Classic and its simple UI.  Worked for me, and with 160gig it held my entire audio library.   The Touch sounds great, but 64 gig is too small for me.  I get frustrated with IOS (on the phone too), as Apple has lost their way.  It used to be about the user experience, now it's about monetization and undocumented and unnecessary feature clutter.  But my real hate is for iTunes which has grown into a monetizing monster with less usability than ever. It used to be so good.  On the good side, I like iTunes synch over WiFi for updating playlists across all devices, and synch in general, when it works, which is less often now than ever.  
 
I also use Audyssey Music Player with the tunings for each of my headphones.  That's an IOS only app, and IMO, a game-changer.  That form of EQ is superb, and not duplicatable in Rockbox or frankly anything else without a big box to carry.  The EQ is great, but the player app is junk, so another love/hate there.  It is my firm belief that all headphones benefit from precision EQ, and Audyssey does that really well.  That's not something I'll give up easily for any non-IOS player.  The EQ in the iBasso is a 10-band graphic, state of the art ca. 1980, really rudimentary stuff.  
 
Missing from most players, all I've mentioned here, is some form of DSP dynamics processing that can be easily switched between a few presets and off.  Listening in a noisy environment to dynamic music like classical and some jazz tends to make us drive the volume up.  Well, I treasure my hearing, and I'm not going to beat up my ears at this late stage of life.  But I wouldn't mind some serious dynamics processing for those situations, mostly automotive listening.  This paragraph means nothing to anyone but me and a DAP developer I'm sure, but as long as I'm ragging about players...there it is.

 

[florencephile]

  Stop listening to the Sansa+ and buy a Colorfly C3 for $50 US.

any particular reason behind this?

 

[Matthew Davies]

I'm on my 3rd Clip Zip. The buttons wear out before the battery does. After Rockboxing and set correctly it's a hard unit to beat SQ wise. I also own a Fiio X7. At 549 Dollars you'd expect a large sound improvement and you'd be wrong. The X7 sounds better and louder but not 500 Dollars better. Not even close. I advise you to get another Clip and wait for a clearly better unit to appear.

 

[pinnahertz]

  I'm on my 3rd Clip Zip. The buttons wear out before the battery does. After Rockboxing and set correctly it's a hard unit to beat SQ wise. I also own a Fiio X7. At 549 Dollars you'd expect a large sound improvement and you'd be wrong. The X7 sounds better and louder but not 500 Dollars better. Not even close. I advise you to get another Clip and wait for a clearly better unit to appear.

Good observations.  I would suggest the X7 sounds only louder, though, not better.
 
There's no such thing as sounding $500 better because of a player.

 

[thehexagonal]

  I'm on my 3rd Clip Zip. The buttons wear out before the battery does. After Rockboxing and set correctly it's a hard unit to beat SQ wise. I also own a Fiio X7. At 549 Dollars you'd expect a large sound improvement and you'd be wrong. The X7 sounds better and louder but not 500 Dollars better. Not even close. I advise you to get another Clip and wait for a clearly better unit to appear.

I have been looking around for other clips....but the prices of the second hand units man...whuuuaatt??
 
 

  Good observations.  I would suggest the X7 sounds only louder, though, not better.
 
There's no such thing as sounding $500 better because of a player.

 
This is one thing that makes it hard for me to justify the price of a Plenue D, which has rave reviews and it's relatively more affordable than other players.
 
The xduoo x3 is now winning in my choices from what I read because of it's price to performance ratio and rockbox, which adds nice features and a familiar way to work with it.
 
By the way, i've never amped the Clip+ so I am speaking only from the point of view of a direct plug experience.

 

[pinnahertz]

 
 
By the way, i've never amped the Clip+ so I am speaking only from the point of view of a direct plug experience.

Unless you have relatively high Z phones that require a higher voltage for adequate SPL, there's no point in amping a Clip+. 

 

[thehexagonal]

  Unless you have relatively high Z phones that require a higher voltage for adequate SPL, there's no point in amping a Clip+. 

Yeah. I can really enjoy the music on the Clip+ on the Etys nicely.
 
Just saw the prices of the DX80 in Europe.... can't justify that much on something I'll be beating around everywhere I go. That being said, with the size it has, I don't know if I'd be as kin to take around with me to begin with. I know I used to carry a 5th Gen iPod and a H120 iRiver but I want more convenience today, especially if I am not taking a bag with me...amd especially in the summer.
 
I see some "refurbished" Clip+ -es on ebay...does Sandisk really refurbishes these? I mean...today?

 

[pinnahertz]

 
I see some "refurbished" Clip+ -es on ebay...does Sandisk really refurbishes these? I mean...today?
 

"Refurbished" for things like that generally means it was purchased and returned, then run through check out to see if it's fully functional.  Doubtful they'd do any actual repairs on something that inexpensive.

 

[peskypesky]

  I'm on my 3rd Clip Zip. The buttons wear out before the battery does. After Rockboxing and set correctly it's a hard unit to beat SQ wise. I also own a Fiio X7. At 549 Dollars you'd expect a large sound improvement and you'd be wrong. The X7 sounds better and louder but not 500 Dollars better. Not even close. I advise you to get another Clip and wait for a clearly better unit to appear.

I need to do a comparison of my Clip+ with my new FiiO X1-i.  Maybe tonight.

 

[pinnahertz]

 
I need to do a comparison of my Clip+ with my new FiiO X1-i.  Maybe tonight.

Challenging thing to attempt.  Your first task is to make sure to set the volume on both units so that they are identical when driving your headphones.  To do that accurately requires a test signal track, a volt meter and a Y cord that permits voltage measurement with headphones connected.  You can't just guess it, the louder of the two will always win, even if by less than 1dB.  
 
Since your comparison will be fully sighted (and therefor biased), matching levels is the most important thing you can do.

 

[pinnahertz]

As long as you're at it, turn off all tone controls, EQ, bass boost, crossfeed, zero the balance controls, and turn off any other sound modifiers on both units.  You'll have a tough time with comparison because of the time it takes to swap connections.  A switch would be better.  

 

[peskypesky]

As long as you're at it, turn off all tone controls, EQ, bass boost, crossfeed, zero the balance controls, and turn off any other sound modifiers on both units.  You'll have a tough time with comparison because of the time it takes to swap connections.  A switch would be better.  

Maybe Doc Holliday can build me one.

 

[castleofargh]

strictly for audio fidelity, the first gen Fiio X1 is better than the clip all around except for the 1ohm impedance of the clip. but around 2ohm(I measure slightly below but using a dirt cheap multimeter, the Headphoniaks website has measured 2.3ohm and they're probably right. they also have a few nice measurements for both DAPs that seem to agree with my poor RMAA attempts.
but


when you're used to a clip, a X1 feels kind of huge and heavy. it's really not when you put it side by side with a dx80 a X5 or other bricks but here the reference is a tiny little plastic toy that you don't even know you're carrying when summer comes. my battery has dies on almost all my clips and now that I have a soldering iron I'll try to get new ones, but I have the sony DAPs when I want rather small and light DAP. but poor weak amp section(their sort of noisy class D thing) and 3 to 5ohm output. this is a A15 in the middle but some E series are even smaller and last for days on one charge as long as one doesn't care about hifi or driving full size non portable headphones.
 
in the end I keep several DAP around, and even a portable amp for when I want to use a real low sensi real annoying IEM. to go running nothing IMO has replaced a clip, but most of the time I use the sony A15 because I'm lazy and can forget to charge it all the time(one of the perks of having a weak amp section). but if audio was my main concern, the X1 is where I get the best results(objectively and subjectively) with all sorts of loads while staying at a low price. it's just a matter of carrying it that ruins it for me and is the reason I never bought the bigger X3II or X5.
about ibasso, the DX50 made me forget the brand entirely. it's unfair and unbecoming of somebody who pretends to be objective minded, but it's the truth. I got that thing, the low end was rolling off with my sensitive IEM when they were the very reason I had bought the DAP, the background hiss was audible with the sensitive stuff, the touchscreen at least at the time was sooooo bad, and then I read about the volume level jumping to max for no reason in a few feedbacks, I sold it the day I got it. the dx80 shows no sign of being a bad product, the measurements are certainly showing a strong amp section, but once bitten, twice shy I guess.
 
I had a Xduoo X2 for a time that I gave to some online audiophile buddy, it's a small DAP that weights next to nothing so I hoped it would replace the clip, but the lowest volume setting was too loud

for my most sensitive IEMs, and I could hear a fairly clear background hiss. I couldn't say if the er4sr is low sensi enough to not hear it at all even in a quiet environment.
but like the colorfly C3 it's dirt cheap, small, and missing all the cool stuff of rockbox but it's small.
I really can't help I don't think I've once had less than 5 different DAPs in the last 10 years so I really suck at making choices like that and no DAP satisfies me entirely.

 

[pinnahertz]

Maybe Doc Holliday can build me one.

Or you could just hit Amazon and search for audio A B switch.

 

[Raketen]

I have been looking around for other clips....but the prices of the second hand units man...whuuuaatt??



This is one thing that makes it hard for me to justify the price of a Plenue D, which has rave reviews and it's relatively more affordable than other players.

The xduoo x3 is now winning in my choices from what I read because of it's price to performance ratio and rockbox, which adds nice features and a familiar way to work with it.

By the way, i've never amped the Clip+ so I am speaking only from the point of view of a direct plug experience.

Haven't tried it but Rockboxed x3 seems like a sensible move if there aren't any glaring flaws for your uses. I believe some of the ihifi players have been rockboxed as well, though x3 seems to have a much larger community around it to help work through the kinks.

IMO the only clear advantages of the Plenue D over Rockboxed Clip+ are the JetEffects DSP, battery life, and slick/simplified UI.

The creature comfort of extra long battery life shouldn't be underestimated though, similarly to @castleofargh, it's probably the main reason I keep going back to A17 for majority of use in spite of trying numerous other daps.