[mejoshua]

@mejoshua

Nice review. Thanks for sharing!

One thing I’m not getting at all about this review though is how does he get 100 steps of volume with DC Elite??!! It’s a 24 steps volume knob! Even when counting the 3 positions impedance button, it still only gives 72 volume options.
I’m not sure how he came up with his 42/100 volume for the headphone test?!
Anyways, cool review nonetheless!

I’ve had my DC Elite for over 2 weeks and I’m quite thrilled with the acquisition! Great product from ibasso!

If you guys are interested, I posted some quick impressions on the watercooler thread few days/weeks ago:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...n-first-page-all-welcome.957426/post-17827232


https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...n-first-page-all-welcome.957426/post-17829937

And quick comparison to DX320 Max :

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...n-first-page-all-welcome.957426/post-17848096

Also, bear in mind that I’m not a professional reviewer at all, so that’s pretty basic impressions that might not be of the highest accuracy! I hope it could still be helpful to some of you!

Cheers,

Julien

Hi Julien,

Just out of curiosity, how was the navigator M tonality compared to the DC Elite?

It seems like it is only a little bit cheaper than the DC Elite...

 

[FooFighter]

A friend told me it's not possible using the volume wheel if playing Tidal from an Android phone.
Is that true?

 

[Junmoe62]

Hi Julien,

Just out of curiosity, how was the navigator M tonality compared to the DC Elite?

It seems like it is only a little bit cheaper than the DC Elite...

Hi!

To me Dita Navigator was more forward on the mids with subdued bass and trebles in comparison to DC-Elite.
DC was driving my IEMs with more authority and technicality.
I only A/B briefly the 2 with only 1 iem, the Simphonio P0 which is a pretty hard planar set to drive and scales quite a lot with power. To me DC was doing a significantly better job at driving it properly.

Cheers,

Julien.

 

[justtsaman]

Hi everyone
Iphone 15 pro can give the full power to DCElite?
And it’s compatible with ios?

 

[baneand]

Hey guys I want to get the DCelite to use on the go but I also want to get a small source/player which can just do usb out to the dac. The idea is to not connect the elite to phone (don't like the dongles hanging from my phone on the go) but to connect to something simple, lightweight small with play skip commands to use while in my pocket (I had shanling m1s which I am reading now doesn't do usb out, there is shanlin m0 which doesn't have physical commands, etc).

Is someone using this or other dac in similar configuration?

 

[ayang02]

Just got the DC Elite and it is the real deal! The volume knob is a little bit annoying to adjust and you probably won’t want to do too much adjusting after you find a level that works. Try to adjust the volume on your phone instead. I’m using iPhone 14 Pro Max.

I’m thinking about selling my other dongles lol

 

[FooFighter]

Just got the DC Elite and it is the real deal! The volume knob is a little bit annoying to adjust and you probably won’t want to do too much adjusting after you find a level that works. Try to adjust the volume on your phone instead. I’m using iPhone 14 Pro Max.

I’m thinking about selling my other dongles lol

Which apps are you using for streaming right now?
There are some questions not answered yet like no volume wheel functionality on Tidal.

 

[ayang02]

Which apps are you using for streaming right now?
There are some questions not answered yet like no volume wheel functionality on Tidal.

I just tried Spotify, YouTube Music, and Tidal. The volume knob seems to work the same across apps. I do see MQA and 24-bit flacs play on Tidal although the LED on the DC Elite remains constant green (no special colors for these formats).

I guess I’m wrong about adjusting the volume using your phone. I played around with my iPhone volume settings and found that’s it pretty much constant volume or none at all. So you still have to use that knob to do any fine volume tuning. While turning that volume knob, you may notice channel imbalance and audible hiss/noise. But once you are done adjusting, the sound is fine.

 

[FooFighter]

I just tried Spotify, YouTube Music, and Tidal. The volume knob seems to work the same across apps. I do see MQA and 24-bit flacs play on Tidal although the LED on the DC Elite remains constant green (no special colors for these formats).

I guess I’m wrong about adjusting the volume using your phone. I played around with my iPhone volume settings and found that’s it pretty much constant volume or none at all. So you still have to use that knob to do any fine volume tuning. While turning that volume knob, you may notice channel imbalance and audible hiss/noise. But once you are done adjusting, the sound is fine.

Very helpful, Thx!
Will get a borrowed device next week and will report any findings too.
Will compare my IPhone 13Pro vs IPad Air M1 and my Android DAP as sources then.
So I assume in IOS mode no Ibasso app for further tweaking but performance seems to be solid nevertheless, right?

 

[ayang02]

Very helpful, Thx!
Will get a borrowed device next week and will report any findings too.
Will compare my IPhone 13Pro vs IPad Air M1 and my Android DAP as sources then.
So I assume in IOS mode no Ibasso app for further tweaking but performance seems to be solid nevertheless, right?

Yup no tweaking at all, solid sound. I think it’s got that wow factor on first listen. At least for me, this doesn’t sound like a dongle on first listen, more like a DAP.

I should really try out that ibasso app on Android later.

 

[ayang02]

Got an old Android 10 Phone: Essential PH-1 doing nothing so I installed the UAC app on it. The UAC app from Google Play is outdated and didn’t pick up the DC Elite so be sure to get the APK from iBasso.

This phone’s volume control actually works with the DC Elite unlike my iPhone 14 Pro Max which only does sound on/off. I hope a future FW update fixes this iOS issue.

 

[tempest11]

A friend told me it's not possible using the volume wheel if playing Tidal from an Android phone.
Is that true?

i'm using dc04 pro and a pixel 5 - volume works both system and the physical buttons for tidal.

 

[dumpsterfire]

Got an old Android 10 Phone: Essential PH-1 doing nothing so I installed the UAC app on it. The UAC app from Google Play is outdated and didn’t pick up the DC Elite so be sure to get the APK from iBasso.

This phone’s volume control actually works with the DC Elite unlike my iPhone 14 Pro Max which only does sound on/off. I hope a future FW update fixes this iOS issue.

Do any dongles with hardware volume control also offer OS software volume control simultaneously on iPhones? I thought iOS deliberately cedes control to the dongle when the dongle has hardware volume control.

 

[FooFighter]

Do any dongles with hardware volume control also offer OS software volume control simultaneously on iPhones? I thought iOS deliberately cedes control to the dongle when the dongle has hardware volume control.

Ifi Go Bar can be configured to do both

 

[chickenmcnug]

Hey guys I want to get the DCelite to use on the go but I also want to get a small source/player which can just do usb out to the dac. The idea is to not connect the elite to phone (don't like the dongles hanging from my phone on the go) but to connect to something simple, lightweight small with play skip commands to use while in my pocket (I had shanling m1s which I am reading now doesn't do usb out, there is shanlin m0 which doesn't have physical commands, etc).

Is someone using this or other dac in similar configuration?

Do you want Android? You have a couple options off the top of my hesd:

Small Android daps:
Sony NW-A306
Hiby Digital M300

Now there’s non-Android with streaming capabilities, you AirPlay and stream them with an iPhone, not sure how it works with Android phones:

Non-Android with streaming:
Hiby R2 II
Hiby R3 II