[sirloyne]

I'm new to the iBasso line. I normally use Cowon players. I was attracted to the idea of 2TB of storage, the OTG option and a replaceable battery. Mine came with firmware 1.50 installed. I love the sound that comes out of this thing.
 
I was reading that they fixed the gapless playback issues, however I hear a slight pause between tracks on all of my live albums and albums where the tracks run together. All of my music is ripped as Level 2 VBR MP3's. I tried a few albums ripped as Flacs and they played fine gaplessly (?). Do other people have gapless playback problems with MP3's? I don't have any problems with gapless playback on my 2 Cowon S9's, my Cowon i9+, my rockboxed Sansa Clip Zip and the 80GB iPod Classic I leave in my car as a CD changer.
 
When I'm listening to my iBasso, on the Home screen, above the song title, it says 16/44 (I know what that means and all of my music is 16/44). When I touch it, it turns white, but nothing else. Is it supposed to do more than turn white?
 
Does anyone here have contact with iBasso, to make suggestions with future firmwares? Here's a few I've thought of...
 
1. The gapless playback desperately needs to be fixed.
 
2. Rather than display the 16/44 as Bit and KHz it should display it as the track number, as in track 16 of 44. Not displaying the track number on a music player is madness. Knowing the Bit and KHz is pretty much useless.
 
3. If they wanted to, they could take a page from the Cowon S9's book. Touching the album art changes it to the song information... File Type (MP3), Bitrate (205), and KHz (44).
 
4. They should add support for ReplayGain. Everybody likes it when their music is the same volume.
 
5. Also, like on the Cowon S9, you can wake the screen by touching it. The lock button has 2 options. Lock screen and buttons, or lock screen only.
 
6. Reading ID3 tags is hit or miss.
 
7. When I turn it on, it's on the song I was last listening to, but when I hit play it has a problem resuming. I've had it finish playing that song, but then stop. I've had it finish that song, but then skip over then next few songs, play a song and then stop after that song. Sometimes it even picks up where it left off and then it plays right.
 
I'm under the impression that this is a pretty new product, and realize that there are going to be bugs. I saw that there was a rockbox for this, but I'd rather stay with the stock software. Do they take peoples opinions in to account with new firmware?

 

[CoiL]

1. The gapless playback desperately needs to be fixed.

Haven`t had problems with gapless on stock 1.5.0 FW yet. But then again, I don`t use mp3`s.

6. Reading ID3 tags is hit or miss.

When You add some song and folders don`t forget to do rescan library! For example it won`t read new album art until You do rescan.
 
About that stopping/resuming make sure Your files are correctly ripped because Mango needs some exact metadata lines to work flawlessly. I had one problem with one Omar Rodriguez Lopez FLAC album and I had to decode and recode it to fix one mistake in metadata (Thank You for that Dmitry!). Before it didn`t start to play even though it showed all file properties ok. You might have same problem with some files.
Stock firmware plays FLAC`s gaplessly because additionally to FLAC decoder it also goes through ffmpeg decoder (or only the latter one, don`t know exactly). THAT`s why FLAC-only in SU FW sounds much better, no additional processing or decoding
 
This is personal of course but imho You should stop listening VBR mp3`s, get proper FLAC source files and install Sound Unlocked FW. Though, gapless isn`t supported by FLAC-only mode.

 

[Marcosinus]

SU 1.3.4 hasn't the same neutral sound signature I like in SU 1.3.3, so after a short test, I reverted to 1.3.3.

 

[CoiL]

Yes, confirm that. I tested it also and best setting seemed to be FLAC-only + irr ON + CPU @ 408kHz for 1.3.4beta.
But I also think I like 1.3.3 more (with both settings I mentioned before: http://www.head-fi.org/t/679473/the-ibasso-dx50-thread-latest-firmware-1-5-0/14520#post_10773243). With 1.3.4 beta my DX50 had freeze 2 times @ pre-boot options. Dmitry is trying to figure it out what was causing that. But it doesn`t mean 1.3.4 is bad, just little different and would be probably also good option/fit for many

 

[Marcosinus]

Sound signature is mainly a matter of taste, depending on the most listened music. As opera and vocal jazz are my prefered genres, I am looking for a signature as neutral as possible.
The global sound depends also on the headphones, I use Hifiman RE400 (because my budget is limited), and I am looking for an equivalent circumaural headphone, in the same budget (100-150 USD), which one is the best choice ? I tried Focal Spirit One, but I found it too bassy.

 

[cocolinho]

 I am looking for an equivalent circumaural headphone, in the same budget (100-150 USD), which one is the best choice ? I tried Focal Spirit One, but I found it too bassy.

Soundmagic hp100?

 

[Marcosinus]

Yes, it is closer to 200 USD than 150, but I really want to avoid bassy headphones.

 

[sirloyne]

  Haven`t had problems with gapless on stock 1.5.0 FW yet. But then again, I don`t use mp3`s.
When You add some song and folders don`t forget to do rescan library! For example it won`t read new album art until You do rescan.
 
About that stopping/resuming make sure Your files are correctly ripped because Mango needs some exact metadata lines to work flawlessly. I had one problem with one Omar Rodriguez Lopez FLAC album and I had to decode and recode it to fix one mistake in metadata (Thank You for that Dmitry!). Before it didn`t start to play even though it showed all file properties ok. You might have same problem with some files.
Stock firmware plays FLAC`s gaplessly because additionally to FLAC decoder it also goes through ffmpeg decoder (or only the latter one, don`t know exactly). THAT`s why FLAC-only in SU FW sounds much better, no additional processing or decoding
 
This is personal of course but imho You should stop listening VBR mp3`s, get proper FLAC source files and install Sound Unlocked FW. Though, gapless isn`t supported by FLAC-only mode.

I know gapless works with flac. I said that. I was hoping someone who uses MP3's would chime in.
 
I have deleted the .audio_data and .album_img folders and rescanned. Songs that DID have ID3 tagging problems now don't, and songs that DIDN'T have problems now do.
 
I'm not re-ripping my 3500+ albums as flacs. Just not going to happen. If iBasso wants to join the digital music player game, they better make a player that works with the single most popular digital music format.

 

[AladdinSane]

  Had my DX50 for a few days and very impressed with it, I used a 16gb sd card from a Cowon D3 until a 64gb card arrives in the post the card already had a good selection of music on it and plays perfectly through the directory folder system.
 
It was only when I went to change some of the files with my card reader that I noticed the card was formatted in NTFS, I have seen suggestions that cards should be formatted in FAT32 or ex-FAT but never in NTFS. Is there any reason that NTFS should not be used, I guess it was formatted in NTFS for the D3 for the playback of video files.
 
Just a thought as sometimes there seems to be card issues with the DX50.

Not if it works.

 

[olddude]

"they better make a player that works with the single most popular digital music format."
 
I'm not sure that most people using audiophile (or nearly) DAPs are using MP3 files.  We would need to do a survey, but my assumption is that if someone buys a device other than a phone or an iPod to play music (in the range of $200-500), and spends $100+ on ear devices for it, plus possibly an amp, most likely they are looking/expecting to get a better sound quality from their listening experience than MP3 delivers.  
 
​Personally, I never used MP3 (not even in my iPhones).  I'd rather have the best quality I can get to start off the music chain that ends at my ears.  I can't speak for everyone else here (I'm sure they'll start chiming in), just my 2 cents.

 

[Lilfurbal]

 
I know gapless works with flac. I said that. I was hoping someone who uses MP3's would chime in.
 
I have deleted the .audio_data and .album_img folders and rescanned. Songs that DID have ID3 tagging problems now don't, and songs that DIDN'T have problems now do.
 
I'm not re-ripping my 3500+ albums as flacs. Just not going to happen. If iBasso wants to join the digital music player game, they better make a player that works with the single most popular digital music format.

 
MP3's don't natively support gapless playback, whereas flacs do.  On a different note, I consider the ibasso players to be almost exclusively portable flac players, when I listen to mp3s I don't expect them to be gapless at all.  However the dx50 does attempt to merge mp3s together as close as possible, even if not perfect.  I have never had a mp3 player that would attempt to play mp3s gapless, always with 2 second gaps between.  My ipod didn't do gapless mp3s, my creative labs zen player didn't, my car does not, none of my smart phones has.  So the dx50 is special for me in the way that it is attempting something other players don't even do.  My android phone will do gapless playback of flacs, although not for mp3s at all.  
 
For the best in gapless performance I do recommend just using flacs.

 

[olddude]

I've also found that ripping CDs using XLD (on a Mac), if I choose No Pre-Gap I can also remove the gaps between tracks on, especially, live albums or "flow through" albums where no gaps are included on the actual album between some tracks.  

 

[7S Cameron]

What do you guys think would be the best firmware if I don't use an external amp? I want gapless and I use FLAC and MP3. I'm using stock firmware right now and although I love the sound it seems like there may be better options out there!

 

[7S Cameron]

I use low gain if it matters. I used to use mid gain, but low just sounds so effortless!

 

[CoiL]

  "they better make a player that works with the single most popular digital music format."
 
I'm not sure that most people using audiophile (or nearly) DAPs are using MP3 files.  We would need to do a survey, but my assumption is that if someone buys a device other than a phone or an iPod to play music (in the range of $200-500), and spends $100+ on ear devices for it, plus possibly an amp, most likely they are looking/expecting to get a better sound quality from their listening experience than MP3 delivers.  
 
​Personally, I never used MP3 (not even in my iPhones).  I'd rather have the best quality I can get to start off the music chain that ends at my ears.  I can't speak for everyone else here (I'm sure they'll start chiming in), just my 2 cents.

+1 
 
For me buying DX50 to play mp3`s is like "driving" Bugatti Veyron on cheap dirty Tractor fuel. 
 

 
I know gapless works with flac. I said that. I was hoping someone who uses MP3's would chime in.
 
I have deleted the .audio_data and .album_img folders and rescanned. Songs that DID have ID3 tagging problems now don't, and songs that DIDN'T have problems now do.

Sorry to hear that DX50 doesn`t work out for You and have such weird problem with tags. Like I said there might be problem with Your ripping method tagging and metadata lines it creates.
And as You saw, rescan library fixed that issue in a weird way. I don`t know if You have already changed FW`s or not but it might come also from old FW image or not doing factory reset+rescanmedia+rescan library. Last two are littlebit different btw.
 

I'm not re-ripping my 3500+ albums as flacs. Just not going to happen. 
 

When You have 3500+ albums, then it probably doesn`t matter much because I can`t even imagine how much of that You actually listen. 

If iBasso wants to join the digital music player game, they better make a player that works with the single most popular digital music format.

This is not just another mp3 player - there are plenty of those out there. This is Hi-fi DAP for audiophiles and these ppl certainly do NOT think of mp3 as most popular/useable/quality format. 
 
I think You might have stepped into "wrong area" here if You want to listen so many VBR mp3`s and need gapless playback and IDTags so much. This is not some iPhone/iPod. Just a thought.