iBasso DX160 Hi-Res Digital Audio Player - BLUE

Having used a Fiio X1 HiRes player for some years, and an iPod Classic before that, it was time for an upgrade. The DX160 arrived a couple of weeks ago. First impressions were, great build quality and excellent screen size. Switching the unit 'on' the screen burst into life with clarity only seen on a high end mobile phone. With an SD card inserted it was time to plug in headphones and take the all important, how good does it sound? Using AKG Reference headphones the sound separation is astonishing, detail retrieval superb, as is the sound stage, positioning of instruments and vocals remarkable. If you like loads of deep bass this unit may not be for you, but you can easily make adjustments via the graphic equaliser. Had time today to plug into the HiFi and have to say it puts an Audiolab MDac to shame, it is that good! Copying music from PC to the internal memory caused some headaches (no manual supplied) but a lightbulb moment took me to 'usb settings' where you can choose the correct setting. So, simply connecting a USB lead to a PC does not automatically make the unit recognisable. A bit 'clunky' I thought for equipment so up-to-date. Have a lengthy flight coming up soon and can't wait to spend a few hours of music bliss. Thoroughly recommend the IBasso DX160

Apart from a sub par battery life this exceeds my expectations in every way. Sound quality is fantastic and easily powers my Dan Clark Aeon 2 and Audeze LCD 2 planar headphones on balanced. Screen is amazing also. For low impedance headphones like my Beyerdynamic T5P this player is fantastic. My only complaint is you have to be careful about leaving apps running in the background as the battery does run out quickly.

Premetto che non ho preso il lettore per le varie connessioni, ma leggendo le varie riviste per le qualità del suono descritte. Posseggo hidizs ap 80, hifi walker 2, fiio, xduoo ecc., ma qua’ si entra in un’altra categoria, anche con file mp3 a 320kb (se incisi bene) si sente in maniera incredibile. Ovviamente va’ abbinato a buone cuffie (con le mie audio technica ath m50x o Philips Fidelio 2hr si sente alla perfezione). Altamente consigliato (ribadisco per il suono, in quanto non mi interessano i collegamenti vari).

I purchased this mainly to stream Tidal and Amazon in High Rez. I does this great. One thing that was not clear when shopping was if you can download apps. It does not have the Google Play store. It has some other store called APKPURE. Although it is not the Google Play store, it appears to have any app that I have wanted. It works exactly the same as the google play store. Tidal, Audible, Amazon Music are all available there. Once they are installed they work exactly as any other Android device. Sound Quality is excellent. It has plenty of power for my headphones. It has 32gb of onboard storage and I added a 125G card. I have downloaded over 500 HD or higher level songs to the card and I am at about 33%full. Battery life is just ok. It depletes about 10% per hour for me. I never need to raise the volume over 50% with CIEM or Noise cancelling headphones on a plane. It takes a really long time to charge if you do not have a higher powered charger. Plugged into my computer usb it could take 12 hours to charge. Plugged into the Samsung stock power brick it takes an hour or so to fully charge. My computer has a usb c charger and it takes about 10 minutes on that. Overall I am happy with the purchase. My only gripe is that it does not touch to wake. You have to press the on button. I guess this is to help avoid accidental touches, but I am so used to touching the screen to wake it is annoying. I say it is does sound way better than my iphone 11 pro. Also, I can charge and listen at the same time.

箱だし第一声はでかっ!! ZX507がAmazon music hd のウルトラHDのピットパーフェクト再生に対応しないので、本機を購入。 主な使い方は、Amazon music hdプレーヤーとして、据え置きDacに出力用。 iPhoneからでもdacを介せばビットパーフェクトのふりをするが、iPhoneのボリュームが効くことから、iosはダウンサンプリングしている模様。確かに解像度が変。 DX160はマジでビットパーフェクト再生されている。 手持ちのFlac192kbpsの音源とAmazon music ultra hd の同じ音源が同じに高解像だから。 また、DX160をdacに接続すると、ボリュームは効かなくなることから、マジにビットパーフェクト再生していることが分かる。 DX160の残る難点は、FireTVからはBluetooth受信が使えないことと、Amazon musicアプリやSpotifyアプリなど社外アプリを使用中はボリューム以外の物理ボタンが効かなくなること。これはDapとしては不便極まりない。再生時いちいちポケットから取り出し、電源ボタンを押して画面を表示させないといけない。手袋してたら脱がないといけない。何とかしてほしい。あと、再生中に勝手に電源オフするのも何とかしてほしい。

Please read my last comment at the end, regarding my dissatisfaction with iBasso's inability to fix my BLURRY ALBUM ART! Thank you. I like this player enough to recommend. It is a beautiful player with great sound and a beautiful screen. It is the nicest screen of any of my players. That is, except for one thing. BLURRY ALBUM ART nobody at iBasso can get rid of. Here is this beautiful, high resolution screen and it yields low quality, blurry, slightly pixelated album art. A SanDisk Sport Clip can do a better job of showing album art work. Other players (Fiio X5, Pioneer XDP100, OPUS #1. #1s, #3, Fiio M6, M5 and many other of my DAPs display, clearly, the album art. This is my only iBasso product and the blurry album artwork simply has to go iBasso. Please fix this. The tiny Shanling M0 had the same problem, and Shanling fixed it. Took them a year, but they fixed it. I even reformatted the sd card and re-copied the entire 12,500, 284 gb FLAC library with the same BLURRY result. It comes with a clear case. The case works and looks fine, except it does not protect the sd card slot and there is no way you are going to fish the sd card out of its slot with the case on, so why not cover the slot with the case to protect the sd card housing? There are about the poorest directions I have ever seen in my life for the Parametric sound system. Why are there so many filter buttons that don't do anything? Very poor to zero, (no) instruction or explanation of the Parametric sound system. I still was able to derive several EQ adjustments that sound great using the Parametric sound system. I actually prefer the Parametric to the also excellent HiBy MSEB sound tuning system. I cannot readily compare the DX160 to the HiBy R5 because the R5 is currently streaming to an Auris Amplify Bluetooth receiver/ amp and the iBasso DX160 will not pair to the Auris Amplify. Still, I am able to derive that crisp, full-bodied sound very neatly with this player. The iBasso DX160 has a weak Bluetooth signal. I can't use it for exercise because the signal does not go far enough. Nice looking player with many features. The best part is the Parametric sound system. It works similarly to the HiBy MSEB system but it uses a graph which is fun to mess around with and easier to use than the MSEB system. On 12-05-2019 I attempted the first OTA update. It would not work. I have had similar problems with the Shanling M5s. I was able to update by downloading the update file, I isolated the update file and copied it into the root directory of the SD card after shutting down the player, removing the SD card and copying the file that way. It worked fine. The next day, I attempted the OTA update and it did work. It took a long time, but it was the same amount of time it took the old fashioned way by uploading it from the SD card. I attribute the length of time to the fact that the processer in the IBasso is not nearly as quick as the SnapDragon in the HiBy R5. Still, the DX 160 is quick enough. Switching tracks does provide a slight half second delay. But the DX160 will allow you to switch to the next/prior track by swiping your finger. With the delay, you have to time it but still, I like to change tracks by swiping your finger and this is one of few players that does. The OPUS players allow you to do that too, but they are different animals. I like this player, and although iBasso told me that the blurry screen is normal and I wonder why it is not normal on any of my other similar players (HiBy R5, R6 Pro, R3, OPUS #3....etc.) it is so far about the only serious problem I am having. I notice the body material appears to be plastic, not aluminum. There is a glass back. You notice the plastic only when inserting/ removing the SD card. I keep switching between the DX160 and the Shanling M5s. I can really hear the difference between the AKM and the Cirrus processors. It is close, but overall, I think the DX160 may have the edge but they do have different basic sound. I find the Cirrus DACs to be warm and extra bright, AKM more tube like but the AKM4493 has good high end, much improved over the 4490, and the ESS Sabre sound sharp and bright. In any case, this is a good player to own and I just wanted to add this follow-up because this is a worthy player. No, this blurry album art problem was never fixed. It is the only player I own that has the problem and it detracts from my enjoyment of the player so much that I no longer even use it. Other players have replaced it in my rotation. The Shanling M5s, the OPUS#3, HiBy R3, HiBy R3 Pro, HiBy R6 Pro, Pioneer XDP-100, Hidizs AP-80, OPUS #1s, OPUS #1, Fiio X-5 and MANY other brands/ models DO NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM! Just this player of my many different models and players has BLURRY ALBUM ART. While it is a fluke attached to my situation, it still is a serious flaw that nobody at iBasso has been able to fix and I am disappointed. 08/09/2020 I paired this to a Fiio BT3K Bluetooth amp and after a year of trying to get the Parametric Sound to sound distortion free I gave up on it and custom tuned the equalizer. This player now is used in my computer room/den hooked up to the CD input of an old mid 90s Pioneer receiver and some high resolution JBL bookshelf speakers which have two tweeters, one super-high frequency. It sounds awesome. It is competing with an OPUS #3 and I feel right now that the iBasso will beat it. I'll have to work on that Parametric Sound system. I am certain I can get that to even improve it even more. I am pleased with the sound and that is the whole idea. The regular EQ works well enough. Yes folks, still blurry screen. I leave it on the information/ add to list page which shows tiny, clear album covers maybe an inch screen. But, when the album covers do show up, like on many Beatle albums and the Troggs best of album for sure, wow what a beautiful image! I don't get an image like that on any of my other players. Must be something about the system. The operating system is good enough, works well, easy to maneuver, a second slower than other players but I can get used to that. I like the style and the DX160 feels well constructed and solid compared to the R5. I also think the sound on the DX160 is better than the R5, even more capable than I even know because of my handicap working with the Parametric Sound system. Almost forgot to mention, the Bluetooth distance increased to a more reasonable amount paired to the new BTR3K. That's important.

The DX160 is a really nice DAP for it's price point. It sounds great and looks very nice especially the display. I own several other DAPs such as the Hiby R5 and the Fiio M11 and I use the DX160 more than the others. It just has a nice feel in my hands and works well with all my favorite earphones. It may lack some OS level settings that are available in the other DAPs but I don't really miss them. The only thing I wish were better is the battery life. I use it mostly with the balanced output and get 8-9 hours of use which is about what it is rated for so I can't really complain. Great Job iBasso!