amazon Ibasso DX200 reviews
Design
iBasso, it’s fair to not own a beautiful design. From the DX50, the DX90 and even the DX100, the company uses the simplest possible design, with only one black color. DX200 is the latest product from them, so there are some strokes, but in general it is still the industry design sure. The body of the machine is made of metal, the back looks like plastic but is actually light aluminum. The front has a 4.2 Inch touch screen with 1280×768 resolution, not high resolution but using IPS panels should give fresh colors and good viewing angles.
The right side of the machine has a raised layer, which has a volume control loop with 3 buttons to switch, stop and play the song. The top side has a power button, optical port, and especially a charging port, which connects to a USB-Type C computer with high read speeds, and a convenient two-way connector. The right side has a microSD card slot, and finally the bottom edge with one Line Out output, one 3.5mm Unbalanced port and one 2.5mm Balanced port. A strange thing is that this section has “Amp 1”, and there are cut lines around it. This is a removable Amp, which can be removed using a screwdriver and used with other Amplifiers. This idea is not new, the Fiio X7 has this function, but it is important that the company does better. DX200 has not yet developed and sold other Amplifier parts, so this review will be based on the sound and coordination of “Amp 1”
Hardware
The iBasso high-end player, which supplies the DX200 with a pair of high-end DACs from Saber, the ES9018 Pro. Each DAC chip will assume a left-to-right channel, which is needed to fully signal Balanced. Thanks to this DAC, it can decode PCM music to 32-bit / 384-kHz and DSD (to-play converter-to-PCM) up to 512. It can play music with dynamic range. Up to 135dB and total harmonic distortion is as low as -120dB. The USB port of the machine uses the XMOS XU208 receiver so it is capable of making external DACs for computers or other USB devices.
DX100 previously used only one core CPU, along with 512MB ram should encounter a lot of problems when running. To the DX200, the company uses 8-core 64-bit CPU, along with 2GB ram to run more smoothly. It comes with 64 GB of internal memory and can be expanded with micro SD cards. To power everything, the DX200 uses a 4400mAh battery.
Experience
– User interface
IBasso’s user interface witnessed maturity over the years. From the basic interfaces from the DX100, or with many bugs like the DX50, recent products are much easier to use. DX200 is running on Android 6.1 Marshmallow. This interface is extremely minimalist, it even turns off the app menu (App Drawer). Users can download additional music applications via Wi-Fi, which also includes Bluetooth for playing speakers and wireless headsets. In addition to the original Android applications, the company also installed a separate music application. In addition, if you want to save battery life, users can go to a separate operating system called Mango, only this music application only, will no longer run applications in the background of Android.
About this music player, it is quite similar to the application that the company used on the DX80. When opening the application, users will be selected to listen to music by artist name, preset list, album or search in memory. The buttons are very large, even the screen is 4.2 inches but the company still shows only seven songs on a page, look very intuitive and easy to click. The music player is nothing special, quite similar to the music of the original Android application, but there is more information display quality music. As mentioned above, the DX200 uses better hardware, the new and lighter Android version should run smoother than the DX100 so much, no more rebooting. Overall, the user interface is a huge plus of the DX200 compared to its predecessor, which is comparable to the modern Astell & Kern, Fiio or Onkyo players.
– Duration of use
To try battery life, I fully charged the battery on Sunday and started using the Android operating system on Monday. After 1 day of use, with Wi-Fi open about 30 minutes to load some applications music, then listen to music nearly 2 hours, the end of the day about 70%. By the end of day 4 the machine sign need charge. So with normal demand with Android mode, the machine can be used for about 3 days. With the operating system music player, ie turn off Wi-fi, no background application, the machine can be used for about 5 – 7 days depending on the duration of use. This is an average and can not be said to be so impressive compared to the newer models from Astell & Kern or Fiio. But the DX200 also has a much more user-friendly interface, a much more powerful CPU, a larger screen, and a fairly solid amp, so battery life is not a surprise. I hope that iBasso will continue to upgrade the software to extend the usage, but now users will charge about twice for a week in Android mode and about more than once in the simplify operating system mode.
– Ability to coordinate
The DX100 is a well-known player with the ability to combine both headphones with hard-to-pull heads. With the DX200, the company also offers users the ability to replace the Amplifier to fit their needs. This year, the company will also introduce different Amplifier components, hoping to have the version enough to play with the pair of hard-hitting headphones like HD800s, LCD X … With the “Amp 1”, the carrier The use of ear plugs and ear clamps are easy to pull through the 3.5mm and 2.5mm Balanced plugs. With the Earsonics Velvet, an average headphone is not too hard to pull, the DX200 should use a 65/150 range. With earphones on the ear, just open to about 80/150 is enough to hear. Try with the AKG K612 Pro ear buds, the DX200 should be about 110 – 120/150. However, the headset is slightly thin and almost without bass. In part because the DX200 does not emphasize the bass, partly because “Amp 1” is not strong enough to play comfortably with difficult ears. Volume is not a problem, but for sound quality we will have to wait for other Ampli in the future.
– Sound
Music Test Equipment: iBasso DX200, ES Velvet (Balanced 2.5 Silver, Medium Bass), Oriolus V2
Still using a DAC Saber ESS chip, the overall sound quality of the DX200 is similar to the DX100, which is light, detailed and above all balanced. When I first unpacked this player I had some skepticism about the word “Reference” – the reference was printed on the box, companies often use this word to describe their product to sell more. But with DX200, this is probably true, because the sound quality of this player is indeed balanced from the bass to the high range, highly reference.
The lower part of the DX200 concentrates on expressing quality rather than quantity. Compared with the player I heard through the DX200 does not have much bass. The DX80 has more mid bass than the DX200, and the AK100 has more bass than the DX200. But the point that this machine has that the low-end series mentioned above is not the peel, torsion and taper. Tried on Alison Krauss’s Sawing On the Strings, ES Velvet shows off the bass with great speed. DX200 makes the drum sounds somewhat hard, not soft and thick. Depending on the headset this will be the advantage or disadvantage. With both of these earbuds, the ES Velvet and Oriolus V2 are good, and the excess parts are trimmed, so that the speed of the bass increases dramatically.
The player is designed to serve the aged music players who want authenticity in sound, not to please young people with drumbeat tracks, so doing such bass is a decent decision from iBasso.
The midrange of the DX200 is still very similar to the ibasso, balanced from beginning to end, so sometimes lacking in sweetness for lyrical music like Alison Krauss’s I’m Alone Again. Headphones must be carefully selected. The highlight of the DX200 midrange is that it shows extremely accurate instruments. With the music player is somewhat slightly distorted, depending on which instrument is playing new or good. But with DX200, not all instruments are overworked, all of them are true. With the Ave Maria song, the instruments are placed far apart, so they are not overlapped even when the music is at its peak.
where can you get a Ibasso DX200 online
iBasso DX200 High Resolution Reference Audio Player include US Warranty (Dual ES9028PRO SABRE 32bit 8 CH Pro DAC) with Extreme Audio Optical Connection Kit and USB Charger: Buy it now
The central part is that the ES Velvet and iBasso DX200 do not match up very well. ES Velvet is light and thin, when playing with the warmer and thicker parts such as the DX80 or AK100 will show their strengths. When playing with the DX200 with a very neutral middle and back light direction, the duo gives the singer a slightly flat and lack of inspiration. But when it comes to midrange earphones like the Oriolus V2, it’s a completely different story. With Oriolus, the middle part is not very focused and if it needs a bit more detail to shine. Compared with the DX200, the singer’s earphones hold a bit of warmth, but are lightened a bit and all are very detailed.
The DX200 is fairly bright. This part has not been trimmed at all, the music is recorded how the machine will emit the right. So with high-end headphones with sibalance, the DX200 will not be less defective, but also show off more powerful. Recently sound companies have known better sound design, the high part is not dazzling anymore so this is not a problem anymore. With ES Velvet, we have Hi-hat, crispy dicks, high pitches and strong enough pressure. The high pitched background music in the Take Five drum set is very well done.
The strongest of the DX200 and also the inheritance from the predecessor DX100 is the very high detail. This is even shown when used with low-level headphones, followed by phones like ear buds from AKG that make the Samsung S8. Of course the difference will not be the same as with a pair of high-end earphones like ES Velvet, but it also shows that the difference in detail compared to the low-level music player is very recognizable. With the song Another day of sun, the climax and the music becomes chaotic, the DX200 has the ability to separate the instruments together. According to many longtime music players, both the disadvantages and advantages. For those who love extreme detail to hear all the smallest sounds in the music, this is a great thing, the DX200 can be one of the best machines to do this. But in some other songs, especially the long recordings with poor recording techniques, the DX200 will show all the errors in the music. Small squeaks, clean backgrounds, or bug fixes are present in the user’s eyes, and sometimes this is should not be.
Summary
iBasso DX200 is manufactured to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the company, as a DX100 successor, a better finished version. Anyone who has fallen in love with the industry-leading DX100 sound design, the DX200 will not disappoint them. DX200 is sold at an uneasy price, but when considering the high-end hardware inside the machine, the user interface is easy to use and above all the sound quality is extremely detailed, this is not must be a price too high.
– Advantages
+ Solid design
+ High-end hardware
+ Easy to use interface
+ Good interpersonal skills
+ Standard sound, high detail
– Defect
+ Battery life is moderate
+ Price is not cheap