iBasso DX220 Hi-Res DAP with Android 8.1, Exchangable Amp Modules and MQA Support

Great sound and fast response for applications. I have a AK Kann and the sound is different but of a similar level but the UI is much more flexible. I useqobuz and tidal and both have offline downloads. It also has access to all the other apps I wanted to use. The only issue I have is that it eats through the battery very quickly. Depending on what I am doing it can be less than 6 hours battery life but this can also be a fair bit longer if you are just playing music through the inbuilt player. I am very happy with it overall.

Great DAP with excellent sound as long as you pair up with decent headphones. Battery life is not that good, but overall good value for money and upgradable with new amp modules

Started with the dx50. Then dx90. Sound brilliant but reading screen when in the sun impossible. Major improvements here in both sound and build quality.

Sound quality is great, but issues with battery while playing the music. The device seems to be very hot and battery drained so quick. It’s a shame to have to return it. Bluetooth connection is not good also.

Excellent quality, great sound, swappable amp modules, lovely screen, laggy OS

First of all this looks great, sounds pretty good too although not amazing...but it has a massive flaw! You have to Rescan the SD card EVERY TIME you power the device off and then back on, even though ibasso will tell you that you don’t need to I simply could not find a workaround. If you buy this device be warned about this and think carefully. Hopefully I can get this back which is a shame because the dual OS and general usability of the player is great, in particular the screen which is superb!

I bought the iBasso DX220 from Audioheaven in Poland (huge high-end audio store) as it was £100 cheaper than the UK. It worked fine for 2 months, then got extremely hot with just 100 on the volume and no leather case to stop cooling. It never did this on other listening sessions with all things the same. After several attempts to turn it on, it finally came on after 45 minutes. The next day it was working fine for a whole hour with around 85% battery and cool to the touch. Then, it just went silent and the screen went off. It now won't come on at all and if I plug the USB cable in to charge it, it shows nothing on the screen at all. I wish I'd kept my Cowon Plenue P1 which I sold a week prior to writing this. It wasn't all bad though, see below: The iBasso stock sound with the new gen standard amp 1 is good, but not as good as the 2015 Cowon Plenue P1 and not at all realsitic. In fact it is very cold and harsh. I bought the AMP8 module which transformed it into a real star - the best I have ever heard in fact. It gave me what I always thought was missing from my Audeze LCD-X headphones- a real openness. The AMP8 module is the difference between standing at the concert hall door (AMP1) and then walking in the building. The sound is incredible. Such a shame that the usual appauling Chinese build quality prevails. I am no trying to get a full refund, after which I will buy a Cowon Plenue L. Update: Due to the fault, the battery flattened itself whilst it was not operatiinal. I have now managed to charge it and it has come on. Audioheaven told me to do a factory reset which I have done. So, let's see what happens. Well, 7 weeks later and the fault is still there. Every listening session, regardless of which track is playing, it turns off in a millisecond. If I hold the power button for 10secs it makes a tiny 'puff' sound. Then I can turn it on in the usual way. It remembers where it left off and plays as normal...til the next time it randomly shuts down. Tried to contact iBasso on their INSECURE website and nothing happens. They don't even have the new DX220max on their site. Terrible. Might sell it and buy the Cowon Plenue L. Never had a problem with my Cowon. I also notice that if charging at same time as playing music, it can't charge and maintain the battery. It still drops.

Upgraded to this player from the DX200, definitely an improvement in sound but a major step back in battery life. I’m using Tidal offline, a mixture of 16 bit cd quality and 24 bit hifi and masters quality, screen is set to 720p and using 16ohm wired IEM’s yet I struggle to get more than 5 hours playback before the battery dies. I travel a lot and the battery life is really an issue, so much so that I plan to sell the player after just a few weeks ownership as it’s just not functional for my needs

Pros and cons: Pros: 1) Sound quality. Its just amazing, its like you music is reborn. I have 12,500 Flacs and DSD files and the sound this thing generates is GREAT. If you want superb sound quality buy this player 2) Bluetooth is rock solid. I sold a A and K SR-15 because the Bluetooth conductivity sucked. BT 5.0 is great, doesn't quite have the range I hoped for but much more than you really want or need. 3) APK installs are great, I found the installed music software a bit lacking (Mango) and after trying a few I really like HiBy Music software player.. I also have streamed Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify without issue. 4) Has built in casting for Chromecast or you can download and use BubbleUp. The streaming sound to my home system was eye opening and a VERY pleasant surprise- I did not (at all) expect this to sound as good as it did through my system. It was NOTICEABLE better than it has been through an other previous source other than Blu-ray. 5) You can download the apps for your headphones to update their firmware if need be. 6) Display is super sharp and clear - and bright. And if you keep it on all the time you will kill your battery REAL fast. If you can keep your eyes off it (hard, it is really nice) and be smart and dim the display you can easily get 10-12 hours out of it - and it partially recharges fast. You just cant keep the display on all the time, just like an IPhone or a Galaxy. Be smart and the battery concerns go away. 7) Did I mention the sound....It is SUPERB. I couldn't be happier. Cons: 1) Not having Google Play and having to use the APK's is a very minor annoyance - if you download software that is a trial and want to license it to get rid of ads, etc it's a bit of a PITA but can be done. Since this, for me, only really applies to music playing software and the HiBy Music works great, its a minor issue. I also have VLC, Foobar and Onkyo's HF player installed so lots of great options. 2) The display is so nice you want to keep it on...but again, its a battery killer so you have to show some restraint, something I am not good at. 3) The setup software is not super intuitive - takes a while to get in a groove using the DX220 but once you get used to it it's fine. My setup is this player, a 1TB MicroSD card (no issues) and my current "go to" are the new MW07 Plus earbuds. I have also used the Sennheisers Momentum's and PX550 (Two long plain flights) and the B and W's PX's (My favorite full size headset) and lastly, the Audeze Sine 20's. All sound so much better is pretty amazing. Lastly, this unit does need a burn in. They provide a special cable that goes into the 2.5 input and they want you to use it for burn in for 200 hours. Real pain in the ass first 10 days and you can use either Bluetooth or the standard 3.5 output while burning in to listen and since I mostly use BT it was just annoying. Initial impressions were that this unit was a bit to bright but it settles down very nicely as it burns in. If you can afford it (its not cheap), run, don't walk to buy this unit, you will NOT regret it !!!!!

このほどDX220「工場再生品」を購入し、10日ほど使用した感想です。これまでFiio X7（専らアンプモシュールAM3D）を愛用していました（イヤホンはJVC HA-FD02です）。 １ 購入品は、「新品」ではありませんが、外観、バッテリーの状態、本体操作性、SWに何らの問題もなく、FWも最新の状態でしたので、購入当初より快適に使用しています。使用感は、一言でいえば、Mango OSで得られる音質（音源はWAV 無損失）は、X7とは比較にならない（後戻り不可能な）程、優れていると思います。本機（Mango OS）は、音の定位・分離、「音響」空間のイメージングが非常に正確・豊穣であり、特筆に値するその「黒い背景」と相まって、音の生成から消え際までを「イベント」として知覚できるという感覚を与えてくれます。また、付属アンプモジュールの出力特性も満足いくものです。 ２ Android版のMango Playerおよび有償版UAPPとMango OSを、WAV音源（主にマーカス・ミラーのCDからのリッピング音源、無損失を使用）で聞き比べましたが、本機は、ストリーミングで利用する場合を除いて、AndroidモードではなくMango OSで再生してこそ、真価を発揮すると断言できます。Androidモードの音も質が悪いものではないのですが、Mango OSのそれと比べると平面的であり、定位感・分離が明らかに劣り、音響的に大きな差があります。 ３ 本機の発熱の問題ですが、確かに放熱が著しいです。しかし、このことは、アルミ筐体をヒートシンクとして効率的に利用していることの表れだと思います（半導体、「抵抗」の塊とも考えられるSocとデュアルESS9028proから発生する熱を恐らく効率的に代謝しているのでしょう）。 ４ 最新FWでは、非公式のアドオンを導入しなければできなかったと漏れ聞く、Google Playも、本機のデフォルト設定であるAPK Pureからインストールして利用できました。なお、ストリーミングはAmazon Music (Unlimited)を利用しています（これも快適です）。

良い音で解像度が高く、カチッとした音です。そうかと言って音は硬過ぎず、適度な緩さがあり、良い味付けです。 残念だったのは、本体が熱くなること。聞いてはいましたが、人肌以上でどこまで熱くなるのかと少し心配になるほど。しかし、使用時間と熱が逃げるように置くことで、緩和できます。 もう一つ残念なのは操作性。マンゴーだと一旦アルバムを選んで戻るとリストの初めに戻る。アルバム送りが早くて選ぶのに神経を使う。送る際にタッチして選択になってしまう。他にも少し驚く程の操作性の悪さ。 しかし、リーズナブルな価格でのこの音の良さのためと思えば、残念さも我慢できます。 バッテリーを大幅に改善してきたDX300が気になりますが。

1: App stores: it comes with ApkPure and CoolApk, but not Google Play. Unless you can read Chinese, go ahead and delete CoolApk; it hasn't been localized to other languages. ApkPure can also be confusing for English speakers. It's mostly globalised, but it recently made me click through... something... in Chinese. I hope I didn't agree to anything weird when I dismissed it. I supplemented them by side loading F-Droid and Amazon App Store from Chrome. F-Droid worked without issue, but Amazon crashed several times before I could log in. It seems to be running fine after I entered my password, so persevere! 2: Sound quality: in a word, amazing! Since this is the whole reason this device exists, it's great to hear it deliver! 3: Music Apps: it comes with something called Mango. It seems pretty generic; get something better. I got VLC from F-Droid, and it's great for local files. I also downloaded Amazon Music from the Amazon App Store, and it streams just fine. I've also had good luck with YouTube.com (not the App, not supported). I haven't tried any others, but I see Tidal us available on ApkPure; maybe I'll try it next. 4: Amplifier modules: I regularly switch between the stock module and an AMP8. The stock amplifier runs my Sennheiser HD1 headset for commuting, and the AMP8 runs my Grado 3000 headset at home. Both are excellent. June 2020 update: I'm still loving this. The AMP8 runs great, and I use it enough that I bought the dedicated 4.4mm cord for the Sennheiser HD800S headphones. I often switch between the Grados and Sennys from time to time. They both work great! The Amazon ecosystem has remained stable once I got past the initial login. It claims to play hir-es, and all displays indicate it is, but I just don't hear an improvement. To be fair, and never hear an improvement in hi-res music, so that's probably a limitation in my ears. The only issue I ran into was when I connected it to my stereo. OH MY GOD, THE HUM!!! I guess that's an issue with my stereo, because the hum stayed when I unplugged the iBasso. Jan 2021 update: I recently got Qobuz and Roon. Qobuz runs great. Roon, however, doesn't run well on the iBasso. I also tried hooking it up to my stereo again, it doesn't hum anymore.

My first DAP was a Zune, I loved it. Unfortunately, not too many others did. I graduated to a fiio x3, which sounded fantastic but was quite limited. Upgraded to the Onkyo X1 which was great, flawless as far as operation, good sounding. Loved the two card inputs. Unfortunately, the balanced jack crapped out, than the main. Sigh. Purchased a Fiio X7ii, but boy was it buggy! Returned first, then second just stopped playing through Amp. Returned it and grabbed this. Wow, the sound, space, and dead silent. Paired with Focal Elegia and Brainwavz B400 balanced. Thrilling!