Topic: iBasso D10 owners...

[shaggy]

High quality portable DAC and headphone amp with easily swappable op-amps.

http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=39

Just scored a used one and I am digging the clarity of it and the ability to take USB, coax or optical (24/192, except via USB 24/96).  Any of you all using one?  Best purchase I made in the past five years, easily.

Running H120 (spdif-optical) / Computer (spdif-coax / USB) > D10 > MDR-7506 / HD424

Comments on op-amp combos and or mods are welcome.

The D10 had these inside but decided to move them out and start from scratch:
LT1498/OPA2365 (L-R gain/Buffers)

I am working thru the original stock ones now (unit purchased 1/2009):
ADA4841/AD708 

Other op-amps in the rolling kit:
AD8656 X2
LMH6643 X2
Dummy Adapters X2

I would post on Head-Fi but I am a newb and would rather get your guys take on it as the material we listen to is different from what most people use these for. 

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Mine still has the stock stuff in them. I changed IEMs at the same time and was content with the sound so I never bothered to mess with it. Even stock, with my UM3X's and tips, I have gotten better sound then I've ever been able to piece together. One thing I'm really happy about with it is that it's one of the quietest noise-floors I've seen out of a stock piece of cheap gear. I got some flak from some people for listening to odd stuff over at headfi and they just left me alone after that. A couple over there are familiar with field taping and can offer tips on tuning your gear for it, but the crowd is thin...

The only suggestion I can make, since you should not leave it on USB and charging simultaneously all the time (doesn't function like a DC power plug and instead wears on the battery), when you see the blinking on light which signifies it's time to charge, YOU SHOULD CHARGE IT. It's a bitch when it dies as it will die, the load on the battery is removed, and it cuts back on, only to die again, wash rinse repeat. All the while, there is no safety resistor of sorts on the output that prevents the "power-pop". Even my cheapo Zero had something to prevent that.

I'm also doing H120 > optical > D10 and PC > optical > D10. 

[shaggy]

The only suggestion I can make, since you should not leave it on USB and charging simultaneously all the time (doesn't function like a DC power plug and instead wears on the battery)...

But I can leave it connected to the USB if the charge toggle is set to OFF, right?  The toggle disconnects the power to the charging circuit, I assume.  It is tough going thru the thread...there is like 240 plus pages in the Op-amp rolling thread.

Yes, I agree.  I am pretty happy with the stock configuration but read jamato8's posts about the AD743/AD8616 combo, and he is a Deadhead who likes listening to audience recordings.  I have been blown away by some recordings I made in 24bit, I ususally never listen to those raw wavs after I process to 16bit.  I had an Onkyo AV receiver, TX-DS494, do the DAC before and this little thing just blows it out of the water, just sold it last week.  I am trying to reduce the amount of belongings I have, this thing is just simply amazing for it's size.

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The only suggestion I can make, since you should not leave it on USB and charging simultaneously all the time (doesn't function like a DC power plug and instead wears on the battery)...

But I can leave it connected to the USB if the charge toggle is set to OFF, right?  The toggle disconnects the power to the charging circuit, I assume.

Yes, make sure to turn the charger off. There were some people who wanted to leave it on while it was at their desk was why I mentioned it. Use + charging doesn't pull from the USB cable, still comes off of the battery.

Yes, I agree.  I am pretty happy with the stock configuration but read jamato8's posts about the AD743/AD8616 combo, and he is a Deadhead who likes listening to audience recordings.  I have been blown away by some recordings I made in 24bit, I ususally never listen to those raw wavs after I process to 16bit.  I had an Onkyo AV receiver, TX-DS494, do the DAC before and this little thing just blows it out of the water, just sold it last week.  I am trying to reduce the amount of belongings I have, this thing is just simply amazing for it's size.

One other word of warning, the USB decoder is the weakest of the three chipsets. The optical and coax have been verified to accept and put out a 24bit stream, but the USB chipset still wants to only put out 16bit audio and truncates the incoming signal. The lavry dacs and I think one other have chips to properly handle 24bit in, but the vast majority of implementations are cheap and use the standard 16bit chips.

I went from a DAC + Tube hybrid to just this and I'm happy with it. 

[Chilly Brioschi]

I proudly own nothing named "pro", "professional", "turbo", "laser",  or e-anything or i-anything.                     

(...ceptin' the wife's iPod Nano, which has awesomeness)         

[flipp]

not even a copy of iRobot?

[Chilly Brioschi]

not even a copy of iRobot?

borrowed it     

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In 2 months of moderate use, I've had to charge mine twice. It lasts forever, but it takes equally as long to charge it. 

[shaggy]

I proudly own nothing named "pro", "professional", "turbo", "laser",  or e-anything or i-anything.                           

I thought the name of the company was a bit silly too.  But this product is amazing, I kid you not.  I have not been able to put the thing down, it really has improved my listening experience 10 fold.

One other word of warning, the USB decoder is the weakest of the three chipsets. The optical and coax have been verified to accept and put out a 24bit stream, but the USB chipset still wants to only put out 16bit audio and truncates the incoming signal. The lavry dacs and I think one other have chips to properly handle 24bit in, but the vast majority of implementations are cheap and use the standard 16bit chips.

I figured that out before when reading the I2S USB/chipset related threads and I started with the coax out.  But then I realized this morning that this lousy SigmaTel chipset in my Vostro resamples everything to 48kHz!  I tried to pass a signal to the 744T from the laptop coax out and found it would always come up 24/48 (I record everything at 24/44.1).  Still, I was blown away despite the 'hack' resampling job that my sound card did.

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I proudly own nothing named "pro", "professional", "turbo", "laser",  or e-anything or i-anything.                           

I thought the name of the company was a bit silly too.  But this product is amazing, I kid you not.  I have not been able to put the thing down, it really has improved my listening experience 10 fold.

I agree, bang for buck, its one of the best portable DAC/amps out there, especially at it's price point. It may not be *the* best, but it's definitely a contender, especially in the price range.

[Chilly Brioschi]

Thanks for the info -
I am not sure where I'd fit this in to my listening chain as it stands, but it sounds like it has good value.
I always appreciate it when something is designed to be best in its price class.
That's a goal that any engineer should be proud of!

Happy listening