DX150 audio player review: the golden mean in the iBasso lineup

Isn’t it time for another spin on our

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Ferris wheel

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, As this year has amazed us with a string of successful audio novelties? Today our guest is iBasso, a well-loved brand from the Celestial Empire, with its latest model DX150. If you line up the new lineup of Chinese brand, then one step above will be DX200, and one step below – DX120. After listening to the “golden mean”, I think, we will understand quite accurately the sound you can expect from the latest iBasso line. So, let’s turn it on!

Thank you XChesser Audio for the provided sample for listening

Specifications:

Appearance and Package

“The Golden Mean” arrived to me in a stylish silver box stamped with a black triangle logo with the following “for all time” message below – “iBasso Audio in pursuit of perfection”. Of course, we say iBasso, we mean the pursuit of perfection!

A black casket mysteriously slips out from under the silver package. What’s inside: aha, the player, here – protective glass for the screen, a cable for the power adapter and synchronization with PC usb type-C/USB-A , a cable for digital output coaxial , a nice gray case suede , instructions-warranty and a mystical cable to warm up the device. In general, the equipment, as in the Turkish hotel: “all inclusive!”

With every appearance DX150 tends to be similar to the older model – they are almost twins, the differences are only catching in the small nuances. The body material there and there is aluminum. The color is silver with a black back. And on the front side – touch screen with a diagonal of 4.2′ and a resolution – 768 × 1280.

On the right side of the face is a wheel to adjust the volume and the control buttons: forward, start pause, backward. On the left side there is a microSD slot up to 2TB ! , but the internal memory is only 32 GB. Top edge contains: S/PDIF combined optic/coaxial , USB type-C for charging and syncing with PC and on/off button. On the bottom end nestles a removable AMP6 amplifier with jacks: 3.5mm line jack, 3.5mm regular headphone jack and 2.5mm balanced headphone jack.

All navigation is done by touch screen on the familiar Android 6.Swipe to the right, swipe to the left, and flick it to the left, and you’re good to go. The responsiveness of the screen is quite decent, for a player more than enough. Track switching and start/pause functions are duplicated by the physical side buttons. The only thing it doesn’t have is google play market, but it’s solvable. The application can be installed with the help of programs with apk files, the case is not complicated, it takes a few minutes. The iBasso DX150 is nicely made: no slackness, everything is smooth, clear, solid, nice and pleasant.

Unlike the older DX200, there is no dual boot, which puts the gadget in the menu of an independent virtual Mango player. Anyway, you can live without dual boot – in fact, in Android mode you can easily install any software player, and Mango itself is already preinstalled. The DX150 is very well optimized, and faithfully supported with regular firmware updates from the manufacturer.

Sound

For listening we used the following headphones: 64 AUDIO A12t, Vision Ears VE8, Lark Studio LSX, NF Audio NF-3u, InEar ProPhile 8, Meze 99 Neo, Beyerdynamic dt250/(250 ohms and Phonon SMB-02.

I listened to a lot of music, no special genre preferences in the device was not detected. In terms of sound, in my opinion, the DX150 is very successful, of course, considering its price.

The device lays out the musical palette cheerfully, quite evenly, dynamically, with the proper pressure and a good attack. The pitch of the device is smooth and very musical. Listening to the DX150 is a pleasure.

Bass parts sound solid, energetic and with good depth perforation. They don’t pamper us with tonal variety, but they are well assembled, quite massive and have decent speed characteristics. The impact is accurate, powerful and focused.

The middle part is displayed smoothly, in contrast, in detail and with a good reproduction of the emotional side. Here is the drive, and proper expression, and a comfortable, very musical manner of sound transmission. The strings, keys and vocals are transmitted quite naturally, without any obvious cracks and distortions.

The high frequencies don’t excite your ears with sharpness, they are transmitted quite smoothly, tightly and in detail, but a bit rough and simplistic for my taste. Although in general they have good resolution and are served in a comfortable extended way, adding contrast and airiness to the overall musical picture.

iBasso DX150 portrays the virtual space cleanly and deeply, with good definition and body to all the musical images.

In general, I would describe the sound of our novelty as beautiful, with a driving and comfortable manner of sound delivery. Its big plus is the genre versatility. It has no problem with playing classical, jazz, electronic and even heavy music.

And as with the older model, one of the main advantages of the DX150 is the interchangeable amplifier modules, with which you can tweak the already quite successful device to your liking. By the way, I think the amp that comes with it AMP6 is more than worthy, too.

Conclusion

I personally liked the device. Frankly speaking, from all the latest products we reviewed, the DX150 is probably the best gadget by the sum of all parameters: sound, build quality, ergonomics and price.

It’s quite a modern device, stylish, well assembled, easy to use and “reserve profession” – as a digital transport and sound card together with the PC, and the most important is quite reasonable price tag.

You can buy iBasso DX150 at XChesser Audio online store for 33 900 Dollars. Taking into consideration all the advantages of this headset, I have no hesitation in recommending it for purchase.

Pros of

Sound, functionality, set, build quality, replaceable amplifier modules, price.

Cons

No.