We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. PRaT, Texturization, Detail, Resolution, Dynamics, Impact, and overall tonality are all revealed by those songs. We recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! DC05 brings high-resolution MQA decoding right at your smartphone. It supports full MQA decoding ensuring the users a pure sound performance as the artist intended. It also has full support for 32-Bit/384kHz PCM and native DSD256 decoding. There is a lot of competition in the market and it would be difficult to call it the best of the bunch but it certainly belongs among the leaders. iBasso has developed a custom volume control application that uses the latest UAC2.0 USB protocol to enable 64-step volume control by a connected source device. The DC05 is truly excellent sounding and in blind tests, someone would have a hard time to tell that this kind of audio performance is coming from a tiny USB DAC dongle that is hanging from a phone.

iBasso DC05 DAC/AMP Dongle – Power For Androids iBasso DC05 DAC/AMP Dongle – Power For Androids

I remember the DC03 to be quite powerful and could certainly drive the HD660S but I have the impression that the DC05 is slightly more effortless with greater headroom and dynamic range. The dynamic range is excellent for such a dongle and the DC05 is doing a great job in presenting large scale works in a grand scale manner. The USB type C plug is connected to the main body with a short braided cable of good quality that features strain reliefs for further protection.Upon hooking the iBasso DC05 to the host device, a window pops-up asking for a permission to access the UAC application. iBasso DC05 vs Audirect Beam 2 (69 USD vs 100 USD) – Beam 2 is a bit more ergonomic with the cable detachable, but it draws quite a bit more power from the smartphone, shortening its battery life. The overall driving power is comparable between the two. The sound is actually fairly similar, and both are pretty peppy, pretty forward, lively and punchy, and also dynamic. Beam 2 is a bit brighter than DC05, and where DC05 has a stronger bottom end, Beam 2 has a stronger treble edge, and sounds a bit wider, at the cost of depth.

IBASSO DC05 Portable USB DAC/AMP - SHENZHENAUDIO IBASSO DC05 Portable USB DAC/AMP - SHENZHENAUDIO

This allows the users to use both sensitive as well as demanding earphones/headphones with the DC05 with a good range of adjustment. The midrange of DC05 is clean, crisp and clear, and somewhat bright in the overall signature. This is because the treble isn’t necessarily aggressive, but the midrange has that “iBasso house sound”, of being live, energetic and punchy. The dynamics of DC05 are over-the-top, and for such an affordable tiny dongle, it has quite a bit of life in it. The stage is intimate, but there’s good instrument separation and stereo imaging, so DC05 sounds pretty precise in spatiality. It has enough stage width to not be narrow, but doesn’t go above natural. Happily, the soundstage is well rounded, so there’s a similar amount of depth as it is of width. The overall presentation of DC05 is detailed, clean, but also has a strong bottom end, with a nice amount of impact and depth. The treble is on the smoother side, fatigue-free, yet it is brighter, more lively, more aggressive and forward, also more dynamic and vivid than the vast majority of dongles that I reviewed to date. With a more intimate soundstage, DC05 works well with brighter and wider sounding IEMs / Headphones, and as it has quite a bit of power, should be fine for most portable headphones and IEMs. The DC05 features a parallel dual DAC chipset configuration with two high-performance ES9219C to achieve better SNR and THD. The ES9219C is a third-gen chip from Sabre Technologies that handles both decoding and amplification duties.Unfortunately they were short lived due to the chip shortage that is plaguing the industry for almost two years now. I have tested the iBasso DC05 with their own ITX01, FiiO FD3, DUNU Falcon Pro and with the Sennheiser HD660S that did an excellent job in driving them with ease and headroom.

iBasso DC05 Review - Top Audiophile Reviews Dacs | Daps | Amps iBasso DC05 Review - Top Audiophile Reviews Dacs | Daps | Amps

The iBasso DC05 houses a 3.5mm single-ended output port that delivers up to 140mW/16Ω and 93mW/32Ω of output power, so it is slightly more powerful than its predecessor. Treble is extended, sounding lively and agile with excessive energy but without any disturbing sharpness. Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary. Please allow 3-5 business days for mail-in exchanges to be processed.

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The US based ESS seems to be the only manufacturer who can meet the increased demand but I don’t know for how long. The iBasso DC05 is plug ‘n play with Android and iOS while for windows the user must install a driver to enable full DSD support. We have excellent decoding abilities too, with MQA decoding up to 16X, and 32 Bit / 384 kHz for PCM. iBasso didn’t leave out DSD fans either, and DC05 can decode up to DSD265. iBasso is not shy to mention the technical data of DC05, as it features 121dB of Dynamic Range, and 0.00056% THD+N. The total frequency range is rated to be between 20Hz and 40kHz, enough to impress both humans and serpent people. The power rating is rather high for a dongle, at 140mW for 16OHMs, and 93mW for 32 OHMs. The output impedance is not very high, at 0.5 OHMs, and if you want to use DC05 as a pure DAC with an external AMP, it has a 2V signal at 300 OHMs, and 1.73V at 32OHMs. If you’re looking for comparisons, DC05 has almost double the driving power DC03 had, even though it has the same size physically.