iBasso DC05 vs Soundmagic A30 (69 USD vs 50 USD) – A30 is thicker, larger, and draws even less power from smartphones. You should know that they didn’t pick a random ESS chip for the job, and ES9219C is part of Sabre’s Hifi Line of DACs, offering a 64-step internal volume control, which adds some control for IEMs, if you find that there’s too much variation between two steps of volume. The treble has excellent extension, and you never hear a roll off, but you don’t really feel any fatigue, as the treble is not harsh nor metallic.

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

PRaT, Texturization, Detail, Resolution, Dynamics, Impact, and overall tonality are all revealed by those songs. iBasso is not shy to mention the technical data of DC05, as it features 121dB of Dynamic Range, and 0. 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. This premium dual DAC configuration is supported by multiple in-house developed technologies including Quad DAC+, HyperStream III audio architecture, Time Domain Clock Jitter, delivering class-leading DNR of 121dB and excellent THD+N distortion ratings.Upon hooking the iBasso DC05 to the host device, a window pops-up asking for a permission to access the UAC application.

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

After making a big mark on the premium level with the K9 Pro ESS, FiiO ensured that they won’t be leaving the budget market for the taking. DC05 is a single ended dongle DAC/AMP featuring Dual ESS Sabre ES9219C DAC chips, arranged in an iBasso custom Qad DAC+ tech circuit. This reflects well for EDM, Dubstep and Electronic music in general, where you can hear the deepest bass notes in every song, and you can even notice nuance and depth quite easily. DC05 features a premium Dual DAC chipset with two high-performance ES9219C DAC chips from Sabre Technologies.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. 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. I don’t have the DC03 ATM to do a direct comparison but from memory I would dare to say that the two dongles are close enough.

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Mids sound open, spacious, with fine articulation and fluid expression in the vocal range, timbre is mostly natural without severe digital artifacts while instruments sound well textured. DC05 doesn’t sound like it has a bass boost turned on, but it surely has good weight and body to music. It has up to 140mW output power rating at 16Ω of load, at 32Ω DC05 provides up to 93mW of power, which is more than enough to power your IEMs and low-power requiring headphones without trouble. The stage is intimate, but there’s good instrument separation and stereo imaging, so DC05 sounds pretty precise in spatiality. iBasso has been creating and designing DAPs, IEMs, Headphones and Dongle DACs for over 10 years now, and they’ve been the company to offer best service and coverage for their products to this date, leaving competitors in the dust when it comes to supporting really old products like the mighty DX200, and even if your question is how to replace its battery, iBasso will take the time to help and answer all your questions.The sound is actually fairly similar, and both are pretty peppy, pretty forward, lively and punchy, and also dynamic. It is loaded with premium features such as HyperStream III audio architecture, Time Domain Jitter Eliminator that provides crisp high-res signal decoding with ultra-low THD+N and high dynamic range. 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. This means that DC05 presents the full might of that “iBasso house sound” of live, dynamic and punchy.