Anybody Using a Portable Audio Player (DAP) As a Streamer?

I've been playing with an iBasso DX220 MAX in that capacity. The "problem" is its balanced line-out sounds so good, there may be no rational use of its digital (coax) out. Fed right from line-out into a very nice VAC Master preamp and Statement 450S amp - it absolutely trashes the NAD M12 (streamer/DAC) and Node 2i streamer I have around here. Pretty sure I like its sound better than the two Schiit Yggdrasils I had in past. Might be comparable or better to my Phison DAC (haven't directly compared those yet). But the poor M12 - my god, it sounds completely broken next to the iBasso. Really enjoyable sound, even with a high end analog rig in here. 

No issues with high-res when you use line out!

@fuzztone Which version of HiBy Cast were you trying to use that failed, the Android version, or the iOS/iPadOS version? I have a Lenovo android-based tablet as well as iPhone and iPad at my disposal, so fingers crossed that SOMETHING works out! 😂

@mulveling I am hoping to get just as lucky, so I can sell my Denafrips Ares II to my dad (at an extremely substantial discount, don’t worry—I’m not that kind of son!), who is currently using a, “mere,” SMSL DO100 in his chain.

-Ed

I have a A&K S3000 DAP. This was the flagship of arguably one of two two best DAP companies. I think the cost was around $3K. It does not remotely compete with the lowest level last generation Aurender and probably many lessor streamers.

How well it will work in your system will depend what you are comparing it to. But in general, I would expect a pretty big compromise in sound quality.

@ghdprentice were you using the internal DAC to compare or were you using an external DAC?

-Ed

@eddnog

Beats me, doesn’t matter, all you can do is try.

IBasso sounded good at their booth. I have an A&K and it sounds flat compared to my Cowon. This means squat ainregard to what you are attempting. Go for it.