Comparison for D2 Boa and D2 VpierI m lucky enuf to have 2 unit of D2 with me, here's the impression on both.
D2 viper is fully run in and D2 Boa runned around 20 hours, Thus the sound can be alot more better after fully run in just to give the technical differences, D2 viper is charged through Ac but D2 Boa is charged through USB, thus D2 Boa is double efficiency on power saving
Ruthie Henshall - Songbird (795k)
D2 boa have clearly better separation on the special 2 layer vocal of the songs. but due to short period of burn in, the vocal still abit rough, i m sure that it will goes well after run in, but i found that it give more power to the piano. it is more lively. As for D2 viper, it have smoothen sound, but less response on low frequency, when the songs going to end, the separation on viper seens to be abit mixed. i m very impressed by D2 Boa on this songs as it have less electric input, but even strong on low frequency response, with better separation on this songs.
Elissa Lee Koljonen - O mio Babbino caro
D2 viper having warmer singatuer, D2 Boa has brighter signature at this moment, it might due to run in hours as it is only 20 hours now. In this songs, D2 viper having smoothen sound, which give better feels as for the warm enjoyment feelings, D2 Boa give better thickness on instrument, but abit harsh due to its bright, with the enhanced separations, it give you lively and involved feels and thus less on Relax sound. I prefer the Viper here, as for warmer sounds
Diana Krall - I've Changed my address
In my opinion. this song is extremely hard to tune, D2 Boa more aggressive signature which compare to Viper Layback. both 2 are not to the extreme, but just no minor position differences, it is not like Grado vs Sennheiser
There is some instrument solo at the middle on the songs, D2 Boa clearly wins on the this parts as for its aggressive, separated sound, the instrument sound more accurate, however, viper giving more transparent feels, as for more relax feels as for the layback signatures, but slightly slow in the response make it sound abit lag. I can concluded that, it have different feels on both, there is not clear winner on this songs
Jim Keltner & Ron tutt - Drum Improvisation
D2 Boa is a clear winner here, it have better speed, and deeper in drum impacts, D2 viper sounded like a sleeping drum, which give me unexcited feels on the drum, unlike D2 Boa, with the better separations, u can clearly feels the differences on the strength that the drummer had, The speed is more accurate without any delayed, and you can feels the shape of the drum.
Karen Kong - Li Dao
D2 Boa have thicker vocal, but D2 viper had better vocal response, i assume D2 boa will have the same response after burn in, with more pounchy sound. D2 Viper give better control on high but less extension. I will not concluded which is bettter here, as this is more towards a balances songs, with no extreme here.
The Spirit of Gambo - Martin Minoit au Marche
The performance on this songs is quite similar, this might due to the limitation on my headphone as i clearly understand that HD580 do not performed well on high frequency, i canot define well on this songs, just that, the extension on viper is more control, but Boa go further high when compare to viper, this might arise as for brighter sound for unfinished burned in.
Chloe - Vincent ( Live version)
D2 Boa is a clear winner here, the vocal is very refined, even it only have 20 hours of burn in, it present the vocal in better position, not only the thickness of vocal, it is more real, more real, just like what she is singing in front of you, this might constructed by alot of issues, speed, defined, thick and etc. D2 Viper having blurer vocal, D2 Boa is a clear winner here .
F.I.R. - Blue Doors Ahead
D2 Boa having bigger soundstage here, but D2 Viper having clearer presentation on soundstage, personally i prefer D2 viper one even it is abit more narrow, but it give better transparency, which i dont feels any EQ here, but i will think that alot of the users will prefer wider soundstage, i m the extreme here, which i shall not concluded it might affected due to my personal preferences
Finally it reached to the end, i m very impressed on the sound of D2 Boa, even it is not fully runned in, some parts of it have significantly better than D2 viper
, but as a D2 viper owner here, i proud to own Viper as well, as it give me good enjoyment. D2 Boa is sold at RM550, with this unbelievable prices, i will think that there is hardly any portable DAC can beat the sound of it with this attractive prices
here come with some pictures
REVIEW for Viper
quoted from my friend-headphoneaddict(1) RSA Predator #24 with 1100+ hours, reviewed by Skylab last month
(2) Pico #11 formerly owned by Asr and broken in
(3) iBasso D2 with 183 hours
(4) Headstage Lyrix with 400+ hours
PHONES: I reviewed them using my ALO modded Vampire wire HFI-780's which have 450 hours on them - these have excellent frequency response and transparency, and are ruthless in exposing a bad source or amp, and fantastic at exploiting a good source or amp.
SOURCE: Listening was via USB on a Macbook with Apple lossless files as the source. At any one time, two of the four amps were connected via USB, and I would switch ports via the sound control panel, then quickly swap the headphone plug out. All amps were on low gain - and I tried to match volumes by ear - the Lyrix and D2 volume knobs were at 1:30 o'clock, the Pico was at 1 o'clock, and the Predator was at 3:30 (but it is the only one with three gain levels).
MUSIC: Apple lossless files - Tsuyoshi Yamamoto "Autumn in Seattle", FIM "This is K2 HD CD" and "Jazz at the Pawnshop", Diana Krall "Girl in the Other Room" Dual-Disc.
FINDINGS: They are all very good, but have differences. You would not be dissatisfied with any of them, but you can tell which are the $500 amps and which are the $200 amps. If the money is there, I would give it up for the more expensive ones; not because of the cost, but because of the open windows into the music they provide.
FIRST: The Predator is still my current favorite for sounding like a full size amp (so far), but I have more sources and phones to try all the amps with. The bass is deep without being boomy, and the mids and highs are warm and smooth, with good transparency. It does have a just a little bit less treble extension than the Pico, which is fine with the ALO modded HFI780's and most headphones. I have tried high gain before, and it drives HD600 with no strain at all.
The Predator strikes me as being different, in the same way that a wood Grado has a different timbre than a plastic or metal Grado - with the Predator being wood with warm natural timbre and the Pico being the "not-wood" or more neutral one.
SECOND: As a very close second is the Pico S/N #11 which was the one used in Asr's loaner tests (many hours on it) and it just arrived today. It was nice, but with maybe/possibly a little tipped up extreme ends of the bass and treble, adding a slight brightness but not sibilance. Otherwise it is pretty neutral and powerful, but slightly colder than the Predator. Both are equally detailed, however the PICO soundstage is a tad larger or slightly more open sounding.
I would bet that some of my headphones might appreciate the neutrality a little more, and I will explore that. However, I can see why many people are using these as a volume controlled DAC, because it doesn't seem to have much of a flavor of it's own. I will try it as a DAC to my tube amplifier, and report back later.
THIRD: In 3rd is the iBasso D2. It has a very similar sound signature and frequency response as the Pico - but maybe tiny bit boomy in the bass, a tiny bit less volume in the mids and a little bit brighter in the treble (more U-shaped). It was not quite as smooth in the treble or as transparent as the PICO (D2 has 183 hours on it).
The bass has gone up and down over the past 48 hours, and for a while it was too much, but it is leveling out now but still slightly more than needed. I expect it to continue to refine itself with more hours under the belt.
FOURTH: Then there is the Headstage Lyrix Total Pro USB. Fourth place doesn't mean last place, since it is still a very good amp. It sounds very similar to the D2 in frequency response, but with a little less transparency than the D2. Switching between the Pico on one USB port and Lyrix on the other USB, then the decrease in transparency even more apparent. It is still a very detailed and clean amp, but with less air around the instruments vs the other amps when driven by it's limited PCM2704 DAC. The bass was not boomy unless the bass boost was switched on, but it was slightly less than the D2 when off. In no way was the bass inadequate, rather the D2 is just a smidge much (is that a word?).
This amp has loads of features, like 9v re-chargable or Alkaline compatable, with charge circuit off-switch, bass boost, crossfeed. BUT, it is also twice as big as the other three (sorry no pic, it got left out in my wife's car when she took my daughter to girl scouts). It has been relegated to being the desktop amp for the iMac in our kitchen because it is still too good to sell.
WHAT'S MISSING: You may ask, where is the iBasso D1? Well... Blutarsky had sold off all his portable amps, and I loaned him my D1 two weeks ago to try with his ALO vampire wire 780's. I had recently rolled the opamps to AD743/LMH6643/LTC6241 which synergized very well with them. Somehow, last weekend I left his house owning all of his headphones except his Darths and my HP-1000 and D1, which stayed with him. From memory I am going to say it sounded similar to the PICO, when I was using it with the Mac Audio Midi set in 24bit/48Khz mode via optical out. Not quite as warm as a Predator, but powerful clear and neutral like the PICO.
PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE: I plan to try all 4 amps with several headphones this weekend, and will also try their analog inputs with my iMod and ALOaudio Jumbo Cryo Silver X LOD. Cheers, and happy listening!
UPDATE #1: I should mention that the RSA Predator takes a huge amount of time to burn-in. It wasn't so great sounding right out of the box, I mean it was good but not spectacular. By 300 hours it had gradually changed till it sounded nothing like it did fresh out of the box, and a veil was starting to lift. By 600 hours it was a whole new amp again, with real meat to the bass - and again this was via gradual slow changes (and not bouncing around like the D2 did). By 1,000 hours it seemed to me to be fully matured, with no changes between 1,000 and 1,100 hours. At that point, the Predator was shipped off to Skylab for his review in February.
UPDATE #2, 3/15/08 1:00AM: The D1 as I mentioned most recently had the AD743/LMH6643/LTC6241HV opamps in it. Previously it was warmer with more bass, and closer to the Predator, when it had the AD797/AD8397/AD6241HV in the LR/BUFFER/DAC opamps in place. That was before I rolled the opamps for the HFI-780. I suspect I'll be able to similarly tune the D2 and Lyrix which have socket opamps as well. I am not in a rush to do so yet.
quoted from TSi(head-fi)It works right out of the box, no charging needed (I'm guessing they personally test each one before packing it). I plugged it directly into my Samsung YPP2.
Right when you turn it on, there is a "click" sound, not a pop, but like a wheel click. This basically tells you that your D2 is "on". I did not hear any popping sound like the 1st reviewer.
When you turn off the D2, there is a "pop" sound, same with going from low to high gain. This sound resembles... when you are on an airplane and your ear pops. I am not worrying, I'm not really gonna use the high gain, and when turning it off, it isn't loud.
LED - wow, this blue light is hella BRIGHT. I can say, if you look into it, u can blind urself. I do not have the chance to "light my room" yet, since it is still midday, but I can see it happening. The back red LED isnt as bright, but its there for sure.
1st Impression: (Amp for YPP2)
There is not much hissing (right now I'm using friend's Apple In Ears, will be doing another review when my SuperFreQs arrive). It is "there" but then you only really notice it when you turn the knob up a lot, basically to volume that is NOT suitable for me.
When you listen to the music, the hissing basically is covered by the music, so you will not hear it at all (even at the bare minimum volume). This really is impressive because I'm gonna say this now: I'm not gonna be listening to silence, so the hissing is out of the question.
Sound - Maybe it is just me, but then I wasn't throughly appealed by the "increase" of the music quality, maybe this is because I am using the headphone jack of the player. I, like the other users, notice an increase in performance in the lower end, the bass is cleaner, sharper (in terms of "right on") In terms of the higher end, I have not noticed anything yet, its because I'm not using decent IEMs, so i dont blame the D2.
1st Impression: (Amp + DAC for Macbook) USB
Hissing, it is still there, but this time, it is even quieter. Won't go to much other than "if you concentrate, it'll be there, if u listen to music, it'll be gone"
Sound - This is where it "hit me dead smack with a wad of 100$ bills". I was really impressed with the sound from the D2 using the USB input. I was actually surprised with the sound... coming from the FLAC of the Ultrasone CD. Man, I feel like crying, I'm hearing a lot more than what I've heard with my SuperFi 3's plugged into the headphone jack on my mac, YES, even with Apple In Ears... I swear, I can hear the foot taps of the musicians, and their swallowing. amazing. The lower end is a lot more crisp than not using anything at all (or comparing to using my logitech z10 through usb as a dac and then plugging my headphones into it). From using this on my mac, I actually hear a difference in the higher end of the spectrum. It feels a lot cleaner. (refer to track 5 of the cd) I can even hear the piano player making noise when he plays, pretty amazing. I hear a lot more details, such as the person sitting in the 5th row of the audience that keeps fidgeting and making his chair squeek.
Placeholder for updates...
UPDATE #1: I should mention that the RSA Predator takes a huge amount of time to burn-in. It wasn't so great sounding right out of the box, I mean it was good but not spectacular. By 300 hours it had gradually changed till it sounded nothing like it did fresh out of the box, and a veil was starting to lift. By 600 hours it was a whole new amp again, with real meat to the bass - and again this was via gradual slow changes (and not bouncing around like the D2 did). By 1,000 hours it seemed to me to be fully matured, with no changes between 1,000 and 1,100 hours. At that point, the Predator was shipped off to Skylab for his review in February.
UPDATE #2, 3/15/08 1:00AM: The D1 as I mentioned most recently had the AD743/LMH6643/LTC6241HV opamps in it. Previously it was warmer with more bass, and closer to the Predator, when it had the AD797/AD8397/AD6241HV in the LR/BUFFER/DAC opamps in place. That was before I rolled the opamps for the HFI-780. I suspect I'll be able to similarly tune the D2 and Lyrix which have socket opamps as well. I am not in a rush to do so yet.
UPDATE #3, 3/20/08 11:45PMI have 311 hours on the D2, and I am now using my Woodied HF-1 with APS V3 cable at the moment, and all amps were driven by the USB DAC as before. So, I am revisiting it as promised with an extra 125 hours or so on it. I listened a lot on Monday and Tuesday with my Grados and Edition 9, and then took a 48 hour break while it burned in the final bit to reach 310 hours.
While the D2 initially had a very similar sound signature to the Pico, my 183 hour impression of the D2 was that the bass was a bit boomy and uncontrolled, and it seemed a little brighter than the Pico. Now the bass has indeed tightened up since the last time I listened on the 18th when I compared the amps with more headphones. Not only is the D2 bass now less boomy and more controlled, but the high's are a little smoother too (but maybe still a tad brighter).
With the extra hours on it, the D2 is clearly closer to the Pico than it is the Lyrix now, as the Lyrix DAC is seeming to hold it back now. But, there is that final bit of transparency and smoothness that the Pico holds over D2 still. I would say the top three amps are within a few percentage points of each other, when listening with the HF-1 APS re-cabled woodies. There is just something about warm full bodied sound of the Predator that keeps me coming back for more.
So, I give the Predator a 10/10. I'll give the Pico a 9.7/10 for opening the soundstage a bit and crisp detail, but with a cooler more analytical sound. The D2 has moved up from a 9.0 to a 9.4/10 for the D2 now, while still missing some of the warmth of the Predator and the final bit of transparency of the Pico. I have to give the Lyrix a 8.8/10 now. To me anything above an 8/10 is great but might not be a keeper if I have more than one amp sitting above 9/10.
I would put the D1 (with the newest round of opamps) right up there with the D2 now (sound is quite close), except that I got it back after 2 weeks with a channel imbalance, so I have to open it up and swap opamps and determine if the problem is my fault, or I have t contact iBasso. The right channel is louder using the DAC by a good 3db or more, but with the analog input the L/R channels are balanced. It currently has the AD743x2 in it for main, LMH6643 buffers, and LTC6241HV in the DAC.
The D2 with rolled opamps I feel is a little better than the 2MOVE, while the 2MOVE is better than the stock D2. So, my ranking has a tie for 3rd, and a tie for 4th...
1. RSA Predator (good bass and soundstage, more body, organic, full)
2. D2 with rolled opamps (LM6172/THS4032 - balanced, not too forward, sweet/magical Saxophone, almost mesmerizing like Predator, almost tied)
3. 2MOVE (sweet mids and saxophone, midbass hmmm, failed the bad mastering diana krall test, great detail and air, too large and heavy)
3. PICO (smooth and transparent without coloration, Great DAC, won the bad mastering Diana Krall test, but nothing special with piano and sax like the others, too neutral as an amp - how is that possible, maybe not because there is something around 2Khz that is not right with RS-1)
4. D1 with rolled opamps (AD743 main/LMH6643 buffer/LTC6241HV DAC - powerful, punchy, energetic, alive)
4. D2 stock (thin in the middle, neutral with good bass,)
5. Lyrix (good frequency balance, lacking details and air vs the others)
6. D1 stock opamps (put AD823/NE5532/AD8616 back in right before I shipped it back for the 2-3db channel imbalance, too edgy and bright and distant)
REVIEW for BOAQuoted from Head-fi(jamato8)
I thought the Boa was sounding too good.
I started comparing using the amp section with Monica II and then the Amp with the USB dac. Damn, the USB dac sounds better. Monica don't let me down. This is bothersome as Monica is an excellent dac and I don't want anything to outdo her. I really am serious but what can I say? I will actually work on Monica, give her a lift and maybe some implants to get the spacial presentation I am hearing with the Boa dac. Frustration but I guess a good thing for the Boa users.
I guess I also need to do some comparisons of the amp section with other amp sections of other amps to make sure it is Monica or the output of just the amp section of the Boa but it is very early in the listening and burn-in phase.
I have been using the Edition 9's for much of my listening and I realize that not everyone is going to use these, especially on a portable. I have mentioned that I really like the PortaPros with the Boa but a more common home phone would be the HD650's so I am using them right now. I use closed phones much of the time so I don't disturb Amy as she doesn't enjoy hearing the tinny sound eeking out of an open phone. The bass is very well controlled, the sound open and they work well. I have to confess that the Edition 9 are my most enjoyable phones so for most all home use, besides the ability to seal out and seal in noise, they are my go to phone but in fairness I thought I should add that the Boa does a good job of controlling the HD650's. The bass on Leanor Cohen's "The Essential Leanord Chohen" is deep and well defined and on these recordings the bass is very present. There is good spatial presentation and ambience.
Review for D3 PhytonI do not have a 2MOVE anymore to compare to the D3 DAC, but I do have all the other amps that I previously compared the 2MOVE against.
The 2MOVE was very detailed but lacked some space and air or ambience vs many of the others, creating a more forward intimate setting. Some of this was due to the amp section itself, as feeding it with a better DAC still felt more close and intimate (just not quite as much).
The Predator via DAC was more spacious than 2MOVE, while the Pico would project a bigger more spacious and airy soundstage over all the others (D2 Viper was in between the Pico and Predator). I am still burning in the D3 for review, but I would say so far the D3 DAC is closer to the Pico DAC than it is to the 2MOVE DAC. This is good.
As for the battery/charging questions. The D3 uses 5xAAA batteries and does not charge them. I got 123 hours out of my first set of Energizers, and 113 hours out of the second set of Energizers. I now have Rayovac Hybrid NiMH in it and have 47 hours on those with no sign of dying yet. I will be ready to review the D3 sometime this week, likely after this set of rechargables dies.
This post has been edited by yuheng: Nov 15 2008, 03:33 PM 
[BULK] Ibasso D2 - BOA, Best Selling DAC in Head-fi 
Mar 8 2008, 03:29 PM
]....unless u have a demo unit and do a review compare with D1...Dude...I trust your ears 
