iBasso DC Elite Flagship Portable DAC - A DX320 in your pocket!

The iBasso DC-Elite is a flagship USB DAC and headphone amplifier built with iBasso’s DX320 MAX player as its blueprint: a miniaturised DX320 MAX in a dongle. It brings the DX320 MAX’s ROHM BD34301EKV current-output DAC, its 24-position, four-section stepped attenuator, a complete player-style circuit and a titanium shell, with up to 280mW into 32Ω from a 4.4mm balanced output, PCM up to 768kHz and native DSD512. In Japan’s VGP 2024 it won the Gold Award for portable amps and DACs and the only Portable Audio Grand Award, chosen from thousands of portable audio products: the first time a Chinese hi-fi product has won it.

The ROHM BD34301EKV current-output DAC

This is the first time a flagship current-output DAC has been used in a dongle. ROHM’s BD34301EKV, with carefully engineered circuitry around it, improves dynamic range, widens the soundstage and lifts the DC-Elite’s fidelity.

A 24-position stepped attenuator

iBasso completely rethought the traditional 24-position, four-section stepped attenuator used in high-end amplifiers, shrinking it to a tenth of its usual size while keeping channel imbalance below 0.1dB. Built originally for the DX320 MAX, it avoids the bit reduction of digital volume control, so at normal listening levels into 32Ω (about 50–100mV) the DC-Elite keeps a high signal-to-noise ratio: iBasso measures 96.3dBA at 50mV. The sound may drop briefly while you turn the knob; turning it gently clockwise restores it.

A complete flagship player structure

Like a flagship player, the DC-Elite runs FPGA → DAC → I/V → low-pass filter → volume → amplifier, with six dual op-amps around the BD34301EKV. iBasso’s own FPGA algorithm and NDK femtosecond oscillators keep jitter exceptionally low, for minimal distortion and a clear gain in musical quality.

Clean, reliable power

A high-efficiency synchronous DC-DC converter is combined with ultra-low-noise LDOs from Linear Technology, previously used only in flagship players. Noise is as low as 0.8µV, lower than many battery supplies, and the supply delivers up to 500mA, giving the DAC ample, pristine power. Despite its desktop-class DAC and full player architecture, power use is efficient: 690mW balanced and 630mW single-ended.

Titanium and glass

The shell is aerospace-grade titanium alloy, with tempered glass on the top and bottom. Titanium has the best strength-to-weight ratio of any metal, lighter than stainless steel and stronger than aluminium.

Balanced, single-ended and coaxial

A 4.4mm Pentaconn balanced output and a 3.5mm single-ended output suit any headphones. The 3.5mm socket is also a coaxial S/PDIF output, up to 32-bit/768kHz, for an external DAC: hold the PCM volume-reduction button and the light turns white. The LED shows four states: red for standby, green for PCM, blue for DSD and white for coaxial output.

The iBasso UAC app

On Android, the iBasso UAC app adds four steps of PCM volume reduction and two digital filter options, along with DSD filter, PCM/DSD volume matching and S/PDIF settings.

Good to know

• Plug and play on iPhone, Android 5.1 and later, Mac and Windows 10/11; Windows XP, 7 and 8 need iBasso’s driver. Some Android devices need OTG switched on.
• It has no battery and is powered by the connected device; with its current-output DAC it is normal for it to get warm.
• In the box: DC-Elite, USB-C cable, USB-C to Lightning cable, USB-C to USB-A adapter, leather case and user manual.
• For a smaller iBasso dongle, see the iBasso DC07 Pro.