Good morning,
It all depends on your budget and your way of listening to music.
The DX170 for a budget of less than €450 is a very good choice for the following reasons:
- very good balanced sound which is equally suitable for Pop, Jazz, Classics, Electronic…
- much smaller than an iPhone 11 but a little thicker. It is one of the smallest DAP but is not low-end either in its manufacturing quality or its sound quality.
- Android system v. 11 relatively recent (for a DAP). There is only one DAP under Android 13 (to my knowledge) and very few Android 12. And DAPs released after the DX170 are under Android 10.
iBasso is a serious brand according to the sponsors of those who have needed after-sales service, they are responsive, efficient and very reasonable prices.
The system update is approximately between 2 and 3 years. the DX170 is released in 2022.
- For use in local playback (SD card) with wired headphones, there is no problem. the system is slow but when you are in your Player to listen to the music no worries.
- Mango Player is (for me) one of the most beautiful players and easy to use.
- The protective shell supplied with it is transparent, not as pretty as the "leather" cover but with this one, it is not necessary to remove the cover to change the SD card.
- For installing updates or music, I recommend putting the SD card in a computer (Mac or PC) it's faster...
Do not take DX 170 for the following reasons:
- If you have a budget of €900 to €1000, take the DX 260 instead, it outperforms it in all areas.
- There is also the Hiby R6 III, a little more expensive than the DX170 but more powerful. the sound is less balanced but the different system equalization systems allow you to rebalance the sound or define it to your liking. Be careful: when you can configure something in a very specific way, you can take it to the best or worst!!!
- the DX170's battery is quite small, for local listening, I recommend deactivating WiFi which in this case is useless.
- For the same reason the DX170 is unsuitable for streaming listening, moreover the little RAM means that navigation in this case is slow and music downloading takes quite a long time.
NB: the DX260 and Hiby R6 III are 2 recent DAPs (end of 2023 - beginning of 2024). Not all manufacturers have firmware updates after 2 years.