iBasso DC-Elite | Hi-Res Balanced Portable DAC and Amp

After several months of extensive listening, I can confidently state that the DC Elite lives up to its impressive specifications, and more importantly, delivers a genuinely refined listening experience. One standout feature is its remarkable handling of treble frequencies. Peaky, sharp highs are noticeably smoothed out, yielding an exceptionally clear and natural sound signature. A prime example is Jeff Buckley's iconic track “Hallelujah.” Listening to my Meze Alba earphones, the difference with and without the DC Elite is striking. The treble, often prone to harshness in less refined setups, becomes silky and fluid, elevating the emotional impact of Buckley's vocal nuances. Additionally, the DC Elite significantly enhances the perceived soundstage. Instruments and vocals gain precise placement within a spacious, three-dimensional soundscape, making the overall presentation immersive and engaging. For audiophiles who prioritize depth and dimensionality in music reproduction, the DC Elite excels impressively. Moreover, the DC Elite's build quality is outstanding—it's genuinely built like a tank. Its robust Titanium alloy body inspires confidence, ensuring durability for everyday portable use. The thoughtful, compact design complements both aesthetics and practicality. The 24-stepped attenuator is a nice touch for analog lovers! Overall, the iBasso DC Elite stands out as one of the most effective and exceptional dongle DACs I've experienced. It's a must-consider device for audiophiles seeking a significant upgrade in sound quality, portability, and reliability.

I primarily use it with my Mega5-ESTs and this match is an endgame setup for me under $1000!

The iBasso DC Elite is currently the most powerful dongle DAC available. Its build quality is fantastic, and it looks absolutely stunning. Over the years, I’ve owned many dongle DACs—starting with the AudioQuest Dragonfly, Luxury & Precision W2, several FiiO models, and many more—but the DC Elite surpasses them all.

It effortlessly powers all the IEMs in my collection and drives the Focal Stellia and Fostex TH 900 with ease. While it can drive my Sennheiser HD 650, it does so at a moderate level. The sound quality is exceptionally clean, with no artificial coloring, and the power delivery is excellent. The stepped attenuator volume control feels premium, though occasionally, if the knob gets stuck between steps, the volume shifts to one side. However, this isn’t a major issue since it corrects itself once the step is fully engaged.

Cons & Areas for Improvement

For its price, iBasso should have included a screen and some built-in headphone presets or EQ features. My Luxury & Precision W2 has these features, despite being almost four years old.

Another issue is with Apple devices—macOS does not recognize the DAC by name, showing it only as an output device. Furthermore, firmware updates are not possible on macOS since iBasso offers no software support for Mac. Even when running Windows in a VM on an Apple Silicon Mac, the device is recognized as just “speakers.” The UAC app is currently Android-only, and unfortunately, iBasso seems uninterested in improving their software—a common issue with Chi-Fi brands, especially regarding Apple compatibility.

I also purchased the Chord Mojo 2 from Bloom Audio at the same time, and there’s truly no comparison—the Mojo 2 is far more powerful, feature-rich, and free of any quirks or software issues on both Apple and Windows.

Final Thoughts

Despite these quirks, the DC Elite remains the best dongle DAC on the market in terms of sound quality and build. It offers a spacious soundstage, delivers fatigue-free listening for hours, and outperforms any other dongle DAC I’ve used.

A huge thank you to Caleb, Steven, Mathew, and the entire Bloom Audio team. I’ve purchased many items from them over the years, and their service has always been exceptional. Every time I open a package from Bloom Audio, I truly appreciate the personal touch they add to their packaging—it never fails to bring a smile. I’ll definitely be returning for more in the years to come!

The guys at Bloom Audio know what they're talking about. I Messaged them a few times as I was looking for a DAC. Their unanimous answer was the ibasso DC Elite. I really didn't want to spend that much money, but I trusted them, and they were right on... This DC Elite is the cleanest purest DAC I have ever heard. Thank you Caleb and Marty!!

I’ve owned several portable DAC/Amps, one DAP, a portable headphone amp and a desktop Amp. The DC Elite is a fantastic standalone portable device that offers superb resolution, crystal clear audio throughout the frequency spectrum, incredible dynamics, with precise and fully impactful bass. As a standalone device, my only critique is that the upper mids and highs can become a bit fatiguing on highly resolving IEMs, like the Tia Trio, Elysian Annihilator or Elysian Diva. But as soon as you connect this to a power bank, or go a step further by connecting to an external amp, this thing is insanely good. Highly recommended. I primarily use my iPhone 14 Pro as the source. I have a magnetic power bank that can attach to my phone to charge the DC Elite alone or both devices. Definite scaling of detail, resolution, dynamics and bass is observed, which is cool. It’s stellar all on its own, but gets even better. It’s fun to tinker around and pair it with other devices. With it, I’ve tried AK SP100M, Sound Tiger Potenza portable amp, and Musical Fidelity MX-HPA desktop amp. All offer different flavors, but the latter really gives it authority and pushes it to an insane level of greatness. The most impressive thing about the Elite is how great is sounds on its own, for portability, but it gets even better by connecting with other devices while at home. It’s a win-win.

I have zero issues with the volume knob. The volume knob is super easy to manage and the steps give me plenty of range, even with a super easy to drive set like the Tia Trio with 5.5 Ohm impedance and 104dB sensitivity. I was concerned about this after reading reviews, but rest assured it works well. Just utilize the dB increase/decrease function by pressing the button on the left until you get a good volume range for your headphones. I think there are 4 options and the changes are audible.

Pros:
- very powerful
- very transparent
- small
- works with all my devices including iPhones

Cons:
- volume knob very hard to turn/grip
- volume steps are bigs and you’d want something in between two steps
- lower volume/knob steps have weirdness like lower volume on one side, soundstage is reduced or just sometimes has some noise — although this will probably not be an issue we are talking about the lowest volumes, even at night and in bed I wouldn’t use those