I just checked for an update to ARC, and there was one, but sadly it still doesn’t seem to offer any options for where to store downloads. It only shows and downloads to the internal storage. The iBasso DX300 (and the newer 320) only has 128GB of internal storage (and it looks like ~100GB is available). While this is decent for a DAP, it’s not much at all when considering hi-res FLAC files. Even still, you can get quite a lot of music in that space. For example, I have one playlist that contains 7 hours of hi-res files mostly made up of 24/48, but one album that is 24/96. That 7 hours of music (127 tracks) only takes up 4GB. So, you should be able to get many hours of listening offline using just the internal storage.
As far as how well ARC works and performs, since that first launch where it seemed sluggish (I still believe it was caching a bunch of information), it feels very snappy.
If using WiFi or over cellular via my phones hotspot, ARC works great!
If you only need to download a few albums for offline listening, I would say this is a solid solution. On this point, I could see creating playlists of different music I might want offline and then downloading that/those playlists (as long as they are under 128GB). Also, it seems pretty easy to clear out the storage and then download a different set of music. One button to press and then confirm and it removes all downloads. I didn’t look at removing individual albums/tracks, but that may be possible a different way too. Downloads are fairly quick over WiFi, so I would probably clean-slate if I wanted to change up my downloads. Just would take some planning I suppose.
A few wishlist items:
- No EQ/DSP in ARC (Parametric EQ is on the roadmap though). The DX300 doesn’t seem to have a “system” EQ that applies to everything. If your headphones are good without an EQ, then this isn’t a showstopper. I usually like to add a bit more bass, but I can live without this for now.
- The built-in Mango Player has a solid EQ and interface. I have been using that with a 1TB microSD card of FLAC files.
- Match files sample rate for playback - For whatever reason, online or offline, ARC “upsamples” everything to 24/192. I can only assume this is because the DX300 DAC shows this as the “default” bitrate? Or, maybe ARC doesn’t bother to see if it can match whatever the files are and just uses the max.
- FWIW, I can’t hear any oddities with this while listening to music… but I am probably not the most discerning listener.
- Ability to use SD card for storage - As I said, maybe this one is not a showstopper, but definitely would improve quality of life in a big way! The workaround of using playlists and the ability to clear things out is okay, but not ideal.
- I also can’t figure out how to remove individual tracks from downloads. Even at the album level, when downloaded via a playlist at any rate, shows the option to “Download”, even though it is downloaded, but not to remove it. I may play around with this more to see if I download an album on the album page if I can then remove it that way. FWIW, I can go to the “Playlist” I downloaded and remove the whole playlist from downloads, so maybe the ability to remove is dependent and tracked via how it was downloaded in the first place.
- I dug a little deeper here. If you download an individual album (not as part of a playlist) you can remove it from downloads. There doesn’t seem to be a way to download or remove individual tracks at all. Again, I don’t think any of these things are that big of a deal (IMHO).
- I also can’t figure out how to remove individual tracks from downloads. Even at the album level, when downloaded via a playlist at any rate, shows the option to “Download”, even though it is downloaded, but not to remove it. I may play around with this more to see if I download an album on the album page if I can then remove it that way. FWIW, I can go to the “Playlist” I downloaded and remove the whole playlist from downloads, so maybe the ability to remove is dependent and tracked via how it was downloaded in the first place.
Hope this is helpful.
PS - I bought my DX300 used on eBay because it is nearly identical to the DX320 except for the DAC being used due to the DAC chips in the DX300 being in short supply. The Amp Cards that you can swap out work the same in the DX300 and 320, and they have options for a Class A amp and one with NuTubes. I bought both and love that you can change and upgrade this DAP via amp cards!
FWIW, I got the DX300 plus both Amp cards for less than the DX300 went for brand new! Under $1K all in with 3 amps to choose from! The DX320 is going for $1,600 USD new, plus $250-300 for each of the amp cards. So, if you can find a used DX300, I would jump on it! The CPU, RAM, display, storage, is all the same as the DX320… so it’s a no-brainer IMO.