Loxjie D50 Review (Stereo DAC)

[Chewing Al]

I have both here are the major differences:

Overall differences

Topping D90 - lacks detail but sounds far more full and natural, the mids feel a bit withdrawn but sounds feel like you are in the music. Bass feels integrated. Overlal feels like you're listening to music than a dac (disappears into the system)
Loxjie D50 - super detailed, sounds are more forward, a bit too analytical and feels bit false, but sounds better (tickles my ear). Bass feels separated and clear.

In terms of overall quality, I tried loxjie, even the denafrips, and ended up going back to the D90.

Denafrips I now use for my main listening as it does things a bit differently.

Thank you very much for getting me this feedback so quickly.
I like a lot of detail in my music and I have warm speakers, so I guess I'll go for the Loxjie.
Stay safe and look after each other!

Kind regards,
Alex

 

[simplywyn]

Thank you very much for getting me this feedback so quickly.
I like a lot of detail in my music and I have warm speakers, so I guess I'll go for the Loxjie.
Stay safe and look after each other!

Kind regards,
Alex

Actually in my reply I liked the D90 - in terms of detail, the D90 and Loxjie is the same.

Loxjie just feels a bit more noisy, so it gives a sense of detail when there isn't.

Overall D90 wins (I just did a flip between the two)

Also D90's optical implementation is worse than Loxjie... there's a marked downgrade in sound quality when going to optical.

Really can't lose with Loxjie tbh, the bass is some what clearer...

 

[simplywyn]

I just messed around with some of the PCM filters... and yeah, Loxjie is all you need - the PCM filters can make the dac sound like any other dac.

Slow = D90

 

[Cisco150]

Is the Firmware updatable on this

 

[Cisco150]

Would you say this is less harsh or warmer? sound. I think I would like a warmer sound. I'm looking at this DAC the SU-9 and the SU-8S, DO200, LOXJIE D50, LOXJIE D40, M500 MK2, and the VMV D1SE or the SU-9N. I stream music with Tidal and never heard MQA but would like to have.

 

[simplywyn]

My loxjie d50 just broke on me... only less than 6 months of usage.

 

[Cisco150]

My loxjie d50 just broke on me... only less than 6 months of usage.

That's not a good thing hope you can get it fixed or replaced.
My 30 day old SP200 came broken and I only found out because I bought a Dac and i plugged the xlr in and bam the xlr inputs of the sp200 were no good before i was using 3.5mm to rca to power the amp..

 

[anmpr1]

My loxjie d50 just broke on me... only less than 6 months of usage.

I checked the Loxie site at Amazon, and nothing is available at their storefront. Hopefully the company will support your return. I'd have an email off to them ASAP. Please keep us informed.

This is always a potential problem when buying stuff from halfway around the globe, with no local support. If it was a hundred dollars, taking a chance might be worth the hassle. As the price of gear rises, to almost a thousand USD, you have to really ask yourself whether you are feeling lucky?

I've said it before... if I lived in Shenzhen I'd be all over this stuff. In the US? I'm contacting the Full of Schiit guys, or spending more for Benchmark. Not saying that you know they will be in business tomorrow, but if they are, and if something you own breaks, you know you can get satisfaction.

 

[simplywyn]

I checked the Loxie site at Amazon, and nothing is available at their storefront. Hopefully the company will support your return. I'd have an email off to them ASAP. Please keep us informed.

This is always a potential problem when buying stuff from halfway around the globe, with no local support. If it was a hundred dollars, taking a chance might be worth the hassle. As the price of gear rises, to almost a thousand USD, you have to really ask yourself whether you are feeling lucky?

I've said it before... if I lived in Shenzhen I'd be all over this stuff. In the US? I'm contacting the Full of Schiit guys, or spending more for Benchmark. Not saying that you know they will be in business tomorrow, but if they are, and if something you own breaks, you know you can get satisfaction.

I bought it off HIFIExpress, currently in contact with them.

 

[Lossless]

I purchased the Loxjie D50 with AK4499 chip since the Topping D90 v.1, and SMSL M400 we’re either unavailable or cost too high. The USB input seems to be the best for sound quality. Optical input isn’t that great. Coaxial SPDIF is better. I feel the Loxjie D50 is the best bargain for AKM AK4499 chip equipped DACs. Many claim that the DAC chip has no effect on SQ, but rather it’s implementation. I beg to differ, especially after trying several SMSL ESS Sabre equipped DACs.

 

[Veri]

Many claim that the DAC chip has no effect on SQ, but rather it’s implementation. I beg to differ, especially after trying several SMSL ESS Sabre equipped DACs.

Well, that alone doesn't refute it still comes down to proper implementation right

 

[Roland68]

I purchased the Loxjie D50 with AK4499 chip since the Topping D90 v.1, and SMSL M400 we’re either unavailable or cost too high. The USB input seems to be the best for sound quality. Optical input isn’t that great. Coaxial SPDIF is better. I feel the Loxjie D50 is the best bargain for AKM AK4499 chip equipped DACs. Many claim that the DAC chip has no effect on SQ, but rather it’s implementation. I beg to differ, especially after trying several SMSL ESS Sabre equipped DACs.

I also had a Loxjie D50 (almost identical to the SMSL M400), but I didn't like the sound of it.
The 17-year-old AK4114 transceiver chip may be due to existing stocks or the lack of availability of the AK 4118.
But what really struck me was that they only used half the AK4499 chip, i.e. only 2 instead of 4 channels.
When you buy a DAC, you expect the whole chip, right?

 

[simplywyn]

Yeah I'm never buying this type of Dac ever again. They want me to ship this all the way back to China for warranty service. It's $700CAD for me and probably cost around $100 to ship back and such. Only going to buy from Amazon and only like 200-300 DACS.

Considering most of these DACs, there's really not that much difference once you get around 100+ SINAD and others.

 

[Lossless]

I also had a Loxjie D50 (almost identical to the SMSL M400), but I didn't like the sound of it.
The 17-year-old AK4114 transceiver chip may be due to existing stocks or the lack of availability of the AK 4118.
But what really struck me was that they only used half the AK4499 chip, i.e. only 2 instead of 4 channels.
When you buy a DAC, you expect the whole chip, right?

I like the sound of the Loxjie D50 better than all of the others I’ve heard from Topping, SMSL,& Loxjie. The balanced output gives a more impactful sound. The Toslink optical sounds better than I expected. The USB in sounds the best.

Loxjie’s decision to use 2 of the four channels in the AK4499 is disappointing. Although I wonder if that’s the case with XLR output too since it does sounds significantly better than RCA? Lastly the AK4499EQ is current output chip, so maybe using all four channels wasn’t necessary. ‍

 

[Cisco150]

I like the sound of the Loxjie D50 better than all of the others I’ve heard from Topping, SMSL,& Loxjie. The balanced output gives a more impactful sound. The Toslink optical sounds better than I expected. The USB in sounds the best.

Loxjie’s decision to use 2 of the four channels in the AK4499 is disappointing. Although I wonder if that’s the case with XLR output too since it does sounds significantly better than RCA? Lastly the AK4499EQ is current output chip, so maybe using all four channels wasn’t necessary. ‍

How can you tell if the D50 only using 2 of the 4 channels

 

[Scrivs]

I don’t see the $250ish Delta between this and the SU-9, which at least matches the D50 in the majority of metrics, only loosing a db or two in SINAD. I dunno, I reckon the SU-9 the better value prospect with regards to all aspects. If ultimate SINAD isn’t your end goal of course. YMMV as always

 

[Scrivs]

AND, if that 4499 is worth the extra $250 of silicone

 

[Roland68]

I like the sound of the Loxjie D50 better than all of the others I’ve heard from Topping, SMSL,& Loxjie. The balanced output gives a more impactful sound. The Toslink optical sounds better than I expected. The USB in sounds the best.

Loxjie’s decision to use 2 of the four channels in the AK4499 is disappointing. Although I wonder if that’s the case with XLR output too since it does sounds significantly better than RCA? Lastly the AK4499EQ is current output chip, so maybe using all four channels wasn’t necessary. ‍

I didn't mean to say that the D50 sounds bad, quite the opposite. But after 20-30 seconds of playing certain pieces of music, I suddenly got a headache. I would have easily recognized this DAC in any blind test. I had the same problem with the replacement unit, but it came from the same shipment to the retailer, it's entirely possible that there was something wrong with the units. I would have blamed such a problem on a bad switched-mode power supply, but that's exactly what the D50 doesn't have.
I only noticed everything else afterwards, when I took a closer look at the device. I've noticed the thing with the better sound (I'm talking about nuances here) on many devices with the XMOS XU216, maybe it does a better job than the XU208.

At that time, SMSL had confirmed the use of only 2 of the 4 channels on the M400, although Loxjie was apparently unaware of this fact (???).
I can't understand that either, since AKM emphasized the sound quality of the AK4499 by bundling 2 channels each.
You don't have to worry about the XLR output.
Since they debalance the signal for the RCA output with 2 OPAmps, you can assume that the balanced signal is present at the XLR. Anything else would also be stupid, since the AK4499 already gives out a symmetrical signal on each channel.

How can you tell if the D50 only using 2 of the 4 channels

The layout on one half of the AK4499 lacks all components that are required for 2 of the 4 channels (VREF capacitors, OPAmps, etc.). I had also measured whether connections were switched in parallel, but none. It just doesn't seem to be connected.
Of course, I had also looked under the board.

 

[peterwen]

If have anyone looking for the Loxjie D50 ak4499 dac, it is in stock now. And have a big discount.

Loxjie D50 AK4499 DAC MQA APT-X Bluetooth5.0 DSD512

Loxjie D50 AK4499 DAC MQA APT-X Bluetooth5.0 distortion as low as -124db, USB Compatibility: Windows 7 & above, Mac OSX, Linux. DSD512 PCM 32bit/768kHz

hifi-express.com

 

[welder911]

What do you think is the most accurate filter in this dac?