iBasso’s ESS 9018 DAC plans have changed

Update: the D7 is now available, but the DAC is the WM8740. I thought I saw “WM8741” in their earlier announcement.

iBasso changed their plans of releasing a portable ESS-based portable DAC/Headamp.  The D7  will now have the Wolfson WM8741 instead. Could it be that the peculiarities of the DAC (as reported here) prevented them from releasing it on a “h/w” mode (fixed) configuration?

However, they have announced two new products:

A DAP (Digital audio player) with the ESS 9018 DAC

The DX100 is our reference Digital Audio Player (DAP). It can play most of the 24Bit/192kHz Lossless music. The whole design is based on the ES9018, which ESS claim as “The World’s Best DAC Chip”. We are finalizing the DX100 now. We can release it within 20~45 days.

The following are some main features. We will release more information later this month.
• Support up to 24/192 Decoding
• ES9018 DAC Chip
• Built-in +/-8.5V Headphone AMP
• Up to 24/192 Optical/Coaxial Output
• 256-Steps Digital Volume Control

You can read the discussion at head-fi

In addition, they are also announcing a desktop DAC based on 4 ESS 9018 DACs. This should be interesting.