Pair up.

Here is how the 340m pairs with various IEMs and headphones.  All were connected to the 4.4mm BAL output.  Also, for this test, I decided to include a comparison with 320m in each pair-up example.

Headphones

Audio-Technica ATH-R70x – R70x are open-back 470-ohm headphones, and they do need to be pushed harder to drive them to their full potential, which both the 320m and 340m did without a problem, with plenty of volume headroom.  The soundstage is very open but, surprisingly, wasn’t 3D holographic; rather, it was mid-centered in both.  But once I engaged Super Gain through DC-IN at 340m, it was like a magic switch that expanded the soundstage and spread the positioning of sounds, making the overall sound more holographic.  Before DC-IN, the overall tonality is very natural, clear, and transparent in both.  Sub-bass is deep and textured; it’s a bit rare to hear it in R70x. Mid-bass is tight and punchy, very well controlled.  Mids/vocals are very transparent, although I found more natural coloring with 320m, while 340m gave R70x a bit more shouting.  But the mids were detailed and still sounded quite natural to my ears.  The treble with both sources had a nice, natural, clear sparkle.  Of course, I had to switch back to DC-IN since the soundstage improvement was so noticeable with 340m.  With DC-IN at 340m, the bass got tighter and more articulate; the mids gained clarity, with improved layering and separation, more air between layers, and better overall dynamics.  Then, I dropped the DAC gain to Low, and the mids became more natural, no longer shouty, tuned to perfection.  R70x pairs up great with 320m, no question about it.  But with 340m, DAC LG/amp HG, and DC-IN Super Gain, it was a whole different animal, with a larger, more holographic soundstage, more articulate bass response, improved dynamics, and more natural, resolving mids.

MEZE Audio Empyrean – another pair of open-back headphones, and these planar magnetic headphones sound very open, with nearly 3D holographic imaging from both 320m and 340m sources.  The sound sig is balanced, fast, very clean, and clear with both DAPs as well.  I hear a deeper sub-bass rumble with a little extra weight and mid-bass punch being fast and articulate; overall bass is just north of neutral, not as elevated, but 340m delivers more tactile, precise punch, while 320m takes it a notch back with a touch more laid-back presentation.  Mids/vocals have a natural, detailed, transparent tonality, while 320m adds a bit of thickness in the lower mids and adds texture. In comparison, 340m offers greater clarity and improved detail retrieval.  Treble is crisp and airy, not harsh or bright, with both DAPs.  Switching the DAC to LG at 340m adds more texture to the sound while maintaining the same level of clarity.  DC-IN Super Gain at 340m expands imaging more and gives the sound a more dynamic vertical expansion.  Both have a good synergy, but 340m offers more clarity in the mids and, with DC-IN, improves technical performance, especially sound dynamics, making 320m feel a bit congested by comparison.

IEMs

Aroma Jewel w/FT – the soundstage expansion is similar between 320m and 340m, but the imaging is noticeably more holographic in 340m.  With 320m, Jewel sounds warmer, with a bit more texture in the mids, while 340m has a more neutral reference tuning with less coloring in the mids.  Another noticeable difference is greater sub-bass weight at 320m versus 340m, with a tighter, more precise mid-bass punch.  That is one common trend I found with many IEMs with DD bass: 340m was able to control note decay better, giving the bass more articulate precision and control.  With treble, you also get a bit more crunch and airiness at 340m, and at 320m, the treble is more relaxed.  The difference in treble wasn’t as significant, but I felt like 340m gave Jewel’s treble more finesse.

FirAudio RN6 – While both offer holographic-level imaging, RN6 has a wider L/R separation at 320m compared to a narrower 340m.  I mean, I wouldn’t call RN6 to have a narrow soundstage at 340m, but it was narrower compared to 320m.  Everything comes down to pair-up synergy, which affects both sound and technical performance.  Both sources give RN6 a powerful floor-standing-speaker-like analog bass you can feel, but the 320m pushes mid-bass intensity and sits closer to my basshead tolerance threshold. In comparison, 340m gives RN6 bass the power, the weight, the oomph, but scales down the intensity and gives more control to a more comfortable W-shaped balanced sound sig.  RN6 mids sound natural, organic, and detailed with both sources, but they have more clarity with 340m, which I think is due to 340m bass notes having shorter decay and more control, with less bleed into the lower mids.  The clarity of RN6 mids with 340m is definitely noticeable here, along with more air in the treble when compared to the 320m pair-up.  Especially IEMs with heavier bass tuning and denser mids will benefit more from and synergize better with 340m than with 320m.

Vision Ears VE10 – As one of my more sensitive IEMs, the first test I perform with these IEMs is the waterfall hissing, and both sources are very quiet.  The soundstage expansion has plenty of depth and height, and surprisingly more width than I usually hear with other sources. Imaging remained holographic.  The sound signature is balanced with a fuller body and natural, detailed tonality.  Using 320m, the bass is a bit more intense, the mids are a little smoother, and the treble sounds a little raw and brighter.  Using 340m, the bass has a slightly more laid-back presentation, better control of note decay, natural mids, and is also a bit more resolving, detailed, and slightly smoother in the treble.  Either source pairs up great with VE10, and I enjoyed both, although it was surprisingly refreshing to hear VE10’s mids shed a layer of organic veil, becoming more resolving with 340m.

Elysian Acoustic Annihilator 23 – Anni is harder to drive, so I had to raise the volume in this pair-up.  I noticed an expanded soundstage with both sources, spherically spaced and spreading evenly in all three directions. Still, unlike some other pair-ups, 340m stretched Anni’s soundstage even wider, almost wrapping around my head. The imaging with 340m was also more holographic than with 320m.  The Anni sounds mildly U-shaped with 320m, while 340m balanced out the sound sig to a nearly perfect W-shaped tuning.  Part of this change was due to 320m putting more emphasis on sub-bass rumble and pushing Anni’s treble to sound a bit spicier, while 340m balanced out Anni’s bass, making sub-/mid-bass more linear in tuning, with greater control and precision, and scaling down the treble’s spiciness while leaving Lee’s signature airy extension intact.  Mids sound more organic and slightly pulled back with 320m, while gaining more clarity and focus with 340m.  Didn’t even have to think for a second, 340m pair up was by far superior with Anni’23.

Alpha&Omega Fulgrim – the IEM I consider the king of sub-bass, very sensitive to eartips selection and source pairing, which affect mid-treble intensity.  Along with the previous analysis of basshead level RN6, with Fulgrim, I also noticed both 340m and 320m providing a holographic level of imaging and a wide, expanded soundstage.  But the L/R width stretched a few notches wider with 320m.  With bass, similar to RN6, 320m mid-bass was a bit stronger and had a longer decay of bass notes, while 340m took Fulgrim mid-bass punch intensity a few notches down, gave bass notes more control in decay, and made the bass balance better with mids and treble.  Both give Fulgrim a similar fuller-body, natural, organic mid, with a decent level of natural detail retrieval.  But the rendition of Fulgrim treble sealed the deal for me to switch to 340m, which made these IEMs’ mid-treble a little more relaxed and less crisp.  320m and Fulgrim’s pair-up made the treble crisper and more energetic.

iBasso Epitome – of course, how can I miss iBasso’s own flagship IEM pair up!  As already mentioned, when I reviewed Epitome, its soundstage has more depth/height than width, and this is consistent across both sources, with holographic imaging within the confines of this particular soundstage expansion.  The sound signature is more balanced, although the mid presentation pushes slightly forward.  With mids, there is definitely more clarity and higher resolution when paired with 340m, while being a bit smoother with 320m.  If you like Epitome’s mids to gain more organic tonality, dropping the 340m DAC gain to low helps; even better, switching to the DX270 altogether will give them a mellower, more laid-back presentation.  Both sources (320m and 340m) offer a deeper sub-bass rumble and stronger mid-bass punch, but 340m gives the bass more articulation and shorter note decay for even better separation with the mids.  Treble is similar as well, perhaps having a touch more air with 340m.  Both sources had a rather similar pair-up synergy with Epitome.

Wired and wireless connections.

In addition to being a portable DAP, you can enhance the 340m functionality by using it as a transport to drive an external DAC/amp, or by adding an external amp or converting the DAP into a wired/wireless USB DAC. Furthermore, you are not limited to wired headphones; you can also use a wireless Bluetooth connection.

Wireless/Bluetooth

I tested the 340m BT Tx with the Final Tonalite, found it to work within 50ft in open space, and confirmed solid operation at the max noted distance.  I was able to pair it easily using the LDAC codec, which needs to be enabled on the earphones in BT settings.  Also, I confirmed full remote control.  The connection stability and sound quality were no different from those of my Galaxy S25 phone.

340m also has BT Rx mode, turning this DAP into a wireless DAC/amp.  Bluetooth DAC setting is accessible within the Mango app.  It paired easily with my S25, using the LDAC protocol. The connection was stable up to 60ft, and could have been further, but I was testing it at home and ran out of open space between the rooms on our 1^st floor.  The digital volume on 340m reflected my smartphone volume, while I was able to boost it further with analog volume on 340m.  The only thing is, I wasn’t able to control the playback remotely from 340m; play/pause/skip didn’t respond on my phone.

Line Out

Line Out was already covered in previous sections of the review.  For 4.4mm LO, you have a dedicated port and don’t need to do anything except connect it.  For 3.5mm LO, since it is a shared port, you need to select LO.

USB Audio Out

I tested and verified this one with a few USB DAC dongles, such as DC Elite and NiPO A200Pro, and found it worked without issue, with each device recognized as soon as it was attached to the 340m.  A200Pro displays the same PCM sampling rate as the iBasso Mango player, and if needed, you can download the iBasso app to open and adjust the DC Elite settings.  The performance of either of these dongles was no different from when connected to my S25.  And in the case of DC Elite, you can download the iBasso UAC app to access its settings.

USB DAC

I verified this functionality using my ever-aging ThinkPad T480S laptop running Win10 Pro. USB DAC settings on 340m can be accessed from the Mango app or on the main Android home screen to the left.  Before entering USB DAC mode, you can either use charging mode (charging the battery while connected to your source) or, by default, use the internal 340m battery so you don’t drain your source’s battery (like when connecting to a smartphone).  On the USB DAC settings screen, you have options for DC-In super gain, DAC/AMP gain, and a selection of Harmonics.  DX340m was easily found and selected in audio settings, even on my aging Win10Pro laptop without the need to install any drivers.  Volume was adjustable from the laptop, and both analog and digital volume wheels on 340m.

Coax Out

You can use the 340m as an audio source/transport to drive an external DAC/amp via a dedicated Coax port, which I verified with iBasso’s own D16 DAC/amp, where the volume is adjustable on the external DAC/amp.  The connection was straightforward, nothing extra needs to be enabled, connect the coax port of 340m, and off you go.  D16 tonality was no different than using other transport sources.  But one thing to note here, and one of the reasons I like to use D16 for this test, is that I switch between D16 USB and Coax inputs from 340m and still prefer Coax, which yields cleaner, more dynamic sound.

Conclusion.

I’m probably sounding like a broken record, repeating myself. Still, it is indeed becoming more challenging to review flagship DAPs, as they all sound great and some are even starting to overlap in functionality.  Every manufacturer takes their time, often years, with each flagship DAP release, offering the best to showcase years of accumulated design experience.  So, we are getting to the point where it seems like every new Summit-fi release is about fine-tuning to perfection, rather than introducing something more drastic.  At the same time, many of these flagship releases are moving toward more coloring and sound-shaping options.  By contrast, iBasso took a different approach with their Max series. Instead of being a jack-of-all-trades, they put all their effort into being the master of one: natural reference tuning, while also maximizing their technical performance.  DX340Max presents a very energetic, dynamic sound, still reference-tuned but with a more natural tonality.  With many IEMs and headphones I’ve tried, I hear fast, punchy, tight, shorter-decay mid-bass with a well-defined sub-bass rumble, textured, natural mids, and crisp, natural, more extended treble.  The overall sound has a more lifelike dynamic, especially noticeable in the vertical expansion of peaks, making it sound more multi-dimensional, with improved layering and separation, and more air between the layers.  Plus, the soundstage expansion is more holographic, especially in imaging.

But it’s not just about how it sounds but also about how it combines the best of their previous releases into one.  They took the design of the DX320Max and enhanced it with a second dedicated digital volume control, so you don’t have to dig through Android settings and can easily micro-adjust the coarse steps of analog volume control.  They placed both digital and analog volume wheels on the right side, like in a traditional DAP, to give this transportable design a more portable appeal.  They enhanced the 1-bit discrete DAC, FPGA-Master 3.0 design found in DX340, scaling it up to 160 Discrete PWM-DAC elements (from 128), and made a noticeable difference in sound when I compared a raw LO output of 340 vs 340m.  Even the amp18 design featured in the DX340 module was fine-tuned by adding a dedicated differential buffer-amp stage to achieve a full differential architecture, thereby improving sound tuning and technical performance.  Plus, you get a Super Gain desktop mode with a 12V DC-IN input and great battery life!  It’s exactly what I meant by saying how they combined the best of previous releases into one, not trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, but making it the master of one, making it a no-brainer upgrade for those with DX340 w/amp18.  For the owners of the DX320Max, it could be a bit of a tougher decision, because 320m is still very good and quite competitive.  As a matter of fact, I’ll probably continue featuring 320Max alongside 340Max in my future reviews.

As a reviewer, rather than a consumer, my focus is usually on describing and comparing the product and letting you, my readers, decide if it is the right one for you.  As I always say, there is no such thing as the best, just what is the best for you, per your feature and design requirements, pair-up synergy with IEMs, headphones, and music you are listening to, and within your budget.  Perhaps from a sound perspective, DX340Max isn’t a huge upgrade over DX320Max, but with so many other enhancements, including functionality and added features, I can’t consider DX340Max anything other than a step up from DX320Max.  Plus, as already mentioned, with so many other flagships moving toward dual tonality and extra coloring, DX340Max carved out a unique space among them with its high-end natural reference tuning, which stands out and complements other DAP releases.  So, if money is no object and you are looking for the top-performing flagship reference DAP, the DX340Max Ti deserves very serious consideration.