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Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

Hammondk

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20181205_001635.jpg


Just to dispel some doubts that I am locked in shared mode. Playing Coltrane Blue Train in 24/196
 

pejakovic1

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Just received my unit today, it is driving my hd660s in low gain to absolute depths of transparency, even compared to chord hugo, the sixth filter in this device outperforms hugo on my headphones. I might just be crazy, but this unit is fantastic. Have the clicking and it doesn't bother me. Might be a bit bassy on speakers tho, but using the first filter i guess remedies that. Great device, thanks Amir. Will be ordering a few more just as backup, that's how great i think it is. Having tested chord hugo and mojo this device is at least on par with hugo or better and about 2 times better amp than in mojo.
 

Wolven

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Just received my unit today, it is driving my hd660s in low gain to absolute depths of transparency, even compared to chord hugo, the sixth filter in this device outperforms hugo on my headphones. I might just be crazy, but this unit is fantastic. Have the clicking and it doesn't bother me. Might be a bit bassy on speakers tho, but using the first filter i guess remedies that. Great device, thanks Amir. Will be ordering a few more just as backup, that's how great i think it is. Having tested chord hugo and mojo this device is at least on par with hugo or better and about 2 times better amp than in mojo.

Yeah, it does sound really good, blows my old DAC out of the water. I will check those filters once my remote gets here.
 

pejakovic1

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Filters aren't a huge change, minor but good, blows away also my hrt microstreamer out of the window.
 

Hammondk

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Just received my unit today, it is driving my hd660s in low gain to absolute depths of transparency, even compared to chord hugo, the sixth filter in this device outperforms hugo on my headphones. I might just be crazy, but this unit is fantastic. Have the clicking and it doesn't bother me. Might be a bit bassy on speakers tho, but using the first filter i guess remedies that. Great device, thanks Amir. Will be ordering a few more just as backup, that's how great i think it is. Having tested chord hugo and mojo this device is at least on par with hugo or better and about 2 times better amp than in mojo.
Nice recommendation on Filter 6. Wow. I didnt use it until you have mentioned it. Now the transparency on my Aeon Flow Open is better on vocal tracks
 

pejakovic1

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Nice recommendation on Filter 6. Wow. I didnt use it until you have mentioned it. Now the transparency on my Aeon Flow Open is better on vocal tracks

Yeah, can't get my mind to how clean this sound is, found the filter 1 to be the best for speakers, least condensed, it really depends on the speakers/headphones.
 

maty

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Some words.

If you have the bad idea to use foobar2000 to listen to good recordings, at least It has to be configured well. A decent soft player must allow changing the value of the buffer to 50 ms, which is ideal. NEVER 32 bits.

foobar2000-preferences-output-kernel-streaming-buffer-50ms.png


foobar2000-output-kernel-streaming.png


Kernel Streaming or ASIO/ASIO4ALL please. If there is no other solution, WASAPI. But NEVER Direct Sound (DS).

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_ks

http://www.asio4all.org/

In my system, ASIO4ALL v2.13 sounds better (1709 and older compilations) than v2.14. Win 10 Pro 1709 64 bits, very optimized to play multimedia. Of course, ASIO4ALL has to be configured well and not be satisfied with the defect values.

Browser, soft video players and others soft use Direct Sound. With films is OK but not with good/very good audio recordings.

If you only listen to the ugly and very bad modern commercial recordings forget my recommendations.
 
Last edited:

Wolven

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Some words.

If you have the bad idea to use foobar2000 to listen to good recordings, at least It has to be configured well. A decent soft player must allow changing the value of the buffer to 50 ms, which is ideal. NEVER 32 bits.

View attachment 18394

View attachment 18395

Kernel Streaming or ASIO/ASIO4ALL please. If there is no other solution, WASAPI. But NEVER Direct Sound (DS).

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_ks

http://www.asio4all.org/

In my system, ASIO4ALL v2.13 sounds better (1709 and older compilations) than v2.14. Win 10 Pro 1709 64 bits, very optimized to play multimedia. Of course, ASIO4ALL has to be configured well and not be satisfied with the defect values.

Browser, soft video players and others soft use Direct Sound. With films is OK but not with good/very good audio recordings. If you only listen to the ugly and very bad modern commercial recordings forget my recommendations.

There is nothing wrong with Foobar, it is as good as anything out there. I agree that Direct Sound is a joke, and sounds terrible due to all the manipulation. There is no proof the kernel streaming or Asio4all is any better than Wasapi. That buffer is so small that it can cause all kinds of problems. 32bit is native to this DAC, so not even sure if that setting can be changed.
 

maty

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maty

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50 ms in the soft player, not in ASIO/ASIO4ALL where is a very bad idea a value so small.
 

maty

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You can and must change the 32 bits if the recordings are 24 bits. If you make resampler...

foobar2000 is a very good tool but a bad player to enjoy good/very good recordings. Like a player only with ISO (SACD), with the very good SACD plugin.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/

SACD plugin, like ASIO/ASIO4ALL, not with default values off course.
 

mikehoopes

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You can and must change the 32 bits if the recordings are 24 bits. If you make resampler...
Going from 16 to 24 to 32 bits incurs no loss of data, just extra bit padding - which provides additional headroom for soft volume control, if one desires that.

I can't speak for the impact on latency in individual implementations (due to word length impact on processing overhead), but it's been over a decade since I've heard any crackling and popping while using anyone's default buffer setting in a wired DAC (going back to the Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA, lol).
 

Wolven

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You can and must change the 32 bits if the recordings are 24 bits. If you make resampler...

foobar2000 is a very good tool but a bad player to enjoy good/very good recordings. Like a player only with ISO (SACD), with the very good SACD plugin.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/

SACD plugin, like ASIO/ASIO4ALL, not with default values off course.

Interesting discussion over there. I think most people don't have SACD recordings. I only have a couple. The type of differences you are talking about require expensive gear. My main system is Monitor Audio RX6 and Denon AVR4200x. The desktop is DX3pro and Paradigm Shift A2. I don't think it makes much difference in my setups.
 

maty

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Interesting discussion over there. I think most people don't have SACD recordings. I only have a couple. The type of differences you are talking about require expensive gear. My main system is Monitor Audio RX6 and Denon AVR4200x. The desktop is DX3pro and Paradigm Shift A2. I don't think it makes much difference in my setups.

I could write a lot of about vinyl, CD, SACD, cassette, R2R recordings but it is not the thread. SACD is the best technology but it is badly used. If the recording is direct, in DSD, without subsequent PCM manipulation, the sound is AMAZING. But there are very few SACD for sale with that implementation.

With old analog masters, the sound is worse than its vinyl counterpart, it is amazing. Much better technology but the record companies miss it!

Only some Japanese SACD from The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival ... sound better than the vinyl, what do you expect.

And then there is the scam of HD 24/88 and 24/96, a lot of them are resamples of... the CD 16/44!!!! and not from the analogue/digital master.

But it is not the thread.
 

Stuart

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Well I received my Dx3 Pro a few days ago and have had quite a few hours with it. Looks and feels a very nice bit of kit. Sadly the clicking is there. Running through USB the DAC clicks quite often, enough to be irritating and a concern. I use it as a general sound card when working and it clicks during browsing various programs even RoyalTS !

Have held off confirming delivery and am awaiting a response from Topping. It will be a shame to send it back but it’s a bit much to spend on a DAC with such an obvious issue.
 
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