Topping G5 Review (Portable DAC & HP Amp)

[audiotron]

Awesome review as usual. Solid performing product but the only issue I have with it is the price.

 

[antikryst]

so basically this is a battery powered DX3 pro... been wanting something like the NX7 but with a built in DAC. this looks to be it.

 

[confucius_zero]

So... desktop stack killer anybody?

 

[audiofun]

So... desktop stack killer anybody?

you can buy schiit/jds stack at much cheaper (2/3 of the) price...

 

[escape2]

So... desktop stack killer anybody?

Sure, if you don't mind killing the battery.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

@amirm. Would it be possible to see the output measurements with a phone (otg audio mode) connected by a usb cable to the G5 inputs?

Also can you report if you can hear any wifi/LTE/5G emi related noises if you have a smartphone near the G5 using the stealth or one of your iems?

Lastly can you display the FFT for ldac as the source?

Thanks

 

[theREALdotnet]

to all the folks arguing about the filter.
Why not used 96khz or 192khz and apply what ever filter you like?

Topping knows this, of course, and gives their specs for 96kHz.

 

[theREALdotnet]

The G5 is a portable DAC+Amp intended to be used with smartphones.
Afaik there's no equivalent to HQPlayer for Android or macOS, especially not one that works with streaming services like Apple music and Spotify, which are likely to be used with the G5.

There are players (such as Neutron) that can play hires from local files, DLNA, SMB shares, etc (and also do PEQ and upsampling), but don’t work with streaming services. Apple Music, Qobuz and the like have hires content that will work with USB DACs, but the majority of their content is still 44.1kHz.

 

[SuicideSquid]

Absolutely a flat response is number 1. Everything else comes second in high fidelity.

What's next? Roll off above 10kHz and get even better numbers?

I will take a device that begins to roll off slightly at 18kHz - a frequency that I, a person under 40 who has taken care of his ears, can barely hear and a frequency above which there is no musical content, if I'm getting essentially perfect numbers across the board in all other respects, and that goes double if I can up the sample rate and get flat response well beyond the audible range.

You're being ridiculous.

 

[raif71]

RIP Chord Mojo.

Long Live Chord Mojo II

 

[yavormoskov]

Thanks Amir
This filter is the only dark non perfect point.

The price is also higher than I'm willing to pay for such a device. But that's me.

No test of Aux in then ;-)

Chord Mojo 2 is much pricier than this unit.

 

[Fawzay]

Was thinking of grabbing BTR7 until Topping launched this. Not sure which one to grab tho...

 

[Music1969]

Topping got back to me and said the filter choice is by design. They are willing to change it if we/I ask for it. Do we want to do it?

The trade off here is getting rid of out of band noise with current filter vs flatter frequency response but potentially more bleeding due to ultrasonic leakage.

Leave it as is @JohnYang1997

There's always HQPlayer for the ultimate in digital filtering

 

[Georgrig]

Per

G5 Portable DAC\u0026amp;AMP-TOPPING

View attachment 224607

Still, whether the device is MFi (Made For iPhone) certified is unclear.

The NX4 for instance wasn't. Although there were cables at first, iOS updates broke the compatibility because Topping did not bother with getting certified.

 

[amirm]

@amirm. Would it be possible to see the output measurements with a phone (otg audio mode) connected by a usb cable to the G5 inputs?

I'll try.

 

[Prana Ferox]

A rolloff like that is not remotely high fidelity. -14dB at 20kHz is a bad joke. The pioneers of digital would be rolling in their graves.

They can't roll in their graves, John, don't be silly. They can only toggle from a face-up directly to a face-down state and back

 

[Georgrig]

Was thinking of grabbing BTR7 until Topping launched this. Not sure which one to grab tho...

The smallest of the two. BTR7 incorporates a PEQ.

 

[TRDK]

Thanks Amir. Very interesting product.

 

[TRDK]

I did get this info from the support

 

[thin bLue]

Now, the Portable device slaughters former stand alone emperor L30. wow