Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

[ryohnosuke]

I read that it was necessary to turn down the volume each time to avoid breaking the headphones is this true?

I think only in faulty units. My unit is new from Massdrop so I have not feedback about long term usage.

 

[thomasjast]

I just bought a DX3 pro from amazon.ca today, used at 110$ canadian.. from 290$ usually.

Whoa... how?! I got it on my wishlist and never seen it used. Lucky!

 

[06S2k07Si]

I use an extension named KEEPA , it check the prices and alert you when there is a deal. Firefox or Chrome, you make a wishlist and you import it in KEEPA

Thanks for that tip. I've heard about https://camelcamelcamel.com/ as well but never really looked into it.

 

[MichaelO]

I thought that a remote on a headphone amp was frivolous. But now that I've been living with the dx3pro for a while, I find I use it all the time! This was a great purchase, thanks to AudioScienceReview!

 

[Tks]

Preemptively went to clean up some of the mess I’ve seen with other units, ended up accidentally pulling the connection from the board to the front panel..

You would have thought this was designed by Apple with how much of a process it is just to try and reconnect it. Had to order an extra long Allen set that won’t be here till Saturday :-|

 

[Veri]

go on a d50 and amplifier jds labs atom is more expensive but can be more reliable, I hesitate. sorry for my english i use google translate

Like you say, can be more reliable. You need to make the choice

 

[06S2k07Si]

Preemptively went to clean up some of the mess I’ve seen with other units, ended up accidentally pulling the connection from the board to the front panel..

You would have thought this was designed by Apple with how much of a process it is just to try and reconnect it. Had to order an extra long Allen set that won’t be here till Saturday :-|

Ygpm...sorry...I might have replied too late...

 

[Ron Texas]

My D3X pro arrived yesterday after it's 2 week trip from China. It worked out of the box. I set it up by pressing the volume knob. Having to unplug it to get into the setup mode is a bit weird. The 1/8" jack is OK because that's what my HDS6XX has. Like other Topping designs it follows the Windows volume control so I set it as a non default device with Windows volume at 100% and use only the knob. The setup sounds fine to me playing off my Thinkpad notebook and an external 2.5" drive on my night table. It's only slightly larger than my Grace M9xx which has been moved back to my main system. The D30 is retired for now.

 

[Ron Texas]

I found a button battery for the remote, installed it wrong and thought it was broken. Strange battery holder in there, but at least the remote works intuitively. It's upstairs in the main system now in the DAC mode. The sound (imagination?) seems slightly less edgy than either the Grace M9xx or D30. The Audioengine D1 I have is not as edgy as either the Grace or D30, but isn't as clean probably owing to it's small size and lack of XMOS which likely led to compromises in the design.

 

[Wolven]

I found a button battery for the remote, installed it wrong and thought it was broken. Strange battery holder in there, but at least the remote works intuitively. It's upstairs in the main system now in the DAC mode. The sound (imagination?) seems slightly less edgy than either the Grace M9xx or D30. The Audioengine D1 I have is not as edgy as either the Grace or D30, but isn't as clean probably owing to it's small size and lack of XMOS which likely led to compromises in the design.

I found that Audioengine D1 was more muddy than DX3pro, D1 sounded darker. DX3pro was clearer and I could hear sounds through the speakers that I didn't realize were there with D1. Part of it may have been that D1 was used mainly with DS as it doesn't like WASAPI, while DX3pro is running in WASAPI.

 

[Ron Texas]

I found that Audioengine D1 was more muddy than DX3pro, D1 sounded darker. DX3pro was clearer and I could hear sounds through the speakers that I didn't realize were there with D1. Part of it may have been that D1 was used mainly with DS as it doesn't like WASAPI, while DX3pro is running in WASAPI.

That's interesting because my D1 doesn't like 88.2. It worked better with ASIO for all, so WASAPI is likely the culprit.

 

[Noob2313]

Just bought a new DX3 Pro from Amazon (USA). It arrived this afternoon and died after about 5 hours of play time, including an hour at full power into a set of Hifiman HE-400i's (which made surprisingly good bookshelf speakers). The failure occurred after I dialed back the power and was just listening normally at -24 dB. It appears to be the well known "stuck in standby" problem. I did not hear any pops or other noises when it failed. Too bad, the DX3 Pro's feature set was perfect for me...

BTW my unit's serial number is 190359xxxx. I installed the firmware update 1.04 (18L) as soon as I got it powered up. Both the firmware update and driver installation (Windows 7 Pro) went smoothly.

 

[gvl]

Anyone listened/compared DX3 Pro and Khadas Tone Board or Topping DX7s side by side? Want to hear your opinion, if you could detect any differences.

 

[DouglasteR]

Just bought a DX3 Pro from Amazon (USA). It arrived this afternoon and died after about 5 hours of play time, including an hour at full power into a set of Hifiman HE-400i's (which made surprisingly good bookshelf speakers). The failure occurred after I dialed back the power and was just listening normally at -24 dB. It appears to be the well known "stuck in standby" problem. I did not hear any pops or other noises when it failed. Too bad, the DX3 Pro's feature set was perfect for me...

BTW my unit's serial number is 190359xxxx. I installed the firmware update 1.04 (18L) as soon as I got it powered up. Both the firmware update and driver installation (Windows 7 Pro) went smoothly.

Can you double check you power supply voltage with a multimeter ?

 

[ryohnosuke]

BTW my unit's serial number is 190359xxxx. I installed the firmware update 1.04 (18L) as soon as I got it powered up. Both the firmware update and driver installation (Windows 7 Pro) went smoothly.

Could be old stock, mine is 1.04 when arrived

 

[thomasjast]

Could be old stock, mine is 1.04 when arrived

My thoughts as well. Perhaps serial number isn’t exactly indicative of build date as 1.04 came out in December.

 

[Noob2313]

My thoughts as well. Perhaps serial number isn’t exactly indicative of build date as 1.04 came out in December.

Does the firmware update write a log somewhere? If so, I could check the "before" version. (At the time I wasn't aware of the standby problem and wasn't watching things at that level of detail. I *assumed* that the firmware installer would tell me if the update was unnecessary.)

 

[Noob2313]

Can you double check you power supply voltage with a multimeter ?

The external power supply is branded as Topping. The model number is FY1501000. The nominal output is 15 VDC 1A. The measured output voltage is 15.06 V.

I thought the consensus was that the "stuck in standby" problem is due to an internal (opamp) failure? The display, menu system, and factory reset functions all work normally, which I wouldn't expect if the power supply was the problem.

 

[Noob2313]

OK let's talk about V2, I think many readers here are interested in it... Our imagined V2 will have at least the following differences:
1. Use electronic switch to replace relay as many as possible, so users will hear less click or no more click.
2. Specs a little better than V1, at least balanced the bad effect of electronic switch.
3. Has headphone protection. We don't want our users have any worry about the safe of their headphone.

But as I said before, we don't have a time table yet. Is there anything you want to see at V2? I'm looking forward to discuss with you all.

@TP-Wong

I only got a few hours of listening time before my DX3 Pro died, but I already have some suggestions for v2:

(1) The relay clicks were not a problem for me. I absolutely do NOT want to compromise sound quality to eliminate this.

(2) It is important to protect against unintentional gain changes. As currently configured, the "M" button on the remote is dangerous. Please offer an "advanced setup" option (in the menu system) to disable gain boost (and make it the default?).

(3) I was disappointed that the front panel display does not continuously show the sampling rate. Since this number dominates the D10's display I *assumed* (silly me) that it would also be continuously displayed by the DX3 Pro. I did figure out that rotating through the inputs will cause it to be temporarily (re)displayed, but that's a pain. Please modify the display in v2 so that it always shows the signal type, sampling rate, and bit depth. Some of us want to know what the input signal is. In fact, that's one of the reasons I bought Topping -- because it's clearly displayed. P.S. It's OK if you make the volume numbers smaller. I don't need the display to tell me how loud it is. I can hear that. (Except, of course, when I'm starting up.)

(4) I thought it was ridiculously geeky that the volume numbers are negative (decibels of attenuation). Please be normal and just go from 0 (minimum) to positive 99 (maximum).

(5) I do like the nice sharp detentes on the rotation of the volume knob, but it would be nice if they were silent, or at least quieter.

(6) Lastly, the ability to dial in some left-right balance would be helpful. I know the purists will reject this, but I'm slightly more deaf in my left ear than my right and it helps me a lot if the outputs aren't perfectly balanced. (The same need applies to any room when playing from speakers.)

 

[Yuno]

(3) I was disappointed that the front panel display does not show the sampling rate. Since this number dominates the D10's display I *assumed* (silly me) that it would be continuously displayed by the DX3 Pro. I did figure out that rotating through the inputs will cause it to be temporarily displayed, but that's a pain. Please modify the display in v2 so that it always shows the signal type, sampling rate, and bit depth. .

It does in DAC mode (volume fixed). I have no idea why do you care though. Does knowing your sampling rate makes music sound better?
If you use wasapi it will be always the same as music you are playing.

I don't need the display to tell me how loud it is. I can hear that. (Except, of course, when I'm starting up.).

I could not disagree more. Removing (or shrinking) vital information such as volume level on a device that has no other indicator of that might end up in hearing damage at worst, unpleasant surprise at best.