Shenzhenaudio Topping EX5 Review (DAC and Headphone Amplifier)

[MNMLSM]

Is there anything that is similar to this EX5 that maybe doesn't have balanced/MQA support and costs less? I need something basic for my office, ideally with a volume control knob so I want to get away from Dongles.

Take a look at the Loxjie D30.

 

[Transmaniacon]

Take a look at the Loxjie D30.

This looks great! And $100 cheaper than the DX3 Pro. I also like that has the power supply built in.

 

[muslhead]

@JohnYang1997 - Now that you have the troops all fired up, when will this be available to purchase?

 

[amirm]

They were waiting on manual being printed.

 

[buxtehude]

D30pro has much better dynamic range and lower noise floor.

Hello @JohnYang1997
Preamp quality wise, any difference between D30Pro & D70s?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Hello @JohnYang1997
Preamp quality wise, any difference between D30Pro & D70s?

D30pro is a bit better.

 

[buxtehude]

D30pro is a bit better.

Wow that's surprising given the price... Thanks!!

 

[laudio]

Really nice DAC. I'll consider buying one even though I have a perfectly adequate Loxjie D30 in my main setup, can always use another DAC in my other setups though.

After reading thru most of thread - somebody please explain to me why a SOA DAC can't have PEQ built in again? That should be a no brainer, audio gear had it 50 years ago with equalizers. We have SOA gear supposedly that can't do basic stuff.

C'mon Jonny Yang - you know it's easy too, so what's the deal? S/N ratio has pushed the limit, most folks care about sound shaping with their speakers and tweaks they can mess with easily. Own that market you own it all.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Really nice DAC. I'll consider buying one even though I have a perfectly adequate Loxjie D30 in my main setup, can always use another DAC in my other setups though.

After reading thru most of thread - somebody please explain to me why a SOA DAC can't have PEQ built in again? That should be a no brainer, audio gear had it 50 years ago with equalizers. We have SOA gear supposedly that can't do basic stuff.

C'mon Jonny Yang - you know it's easy too, so what's the deal? S/N ratio has pushed the limit, most folks care about sound shaping with their speakers and tweaks they can mess with easily. Own that market you own it all.

It's not easy.
Let me ask you, what dsp chip supports 384khz or 768khz. And take a step back what src chip supports it? What about DSD input? FPGA? Then how many bands do we need? What precision? Do we also need to be able to upgrade FPGA code? Via microcontroller from XMOS?
Another question what's the percentage of people knows how to use parametric eq? What if 90% of the users don't know how to use and completely jammed up our custome service channel? Do we teach them or give some online documents? What if half of them still can't get it working or don't know what to do? Maybe just ignore them? Then we are off for a big trouble in the future.
And do people really think 5/7 band PEQ is good enough? Don't they want something like 32 band and maybe auto correction from a file or something?
It's not easy. Too much thought are put into this.

 

[laudio]

It's not easy.
Let me ask you, what dsp chip supports 384khz or 768khz. And take a step back what src chip supports it? What about DSD input? FPGA? Then how many bands do we need? What precision? Do we also need to be able to upgrade FPGA code? Via microcontroller from XMOS?
Another question what's the percentage of people knows how to use parametric eq? What if 90% of the users don't know how to use and completely jammed up our custome service channel? Do we teach them or give some online documents? What if half of them still can't get it working or don't know what to do? Maybe just ignore them? Then we are off for a big trouble in the future.
And do people really think 5/7 band PEQ is good enough? Don't they want something like 32 band and maybe auto correction from a file or something?
It's not easy. Too much thought are put into this.

Thank you for the reply. But that is all engineer gobbledygook honestly (I'm an engineer and understand most of that). Users don't care about the hardness details for you, it's your job to figure out how to make it easy to the end user despite the difficulties. Make a DAC with PEQ that the average user can adjust EQ bands easily and you hit a home run.

That's the way it used to be and nobody cared about the RC filters in an analog EQ , they just adjusted sliders. I've played many times on my streamer with PEQ and Dirac - it's a total cluster, not worth messing around with. And I know tech.

Just make it easy and you own the market!

 

[amirm]

It's not easy.
Let me ask you, what dsp chip supports 384khz or 768khz. And take a step back what src chip supports it? What about DSD input? FPGA? Then how many bands do we need? What precision? Do we also need to be able to upgrade FPGA code? Via microcontroller from XMOS?
Another question what's the percentage of people knows how to use parametric eq? What if 90% of the users don't know how to use and completely jammed up our custome service channel? Do we teach them or give some online documents? What if half of them still can't get it working or don't know what to do? Maybe just ignore them? Then we are off for a big trouble in the future.
And do people really think 5/7 band PEQ is good enough? Don't they want something like 32 band and maybe auto correction from a file or something?
It's not easy. Too much thought are put into this.

All good questions. But a bigger question is, where do you go from here? Functionality is already maxed out as far as this class of product. Performance is as well. What would you do next year?

I think a simplified subset of what you list would be fine. PCM-only to 192 kHz would be fine. If you create an open interface, members could even volunteer to write the EQ front-end software to load the filter parameters into the unit. This could be a hack where one plays a PCM .wav file and it is used as the filter settings.

For precision, noise should be below 24 bit. So if you use 32 bit fixed point math, you should be OK.

On number of filters, 10 would be more than enough. And or a convolution.

Average user doesn't need to know about this feature as the device itself doesn't expose anything other than maybe a switch to turn EQ on and off.

The EQ message is getting stronger by the day. I am making sure of it. It is key to great sound but access to it is hard. So while you should think hard about our input (as it could be bad for you/your market), I think it requires a serious look. We can provide a lot of feedback on what is needed/not needed per above.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Thank you for the reply. But that is all engineer gobbledygook honestly (I'm an engineer and understand most of that). Users don't care about the hardness details for you, it's your job to figure out how to make it easy to the end user despite the difficulties. Make a DAC with PEQ that the average user can adjust EQ bands easily and you hit a home run.

That's the way it used to be and nobody cared about the RC filters in an analog EQ , they just adjusted sliders. I've played many times on my streamer with PEQ and Dirac - it's a total cluster, not worth messing around with. And I know tech.

Just make it easy and you own the market!

You said it's easy.

 

[laudio]

You said it's easy.

I did say that LOL. Easy for a guy like you, since you make nice products that is for sure. So should be easy

I just want a DAC like your Topping I can dial in and make the sound like I want without having to screw around with computers, filters, and everyting else. Disregarding the difficulties in implementation surely there is a way. No?

 

[JohnYang1997]

There are of course lots of stuff behind the scenes. I can't say much. But we have our new goals and evaluations.
The comment was made simply to say it was not a easy thing.
I don't want our competitors to know what we are doing. And I also don't want people to have too much expectations on the new coming things. Neither I want to hype it up just to see it delayed over and over again. When something is done something is done. Having hope is good though.

 

[raif71]

You people mentioning PEQ with DAC, is it the same as what E1DA PowerDAC is doing ?

 

[Walter]

I have no idea how many others feel the same, but I personally would love to see something similar to a miniDSP 2x4 HD but with a DAC (and overall quality) as good as, say, a Topping E30. No need for a headphone output. Balanced outputs would also be a plus, and commercially would probably make the most sense on something of this type. If you could also make it easier to use, that would be fantastic but not absolutely necessary. The idea of an open interface that could accept community built configurations is very appealing, as well. But of course, Topping wants to make a profit and I have no idea how many customers there would be for such a device or what it would cost to make it. If it is going to have to sell for $500 in order to be profitable, then I doubt you would find many takers. At $250 - $350, it would make a great option.

 

[PeteL]

I have no idea how many others feel the same, but I personally would love to see something similar to a miniDSP 2x4 HD but with balanced outputs and a DAC and overall quality as good as, say, a Topping E30. No need for a headphone output. Balanced outputs would also be a plus, and commercially would probably make the most sense on something of this type. If you could also make it easier to use, that would be fantastic but not absolutely necessary. The idea of an open interface that could accept community built configurations is very appealing, as well. But of course, Topping wants to make a profit and I have no idea how many customers there would be for such a device or what it would cost to make it. If it is going to have to sell for $500 in order to be profitable, then I doubt you would find many takers. At $250 - $350, it would make a great option.

I'm just gonna say, there is a reason serious DSP units are still a thousand bucks, there's always a reason.

 

[Massimo]

I'm very interested in this DAC but not if I can only buy it from Shenzenaudio. They have a poor reputation for after sales support. Will it be available from other/local dealers?

 

[amirm]

I'm very interested in this DAC but not if I can only buy it from Shenzenaudio. They have a poor reputation for after sales support. Will it be available from other/local dealers?

This one is exclusive to them. It even has their name on it.

 

[jannek]

It's not easy.
Let me ask you, what dsp chip supports 384khz or 768khz. And take a step back what src chip supports it? What about DSD input? FPGA? Then how many bands do we need? What precision? Do we also need to be able to upgrade FPGA code? Via microcontroller from XMOS?
Another question what's the percentage of people knows how to use parametric eq? What if 90% of the users don't know how to use and completely jammed up our custome service channel? Do we teach them or give some online documents? What if half of them still can't get it working or don't know what to do? Maybe just ignore them? Then we are off for a big trouble in the future.
And do people really think 5/7 band PEQ is good enough? Don't they want something like 32 band and maybe auto correction from a file or something?
It's not easy. Too much thought are put into this.

I'd prefer a device with PEQ over one with compatibility to the most absurd data rates (to which there is no content anyway) anytime.
The PEQ parameters given at AutoEQ are 10 bands and usually seem to be sufficient to cure the most FR flaws. And they are available as a ready made .txt file which could be uploaded. Of course it would be necessary to have several EQ presets easy to switch when changing from Over-Ears to IEMs for example.