Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

[galaxykaho]

Do anyone know where can i download the driver without using baidu?
I got my dx3pro parcel but can do nothing without driver

 

[amirm]

Amirm, any chance you could look at my earlier post regarding the switching? I would absolutely love an answer since this looks the unit I'm looking for.

I tested it again and it is good. The first time you hit the "line out" button on the remote, it goes to variable output. You would have to hit a second time to get it to full, fixed output.

So the only time you get in trouble is if you hit the button twice.

 

[amirm]

It looks that I will have to connect my self-powered speakers through the headphone jack to control volume.

Why? You can put the unit in line-out mode and control RCA jack level using the volume control.

 

[amirm]

Do anyone know where can i download the driver without using baidu?
I got my dx3pro parcel but can do nothing without driver

You should not need any driver if you are running latest version of Windows 10. Are you using something older?

Regardless, if you need it, just contact Topping and they should provide it.

 

[Wolven]

Why? You can put the unit in line-out mode and control RCA jack level using the volume control.

That's good. Trying to see the manual on last page, I thought it said so, but it was fuzzy. So, basically guessing. Oops. Sorry, didn't mean to spread misinformation. I will edit.

 

[Hammondk]

You should not need any driver if you are running latest version of Windows 10. Are you using something older?

Regardless, if you need it, just contact Topping and they should provide it.

Hi Amir,

Going back to my thinking on LPS for DX3 Pro. Any critique on the potential benefits that I can derive from such an expense?

Thanks Amir

 

[amirm]

Hi Amir,

Going back to my thinking on LPS for DX3 Pro. Any critique on the potential benefits that I can derive from such an expense?

Thanks Amir

Personally I would not bother. Power supply noise is well below the distortion spikes if you look at the FFT in the dashboard.

 

[pii75]

Looking to the block diagram of AKM 4493EQ ( https://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/datasheet1/?partno=AK4493EQ ) I see that DSD path can bypass the attenuator and delta sigma modulator (thus avoiding PCM conversion) in case the volume bypass DSDD bit is set to 1.
Is the "DAC mode" in DX3PRO implemented with volume bypass? Or it uses always the attenuator with at fixed 0dB attenuation?

 

[qwuzzy]

I skimmed through 9 pages of this thread and didn't see an answer I was looking for so excuse me if it's been answered. What do all the buttons on the remote do? The DX7S seems to have slightly different inputs.

Spoiler: DX7S Remote Controls

 

[ILovePhonon]

I’ve read somewhere on the internet that you can use this DX3 Pro purely as a headphone amplifier. Looking at the back connection, there is no way you can use this thing as a pure headphone amp. Am I missing something here?

 

[pii75]

I’ve read somewhere on the internet that you can use this DX3 Pro purely as a headphone amplifier. Looking at the back connection, there is no way you can use this thing as a pure headphone amp. Am I missing something here?

There aren't analog input, so you can not use it as pure headphone amplifier.

 

[ILovePhonon]

There aren't analog input, so you can not use it as pure headphone amplifier.

Yeah that’s what I think, but even the manual says there’s a “headphone amp” mode

 

[pii75]

Yeah that’s what I think, but even the manual says there’s a “headphone amp” mode View attachment 17626

In this context "headphone amp" mode means that only the headphone output is active while the line out is disabled.

 

[john100a]

I tested it again and it is good. The first time you hit the "line out" button on the remote, it goes to variable output. You would have to hit a second time to get it to full, fixed output.

So the only time you get in trouble is if you hit the button twice.

I was talking about the device itself, not the remote. Is there a way to reliably get a pre-out switching from the device itself?

 

[Toku]

I was talking about the device itself, not the remote. Is there a way to reliably get a pre-out switching from the device itself?

You can do all operations with the remote control or the knob on the main unit.
The procedure of the operation is described in the manual up by amirm.

 

[Tup3x]

@amirm Did you measure the crosstalk (or am I reading things wrong )? The manual spec list seems to have rather conservative crosstalk claims so it would be nice to know how well it does in practice.

While I'm really happy with my AE-5, I can't exactly take it with me or use it with my work laptop so something external wouldn't be a bad companion.

It would be really nice to know how DX3 Pro compares with AE-5. The only proper measurements that I've seen about AE-5 are here: https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/dac/creative-sound-blaster-ae-5.php but one can't exactly compare different measurements (also when testing internal cards PSU quality, mobo quality and even pc case can make a real difference)...




Originally I did plan to use my Massdrop O2 with SoundBlaster Zx but while waiting for O2 to arrive I bought AE-5 which arrived earlier than O2 (those DHL packages from Massdrop take ages to arrive and spend most of the time in Germany). For some reason my O2 seems to measure really poorly compared to AE-5 headphone out. To me O2 had worse sound stage and/or stereo imaging. Also dynamic range sounded more compressed. I do listen at rather low volume so I guess that can make a bigger difference in that case (?).

So I decided to check it out with RMAA. O2 1x gain, AE-5 low gain which seems to be 1x gain (i.e. ~as much power as line out so about 2 vrms); O2 from AE-5 line out.

It's clear that ADC limits the results (AE-5 results especially) but in any case I was quite surprised. (I used ASIO for playback and recording, direct modes for AE-5 to disable all DSP processing, fast roll off filter). That obviously doesn't tell the full story but it does seem to somewhat mach with the results I heard before doing the test so placebo doesn't explain it. I was quite disappointed with my purchase (especially since I bought EU power supply separately just for it).

 

[MattG]

How does volume control through USB work with this DAC? I know you can change volume with the remote or buttons on the device itself. But I believe the AK4493 supports in-chip hardware volume control; is the XMOS receiver programmed to pass volume control to the AKM ICs?

I'm thinking of getting one of these to hang off a Raspberry Pi, for a little MPD music server. Since I'll already be using an app to control playback, it would be nice to use the same app interface for volume control as well.

 

[john100a]

You can do all operations with the remote control or the knob on the main unit.
The procedure of the operation is described in the manual up by amirm.

Please refer me to the part where it says how to switch to RCA pre-outs without the remote.

 

[Felipe Torres]

Please refer me to the part where it says how to switch to RCA pre-outs without the remote.

It's exactly the same way the DX7s works. Double-click the multi-function button on the front panel (the volume knob) and it will cycle through the output modes (headphone only ➜ headphone and RCA ➜ RCA fixed ➜ RCA pre-out).

 

[Darwin]

My Ali Express order shipped. 12 to 20 days....