Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

[letsgoo]

I didnt install driver, using MacBookPro. How to check firmware then? Thanks for your response , letsgoo.

Oh. :-( Maybe on a windows pc. But if you have to serial number starts with 190 or like that, it should be already v.1.04...

 

[SEKLEM]

And I can definitely say that Bluetooth is absolutely impossible to use here with those clicks.

Why does the clicking make it impossible to use for Bluetooth? Do the clicks harm the DX3 Pro, or is it just annoying to you?

 

[guitarshredda15]

Yeah, I already did it as first. When I am connected with my PC over USB, it's fine and just clicks when the frequency changes.
Could you please test the Bluetooth mode? Both my mobile gadgets makes the same issue(Tablet and Phone). If I play music, it's fine, if I just change the music without pause it's fine, when I pause the music, click.

If it is the same on you, it seems to be normal, if not I think I should ask for a change.

Ok I just checked bluetooth again, using Poweramp and Spotify off my Galaxy S9+. It clicks when you change over to bluetooth input from USB, it then clicks again when you start playing music. When you stop playing music to the device for 5 seconds or so, it cuts out it seems and clicks. With my more sensitive IEMs I can hear the noise floor of the amp in bluetooth, after 5 seconds it seems to cut out, the noise floor disappears and click occurs, I am assuming the bluetooth semi-switches off or something. When you start playing music again, it clicks and plays normally.

Tbh I dont see this as a problem, it only clicks when you stop or start the music for 5 seconds. If its playing one song after another there are no clicks. Hope that helps. Look I get it, the clicks might annoy some people, I kind of find them cool lol.

 

[guitarshredda15]

Bluetooth constantly clicks, I wrote about this problem a couple of months ago and no answer from topping are they going to fix it in the firmware or not. So I guess they will not fix it.
And I can definitely say that Bluetooth is absolutely impossible to use here with those clicks. Spontaneous shutdowns of the device also continues when it is connected via USB, and there is no information whether this will be fixed in the future or not.

Its been a few days now and mine hasn't shut down at all yet. I switched off auto shutdown and manually shutdown myself when I go to bed. I have also been moving it around a lot, plugging it into my PC and then an AV receiver in the lounge, it seems to be rugged enough that moving it alone won't break anything, if it survived a trip from China to South Africa where I am, I confident that the build quality is at least decent.

 

[letsgoo]

Ok I just checked bluetooth again, using Poweramp and Spotify off my Galaxy S9+. It clicks when you change over to bluetooth input from USB, it then clicks again when you start playing music. When you stop playing music to the device for 5 seconds or so, it cuts out it seems and clicks. With my more sensitive IEMs I can hear the noise floor of the amp in bluetooth, after 5 seconds it seems to cut out, the noise floor disappears and click occurs, I am assuming the bluetooth semi-switches off or something. When you start playing music again, it clicks and plays normally.

Tbh I dont see this as a problem, it only clicks when you stop or start the music for 5 seconds. If its playing one song after another there are no clicks. Hope that helps. Look I get it, the clicks might annoy some people, I kind of find them cool lol.

Thanks for the test. It is I think exactly the same situation (at least with Samsung Device). On Huawei Tablet, it also clicked when I moved the seekbar on 'Youtube Video'.
I don't know if clicking is bad for the life of dac. My actual problem was, that I got this device replaced and don't remember how it was on the old one. I thought there was no clocking so I was worried, that the replaced device is somehow not working correctly.

Btw. I have to admit that it bothers a little. Not that much but it is not very nice.

 

[letsgoo]

Bluetooth constantly clicks, I wrote about this problem a couple of months ago and no answer from topping are they going to fix it in the firmware or not. So I guess they will not fix it.
And I can definitely say that Bluetooth is absolutely impossible to use here with those clicks. Spontaneous shutdowns of the device also continues when it is connected via USB, and there is no information whether this will be fixed in the future or not.

If yours shut down spontaneously even you changed the auto-off setting, try to contact the seller.
But I anyway shut it off when I am done using it, so not sure...

 

[SEKLEM]

Look I get it, the clicks might annoy some people, I kind of find them cool lol.

The clicks don’t bother me either, but I also don’t have the DX3 Pro connected to my PC. I’m just using it with Bluetooth and pre for the PA3 at the moment, and I know that’s not an excellent utilization of this device, but I have more planned for it later.

 

[guitarshredda15]

Thanks for the test. It is I think exactly the same situation (at least with Samsung Device). On Huawei Tablet, it also clicked when I moved the seekbar on 'Youtube Video'.
I don't know if clicking is bad for the life of dac. My actual problem was, that I got this device replaced and don't remember how it was on the old one. I thought there was no clocking so I was worried, that the replaced device is somehow not working correctly.

Btw. I have to admit that it bothers a little. Not that much but it is not very nice.

Ok I tried seeking on youtube, have a bad connection where I am at the moment, if it buffers for 5 seconds before playing, it cuts/clicks and then starts. If you are seeking with the video fully loaded there is no clicking. Also seeked on Poweramp, none of the songs made the click when seeking. So it seems the clicking has to do with no signal reaching the DAC for more than 5 seconds? Not sure what the point of that would be? Tbh I don't see why this cant be rectified with another firmware update, simply tell the Bluetooth section of the device not to cut out after 5 seconds? I have no idea if that's possible or if @TP-Wong already addressed this earlier in this thread

I can see why it would annoy someone in certain situations, not the worst thing though, still nice they even included some decent Bluetooth on the device.

 

[guitarshredda15]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, still learning! I was running the DX3 to a Denon AV receiver last night, wanted to watch movies off a laptop onto the lounge TV and sound system. Rather than just plugging the laptop headphone jack out to the RCA Aux inputs on the back of the receiver, I connected the DX3 to the laptop and then ran the lineouts to the Aux input of the receiver.

Are the AUX rca inputs the correct place to plug in the line outs from the DX3? Is that best practice? There are a bunch of those standard RCA inputs on the receiver (TAPE, CD, AUX etc.) I'm never sure what the differences are between all of those. Hope that all makes sense!

 

[SEKLEM]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, still learning! I was running the DX3 to a Denon AV receiver last night, wanted to watch movies off a laptop onto the lounge TV and sound system. Rather than just plugging the laptop headphone jack out to the RCA Aux inputs on the back of the receiver, I connected the DX3 to the laptop and then ran the lineouts to the Aux input of the receiver.

Are the AUX rca inputs the correct place to plug in the line outs from the DX3? Is that best practice? There are a bunch of those standard RCA inputs on the receiver (TAPE, CD, AUX etc.) I'm never sure what the differences are between all of those. Hope that all makes sense!

Should make no difference. If it’s a competently designed and manufactured component each input should be no different from another (other than Phono).

 

[guitarshredda15]

Should make no difference. If it’s a competently designed and manufactured component each input should be no different from another (other than Phono).

Thanks for that, makes sense. With AV receivers is it possible to bypass the onboard DAC and run straight to the amp if running DX3 in line-level out? I was playing around with different settings, the Denon seems to have a setting called "Direct" which I am guessing bypasses some of the digital stuff on the amp.

 

[SEKLEM]

Thanks for that, makes sense. With AV receivers is it possible to bypass the onboard DAC and run straight to the amp if running DX3 in line-level out? I was playing around with different settings, the Denon seems to have a setting called "Direct" which I am guessing bypasses some of the digital stuff on the amp.

Direct should bypass the ADC on most AV receivers. Modern AVRs use an ADC to allow post processing such as active equalization and bass management which I believe needs PCM to work. So if you have a subwoofer in this setup it may be bypassed when you use direct. If the subwoofer is still active after putting the AVR into direct that likely indicates the receiver is still converting incoming analog signals to digital for post processing.

 

[Dmytro]

I also had device that stuck in standby mode and I sent it to Topping in March. At May 8 they responded with: "We found that a strong short circuit also caused OPA2140 damage, so we change to AD8620 and increased output impedance to 4.7ohm with this period of time. This adjust just finish and we will send out this week."

@amirm and forum members, what is your opinion on this changes? How will it change sound quality?

 

[JohnYang1997]

I also had device that stuck in standby mode and I sent it to Topping in March. At May 8 they responded with: "We found that a strong short circuit also caused OPA2140 damage, so we change to AD8620 and increased output impedance to 4.7ohm with this period of time. This adjust just finish and we will send out this week."

@amirm and forum members, what is your opinion on this changes? How will it change sound quality?

Negative impact on sound quality. Almost taking out the biggest reasons why it was good in the first place.

 

[letsgoo]

I also had device that stuck in standby mode and I sent it to Topping in March. At May 8 they responded with: "We found that a strong short circuit also caused OPA2140 damage, so we change to AD8620 and increased output impedance to 4.7ohm with this period of time. This adjust just finish and we will send out this week."

@amirm and forum members, what is your opinion on this changes? How will it change sound quality?

Hey what happened to your device? Does the short circuit happens without any accident? Is there a problem of power cable? Would it help if I use an overvoltage protector for this device?

 

[Tks]

I also had device that stuck in standby mode and I sent it to Topping in March. At May 8 they responded with: "We found that a strong short circuit also caused OPA2140 damage, so we change to AD8620 and increased output impedance to 4.7ohm with this period of time. This adjust just finish and we will send out this week."

@amirm and forum members, what is your opinion on this changes? How will it change sound quality?

Pretty bad, if you use many of the modern IEM's for sure its going to have an effect on frequency response.

General rule of thumb, if you want to avoid issues of this nature you need to make sure the output impedance of your device is no more than 1/10th - 1/8th of the impedance of the listening device you're connecting to it.

This isn't something I would accept honestly, as I have two IEM's and one with 16ohm impedance. So if you know you're never going to use devices lower than 47ohms, then this change won't effect you much at all. But any devices under this, expect the sound profile to start changing slightly.

I would ask for a refund if they can't provide you an exchanged device of identical published specs or hardware. Especially when it concerns something like the output impedance of the device. Seeing as how the DX3 Pro isn't some sort of Balanced XLR device where not many people might be using low impedance IEM's.. they should be doing better than providing you the offering on a device sporting a very common 3.5mm unbalanced jack.

 

[Dmytro]

@Tks, thanks for a reply! My headphones are Hifiman Sundara with impedance of 37 Ohm. According to minimal divider 1/8, suitable amplifier impedance should be 4.6 Ohm. Looks like updated revision of DX3Pro with 4.7 Ohm should not has some impact on that headphones, will it?

 

[auronthas]

Got my unit today and was having the same issue. I could not pair it with any BT device I have. Tried the factory reset, no change. Then I reinstalled the latest firmware and now it works.

I am facing the same BT issue now. My first day DX3 Pro able to detect my BT connected devices but not the past few days, DX3 Pro can't detect my phone, DAPs, etc. when I set to BT mode.

Come across this post ... Should I reinstall V1.04 firmware ? Or other advise is appreciated.

 

[Veri]

@Tks, thanks for a reply! My headphones are Hifiman Sundara with impedance of 37 Ohm. According to minimal divider 1/8, suitable amplifier impedance should be 4.6 Ohm. Looks like updated revision of DX3Pro with 4.7 Ohm should not has some impact on that headphones, will it?

You have a planar magnetic headphone. Most planar hardly, if at all respond to impedance changes. As seen here for your headphone: https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANSundara.pdf

Impedance response is just about flat. So for the Sundara already, it is no issue at all. For high impedance dynamics impact is limited as well. For low impedance and sensitive headphones, FR changes start to happen which usually results in boomy bass for one thing, depending on how high the impedance mismatch is.

 

[auronthas]

I am facing the same BT issue now. My first day DX3 Pro able to detect my BT connected devices but not the past few days, DX3 Pro can't detect my phone, DAPs, etc. when I set to BT mode.

Come across this post ... Should I reinstall V1.04 firmware ? Or other advise is appreciated.

Reinstall firmware V1.04 revives my BT discovery , pairing and connection with my handphone and DAPs.

But what make it disappear ?