New DAC/HP AMP

[Esp3n89]

Hey.
Looking at buying a new DAC and headphone amp with balanced HP output, low noise for IEM, as well as XLR preamp output.
Having looked around the choice for now is between Topping DX5 II and SMSL RAW MDA1.
Dont really need insane watts. Heaviest pair Iv got is Beyerdynamic 1990 pro for studiowork.
Using a Khadas Tone atm with an JDS Atom amp. But need xlr preamp outs going forwards, and the usb connector on the Khadas is going bad.

Any other good options I should look at?
Any thoughts on the Topping or SMSL
Would love to splurge on the RME dacamp but out of my budget atm...

Best regards
Espen

 

[RandomEar]

The DX5 II has got PEQ and I've seen reports about firmware bugs and hardware failures with the RAW MDA1 (see review thread and Amazon reviews), so I'd say go with the Topping. There stil seem to be some bugs in the "Topping Tune" software for configuring the PEQ, but overall it sounds serviceable.