Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

[Cidious]

So you have the DX3? Did you have any issues? You say it's worrying you. Like you havent had issues yet. It sounds more like you're deciding which device to buy without owning the DX3.

If you do own the DX3, why don't you upgrade the powersupply to a 1.5A+ one. I ran 3 of them on a 1.5A LPS and have had no issues so far. Toppping already hinted that the PSU adapted might not be a right fit and changing it might solve the issue. Why don't you give it a try.

I personally also ordered a Khadas tone board just for research purposes to compare the latest ESS chip against this AKM dac. But it will only be in maybe next week so I can't give you any comparison info now. I'll be sure to post next week though.

All in all the DX3 is a much completer package with a case and display and remote and bluetooth....

 

[amirm]

How reliable is the tone board and is this a wise decision? I like the screen and remote on the DX3, but it isn’t a deal breaker.

I have not heard of any failures of Tone Board here. Nor Atom. The combo is superior in performance but has other drawbacks such as needing a case for Tone Board, extra cables, etc.

 

[chrisliuboy]

for How long have you been using the DX3? Since I noticed this harshness went away after some proper burn in time. I also experienced this when running just the DAC. Now I run my Lehman as a pre-amp after it which greatly warms it and smoothens the grainyness. I'd recon some output trafos as described here above could be an outcome too. I'll be looking into that too.

I got it and used it daily for two month now. Yeah, the harshness seems went away after sometime or just my ear adopted to it. But after one random shut down, I switched the PS to 15V 1.66A and connect to usb3.1, it never got a random shut down again since a month ago. On the other hand, I start to hear the crackle noise more often and as mentioned. I was doing A-B testing with my no-brand DAC (AD1852 - OPA2604 - TPA6120A2) , the songs are more enjoyable, punchy and surrounding while DX3 feel distanced, colder and crackle noise a bit more obvious. Honestly I am surprised that I could hear the difference like this.

Thanks for the advice of the OP amps, really helpful, I think if I give up on this unit with my current headphone, I will try to modify it, since all my tools are back in China and I haven't soldered anything since..forever

 

[finneybear]

Sidenote: The Sparkos SS3602 needs burning in for at least 100 hours their website states.. I have maybe just ran 10 hours with it. The board is also brand new and needs a few hours of running time to settle. As is I'd already sign for it. But I have a feeling it will all improve more over time. So I'll post back if something changed.

Nice report! Sparko is one very nice discrete OP. Actually it's more like an amp as it does not have a big open loop gain. It is really meant for audio band though, with the lower gain bandwidth. In other words, it is not right for this LPF job; however, due to its on board caps, etc, looks like it actually works well at this position. The AP numbers may get worse but who cares. LOL

 

[finneybear]

I currently have the Topping DX3 Pro and am considering moving to the Tone Board and Atom amp. I only use USB as an input connection. The random dying of the DX3 has me worried and warranty to China is not realistic.

How reliable is the tone board and is this a wise decision? I like the screen and remote on the DX3, but it isn’t a deal breaker.

Khadas is also designed/made in China.

 

[finneybear]

I got it and used it daily for two month now. Yeah, the harshness seems went away after sometime or just my ear adopted to it. But after one random shut down, I switched the PS to 15V 1.66A and connect to usb3.1, it never got a random shut down again since a month ago. On the other hand, I start to hear the crackle noise more often and as mentioned. I was doing A-B testing with my no-brand DAC (AD1852 - OPA2604 - TPA6120A2) , the songs are more enjoyable, punchy and surrounding while DX3 feel distanced, colder and crackle noise a bit more obvious. Honestly I am surprised that I could hear the difference like this.

Thanks for the advice of the OP amps, really helpful, I think if I give up on this unit with my current headphone, I will try to modify it, since all my tools are back in China and I haven't soldered anything since..forever

I see. So you were talking about the headphone output.

AD1852 is one nice sounding DAC, ADI chips in general have high dynamics and strong bass.

I am wondering if there's anything gone wrong with the clocks in your DX3. Unfortunately you need right instruments to do the diagnosis. Do you have access to another DX3?

What PS did you get?

There are two things I'd suggest you trying first:

1. Connect DX3 to a computer via USB. Load up foobar2000 and do DSD256 upsampling to see whether there's any improvement.

2. Try outboard headphone amp - O2/JDS Atom, etc. A good tube one will be even better.

Let me know if you see any change with DSD256

 

[AresHarvest]

I went with the irregularly expensive Sennheiser part Amazon carries, because I read more than a few reviews of brands like those VCE 3-packs that said they're dirt cheap because they're incredibly touchy and prone to improper channel pickup or only working in certain positions - doesn't seem worth it to cheap out when you don't specifically need a handful of them.

Better safe than sorry, right? You paid a bit more for a safety net, and that makes perfect sense.

The ones I bought are cheapie no-name adapters (amazon "VCE 2-Pack Gold Plated 3.5mm 1/8 inch Male to 6.35mm 1/4 inch Female Audio Jack Adapter-8inch") but I did test continuity and try them with a real-world headphone scenario, and it was all good. The person I set up with the DX3Pro will likely never need the adapter, but I wanted to include it just in case.

 

[Veri]

2. Try outboard headphone amp - O2/JDS Atom, etc. A good tube one will be even better.

Disagree in the tube amp. Adding noise floor and likely much harmonics distortion, ehh....

I would rather go with some passive transformer like others recommended. Maybe @amirm can measure the effect of transformers in the future, Jensen Lundahl or chinese ones..

 

[777]

Deeper inside of the DX3 PRO. At the first glance there are not major design mistakes. The only evidence that keeps scratching me it is about output AK4493 capacitors. These are the most inappropriate capacitors for the high-pass filters. These are tantalum capacitors. I have the same mistake in Naim V1DAC.

 

[Pavel]

These are the most inappropriate capacitors

I recommend replacing with organic polymer https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dx3pro-dac-and-headphone-amp.4967/post-141700
These capacitors are little known in audio. But I love them very much. They are almost perfect.

 

[ngs428]

Khadas is also designed/made in China.

True, but it sounds like the reliability is very good.

 

[ngs428]

So you have the DX3? Did you have any issues? You say it's worrying you. Like you havent had issues yet. It sounds more like you're deciding which device to buy without owning the DX3.

If you do own the DX3, why don't you upgrade the powersupply to a 1.5A+ one. I ran 3 of them on a 1.5A LPS and have had no issues so far. Toppping already hinted that the PSU adapted might not be a right fit and changing it might solve the issue. Why don't you give it a try.

I personally also ordered a Khadas tone board just for research purposes to compare the latest ESS chip against this AKM dac. But it will only be in maybe next week so I can't give you any comparison info now. I'll be sure to post next week though.

All in all the DX3 is a much completer package with a case and display and remote and bluetooth....

Yes, I currently have the DX3. I thought I might use the other features, but I don’t. Just the USB input.

I could try the upgraded power supply. Is there a link for a US seller of one?

 

[ngs428]

I have not heard of any failures of Tone Board here. Nor Atom. The combo is superior in performance but has other drawbacks such as needing a case for Tone Board, extra cables, etc.

Thanks for the reply Amirm. Still on the fence with this decision. Basically like I was when in got the DX3.

 

[bleachershane]

Deeper inside of the DX3 PRO. At the first glance there are not major design mistakes. The only evidence that keeps scratching me it is about output AK4493 capacitors. These are the most inappropriate capacitors for the high-pass filters. These are tantalum capacitors. I have the same mistake in Naim V1DAC.

What value are these caps?

 

[Pavel]

 

[simonchretien]

I'm also wondering if I should return the DX3, not that I've had many shutdowns... but that can make you think twice about future reliability...
But I sent a mail to Topping 5 days ago, no reply. So even better than average QA, they don't even have service to begin with.
They cant even sell their "hifi" product with a good power supply?

 

[777]

I'm also wondering if I should return the DX3, not that I've had many shutdowns... but that can make you think twice about future reliability...
But I sent a mail to Topping 5 days ago, no reply. So even better than average QA, they don't even have service to begin with.
They cant even sell their "hifi" product with a good power supply?

You can buy at 30$ a 15V very nice power supply with 5A. At 40$ you can find 7A. Or, if you like "do it yourself", you can put at the ouput of the stock adapter an 1.000uF/25v electrolytic capacitor (or even larger, 2.200uF/25v) wich will suply that inrush current.

 

[Cidious]

My friend "fixed" the broken sop8 socket and is implementing mods already. removing caps and replacing resistors haha

 

[slazyel]

I don't know if i'm doing something wrong, but when i'm gaming or even sometimes when i'm listening to music i need to set my Topping dx3 pro to +9db gain to be loud enough to enjoy music and games. I don't know if it's because i'm becoming deaf somehow (=p) or if it's because my headphone's has 600ohm impedance. Maybe that's it?

 

[777]

My friend "fixed" the broken sop8 socket and is implementing mods already. removing caps and replacing resistors hahaView attachment 20795

Why not OPA1642 ? Change those 33uF tantalum caps.