Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

[Smatas]

Hi,
Great and big discution. Read whole of it.
Last year bought dx3. Today I was listening to music and dx3 turn itself off. Turned on. Everything fine with it. However high frequency driver in one of my speakers is dead after that. Is it possible that dac could demage high frequency driver?
My system is: dx3 pro in dac mode>powerfull hegel amplifier>speakers.

 

[bellyofthebizd]

Hi,
Great and big discution. Read whole of it.
Last year bought dx3. Today I was listening to music and dx3 turn itself off. Turned on. Everything fine with it. However high frequency driver in one of my speakers is dead after that. Is it possible that dac could demage high frequency driver?
My system is: dx3 pro in dac mode>powerfull hegel amplifier>speakers.

if it was in dac mode i would say: no

 

[artburda]

How can use ASIO with Tidal, Spotify, etc ?

You can actually set the output to ASIO in the desktop version of Tidal. I can't remember exactly but the output selection was somewhere on the right side of the seekbar.

 

[Fernando]

Hi,
Great and big discution. Read whole of it.
Last year bought dx3. Today I was listening to music and dx3 turn itself off. Turned on. Everything fine with it. However high frequency driver in one of my speakers is dead after that. Is it possible that dac could demage high frequency driver?
My system is: dx3 pro in dac mode>powerfull hegel amplifier>speakers.

Hello.
Still have not solved the problem of random turn off?
I have this amp/dac on my buy list, but I have many doubts ... Help me!!!

 

[amirm]

Still have not solved the problem of random turn off?

No official update yet.

 

[kagwind]

I tested the DX3Pro for a week with Ubuntu Linux, with various players. Finally is the sound I wanted. There is no more lack of mid-bass, no more strange distortion on a small signal level. I do not know what happening with the Windows 10 drivers but at least in my case, the music is not what it should be. For me, Linux Ubuntu 18.04 is much much better than Windows 10.

May I ask which player you chose? I recently switched from deadbeef to mpd for DSD support. I found mpd is interesting though difficult to config.

 

[JASM]

It may have everything you may want, but what do you really need? A more reliable combo may be the JDS Labs Atom amp with the Topping D10 or Khadas Tone Board. Do some research on those and see what interests you. My thought.

Edit: I see you posted in the $200 thread. You are on the right track. I have the Atom + Tone Board and love it. Full disclosure, I had the DX3Pro and returned it before I experienced any of the issues..

Could anybody confirm what would be the best way to use the Khadas Tone Board with the PS4 and my PC without having to unplug my headphones often?

 

[TiborG]

May I ask which player you chose? I recently switched from deadbeef to mpd for DSD support. I found mpd is interesting though difficult to config.

Cantata is a small and richly equipped audio player for mpd. Check out my link :
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-patch-for-topping-dac-users.3831/post-153628
For more angular skulls, NCMPCPP is the most beautiful, fastest and most powerful

 

[graz_lag]

May I ask which player you chose? I recently switched from deadbeef to mpd for DSD support. I found mpd is interesting though difficult to config.

There are three or four parameters to configure in the MPD.
On which one you're in trouble for it's configuration ?

 

[kagwind]

Cantata is a small and richly equipped audio player for mpd. Check out my link :
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-patch-for-topping-dac-users.3831/post-153628
For more angular skulls, NCMPCPP is the most beautiful, fastest and most powerful

I'm mainly using ncmpcpp since I can just call it from Guake. I use cantata sometimes for the GUI or when I need to search some songs. To utilize the full power of ncmpcpp, I may need to reorganize my music and complete the metadata first.

There are three or four parameters to configure in the MPD.
On which one you're in trouble for it's configuration ?

I have finished the configuration now. But two problems I encountered were (1) file permissions and (2) setting parameters for the alsa output (such as bit-perfect and dop support). Since I had no experience on the audio interface, it took me a while to get the information from internet. The official wiki pages don't have too much information I needed, or maybe I just missed it.
I do love the option of using symlinks in music library. Because of this feature I don't have to move my music files, especially when they are located on two different harddisks.

 

[graz_lag]

... I have finished the configuration now. But two problems I encountered were (1) file permissions and (2) setting parameters for the alsa output (such as bit-perfect and dop support) ...

I paste the screen-shots of my bit perfect mpd configuration file, for your comparison.
Pls. note I have two USB devices connected, that is the reason for which you will see the double alsa output parameter section.
I do not paste the music path section, that is easy to configure.

For ALSA : the file "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf" should have the following line added (if not existing) or the index of "snd-usb-audio" should be set to "0":
options snd-usb-audio index=0

Last but not least make sure you disable PulseAudio in the file "/etc/pulse/client.conf" : scroll through the configuration file, then uncomment (remove the ; character) and edit the following line:
From:
; autospawn = yes
To:
autospawn = no
Save the file, restart/reboot the system, PulseAudio should now be turned off. ALSA will now be used instead.

I hope it helps,

Graz

 

[TiborG]

Latest update mpd it is already built-in Tidal and Quobuz. It bothers the team at startup and can be turned off. DOP for DSD playback is also to be modified in mpd.conf

audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "USB DAC Topping DX3 Pro"
device "hw:2,0"
mixer_type "hardware"
mixer_control "none"
auto_resample "no"
auto_format "no"
enabled "yes"
# DoP-only for direct conversion to PCM, if DAC is not nativ DSD format
dop "no"
}

# For alac files
decoder {
plugin "mp4ff"
enabled "no"
}

decoder {
plugin "hybrid_dsd"
enabled "no"
gapless "no"
}

# QOBUZ input plugin
input {
enabled "no"
plugin "qobuz"
# app_id "ID"
# app_secret "SECRET"
# username "USERNAME"
# password "PASSWORD"
# format_id "N"
}

# TIDAL input plugin
input {
enabled "no"
plugin "tidal"
# token "TOKEN"
# username "USERNAME"
# password "PASSWORD"
# audioquality "Q"
}

 

[kagwind]

@graz_lag , Thanks for the configuration. I modified some of my settings based on your files. I did not touch the alsa and pulse conf files since I still use PulseAudio system wide except for mpd. I simply hide DX3 from PulseAudio and disable pulse audio_output in mpd.conf.

@TiborG , Thanks for your settings. I disabled the alac decoders as you did just in case. I also kept dop "yes" for DSD playback.

Thank you both for the guides. This is very helpful for whoever just starts to use mpd.

 

[777]

May I ask which player you chose? I recently switched from deadbeef to mpd for DSD support. I found mpd is interesting though difficult to config.

Audacious with ALSA. In Audacious you can select ALSA, what hardware configuration you want. You have there a lot of options.

 

[Pavel]

At the time of playback (DAC mode), DC +5V appeared in the left linear output.
DX3 did not turn off in standby mode. But I have a much altered power scheme.
I removed the OPA2140 from the board and the problem was gone.

 

[david99]

At the time of playback (DAC mode), DC +5V appeared in the left linear output.
DX3 did not turn off in standby mode. But I have a much altered power scheme.
I removed the OPA2140 from the board and the problem was gone.

From where yo ordered? Is it really original?

 

[david99]

At the time of playback (DAC mode), DC +5V appeared in the left linear output.
DX3 did not turn off in standby mode. But I have a much altered power scheme.
I removed the OPA2140 from the board and the problem was gone.

I see now you have removed it and not ordered new. What is really interesting that on my failed DX3 pro was OPA2140 with the same date code - CKJ8G4. Maybe coincidence. I ordered already new one from latest batch so let's see.

 

[Smatas]

At the time of playback (DAC mode), DC +5V appeared in the left linear output.
DX3 did not turn off in standby mode. But I have a much altered power scheme.
I removed the OPA2140 from the board and the problem was gone.

Hi, do you think it is possible that after same situation as yours my speakers tweeter was demaged?

 

[Pavel]

Hi, do you think it is possible that after same situation as yours my speakers tweeter was demaged?

Yes it is possible.

 

[Pavel]

Replaced OPA2140 with OPA1612. OPA1612 was preserved with me when I installed MUSES02. Subjectively, the sound became better and is already similar with my external A-class headphone amplifier.