Review and Measurements of Topping DX3Pro DAC and Headphone Amp

[ngs428]

With bluetooth output the dac/amp in the DX3 would be totally ignored in favour of the components in the headphone. So if it did have it, there would only be a minor benefit to using the DX3 at all over just connecting the bluetooth device to the source (convenience only, really).

Yes, makes sense. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

[amirm]

Can someone explain this bit stuff and effects on the sound?
I'm listening to this puppy right now and sounds great.

It is fully transparent and accurate for CD rate content. For high-res, there will be some noise as levels get very low. I am going to investigate this further.

 

[Hammondk]

Amir, looking at linearity, impact only after 16 bits? means up to 16/48 should be ok correct?

Tested with 24/96. Audibly unnoticeable impact.

 

[amirm]

Amir, looking at linearity, impact only after 16 bits? means up to 16/48 should be ok correct?

Correct.

 

[Wolven]

Amir, looking at linearity, impact only after 16 bits? means up to 16/48 should be ok correct?

Tested with 24/96. Audibly unnoticeable impact.

I just put some 24/96 and 24/192 tunes.
Great, now I'm listening for noise, not sure what kind.
Hiss, clicks ?

 

[nebula]

I think this is some kind of first hand seller so the prices can be very attractive.

Correct, Shenzhen Audio is one of the authorized Topping resellers.

Just today I got the notification that it has been dispatched by DHL from Shenzen, China, no idea how long this will take but Amazon state 15-27 December.

That's just a worst-case number to give them leeway on Amazon/eBay I think. It showed the same for me, both at the time of purchase and currently; huge month-long window all the way into January.
If you check the tracking number, you can see the estimated delivery date when it's available.
They will also text you a link with options for signature release, etc. if you create a DHL account.
DHL Express is very, very, fast.
Mine was sent out yesterday, scheduled delivery is this Monday, December 3.

https://www.ebay.com/usr/topssale

How would I know if they're authorized and how would it affect me?

Their Ebay product page says "More than 10 available" but according to that email, they most definitely do not.

Interesting. Just wanted to say that I got the exact same message as you in #434, but I did not buy from topssale (shenzhenAudioStore on eBay).

Their eBay listing also showed the same "More than 10 available".
Although I guess it is not untrue anymore, since they shipped my order.

 

[Hammondk]

I just put some 24/96 and 24/192 tunes.
Great, now I'm listening for noise, not sure what kind.
Hiss, clicks ?

from Amir charts its should be imbalance distortion but at levels very low like lower than -50db

Honestly, I need to keep my Aeon Flow Open at around -30 to -22 db. So i think i definitely will not be able to tell any audible imbalance

 

[Wolven]

from Amir charts its should be imbalance distortion but at levels very low like lower than -50db

Honestly, I need to keep my Aeon Flow Open at around -30 to -22 db. So i think i definitely will not be able to tell any audible imbalance

Ok, cool. In that case I will not worry about it. I never go that low. -37db is minimum. Anyway I don't use headphones.

 

[Bigsy]

I'm suffering the clicks and it's driving me insane. I have a default install of latest windows 10 (no non standard drivers) No matter what sound is played the unit will click after about 10 seconds of silence and then click again when some a sound is played.

This is via web browsers, windows sound itself, spotify... you name it, all sources basically. It's like its constantly switch sample rate but the screen doesn't display any new rate.

So far I have tried both
* default win10 driver and topping driver
* Turning off exclusive control and mode on both drivers
* forcing 24 bit 44,1 and 48 and 192 all have the same problem

The topping driver says my device is revision v1.03 I assume thats what others is as well?

 

[Yuno]

I'm suffering the clicks and it's driving me insane. I have a default install of latest windows 10 (no non standard drivers) No matter what sound is played the unit will click after about 10 seconds of silence and then click again when some a sound is played.

This is via web browsers, windows sound itself, spotify... you name it, all sources basically. It's like its constantly switch sample rate but the screen doesn't display any new rate.

So far I have tried both
* default win10 driver and topping driver
* Turning off exclusive control and mode on both drivers
* forcing 24 bit 44,1 and 48 and 192 all have the same problem

The topping driver says my device is revision v1.03 I assume thats what others is as well?

If you look through my history of posts you will see long battle with the same issue that I had few days ago. I ended up setting my audio to 32/44.1 with exclusive mode disabled, turning off wasapi in foobar2k and eventually removing the wasapi plugin from foobar all together. I believe foobar was somehow messing with this device because even after I got rid of clicking it came back once, since I removed wasapi plugin I no longer have any issues.

 

[Bigsy]

If you look through my history of posts you will see long battle with the same issue that I had few days ago. I ended up setting my audio to 32/44.1 with exclusive mode disabled, turning off wasapi in foobar2k and eventually removing the wasapi plugin from foobar all together. I believe foobar was somehow messing with this device because even after I got rid of clicking it came back once, since I removed wasapi plugin I no longer have any issues.

I never had any of that stuff and have tried 32/44,1

In fact I have just plugged the unit into a totally different computer running linux and I get identical behaviour, seems like an inherent issue to me.

 

[Yuno]

I never had any of that stuff and have tried 32/44,1

In fact I have just plugged the unit into a totally different computer running linux and I get identical behaviour, seems like an inherent issue to me.

I just tried playing around with settings (set quality to 24/44.1 from 32/44.1) and I regret it now because my unit is back to clicking. I'm trying to figure out what stopped it from clicking before.

Edit:
I think I figured it out. The trick is to have something in the background playing, to stop dac from "resampling". Example: I have some song on youtube that I'm playing right now, I paused it and whatever else I do now is not producing clicks, because the sample rate is set for that song in youtube. If I close browser and try playing something in foobar, it will start to resample on each song or even seekbar move. The same behavior can be achieved by running portable instance of foobar and pausing a song there.
If this can be firmware patched then that's cool. If not and my theory is correct, this unit should no longer be recommended as this is very poor design.

 

[Fintone]

I'm suffering the clicks and it's driving me insane. I have a default install of latest windows 10 (no non standard drivers) No matter what sound is played the unit will click after about 10 seconds of silence and then click again when some a sound is played.

This is via web browsers, windows sound itself, spotify... you name it, all sources basically. It's like its constantly switch sample rate but the screen doesn't display any new rate.

So far I have tried both
* default win10 driver and topping driver
* Turning off exclusive control and mode on both drivers
* forcing 24 bit 44,1 and 48 and 192 all have the same problem

The topping driver says my device is revision v1.03 I assume thats what others is as well?

Not sure if this will help you but, I had similar problems with another DAC and it turned out to be my USB hub. Went direct into the PC and the problem went away.

 

[Yuno]

Not sure if this will help you but, I had similar problems with another DAC and it turned out to be my USB hub

Nope, I had the same issue on 2 devices and I don't use any hubs. This is how this unit is designed.

 

[Bigsy]

Not sure if this will help you but, I had similar problems with another DAC and it turned out to be my USB hub. Went direct into the PC and the problem went away.

* I have used usb3 port and usb2 port on the rear of my computer
* I have used a different usb cable
* I have tried a different power supply for dx3
* I have also tried disabling usb power save in windows power options

I have also tried an entirely different computer running linux, identical behaviour. I have no doubts there is an inherent fault with the unit, only question is why it isn't showing for more people than it is.

 

[Bigsy]

I just tried playing around with settings (set quality to 24/44.1 from 32/44.1) and I regret it now because my unit is back to clicking. I'm trying to figure out what stopped it from clicking before.

Edit:
I think I figured it out. The trick is to have something in the background playing, to stop dac from "resampling". Example: I have some song on youtube that I'm playing right now, I paused it and whatever else I do now is not producing clicks, because the sample rate is set for that song in youtube. If I close browser and try playing something in foobar, it will start to resample on each song or even seekbar move. The same behavior can be achieved by running portable instance of foobar and pausing a song there.
If this can be firmware patched then that's cool. If not and my theory is correct, this unit should no longer be recommended as this is very poor design.

It's either this (but odd the unit never shows its changing sample rate when it clicks this way) or some kind of odd power saving, even though the behaviour is the same on linux I did notice that when it clicks off (after about 10 secs of silence) the usb icon flashes and then goes solid when it clicks back to play a sound again. It doesn't do that on windows, still I have tried to disable usb power saving in the OS with no difference.

 

[bellyofthebizd]

It's either this (but odd the unit never shows its changing sample rate when it clicks this way) or some kind of odd power saving, even though the behaviour is the same on linux I did notice that when it clicks off (after about 10 secs of silence) the usb icon flashes and then goes solid when it clicks back to play a sound again. It doesn't do that on windows, still I have tried to disable usb power saving in the OS with no difference.

Maybe try to contact Topping.
I would recommend to use asio drivers instead os Wasapi and check in windows audio settings to run in exclusive mode and letting full control over audio devices, then closing foobar when browsing the web (or leave it, then asio woldn't pass audio from anything else) or try trial verion of jriver as it has many options for way the music plays and dac behavior.

 

[Yuno]

It's either this (but odd the unit never shows its changing sample rate when it clicks this way)

It does for me. That's why I know this is connected to resampling.

only question is why it isn't showing for more people than it is.

Hardly anyone has their unit yet. In this thread alone we have 3 people already having click issues. I also noticed that some players deal with it better than others. MusicBee doesn't click much for instance, as long as it's not in WASAPI exclusive. Foobar clicks all the time, both with WASAPI and without.

I would recommend to use asio drivers instead os Wasapi and check in windows audio settings to run in exclusive mode and letting full control over audio devices, then closing foobar when browsing the web (or leave it, then asio woldn't pass audio from anything else) or try trial verion of jriver as it has many options for way the music plays and dac behavior.

This solves nothing. If you want to for instance listen to something on youtube, it will click every time you open a video or even move seekbar. It resamples in any application, including ones which are not in exclusive mode. There is no reason to resample something that can anyways play at one sampling rate (the one you have set in system). Yes, you can potentially set this dac to only be used for music with foobar via asio and not have any other sounds ever, but that's not the point.

The important question in this all is whether this is just "popular" issue or the unit is supposed to work like this.

 

[Bigsy]

It does for me. That's why I know this is connected to resampling.


Hardly anyone has their unit yet. In this thread alone we have 3 people already having click issues. I also noticed that some players deal with it better than others. MusicBee doesn't click much for instance, as long as it's not in WASAPI exclusive. Foobar clicks all the time, both with WASAPI and without.


This solves nothing. If you want to for instance listen to something on youtube, it will click every time you open a video or even move seekbar. It resamples in any application, including ones which are not in exclusive mode. There is no reason to resample something that can anyways play at one sampling rate (the one you have set in system). Yes, you can potentially set this dac to only be used for music with foobar via asio and not have any other sounds ever, but that's not the point.

The important question in this all is whether this is just "popular" issue or the unit is supposed to work like this.

Mine doesn't but I think your right as I have kind of found a fix of sorts... works for windows at least which is a shame as I was going to use this on linux more.

If you use a virtual sound device you can force the output of that to never change sample rate. I just installed https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/index.htm and configured it as output at 44.1 and now all my other sounds with be routed via this virtual input to the unit. It seems like it kind of holds the connection open at a constant sample rate in some way.

Not ideal but works for me for the time being, just need to find a workaround on linux.

 

[Yuno]

Mine doesn't but I think your right as I have kind of found a fix of sorts... works for windows at least which is a shame as I was going to use this on linux more.

If you use a virtual sound device you can force the output of that to never change sample rate. I just installed https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/index.htm and configured it as output at 44.1 and now all my other sounds with be routed via this virtual input to the unit. It seems like it kind of holds the connection open at a constant sample rate in some way.

Not ideal but works for me for the time being, just need to find a workaround on linux.

Well, that's something. I wonder what impact does it have on audio quality and what is responsible for downsampling. I guess it's just handled by CPU instead of DAC?