Review and Measurements of Topping DX7s DAC and Headphone Amp

[Krunok]

yes i installed them

4.14.0

You don't have to choose anything in Windows. When your player will be playing music over ASIO output the ASIO driver will automatically switch DAC to the required bitrate of the music file being played. Same thing applies for WASAPI.

You should do best if you let your DirectSound driver to be the default sound output for Windows so that Windows sounds don't mix with the music being played.

 

[Veri]

So you think/confirm that a DTS5.1 stream can going through a DAC from USB port to SPDIF output ... I never could be able to test this because my DAC do not have an SPDIF ouput ... I will be very interested if someone have tested this type of settings

Dolby Digital and DTS are supported via optical audio. Note this does not include lossless dolby/DTS nor Dolby Atmos which is outside of SPDIF spec, only lossy compressed variants.

 

[Talisker]

I know that SPDIF have limited specs, but I have a big doubt that DAC chips let this specific stream going through, I don't see anything in the DAC specs about multi-channel treatment or behavior, and I can't test it; This gear seem to be capable of ... USB Streamer , but it's really a DAC just a streamer.

 

[amirm]

Since this is a 2-channel DAC, you want to configure your movie player to "fold down" the 5.1 stream to stereo for you. Then what is sent to the DAC over S/PDIF is just stereo PCM.

 

[Veri]

Thanks for the correction amir

 

[Talisker]

Thanks Amir, So the only way to do this is using sound card like the Asus Xonar U5/7 ? or have 2 different device on 2 USB port, one for Hifi another for AV 6.1 ? have you reviewed or tested this type of sound card ?

 

[amirm]

Thanks Amir, So the only way to do this is using sound card like the Asus Xonar U5/7 ? or have 2 different device on 2 USB port, one for Hifi another for AV 6.1 ? have you reviewed or tested this type of sound card ?

If you need 6 channel output, then yes, you would need another sound card for that.

I have not tested Xonar but like to given its popularity.

 

[FunctionalDoc]

I have looked in the DX7S manual and was wondering if there is a good article to explain the filter settings?

I got my remote from Aliexpress and was worth the $20.44 that I spent.

I can now access the filter modes easily and trying to understand them.

Mode1 : apodizing fast roll-off filter
Mode2 : minimum phase slow roll-off filter
Mode3 : minimum phase fast roll-off filter
Mode4 : linear phase slow roll-off filter
Modes5 : linear phase fast roll-off filter
Mode 6 : brick wall filter
Mode7 : corrected minimum phase fast roll-off filter

What filters do most people use and when would select a different mode?

 

[yue]

I have looked in the DX7S manual and was wondering if there is a good article to explain the filter settings?

I got my remote from Aliexpress and was worth the $20.44 that I spent.

I can now access the filter modes easily and trying to understand them.

Mode1 : apodizing fast roll-off filter
Mode2 : minimum phase slow roll-off filter
Mode3 : minimum phase fast roll-off filter
Mode4 : linear phase slow roll-off filter
Modes5 : linear phase fast roll-off filter
Mode 6 : brick wall filter
Mode7 : corrected minimum phase fast roll-off filter

What filters do most people use and when would select a different mode?

you can refer to the es9038q2m datasheet. it's explained in detail in the end.

http://file2.dzsc.com/product/18/05/25/829029_170233543.pdf

start from page 53.

 

[yue]

If you need 6 channel output, then yes, you would need another sound card for that.

I have not tested Xonar but like to given its popularity.

amir I'm still waiting for the dx7s frequency response error under different filter settings.

 

[amirm]

amir I'm still waiting for the dx7s frequency response error under different filter settings.

I know. I just got back from our trip yesterday and a lot of chores have backed up...

 

[ripvw]

I have looked in the DX7S manual and was wondering if there is a good article to explain the filter settings?

What filters do most people use and when would select a different mode?

I use Mode 5 - the linear phase fast roll-off filter based upon data from this link:

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/06/measurements-digital-filters-and.html

Also, many thanks to yue for providing the link to the ESS datasheet

 

[amirm]

Here are the filter responses to a white noise source.

Filter 1

Filter 2

Filter 3

Filter 4:

Filter 5

Filter 6

Filter 7

 

[amirm]

And time domain response to a square wave:

Filter 1

Filter 2

Filter 3:

Filter 4:

Filter 5:

Filter 6

Filter 7

 

[amirm]

And quickly, how DX7s ranks with my new analyzer's SINAD metric:

 

[March Audio]

And time domain response to a square wave:

Filter 1
View attachment 14400

Filter 2
View attachment 14401

Filter 3:
View attachment 14402

Filter 4:
View attachment 14403

Filter 5:
View attachment 14404

Filter 6
View attachment 14405

Filter 7
View attachment 14406

Question

Whilst a square wave (like a single sample impulse) are useful for characterising a filter time domain response, is it actually relevant to real world signals and systems?

A square wave should have an infinitely fast rise time and infinitely high bandwidth is required to recreate it accurately. We have a deliberately band limited system. If 48kHz sample rate its 24 kHz and is filtered by the adc. Put in a 23.9 kHz sine wave and what do you get out? A 23.9 kHz sine wave. Try putting in a single cycle of a 23.9 kHz sine wave and see what the wave form is like. Do we have pre post ringing?

I really don't know the answer I haven't tried it, just curious.

 

[amirm]

Whilst a square wave (like a single sample impulse) are useful for characterising a filter time domain response, is it actually relevant to real world signals and systems?

I post it just for filter's time domain response. It is hard to see what they are doing from frequency response alone.

And you are right, it is an illegal signal with no resemblance to anything in music. The waveforms I posted should only be used to determine what type of filter is in use, not how it will sound.

 

[gvl]

Iirc Archimago or someone else did exploratory time-domain analysis of ringing with real audio signals, the conclusion was it could be an issue for badly mastered material with lots of clipping.

 

[yue]

awesome amirm@! thanks a lot for doing this!

 

[yue]

BTW, amirm, under your new gear, does it has the same usb packet noise (actually it's frame noise) issue as NX4 dsd has?
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...sd-dac-and-portable-headphone-amplifier.3507/