OP
- Thread Starter
- #61
Sure. Here you go:
As I noted in the SMSL AD18 review, it is much better than that product when it comes to ultrasonic noise.
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Review and Measurements of Topping MX3 DAC & Amp
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
As I noted in the SMSL AD18 review, it is much better than that product when it comes to ultrasonic noise.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #62
And here is the frequency response comparison to SMSL AD18:
Clearly more design care has gone into Topping MX3 than SMSL AD18.
Clearly more design care has gone into Topping MX3 than SMSL AD18.
Thank you! That does not look bad at all for the MX3..... -36 DB @ 50 KHz for the AD18 looks concerning. Still curious if any of that leaks down into audible range.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Most of our FTA broadcasts are also 5.1DD.
Many panels allow you to set the Toslink/coax output to be auto/DD or PCM SPDIF. That's exactly what we do and run the optical into a standalone 2 channel D/A converter.
Check your audio IO settings on the panel's menu.
I was considering both of these two amp/dacs (MX3 and SMSL AD18) that Amir reviewed in this last two days, but I ended with Fiio K3 and now I'm happy with my decision. For significantly less money I get device that can compete with both of these. Although, MX3 and AD18 have some great characteristics and functions that are superior than Fiio, after Amir's reviews I'm sure that for my needs Fiio is better choice. Thanks Amir for your great work ;-)
If you don't enjoy my long-winded tales, and want to "cut to the chase" please skip to the last two or three paragraphs - the first three or four paragraphs are about my adventures with the unreliable electric power systems and their effects on electronics gear here in Panama.
I've had some interesting "electrical adventures" here as a retired American expat who lives in Boquete, a small town in a cool, beautiful valley at 3,200' elevation in the mountains of Western, Panama. Panama relies on hydro for 60% of its electricity, with bunker oil taking care of most of the rest, and renewables slowly remping up. The local electrical service - via "Fenosa" - is nominally 120v/60Hz - and is very flaky. Voltage runs between 122 and 128 per my DVM, and surges and sags, and outages from flickering up to several several hours without power, are fairly frequent. I have two surge protector/UPS/battery backup units, one for my mini-tower personal computer and accessories in my spare bedroom/office, and another in the living room / kitchen where my 40" LCD TV and main stereo system reside. (Related to my AC mains power, there is one weird computer glitch. When I use my microwave oven, Daphile running on an Intel NUC PC - connected to mains via AVR, UPS and surge protection - usually hangs, and I have to hard-reboot the NUC.)
Also, at my last rental casa here in Boquete, lightning hit the utility pole next door at the street - right in front of my eyes. I lost some electronics - including my $200 APC UPS, ISP/cable company modem, wireless router and Synology NAS (but not its hard drive), and later my $600 Teac AH-01 DAC/IcePower AMP. The strike also took out the house's 60A main circuit breaker out front. My neighbor, a Panamanian handyman/electrician sent me down to the local hardware store for a new one, which he replaced for free while shielding himself from the light rain a with sheet of cardboard over his head -he worked on the live 240v mains outdoors in the rain!
Recently, at my current location a couple of klicks down the road, a crew from the local utility did some work on the power lines next to our property. It was a Friday, and they left at about 5PM. Almost immediately our powerful and gusty dry season winds (which are relentless from early December into or through March) caused the newly strung wires to swing and touch, creating showers of sparks and hundreds of flickering episodes (sags and surges), eventually taking ouf one side of the 240V mains, leaving half of our circuits off, and the other still with frequent flickering and surges. It took them two days to come out and fix things. And a couple of weeks later, my Topping PA3 amplifier simply stopped working. Related? Possibly - in spite of my protection and AVR devices.
So that disabled my primary audio system, a set of relatively inexpensive components. My sources are music files on a Synology NAS or internet radio which are managed via the Daphile headless software on an Intel NUC PC. Toslink optcal connects the NUC to an SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC, which uses RCA connects to a Topping PA3 amp, driving a pair of Paradigm Atom V6 bookshelf speakers. It's a good little system, and had been working fine, but one day, the PA3 simply stopped working. I tried to open the PA3 case to look for a fuse, but the external screws did not release the front of back plates, so I set it aside for now. I broke out my reserve - an SMSL Q5 Pro DAC/Amp, which is a popular competitor to the Topping MX3, which is the subject of this thread - until I could fix or relace the Topping PA3. (I also own Lepai and Trends Audio 12v, 15w T-amps, the 10 y/o Trends Audio amp being vastly superior in construction and components, but both have way lower power ratings compared to my Topping or SMSL units.)
So I looked on Amazon, and low and behold, there was a "used, very good" black PA3 available for $65, so I bought it. It arrived yesterday, and looked like new. I immediately put it into service with the SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC to replace the SMSL Q5 DAC/amp and was back to my preferred system.
Most of you here who have read my comments and posts know that I have been playing with hifi audio since my high school days in the late 1950s, and have owned a wide variety of SS and tube gear in the low-to-mid price categories. I am a "science guy" and aware that subjective audiophilia is a paradise for marketers but a wasteland of idiocy to objectivists. Rather than attempting to analyze my stereo systems by focused "critical listening" I prefer to just enjoy the music.
My favorite internet radio station is a mid-fi 64kbps CBR AAC non-commercial jazz station located in Northern California, my former region of residence. It is called "The Jazz Groove," and they play mellow and mostly melodic jazz, old and new, and their playlists include a fair amount ot guitar/Hammond B3 organ tunes, which I like very much. (But they are definitely "real jazz" and not in a Kenny G style "smooth jazz" genre.)
And that brings me to my main point. The most important aspect of bass reproduction for me is the sound of an acoustic double bass of classical music origins. In spite of the limited bass response of my Paradigm Atom monitors, acoustic jazz bass on my system sounds decent, with good fullness and body. When the SMSL Q5 Pro was in the system replacing the separates - SMSL DAC and Topping amp - I would peridocally notice that the music did not sound clear and well-defined, and the mid-bass sounded congested or boomy. I found that sound irritating.
Then, after receiving the replacement PA3 and a couple of hours of casual listening to the same jazz station on the same system in the same location with my separate components (SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC and Topping PA3 amp), I realized that the bloated mid-bass was gone, and the music sounded clear and well-defined. Subjective? Yes. But after reading this review and the posts following it, I think that my perceptions might have some merit.
(But don't hold your breath - I'm not going to obsessively perform blind testing - but rather just enjoy the music and ponder the possibilities. )
I've had some interesting "electrical adventures" here as a retired American expat who lives in Boquete, a small town in a cool, beautiful valley at 3,200' elevation in the mountains of Western, Panama. Panama relies on hydro for 60% of its electricity, with bunker oil taking care of most of the rest, and renewables slowly remping up. The local electrical service - via "Fenosa" - is nominally 120v/60Hz - and is very flaky. Voltage runs between 122 and 128 per my DVM, and surges and sags, and outages from flickering up to several several hours without power, are fairly frequent. I have two surge protector/UPS/battery backup units, one for my mini-tower personal computer and accessories in my spare bedroom/office, and another in the living room / kitchen where my 40" LCD TV and main stereo system reside. (Related to my AC mains power, there is one weird computer glitch. When I use my microwave oven, Daphile running on an Intel NUC PC - connected to mains via AVR, UPS and surge protection - usually hangs, and I have to hard-reboot the NUC.)
Also, at my last rental casa here in Boquete, lightning hit the utility pole next door at the street - right in front of my eyes. I lost some electronics - including my $200 APC UPS, ISP/cable company modem, wireless router and Synology NAS (but not its hard drive), and later my $600 Teac AH-01 DAC/IcePower AMP. The strike also took out the house's 60A main circuit breaker out front. My neighbor, a Panamanian handyman/electrician sent me down to the local hardware store for a new one, which he replaced for free while shielding himself from the light rain a with sheet of cardboard over his head -he worked on the live 240v mains outdoors in the rain!
Recently, at my current location a couple of klicks down the road, a crew from the local utility did some work on the power lines next to our property. It was a Friday, and they left at about 5PM. Almost immediately our powerful and gusty dry season winds (which are relentless from early December into or through March) caused the newly strung wires to swing and touch, creating showers of sparks and hundreds of flickering episodes (sags and surges), eventually taking ouf one side of the 240V mains, leaving half of our circuits off, and the other still with frequent flickering and surges. It took them two days to come out and fix things. And a couple of weeks later, my Topping PA3 amplifier simply stopped working. Related? Possibly - in spite of my protection and AVR devices.
So that disabled my primary audio system, a set of relatively inexpensive components. My sources are music files on a Synology NAS or internet radio which are managed via the Daphile headless software on an Intel NUC PC. Toslink optcal connects the NUC to an SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC, which uses RCA connects to a Topping PA3 amp, driving a pair of Paradigm Atom V6 bookshelf speakers. It's a good little system, and had been working fine, but one day, the PA3 simply stopped working. I tried to open the PA3 case to look for a fuse, but the external screws did not release the front of back plates, so I set it aside for now. I broke out my reserve - an SMSL Q5 Pro DAC/Amp, which is a popular competitor to the Topping MX3, which is the subject of this thread - until I could fix or relace the Topping PA3. (I also own Lepai and Trends Audio 12v, 15w T-amps, the 10 y/o Trends Audio amp being vastly superior in construction and components, but both have way lower power ratings compared to my Topping or SMSL units.)
So I looked on Amazon, and low and behold, there was a "used, very good" black PA3 available for $65, so I bought it. It arrived yesterday, and looked like new. I immediately put it into service with the SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC to replace the SMSL Q5 DAC/amp and was back to my preferred system.
Most of you here who have read my comments and posts know that I have been playing with hifi audio since my high school days in the late 1950s, and have owned a wide variety of SS and tube gear in the low-to-mid price categories. I am a "science guy" and aware that subjective audiophilia is a paradise for marketers but a wasteland of idiocy to objectivists. Rather than attempting to analyze my stereo systems by focused "critical listening" I prefer to just enjoy the music.
My favorite internet radio station is a mid-fi 64kbps CBR AAC non-commercial jazz station located in Northern California, my former region of residence. It is called "The Jazz Groove," and they play mellow and mostly melodic jazz, old and new, and their playlists include a fair amount ot guitar/Hammond B3 organ tunes, which I like very much. (But they are definitely "real jazz" and not in a Kenny G style "smooth jazz" genre.)
And that brings me to my main point. The most important aspect of bass reproduction for me is the sound of an acoustic double bass of classical music origins. In spite of the limited bass response of my Paradigm Atom monitors, acoustic jazz bass on my system sounds decent, with good fullness and body. When the SMSL Q5 Pro was in the system replacing the separates - SMSL DAC and Topping amp - I would peridocally notice that the music did not sound clear and well-defined, and the mid-bass sounded congested or boomy. I found that sound irritating.
Then, after receiving the replacement PA3 and a couple of hours of casual listening to the same jazz station on the same system in the same location with my separate components (SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC and Topping PA3 amp), I realized that the bloated mid-bass was gone, and the music sounded clear and well-defined. Subjective? Yes. But after reading this review and the posts following it, I think that my perceptions might have some merit.
(But don't hold your breath - I'm not going to obsessively perform blind testing - but rather just enjoy the music and ponder the possibilities. )
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2018
- Messages
- 1,137
- Likes
- 1,498
This might be caused by 2.4GHz interference, which can affect wifi or wireless peripherals, such as keyboard & mouse.
Interesting - there is no active keyboard or mouse in the area - the NUC boots into headless mode when I power it on, and I don't even turn on the monitor (TV) when I boot it. However, I have a Logitech "unifying receiver" for keyboards and mice connected via a 12" USB extension cable to one of the NUC's external USB ports. I detach it the next time I use the microwave oven.
My discovery of the necessity of the extension cable came when I bought the NUC and the wireless keyboard wouldn't work with the tiny USB "receiver" plugged directly into a front or back USB port on the NUC. While troubleshooting the problem on the internet, I discovered many postings about the same problem and no solutions in those threads. Then I stumbled across a post by someone who discovered that moving the "unifying receiver" away from the ports on the NUC with an extension cable solved the problem - and that solution worked for me. Weird, but true. (OTOH, plugging receivers directly into external ports works just fine for my Lenovo desktop PC, or my Toshiba or Acer laptops.)
Edit: Apparently the Logitech Unifying Receiver for wireless keyboard and mouse was the culprit. I pulled it from the NUC, which sits about seven feet from the 1,200w microwave, and the music kept playing as I cooked my oatmeal this morning - thanks for the spot-on advice, Hammer. (And, sorry for hijacking this thread.)
Last edited:
Gyroscopics
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2019
- Messages
- 105
- Likes
- 71
I recently got a pair of JBL 306P Mkii for $179/pair free shipping no tax from B&H. It's an overkill garage system fed by RPi (Volumio) + Topping D10. It beats my friends game room system comprised of Cambridge Audio CXA80+Elac UniFi UB5. The 306p is phenomenal fed by the balanced output of SMSL SU-8.
If only this review had been out a few months ago 
My experience with the MX3 has been alright...
- major problems with the remote which seems to be well noted in most reviews
- defaults to headphone output when used in conjunction with my PC
- I notice distortion at lower volume levels while using my Sennheiser HD518 vs my Polk tsi 100
- presence of a fairly audible hiss/white noise when using speakers for output (though much better than the cheap Lepai amp I had)
Overall it sounds decent but I haven't had much experience with high quality audio. I wish I could figure out what was causing the hiss, there seem to be so many variables the more and more I try to read into the subject.
I'm wondering if I would be better off just picking up a better unit with dedicated ground such as a Teac AI-301DA. Thoughts? Worth pairing something like that with Polk tsi 100's?
My experience with the MX3 has been alright...
- major problems with the remote which seems to be well noted in most reviews
- defaults to headphone output when used in conjunction with my PC
- I notice distortion at lower volume levels while using my Sennheiser HD518 vs my Polk tsi 100
- presence of a fairly audible hiss/white noise when using speakers for output (though much better than the cheap Lepai amp I had)
Overall it sounds decent but I haven't had much experience with high quality audio. I wish I could figure out what was causing the hiss, there seem to be so many variables the more and more I try to read into the subject.
I'm wondering if I would be better off just picking up a better unit with dedicated ground such as a Teac AI-301DA. Thoughts? Worth pairing something like that with Polk tsi 100's?
Hello everyone!
This is my first post in Audio Science forum and as AegisFLCL, I just purchased a MX3 dac/amp to drive a pair of Anthony Gallo Nucleus speakers in a desktop stereo system.
The sound through headphones in very clean and dynamic, but I am facing troubles with noise/hiss with speakers. With any input (I tried USB, BT and coaxial) and in every case the noise in there. With gain over 40 it became very notable and irritating.
I tried to exchance PSU outlet and even using a 24V battery bank from my phono stage the noise is there.
As I can see this is a issue from the project and not a fault/defect from my unit..
Anybody has face the same problem?
Thank you so much
Marcelo Eduardo
This is my first post in Audio Science forum and as AegisFLCL, I just purchased a MX3 dac/amp to drive a pair of Anthony Gallo Nucleus speakers in a desktop stereo system.
The sound through headphones in very clean and dynamic, but I am facing troubles with noise/hiss with speakers. With any input (I tried USB, BT and coaxial) and in every case the noise in there. With gain over 40 it became very notable and irritating.
I tried to exchance PSU outlet and even using a 24V battery bank from my phono stage the noise is there.
As I can see this is a issue from the project and not a fault/defect from my unit..
Anybody has face the same problem?
Thank you so much
Marcelo Eduardo
Aibo
Member
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2018
- Messages
- 31
- Likes
- 42
Been listening this one lately and I can share few impressions:
- Lively and punchy presentation over speakers output. General level of details, sound-stage and energy are really good making it fun to listen. Unfortunately highs are too hot and tainted and even when I dial them down to acceptable level they still influence mids and vocals making them hiss here and there. Looking at the measurements here, I think it's pretty clear why.
- Connecting better DAC to it (like Khadas TB) did nothing audible. Guess that DAC section in this one is already better then AMP section.
- Headphones output sounds just OK but nothing more than that. It's powerful enough but kinda thin and grainy in mids and highs - basically any other DAC with headphones output will do a better job for this use.
- Remote control stopped working for a minute then continued without me doing anything.
All in all I still think this sounds pretty decent for the money. Some aspects of the sound and especially functionality can put some older entry level amps selling for this price to shame. I'm looking forward to future Topping efforts on this front.
I also made a video about it if anybody would like to check it out.
- Lively and punchy presentation over speakers output. General level of details, sound-stage and energy are really good making it fun to listen. Unfortunately highs are too hot and tainted and even when I dial them down to acceptable level they still influence mids and vocals making them hiss here and there. Looking at the measurements here, I think it's pretty clear why.
- Connecting better DAC to it (like Khadas TB) did nothing audible. Guess that DAC section in this one is already better then AMP section.
- Headphones output sounds just OK but nothing more than that. It's powerful enough but kinda thin and grainy in mids and highs - basically any other DAC with headphones output will do a better job for this use.
- Remote control stopped working for a minute then continued without me doing anything.
All in all I still think this sounds pretty decent for the money. Some aspects of the sound and especially functionality can put some older entry level amps selling for this price to shame. I'm looking forward to future Topping efforts on this front.
I also made a video about it if anybody would like to check it out.
Not quite compact but way better and depending on your region probably quite a bit cheaper than the NAD: Yamaha AS 501. It has almost 2x100 watt rms ch at 8 ohm, with optical and coaxial inputs. It even has a mm input. It is 340 euro in the Netherlands.
Thanks for the feedback. I am looking for something small. I am currently using an Onkyo 9010 but it's too big for my setup.
I've looked around myself right now there just isn't anything else doing the same things the AD18 and Topping MX3 are for their size and price point. Just gotta wait and see what's on the horizon and be happy with one or the other for the time being I think.
I think I am going to get an Atom and a SMSL SA98. For the DAC I can rely on the motherboards of the two PCs I want to connect.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
The little Dali Zensor 1s like power, lots of it, although too much in the bottom end will pole the VC. I've got a pair here and they enjoy spending time on big power amps. I wouldn't bother with anything under 100W per channel of clean power for them. This Topping is totally inadequate- you would be disappointed to say the least.
Nice review. I was looking for amps like this for a while and found this one that looks almost the same of Topping MX3:
Nobsound NS-19G
http://doukaudio.com/nobsound-hifi-...-stereo-home-audio-amp-treble-bass-p0184.html
Nobsound NS-19G
http://doukaudio.com/nobsound-hifi-...-stereo-home-audio-amp-treble-bass-p0184.html
Hello amirm, I chose the Topping MX3, it seems very good for me. I would like to connect my laptop to my old amplifier/receiver. I use USB connection between the laptop and Topping, it is ok. But what about the other side?
Can I connect the Line Out of the Topping to the Line In of the old amplifier?
If it is not, what do you suggest me instead of Topping?
Can I connect the Line Out of the Topping to the Line In of the old amplifier?
If it is not, what do you suggest me instead of Topping?
Similar threads
- Poll
