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Review and Measurements of Topping MX3 DAC & Amp

escape2

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- presence of a fairly audible hiss/white noise when using speakers for output (though much better than the cheap Lepai amp I had)
Has anyone else noticed this 'hiss'?

I currently use Onkyo CR-445 receiver from an executive mini system as my desktop computer amp. It's rated at 2ch x 20W (8 Ohm, 20Hz–20kHz, 10%, 2ch driven, FTC). It does produce a tiny bit of hiss through the speakers, but it's only noticeable when I put your ear right against the tweeter. I am debating whether to replace it with MX3 from an amp perspective (don't need it for the DAC function), but I don't want to make things worse.
 

LTig

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Has anyone else noticed this 'hiss'?

I currently use Onkyo CR-445 receiver from an executive mini system as my desktop computer amp. It's rated at 2ch x 20W (8 Ohm, 20Hz–20kHz, 10%, 2ch driven, FTC). It does produce a tiny bit of hiss through the speakers, but it's only noticeable when I put your ear right against the tweeter. I am debating whether to replace it with MX3 from an amp perspective (don't need it for the DAC function), but I don't want to make things worse.
If you can hear hiss only with the ear right at the tweeter I see no reason to replace the amp at all. It's better both for your wallet and for the environment.
 

escape2

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Well, I was looking for something with more power, but the MX3 may not be all that much more powerful, before distortion becomes audible, not sure...
 

Physkx

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Has anyone else noticed this 'hiss'?

I currently use Onkyo CR-445 receiver from an executive mini system as my desktop computer amp. It's rated at 2ch x 20W (8 Ohm, 20Hz–20kHz, 10%, 2ch driven, FTC). It does produce a tiny bit of hiss through the speakers, but it's only noticeable when I put your ear right against the tweeter. I am debating whether to replace it with MX3 from an amp perspective (don't need it for the DAC function), but I don't want to make things worse.

I use an MX3 to power a pair of Boston Acoustics A25 in my garage, white noise/hissing is audible after about 75/100 volume, but only with nothing playing. Distortion is more of an issue even with these speakers I can hear distortion from the MX3 far before the speakers get loud enough to distort themselves. From my old onkyo 2x40W@8Ω amp they can be driven much louder without distorting so it seems to me it is the MX3 not the speakers. Same white noise/hissing issue occurs with sensitive IEMs with the headphone amp, however with full size headphones I cannot hear it even at max. All my earphones/headphones are 50Ω or less though so I cannot say for sure what would happen with higher impedances.
 

ozz

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Does anyone know if the display shuts off automatically or if it can be shut off by remote or it's always on ?
 

gasolin75

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@5W yes... but wouldnt this ramp up rather quickly at closer to max continuous output??? i.e 30W?
I had more noise runing an ASUS Xonar and Rotel RB-981 amplifier... just getting anything having to do with analog audio out of the computer case is a good idea.

even if it is THIS bad... well its only $130 and it is destined for the garage amp duty soon enough.

For general non critical listening I think its great for what it does...

Rotel RB981 is an old amp mabye it's just old and don't work, sound as good as when it was new
 

snowsurfer

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So how much am I going to mess up if I get this for my kitchen? I just retired a set of Q-Acoustics 2020s from the back channels of my home theater, and I have some free shelf space in the kitchen. I figure MX3+Q2020s would be better than my Ultimate Ears Boom. Also, is there a HPF when you connect a sub (yes I'm genuinely planning to add a sub in my kitchen at some stage). :) I want BT, by the way.
 

Leito360

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I use an MX3 to power a pair of Boston Acoustics A25 in my garage, white noise/hissing is audible after about 75/100 volume, but only with nothing playing. Distortion is more of an issue even with these speakers I can hear distortion from the MX3 far before the speakers get loud enough to distort themselves. From my old onkyo 2x40W@8Ω amp they can be driven much louder without distorting so it seems to me it is the MX3 not the speakers. Same white noise/hissing issue occurs with sensitive IEMs with the headphone amp, however with full size headphones I cannot hear it even at max. All my earphones/headphones are 50Ω or less though so I cannot say for sure what would happen with higher impedances.

For how long have you had the MX3? I'm worried since I heard a lots of DOA and dying within months.
 

snowsurfer

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I'm starting to veer towards an Ifi ZEN Blue + second hand power amp instead of the MX3, but of course only the ZEN Blue already is 50% more expensive than the MX3, so...yeah....
 

alex.r

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@amirm, can you test Optical in -> Speaker out?

My guess this product intended to be used with TV with 2.0 and/or 2.1 system (as remote there). As for headphones i think it is only secondary purpose of it.
On official website they don't even put it in the 'headphone amp' section.
 
Last edited:

thelawnet

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Hi.

I have just bought this product to replace a deceased Nobsound NS-15G Pro.

Unfortunately while this seems to be a better product, the Bluetooth from around 1.2 metres cuts out a bit, and only reliably works if the transmitting device is immediately adjacent.

Any thoughts/tips/suggestions?
 

oohms

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My MX3 died after a couple of months of light use. No warranty as it is past a year since it was manufactured, hence it is disposable. It was a really neat unit while it lasted
 

JohnYang1997

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My MX3 died after a couple of months of light use. No warranty as it is past a year since it was manufactured, hence it is disposable. It was a really neat unit while it lasted
That is the issue of your seller.
 

Jimster480

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My MX3 died after a couple of months of light use. No warranty as it is past a year since it was manufactured, hence it is disposable. It was a really neat unit while it lasted
That is a real shame.
 

oohms

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That is the issue of your seller.
I would argue given how common the fault seems on the net, that it is not fit for purpose. But it is cheap enough, and posting it back to china to be repaired is expensive enough that the point is moot anyway
 

doodlebro

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No hiss in my unit after nearly 11 months powering some 4 ohm Jamo bookshelfs. This setup is moving to the garage soon and the value is really apparent if you don't get a dud. I guess the lesson is to test the hell out of the lower end products so they fail within the warranty period.
 

mfrey0118

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I'm currently testing this unit alongside the SA300 in order to find a replacement for the Fosi BT30E that just had too many QC issues, which sucked because it's the only amp (alongside clones like the Douk) that has a freaking sub crossover and level control.
FYI I've got a 2.1 setup, 2 passive bookshelf speakers and a powered 10" sub in my PC desktop setup with a SB AE-5 Pure soundcard. Love the card, the DAC is better than either of these units, which is fine, as I'm running analog out to the amps.
I really want to like the MX3, but I can't. One huge flaw (not sure if it's a defect or not) is that yeah, you can have it play to speakers with the headphones plugged in (one of the reasons I got it since the SA300 for some reason decided headphones out was a bad thing) BUT IT DISABLES THE SUB OUT. What??? Like...what?? If I want the sub out on the MX3 to send signal to the sub, I have to unplug my headphones. That's a killer, man for real.
Also, when getting near +30dB (max) volume, she cuts out...every time.
So, I don't know if I got a defective unit or what, but it's going back. I'm just not sure if I want to deal with getting a replacement to test.
A bit surprised at how poorly this amp performed in the tests on this thread. It got louder and had less distortion at high volume in my system, than the SA300.
I really do like the SA300 though. If it had a headphone jack and optical input, it'd be one of the best out there.
I really wish, though, that these amps would for the love of god put a freakin' sub x over and level control on their amps. The really cheap Chinese companies selling the units labeled as "Fosi Audio", "Douk", and "Nobsound" do it, but man their quality of like, EMF shielding, RCA input, proper grounding, etc really suck and they're like anywhere from $30-$70 less than SMSL and Topping. I just don't get it because one of the primary uses for these 2.1 channel mini amps is...2.1 channel sound...so why can't I control how much low end gets split between my speakers and sub? I'm probably going to see if I can use my UMIK-1 and dial in the freq response going L/R out to the amp, and sub out from the AE-5 Pure to the sub. That bugs me though because don't like using digital volume control, it diminishes SQ by cutting bits off as volume goes down, I much prefer using the analog volume of the amp to control everything and leave the PC volume at 100%. So frustrating.
Probably gonna grab the Loxjie, it actually measures better than this one AND has a headphone jack.
Trying to find a decent budget 2.1 setup for my PC is frustrating. Unfortunately, I burned most of my spending $ building the PC, getting the desk, monitor, sub, etc...and I can't drop 400-500 on a decent amp.
Ugh.
 

robo

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I'm thinking of buying the MX-3 as a 'first' desktop amp, but am confused about the Bluetooth module. Does anyone know if it supports AAC? I would like to stream Apple Music from my iPhone, and my understanding is that if the Bluetooth module supports AAC, I can do this with no loss of quality from the original AAC stream.
 

robo

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Well, to answer my own post, I have the MX-3 on my desk now (thanks Amazon Prime...), and from watching the logs from my iPhone as it connects to the MX-3, I see:

A2DP configured at 44.1 KHz. Codec: AAC-LC, VBR max: 256 kbps. 1 frames * (12+744) bytes = 756 per RTP (max=879) every 23.22 ms

So, seems to indeed support AAC, despite it not being mentioned in any of the specs. Which is nice.

Not so nice is the high pitched whine I get through the headphones whenever USB is plugged in... so it'll be going back and the search continues...
 
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