Shenzhenaudio Topping EX5 Review (DAC and Headphone Amplifier)

[JohnYang1997]

Personally I don't like this kind of statements at all, of course in this case you are the expert, but it should be the choice of the ASR member to get his own picture/decision (doesn't matter if he/she is a newbie or an expert) of what is right and wrong. If a user claims something which is wrong in your opinion, you should counter with a statement and some proof why it is wrong and why you are right, this would the basics of a scientific discussion.
I mean that's exactly what the forum should provide.

Meanwhile (I don't know if this will get me a ban) I got contacted by the reviewer and as already mentioned, he was banned. He was also the user who created the thread which mentioned the 3rd harmonic issue referring to SMSL, I don't like how things are handled in this case and I find it quite irritating.

He was previously banned three times. You will only get lies from him. He is Chinese where he uses a different lie about what he does to get away getting banned. If you want to continue believing him fine. I'll say nothing more.

Also don't put different things together.

I never said the 3rd harmonic discovery is bad. But doing one thing is not cancelling out all the sins.

I didn't reply to any of these until someone said I could've addressed it. It would be a waste of time.

And again the ban has little to do with what he said.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Guess I'm ignorant to assume people are logical and have critical thinking.

Here's the draft reply I didn't finish and didn't post.

"1, -12V supply is intentionally done for lower dissipation for all opamps. And it just works with no issue.

2, LM4562 is good enough for 9038q2m. op1612 will give slightly more performance 0.5dB. But at a fraction of the cost it's clearly the better choice.

3, LM4562 is better than ES9211. Cheaper yet better.

4, The signal path is to use as few opamps as possible yet have headphone output optimized. There's no issue with capacitive load, or powering multiple down stream devices.

5, That's not actual jitter in the measurement. It's some interference when you put everything in a small box. Yet level of them are still way down at about -140dB, which is lower than all other sources of distortion.


To the recommendations:

Power supply is not something to be cheaped out on. You can get cheaper AC-DC supplies but I don't trust the reliability."

 

[JohnYang1997]

The history of the person. Not total accurate. Go search for all the message for details.
account yue: had dx3pro and saying his unit was faulty. Sent to Amir and it's not faulty. Got banned afterwards with some conflicts.
account ppp: ee student says topping can't design for crap. And got bannd for being aggressive at some point. Same user name is still active on L7audiolab.
account liu: said he worked for bose. conspiracy against asr and saying asr being advertisement for Chinese. Had conflict with moderator and got banned.
account feng: admit being formerly banned member and got banned.

I am tired of this. Let's end this.

 

[NM156]

Crosstalk...

Unfortunately, the load for the headphone amp is not specified. 88dB (6.35mm output) might be fine for 32 ohms, but definitely not for 300 ohms.
This also only applies to 1 kHz. A frequency sweep would be much more useful, since crosstalk usually increases with higher frequencies.
But then again, I know that most of the users on this forum (and unfortunately Amir as well, I guess) don't really care about crosstalk. A mystery to me.

 

[Veri]

The history of the person. Not total accurate. Go search for all the message for details.
account yue: had dx3pro and saying his unit ia faulty. Sent to Amir and it's not faulty. Got banned afterwards with some conflicts.
account ppp: ee student says topping can't design for crap. And got bannd for being aggressive at some point. Same user name is still active on L7audiolab.
account liu: said he worked for bose. conspiracy against asr and saying asr being advertisement for Chinese. Had conflict with moderator and got banned.
account feng: admit being formerly banned member and got banned.

I am tired of this. Let's end this.

Wait these were all the same person???? Holy crap. That is some plot thickening...

 

[Walderstorn]

I will have say that (at least the account Liu) was not banned at least it's what it's stated by a mod, it was a request, not an enforcement or am I missing something?

Also about the "80%" lies, I have some questions:

1 - there's not specifically wrong, specially attending the type of the equipment. Is the explanation he used wrong?

2- there's no premium (but still perfectly functional) components

3- he mentioned 9311, not 9211. I don't know a 9211. Was that a typo? Anyway would u have personally used this opamp?

4- he said that maybe its not an issue but something to be aware of and I agree. Why wouldn't one agree with this statement?

5- Yeap, even with my low knowledge level, know that this may be the case.

So are the 80% in his explanations, in the overall thoughts or are you mixing in previous episodes?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Wait these were all the same person???? Holy crap. That is some plot thickening...

He used different names in different places said he opened m500 and L30. And he shits on Chinese companies all the time. Weirdly he pretends to be a normal person and say normal things here under the name liu. But every now and then there's a rant with all the conspiracy and misinformation(see 3rd harmonic thread for details). And I didn't even know he's the same person when he PMed me. The person has some issues.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Sorry I just edited my previous message not realizing there were additional replies.

Like I said it's truth mixed with misconception, misleading questions and implications of the design being severely compromised and cheaply designed and made. You can just take a look at a few other members' reaction to understand what he actually did.
What matters is measurements and real world usage.

 

[JohnYang1997]

I will have say that (at least the account Liu) was not banned at least it's what it's stated by a mod, it was a request, not an enforcement or am I missing something?

Also about the "80%" lies, I have some questions:

1 - there's not specifically wrong, specially attending the type of the equipment. Is the explanation he used wrong?

2- there's no premium (but still perfectly functional) components

3- he mentioned 9311, not 9211. I don't know a 9211. Was that a typo? Anyway would u have personally used this opamp?

4- he said that maybe its not an issue but something to be aware of and I agree. Why wouldn't one agree with this statement?

5- Yeap, even with my low knowledge level, know that this may be the case.

So are the 80% in his explanations, in the overall thoughts or are you mixing in previous episodes?

One would get the following:
1, using -12V supply is bad idea and it's either design over sight or deliberately cheaping out.
2, Inferior, cheap, parts are used in terms of cost. Implying it's a bad, inferior design. Especially comparing to other dacs using the same dac chip.
3, 9311 is better. Using the cheap 4562 is a inferior design.
4, Using less opamp and using unconventional design trickery to save cost hence it's a inferior design.
And the power supply part is especially infuriating. Using single +15V instead of smaller less well known brand dual supply is better design. And we are cheaping out on this. Wut?

 

[JohnYang1997]

The fact is all the design choice are deliberately made. Dissipation, power consumption, reliability, optimizing performance. The truth is it's the best performing well rounded DAC/AMP unit in 700 dollars that I know. I have used this when arguing with account ppp: go and design something better and sell for the same price. But it's not working here I guess. All that internal inspection, all that testing don't make any sense, don't have any meaning. Because it's the final result what matters. If a car can run faster than Tesla than Bugatti using grass then let it. Because it's better. All these doubts only showed his bias, bad intention and ignorance.

 

[AdamG]

The history of the person. Not total accurate. Go search for all the message for details.
account yue: had dx3pro and saying his unit was faulty. Sent to Amir and it's not faulty. Got banned afterwards with some conflicts.
account ppp: ee student says topping can't design for crap. And got bannd for being aggressive at some point. Same user name is still active on L7audiolab.
account liu: said he worked for bose. conspiracy against asr and saying asr being advertisement for Chinese. Had conflict with moderator and got banned.
account feng: admit being formerly banned member and got banned.

I am tired of this. Let's end this.

FYI John is correct. This previously Banned member has resurfaced with multiple accounts. His behavior was not welcome, he was warned and defied these warnings again and again. We normally don’t talk about banned members for a multitude of reasons. He was banned not for what he said but how he said it. Being offensive and insulting will not fly here. Everything John said about this member is correct. This is the last time this member will be mentioned in this thread. Any further violations will receive a reply ban themselves.

 

[AdamG]

I will have say that (at least the account Liu) was not banned at least it's what it's stated by a mod, it was a request, not an enforcement or am I missing something?

Also about the "80%" lies, I have some questions:

1 - there's not specifically wrong, specially attending the type of the equipment. Is the explanation he used wrong?

2- there's no premium (but still perfectly functional) components

3- he mentioned 9311, not 9211. I don't know a 9211. Was that a typo? Anyway would u have personally used this opamp?

4- he said that maybe its not an issue but something to be aware of and I agree. Why wouldn't one agree with this statement?

5- Yeap, even with my low knowledge level, know that this may be the case.

So are the 80% in his explanations, in the overall thoughts or are you mixing in previous episodes?

Yes that account and several others were the same person. Whom was banned for a multitude of reasons. He acted like a troll/shill against any thread about Topping or John. He made many unsubstantiated claims and did in fact lie about who he was. He created at least 1/2 dozen different accounts in the attempt to circumvent Moderation actions, and to make it appear that multiple people were saying the same things. You all are intelligent people here, so work it out for yourself what his agenda was, and possibly whom he may have worked for. He most certainly was not here to be a constructive and contributing Member. He was here to create havoc and only participated in certain specific threads.

 

[Veri]

I think it takes a pretty twisted person to try and control a narrative in such an elaborate way. And under his Liu name it's clear he is actually intelligent.. would have rather he'd use that for 'good' than whatever his intentions were...

But okay enough about that. Things are cleared up now, to me.

 

[Walderstorn]

One would get the following:
1, using -12V supply is bad idea and it's either design over sight or deliberately cheaping out.
2, Inferior, cheap, parts are used in terms of cost. Implying it's a bad, inferior design. Especially comparing to other dacs using the same dac chip.
3, 9311 is better. Using the cheap 4562 is a inferior design.
4, Using less opamp and using unconventional design trickery to save cost hence it's a inferior design.
And the power supply part is especially infuriating. Using single +15V instead of smaller less well known brand dual supply is better design. And we are cheaping out on this. Wut?

Thanks for giving me your technical vision of the subject in hand.

 

[Veri]

Yeah I agree. From a company perspective, refuting all of that "slander" (if that's what it truly was) would have better bolstered their reputation/position as it was quite extensive. I just find the approach taken baffling. As a company representative whose products are regularly reviewed here, attributing not responding due to it being "a waste of time" or in such a confrontational manner really isn't doing them any favors.

Facts would have quickly disarmed this. I still think this entire situation is shady and I'll leave it at that.

JohnYang has no moderation power though. It's mods that stepped in due to repeated offenses by the person in question. It's Liu that wanted out of this website and requested a full account closure in any case... I don't think someone that posted under 5-6 names here should be treated like a normal member. 'Shady' is indeed the right word...

just my .50c

 

[JohnYang1997]

Yeah I agree. From a company perspective, refuting all of that "slander" (if that's what it truly was) would have better bolstered their reputation/position as it was quite extensive. I just find the approach taken baffling. As a company representative whose products are regularly reviewed here, attributing not responding due to it being "a waste of time" or in such a confrontational manner really isn't doing them any favors.

Facts would have quickly disarmed this. I still think this entire situation is shady and I'll leave it at that.

Please have a read.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dac-and-headphone-amplifier.24341/post-835724
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dac-and-headphone-amplifier.24341/post-835734

 

[AdamG]

FYI. JohnYang1997 is a guest here. He has zero Admin/Moderation privileges. Any posts that were removed were done by the Moderator Team. Secondly, any person who has been permanently Banned from ASR, who then registers a new account under a different name is fraudulently accessing our Site for other than honorable intentions. Once a Mod discovers that this has happened. We take immediate action to close this new account and remove any and all posts made. We do this no matter what the content of their post may be. This is standard practice for most message boards in existence.

Let this be the end of it. Please and thank you.

P.S. The only reason John got involved in this is because he was the person who alerted the Moderation Team of this banned members return under false credentials. So that may have made it look like John was doing the deletions and removals.

 

[AdamG]

I restored this thread/post since some have expressed interest in reading this. In the sake of transparency. I did not delete it for any other reason than the automatic Moderation response to a fake account and attempt to circumvent the rules.


https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/my-topping-ex5-review.24664/#post-836060

 

[VariousArtists]

I am curious about its Bluetooth performance, in particular the AAC/SBC implementation, or all devices using CSR8675 have more or less the same BT performance?

 

[amirm]

I am curious about its Bluetooth performance, in particular the AAC/SBC implementation, or all devices using CSR8675 have more or less the same BT performance?

They all use the same subsystem so I am assuming they produce the same good performance I have measured on of their other products. It is a pain to do Bluetooth testing so please don't ask me to confirm.