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Shenzhenaudio Topping EX5 Review (DAC and Headphone Amplifier)

JABrown

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@fabius. Interesting observation and something I've been thinking about. My DAC/Amp died a couple of days ago and I plugged my headphones (Sennheiser HD6xx) into the headphone jack of my low end Lenovo laptop (running the Tidal App, Master-HiFi subscription level) thinking "here goes nothing" and have been pleasantly surprised. Plenty of volume and the sound quality is by no means unpleasant. I'll probably buy the EX5 unless I discover a problem by the time I finish reading all of the messages in this thread, but I suspect my ears may prove to be no more "golden" than yours. It might be interesting if Amir took a decent computer and tested the output from the headphone jack the same way he tests DACs so we have an "objective" indication of what we are gaining by adding external DACs.
 

radix

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There's occasionally a slight glitch in the audio (listening over headphones), like a momentary loss or stutter of sound. Not often, but often enough to be annoying. It's possible it's my ageing MBP but I've never noticed it before running sound through the EX5. Anyone other owners had this?

Fabius,

I am not sure if this is your problem, but here's a few things to check.

Go to your Lauchpad and type in "midi" to run the Audio MIDI setup program. You should see the EX5 listed as an output device. It has probably defaulted to "2 ch 32-bit integer 768.0 kHz." You could try something like 24-bit 96 kHz or 24-bit 48 kHz and see if that fixes the glitches.

I've never had this problem with my DX3Pro+. I have a Focusrite that always clicks badly whenever the sample rate is changed.

I usually use USB from a Raspberry Pi linux box (ropieee) and have never heard what you're talking about. So I suspect it's mac related not dx3pro+ usb related. I tried playing a few selections from Roon using USB directly to my DX3Pro+ and did not hear any glitches when it changed sampling rates.

Also, in regards to volume, I believe your mac is defaulting to maximum volume because the dx3pro has a volume control. On my mac, I can still adjust the volume, say in Spotify, and it reduces the played volume. It's controlling the volume on my mac, not adjusting the volume control on the dx3pro+.
 

fabius

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Go to your Lauchpad and type in "midi" to run the Audio MIDI setup program. You should see the EX5 listed as an output device. It has probably defaulted to "2 ch 32-bit integer 768.0 kHz." You could try something like 24-bit 96 kHz or 24-bit 48 kHz and see if that fixes the glitches.
Thanks - I've never seen this app in all the years (decades!) I've used Macs. It had defaulted to "2 ch 32-bit Integer 44.1 kHz". All else being equal (i.e. no glitches) would should it be?

Also, in regards to volume, I believe your mac is defaulting to maximum volume because the dx3pro has a volume control. On my mac, I can still adjust the volume, say in Spotify, and it reduces the played volume. It's controlling the volume on my mac, not adjusting the volume control on the dx3pro+.
Yes, I can still adjust the volume in an app, but the volume controls on my keyboard only control the system volume, which is now disabled/maximum. Switching to an app and changing volume is more hassle than using the EX5's volume knob. Maybe there's an app or something that can tweak things so the keyboard controls control Music.app, or whatever app is currently playing sound...
 

radix

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Thanks - I've never seen this app in all the years (decades!) I've used Macs. It had defaulted to "2 ch 32-bit Integer 44.1 kHz". All else being equal (i.e. no glitches) would should it be?
Some apps, like Roon, will change this setting every time they play a source with a new sample rate/depth. I think for the EX5, this setting will fluctuate. You could try setting it to something safe like 16-bit/48 kHz and see if that helps, but I suspect it will flip to whatever your media is when it's played. I think the main thing is to see if you hear the glitches when it changes rates or if the glitches are something else.

What program are you using to play music?
 

fabius

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Some apps, like Roon, will change this setting every time they play a source with a new sample rate/depth. I think for the EX5, this setting will fluctuate. You could try setting it to something safe like 16-bit/48 kHz and see if that helps, but I suspect it will flip to whatever your media is when it's played. I think the main thing is to see if you hear the glitches when it changes rates or if the glitches are something else.

What program are you using to play music?
Music.app. I think they've all been V0 MP3s so far.
 

radix

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Music.app. I think they've all been V0 MP3s so far.

I mostly use Roon (with the Roon EQ) or Spotify through SoundSource on the Mac. Basically, SoundSource intercepts the audio output and lets you apply EQ or other effects like loudness control. It has a convenient pull-down menu of popular headphone EQs. You can also supply your own EQs in a simple text format. I'd highly recommend SoundSource for a Mac user to EQ their headphones.

I'm using a DX3pro+ so I cannot really replicate your issue.
 

fabius

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I mostly use Roon (with the Roon EQ) or Spotify through SoundSource on the Mac. Basically, SoundSource intercepts the audio output and lets you apply EQ or other effects like loudness control. It has a convenient pull-down menu of popular headphone EQs. You can also supply your own EQs in a simple text format. I'd highly recommend SoundSource for a Mac user to EQ their headphones.

I'm using a DX3pro+ so I cannot really replicate your issue.
Yes, I should have said - I’m using SoundSource to do EQ.
 

fabius

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I just found Volume Control which allows you to control the volume of Music.app or Spotify volume using the keyboard's volume keys. Seems to do the job.

Sorry everyone, this has drifted off the EX5 topic - back to normal service! I'm going to have to get out the black insulation tape to cover up some of the type on the front of the box. Not because I have strong anti-MQA reactions, but I do have strong too-many-typefaces reactions.
 

Blew

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Hi all,

I bought the EX5 to replace the SMSL M500. Amazon offered me a full refund for the M500 due to the harmonic distortion issue, so I opted for that and replace it with the Topping EX5 because the firmware is able to be upgraded without a hassle.

Before I returned the M500, I performed a number of headphone listening tests comparing the two with my Sennheiser HD 660S headphones which have an impedance of 150 Ohms. To my surprise I found a distinct difference between the way these two units sound. The M500 has more "body", while the EX5 seems to miss a bit in the mid and lower frequencies and so sounds a bit "tinny" by comparison. I tried this while playing both MQA and non-MQA content, and with a variety of filter options.

Is there any reason why this could be? Does the M500 have a better headphone amplifier? Much fuss was made about the OPA1612 amps on the M500, which are not used on the EX5, so I wonder if that's what I'm hearing. Are there better filters on the M500 (which presumably wouldn't affect MQA)? This review doesn't appear to have tested the linearity of the headphone out on the EX5, so is there a possible difference in linearity between the headphone and XLR outputs?

Although the output power of the EX5 seems to be higher than the M500, I find I have to use high gain on the EX5 to get a similar headphone output volume of the EX5. The M500 doesn't have gain settings so perhaps it's always on high gain?

Not wanting to be too cynical, but I've also wondered if this could be a case of a golden sample being sent to Amir for review that differs to the product available at retail. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
 

AnthonyH

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Hi all,

First of all. a disclaimer. My ears are very old. I tested them with this tone generator: https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator. It told me that my hearing is fine up to 6 kHz but drops off essentially to nothing by 8 kHz. As a result, I can't tell the difference between the EX5 FIR filters and just used the default (3). Despite the frequency limitation, I haven't entirely lost the ability to discern audio quality - back in 2019, I was listening to James Horner's score for Wrath of Khan on Amazon Music (TCL TV > TOSLINK > Vanatoo T1 speakers) and it sounded too good for 256 kb/sec variable rate MP3. I went online and found an Amazon press release that was three days old and announced the change to lossless compression. Truly a blind test!

I have connected my Sennheiser HD 600 headphones to the EX5 with an aftermarket XLR cable. I think the EX5 sounds better than the Schiit Modi 3 + Magni that it replaces but, as I said before, I have ancient ears. Also, I haven't figured out how to carry out a blind comparison. For what it's worth, I would characterize the sound of the EX5 as transparent and detailed.

I'm puzzled that Blew has to use high gain with his Sennheiser 660S. My headphones have twice the impedance and the EX5 with low gain can exceed my preferred headphone sound level (which I judge to be comparable to an SPL of 85 dB with speakers). It seems unlikely that the 660S is much less efficient than the 600, so unless Blew likes his music very loud indeed he probably has a faulty EX5.
 

Jambo

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I want everything the EX5 has to offer, but I don't need the headphone amp. Does this exist in a cheaper package?
 

Jambo

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So do you mean a DAC with balanced outs?
It's definitely on the plus side, but the volume control, bluetooth capability and internal power supply are the real deal breakers.

I would assume there would be a product out there to rival the EX5 in this regard but so far my research comes up short.
 

Walter

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No tests available that I can find, but if you don't require balanced outputs, the Aiyima DAC A4 and DAC A5 pro both seem to fit your requirements and are much cheaper. I don't think either will measure anywhere near as well as the EX5 but whether the difference will be audible is impossible to say.
 

TheFrator

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Got a EX5 today from Amazon and both the RCA and XLR outputs were kaput. Interestingly, it still works as an all-in-one so I can plug my HD660s into the onboard amp and it works fine. But connected to my separate amplifier no signal is sent. It's not the amplifier and I read the manual through twice to make sure I was outputting through both XLR and RCA.
 

Yorkshire Mouth

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It's definitely on the plus side, but the volume control, bluetooth capability and internal power supply are the real deal breakers.

I would assume there would be a product out there to rival the EX5 in this regard but so far my research comes up short.

This ticks all the boxes apart from internal power supply.

 

Walter

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This ticks all the boxes apart from internal power supply.

No volume control--a fact I lamented soon after it was released. Remotes are a pain for desktop use.
 

Yorkshire Mouth

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No volume control--a fact I lamented soon after it was released. Remotes are a pain for desktop use.

Ah, thanks.

Funnily enough, I use my EX5 on my desktop, I can reach the volume control easily, but I always use the remote instead. Even though, thinking about it, using the volume control on the EX5 would probably be easier.

I have no idea why I do this.
 

Walter

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Ah, thanks.

Funnily enough, I use my EX5 on my desktop, I can reach the volume control easily, but I always use the remote instead. Even though, thinking about it, using the volume control on the EX5 would probably be easier.

I have no idea why I do this.
I'd probably end up grabbing the wrong remote and turning off the AC instead of muting the sound.
 
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