Some info about Topping's incoming DX1 II

[sansenri]

Firmware 22.83 solved it for me, all good. Topping Store and Topping Service department both have been excellent as my issues - no sound out - was chalked off as a probable hardware failure by them and me.

can you be more specific? no sound out was a hardware issue, so how was it solved, item replacement? which other issues did the new firmware solve for you? thanks

 

[Soundproof]

can you be more specific? no sound out was a hardware issue, so how was it solved, item replacement? which other issues did the new firmware solve for you? thanks

Sorry, kept it to a minimum as I was trying not to plaster the same info in the same thread. The thread I link to is rather to the point thus neat and tidy.

Topping DX1 II DAC & HP Amp Review (NTTY)

The user guide (page 19) clearly states that PEQ could be enabled/disabled for optical out. Yep, but it applies only from USB input.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Dreamic]

Has anyone noticed small pop/crackle sounds when listening to music or whatever sometimes? Rewind to check and it definitely wasn't a glitch in what you were listening to. @snadge @Bleib
Feeling a bit sad if this is something I can't fix and if it might be an issue for me forever if Topping and others haven't noticed or experienced it.
Even if it were just a split second hiccup once an hour when listening to music, that should never happen, doesn't happen on Apple Dongle.
I don't know.

I noticed this before this firmware too but there were bigger problems before. Maybe could be my PC but Apple Dongle in same port with everything else identical never did it, so. I'll spend more time with it now since I can without getting my ears blasted.

 

[Bleib]

Has anyone noticed small pop/crackle sounds when listening to music or whatever sometimes? Rewind to check and it definitely wasn't a glitch in what you were listening to. @snadge @Bleib
Feeling a bit sad if this is something I can't fix and if it might be an issue for me forever if Topping and others haven't noticed or experienced it.
Even if it were just a split second hiccup once an hour when listening to music, that should never happen, doesn't happen on Apple Dongle.
I don't know

Nothing at this point, but I haven't had so much time yet with the latest firmware. Should have on Sunday

 

[snadge]

Has anyone noticed small pop/crackle sounds when listening to music or whatever sometimes? Rewind to check and it definitely wasn't a glitch in what you were listening to. @snadge @Bleib
Feeling a bit sad if this is something I can't fix and if it might be an issue for me forever if Topping and others haven't noticed or experienced it.
Even if it were just a split second hiccup once an hour when listening to music, that should never happen, doesn't happen on Apple Dongle.
I don't know.

I noticed this before this firmware too but there were bigger problems before. Maybe could be my PC but Apple Dongle in same port with everything else identical never did it, so. I'll spend more time with it now since I can without getting my ears blasted.

I haven't noticed this no. Most recent firmware has been solid for me. I have only briefly tested with Windows 10 though (which seemed fine), and currently I'm streaming Spotify lossless on Linux at 44.1khz. A bit of "That's Right" by DJ Boneyard. I can't really think anything for you to try other than maybe see if you can replicate it on another computer, or laptop, or phone or anything else you can plug it into. Is there anything about your setup that might be custom or different?

 

[Vladetz]

Has anyone noticed small pop/crackle sounds when listening to music or whatever sometimes? Rewind to check and it definitely wasn't a glitch in what you were listening to. @snadge @Bleib
Feeling a bit sad if this is something I can't fix and if it might be an issue for me forever if Topping and others haven't noticed or experienced it.
Even if it were just a split second hiccup once an hour when listening to music, that should never happen, doesn't happen on Apple Dongle.
I don't know.

I noticed this before this firmware too but there were bigger problems before. Maybe could be my PC but Apple Dongle in same port with everything else identical never did it, so. I'll spend more time with it now since I can without getting my ears blasted.

I am noticing the same issue

 

[Dreamic]

Nothing at this point, but I haven't had so much time yet with the latest firmware. Should have on Sunday

I haven't noticed this no. Most recent firmware has been solid for me. I have only briefly tested with Windows 10 though (which seemed fine), and currently I'm streaming Spotify lossless on Linux at 44.1khz. A bit of "That's Right" by DJ Boneyard. I can't really think anything for you to try other than maybe see if you can replicate it on another computer, or laptop, or phone or anything else you can plug it into. Is there anything about your setup that might be custom or different?

I am noticing the same issue

I think I already discovered and solved the problem, not sure if it's your situation Vladetz, but the "Preferred ASIO Buffer Size" doesn't appear to only apply when using ASIO, I found some discussion of this elsewhere. If you lowered samples and maybe unchecked safe mode, when I would start Discord or Steam (and likely other things I was doing) it would trigger popping when music is playing almost every time, raising it has seemed to completely stop that.

So the "Preferred ASIO Buffer Size" seems to be relevant in non-ASIO, using shared mode, which also almost certainly means you can shave some latency when using shared mode, see how low you can go before problems (but the bulk of latency will still be from Windows).

Spoiler: Windows audio latency is like 95ms from game

People may want to look at 8:23 above as apparently choosing 512 samples (or higher) massively increases your game audio latency vs 256 (and choosing lower than 256 doesn't really help further).

Spoiler: See here

I emailed Topping about this because if it's as it appears then it should be 256 by default to give customers way better gaming audio latency for a gaming branded device.

The DXI II might actually be pretty flawless for me now currently then.

 

[Vladetz]

I think I already discovered and solved the problem, not sure if it's your situation Vladetz, but the "Preferred ASIO Buffer Size" doesn't appear to only apply when using ASIO, I found some discussion of this elsewhere. If you lowered samples and maybe unchecked safe mode, when I would start Discord or Steam (and likely other things I was doing) it would trigger popping when music is playing almost every time, raising it has seemed to completely stop that.

So the "Preferred ASIO Buffer Size" seems to be relevant in non-ASIO, using shared mode, which also almost certainly means you can shave some latency when using shared mode, see how low you can go before problems (but the bulk of latency will still be from Windows).

Spoiler: Windows audio latency is like 95ms from game

People may want to look at 8:23 above as apparently choosing 512 samples (or higher) massively increases your game audio latency vs 256 (and choosing lower than 256 doesn't really help further).

Spoiler: See here

View attachment 544250

I emailed Topping about this because if it's as it appears then it should be 256 by default to give customers way better gaming audio latency for a gaming branded device.

The DXI II might actually be pretty flawless for me now currently then.

Thank you for your detailed feedback
Actually, I was facing this issue with safety mode on and 4096 samples (default setting as I remember)
Issue was present while playing Death Stranding 2 few days ago, but yesterday after few hours of playing there was no issues - all settings were unchanged

 

[Vladetz]

Interesting, 512 samples is the default for me, which just shown adds +40ms vs 256 samples because of how games in Windows work. I don't have an option for 4096 samples, but 2048 samples the driver tells me is 50ms with safe mode lol, and this doesn't account for how 512 samples is 40ms higher than 256 samples (the driver says 512 samples is 14.50ms and 256 samples is 8.50ms).
You're adding like 100ms+ to everything, total like 250ms+ probably.

I have set 256 samples and turned off safe mode
But results are still a bit unpredictable. Yesterday I had no pops and cracks and today I have heard that again
Btw output was set on 32/384

 

[Dreamic]

I have set 256 samples and turned off safe mode
But results are still a bit unpredictable. Yesterday I had no pops and cracks and today I have heard that again
Btw output was set on 32/384

I guess I didn't need to delete the message you quoted but I wasn't thinking about you using 384kHz, that kinda changes things but my understanding so far is that you should still have less than 512 samples for buffer size, but the problem with using 384kHz is this is possibly too aggressive and could cause popping. You should probably just use 48kHz for games.

 

[Vladetz]

I guess I didn't need to delete the message you quoted but I wasn't thinking about you using 384kHz, that kinda changes things but my understanding so far is that you should still have less than 512 samples for buffer size, but the problem with using 384kHz is this is possibly too aggressive and could cause popping. You should probably just use 48kHz for games.

I will try 48 kHz, but 96 kHz gives same results

 

[Demmers]

I have set 256 samples and turned off safe mode
But results are still a bit unpredictable. Yesterday I had no pops and cracks and today I have heard that again
Btw output was set on 32/384

On a side-note, using 384 doesn't improve anything at all. You're just forcing over-sampling to the max, for no reason. Far better setting to the most common "at source", so either 44.1 or 48 (32 bit is fine).

 

[Bauhaus]

How is your experience using it with a PS5? How is the microphone output?

 

[ATTI]

I don't know if this info will be useful to anyone, but DX1 II can work with DC supply down to 3.8V. It is possible to power it directly from Li-ion battery in the discharge range 4.2(4.35)-3.8V with custom USB cable or with Y-splitter cable for data/charging. Below 3.8V it starts to beep/crackle.