Topping DX3 Pro+ Review (DAC & Headphone Amp)

[panzershrek2]

Hello, there. I just ordered the DX3 pro+ to use with my HD600 headphones and JVC FDX1 iems.

I apologize for the noob questions, I'm just looking for some clarification. From what I've gathered on this thread, the DX3 pro+ doesn't sound that good when used with low impedance, high sensitivity iems such as the FDX1 (16 ohm, 103dB@1mW iem).

So I have the following questions:
Will the performance of the DX3 pro+ be better/worse than my Samsung dongle when used with my iem?
Is the lower dynamic range something I will notice when I listen at 75dB to 85dB levels (vs the Samsung Dongle, or something like a Sonata HD Pro)?

Thanks a bunch

 

[Carlo2AC]

Hello, there. I just ordered the DX3 pro+ to use with my HD600 headphones and JVC FDX1 iems.

I apologize for the noob questions, I'm just looking for some clarification. From what I've gathered on this thread, the DX3 pro+ doesn't sound that good when used with low impedance, high sensitivity iems such as the FDX1 (16 ohm, 103dB@1mW iem).

So I have the following questions:
Will the performance of the DX3 pro+ be better/worse than my Samsung dongle when used with my iem?
Is the lower dynamic range something I will notice when I listen at 75dB to 85dB levels (vs the Samsung Dongle, or something like a Sonata HD Pro)?

Thanks a bunch

It is not about "not souding good", it is about clipping (check what clipping sounds like), if you are playing your headphones as loud as you like and not having any issues then you are getting as clean as you can sound

 

[panzershrek2]

It is not about "not souding good", it is about clipping (check what clipping sounds like), if you are playing your headphones as loud as you like and not having any issues then you are getting as clean as you can sound

Thanks for the reply. I did experience some clipping issues with my HD600 when I used it on my laptop, but I'm confident that using the HD600 with the DX3 Pro+ will resolve that issue.

My main concern is with the low impedance high sensitivity iem's (the fdx1). Correct me if I'm wrong, the way I understand the 50mV SNR graph is that it's there to represent iem's (or low powered, high sensitivity headphones). The reason I'm concerned about the quality is because the SNR values dropped from 120 dB to just 88 dB when at 50mV. I'm not sure how to interpret this. I assuming it's not a good thing since the 88 dB SNR will provide a lower range than 120 dB, unless I'm interpreting this wrongly. To clarify my question, I just wanted to know if the 88 dB SNR is good enough or should I look for another amp with better SNR at 50mV(like the L30).

Apologies for the ramble

 

[dheepak10]

I've the Topping D50s with an old amp. I'm thinking of two options -

Option -1: Get an amp like Drop THX AAA one (With an adjustable gain that is <0dB) to replace my existing amp and keep my D50s

Option -2: Sell both DAC and amp. Get DX3 pro+.

I'll be primarily using the amp as a pre-amp with my speakers and sometimes with headphones/IEMs.

Do you think the DAC section of D50s is superior to DX3 pro+ owing to its Dual-mono setup?

 

[SnakeLeon]

I still do not understand why the Frequency Response for the Headphone Output is hidden for this product, it is not the most important thing but it is useful to make comparisons.

 

[Bleib]

Haven't had this for some time now I've started to mess around with BT. I have a BT5.0 phone Xiaomi MI10t pro and the audio appears to be quite poor through BT. Anyone else tried it?

 

[cybernaut667]

We have same phone, same DAC
and similar taste in music.

I still haven't tried BT.

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

Whether the switch from the Hidizs S9 to the Dx3pro + would be an audible upgrade?
The S9 with the Liric is a bit weak in terms of power...

 

[Carlo2AC]

Whether the switch from the Hidizs S9 to the Dx3pro + would be an audible upgrade?
The S9 with the Liric is a bit weak in terms of power...

Even though it is weak in terms of power if your headphones are getting loud enough then you won't hear any audible by "upgrading"

 

[albus1987]

My phone stays connected to the DX3 Pro+ via bluetooth even though I have switched to other inputs. The sound still comes from the selected input but my phone stays connected nonetheless.
Is it possible to automatically disable bluetooth once another input is selected?

 

[ninetylol]

Testing at many load impedances tells us that the amp doesn't like very low impedances:

Is this really true though?

If you calculate a worst case scenario like Hifiman Deva Pro with 18Ohm and low sens 93.5db/mw

This would Clip at like 1,8vrms which would be at 116db. Thats really really loud and noone should listen this loud :O

 

[Mashaka]

To all audio lovers,

DX3 Pro+ better than any Zen DAC V2?

Loved the bass boost option there.

 

[ninetylol]

I recently bought the Hifiman Deva Pro headphones. https://hifiman.com/products/detail/313

I can clearly notice an improvement of quality when moving from my MacBook Pro (mid-2012) audio port to the Bluemini R2R via USB cable (besides Bluetooth, the Bluemini can work as DAC with 24 bit, 768 KHz, 120 dB SNR, 0.0022% THD according to the manufacturer).

Based on this experience , I would expect even better performance by using a dedicated DAC/AMP. I understand that the DX3 Pro+ is a highly regarded option, but I see some question marks about driving low impedance headphones. The Deva Pro has a 18Ω impedance, but relatively low efficiency (93.5 dB).

Are my expectations of improvement by using a dedicated DAC/AMP reasonable? Is the DX3 Pro+ ideal, or should I look at something different?

Thanks!

How Was your experience so far? Same combo incoming here.

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

Does anyone know, why the sound on the headphone jack is louder,
when i select headphone-amp + line-out?

I am also very surprised that I have to use the high gain with the liric.
I transfer the data from the smartphone to the topping via USB. There I use the EQ in the Neutron Player.
So I have to set the preamp to -6db. Nevertheless, I am surprised that I have to go down to 0db for the volume of the DX3PRO + with low gain ...

Liric:
Impedance30 Ω
Nominal SPL100 dB (1 mW / 1 kHz)

 

[Veri]

So I have to set the preamp to -6db. Nevertheless, I am surprised that I have to go down to 0db for the volume of the DX3PRO + with low gain ...

That seems totally normal.

 

[ninetylol]

That seems totally normal.

Indeed. Low gain is just 118mw which results in 105dB in your case - 6db preamp =99db. Should result in an average loud volume at 100%

 

[ninetylol]

How Was your experience so far? Same combo incoming here.

To answer my own question, since my DX3Pro just arrived:

Even a worst case scenario like Hifiman Deva Pro 18Ohm 93.5dB/mw works great and is plenty loud in low gain (which wouldnt trigger current protection)

PS: I love the hardware volume control via windows volume. Thumbs up Topping!

 

[mailux]

The DX3 pro+ has just arrived at my place. Unfortunately, I cannot install the v5.20 driver on my Windows 7 system (*error message: Setup cannot run on the current operating system).
Is there another driver that works on a Windows 7 PC? Otherwise I have to send the DAC back again.

 

[gael]

The DX3 pro+ has just arrived at my place. Unfortunately, I cannot install the v5.20 driver on my Windows 7 system (*error message: Setup cannot run on the current operating system).
Is there another driver that works on a Windows 7 PC? Otherwise I have to send the DAC back again.

Looks like V5.27 is the latest overall, V5.00 is the latest for Win7. Try both maybe.

 

[Toku]

The DX3 pro+ has just arrived at my place. Unfortunately, I cannot install the v5.20 driver on my Windows 7 system (*error message: Setup cannot run on the current operating system).
Is there another driver that works on a Windows 7 PC? Otherwise I have to send the DAC back again.

Not compatible with Windows 7. It is also displayed on the HP as such.