ThrillSeekerZ
Member
- Joined
- May 28, 2026
- Messages
- 6
- Likes
- 7
Lurking member here, Im using Dx5II for 2 weeks and wanted to share some thoughts about Chi-fi especially Topping: short - extremely good value, state of the art performance.
My backgound: Im into headphone and this hobby when I was a overseas student in Sydney, back in 2009, my daily travel buddy was Koss porta pro with the the first iPhone (2G). Then I got into Head-fi, bought a Westone UM3X and started the hobby throughout the years 2010-2013:
- LCD2 v1
- Schiit Lyr v1 with some tube rollings I hunted Siemens rare nos stuff on ebay (sold to fellow hobbist in Malaysia) - back in those days trading on Head-fi was 99% of trust, very rare to get scammed. We usually sent payment first by paypal gift.
- bought Violectric V800/V200 stack (then sold to a local fellow hobbist) with 1/3 of loss after 1 month. I was dissappointed by Violectric QC, nothing special in sounding.
- at that time frame NwAvGuy was pretty active on HF threads with his awesome Objective amp, but good and reputated DIY builders were mostly interested in building beta22.
- bought a stack of beta22 & sigma22 from a DIYer in US. We only discussed via pms, very honest and fascinated builder, got it shipped from US to Sydney for total $1300 and its still running great til today!
- bought NAD M51, it was a bomb in 2013, still on my rack today - $1300 AUD from a Aus retailer.
- bought Fostex TH900 ver1 shipped from Japan for almost $2k
- bought Zana Duex v1 from a HF US fellower, it arrived safe and sound, but TH900 was not a synergy with the legendary ZD v1, so I sold it to a local friend, kept the beta22 stack until today!
----------------------------------------------------------
I arrived home late of 2013, and stopped the hobby in 2016 for a few reasons: got married, family, kid was born, dogs and work, plus my TH900's left driver got faulty due to humid condition and I couldnt find a solution to fix it, so I pack my stuff (M51, Beta22 stacks, Audiophilleo2 & purepower and some expensive cables - yes, I couldnt find the differences but I were fooled by reviews and stuff that time - no regret tho, its a journey and experiences).
-----------------------------------------------------------
Late of 2025 I changed my job and have some time to enjoy music again, so I started with IEM again, just by think thats enough for entertainment, I could use it at office also at home, bought the ThieAudio Monarch MKIV and experienced some dongles. Did satisfy myself due to comfortable reason so I do some deep researchings to update the info also the stories behind why NwAvGuy dissappeared from the scene and how he left a legacy to the community, which we have here, Amir and ASR to honor that philosophy.
And I read a lot of ASR and debates with the helps of Claude. My belief were DAC do have some subtle differences, but you know, from my young age of into this hobby, I failed to distinguish my DAC, but yes I can 100/100 did tell the differences between my amps because one was a tube, and another was SOTA solid state one, they did sound differently but back in those days (2012-13) there were no one measured those stuff, placebo and sighted reviews were everything.
And when I bought the DX5II I wanted to experience A/B the amp section myself because after all, thats my belief that needed to check. I did A/B sighted test only because I have noone to help me do the proper blind test, but with matching volume, there is absolutely NO differences between the beta22 stack comparing to DX5II. Tested on Denon D9200 with custom EQ on APO. Beta22 & Sigma22 despite the old DIY topology, many owners still appreciated it as one of the best amp ever with proper build, even comparing to thousands bucks amp today it still hold on quite good, Headamp GSX MK2 is the commercial version of beta22 though, I guess same philosophy and more robust build.
DAC wise, NAD M51 was measured okay, but not good in multitone test, but in my A/B test, they sounded the same, no differences.
-----------------------------------------------------------
In summary of my experience, old stuff and the new DX5II coz I wanted to try for myself to see how Chi-fi with great Sinad measurement could compare with SOTA old stuff and I was in awe, surprised and happy because now it is my main "all-in-one" box of daily use. Convenient, superb sound, lots of features (PEQ, remote, power output headroom, 3 common outputs).
For $250 this is a bargain, and I dont care if it would fail/die after 12 months (out of warranty), and Im highly doubt that it would fail that soon, in the worse case I wouldn't hesitate to upgrade for TOTL of Topping for better QC and longevity.
Thousands bucks equipments are what you should pay for the look, the fancy box and its feature or high grade components inside that you are expecting its longivity to last for decades, not the sound it reproduce, because, if they are transparent enough, they should sound the same, dac or amp, they all follow the law of physics.
Thanks Amir and ASR community to help us debunk the audiofool myths and also, Chi-fi to keep the market competitive.
Cheers,
Alex
My backgound: Im into headphone and this hobby when I was a overseas student in Sydney, back in 2009, my daily travel buddy was Koss porta pro with the the first iPhone (2G). Then I got into Head-fi, bought a Westone UM3X and started the hobby throughout the years 2010-2013:
- LCD2 v1
- Schiit Lyr v1 with some tube rollings I hunted Siemens rare nos stuff on ebay (sold to fellow hobbist in Malaysia) - back in those days trading on Head-fi was 99% of trust, very rare to get scammed. We usually sent payment first by paypal gift.
- bought Violectric V800/V200 stack (then sold to a local fellow hobbist) with 1/3 of loss after 1 month. I was dissappointed by Violectric QC, nothing special in sounding.
- at that time frame NwAvGuy was pretty active on HF threads with his awesome Objective amp, but good and reputated DIY builders were mostly interested in building beta22.
- bought a stack of beta22 & sigma22 from a DIYer in US. We only discussed via pms, very honest and fascinated builder, got it shipped from US to Sydney for total $1300 and its still running great til today!
- bought NAD M51, it was a bomb in 2013, still on my rack today - $1300 AUD from a Aus retailer.
- bought Fostex TH900 ver1 shipped from Japan for almost $2k
- bought Zana Duex v1 from a HF US fellower, it arrived safe and sound, but TH900 was not a synergy with the legendary ZD v1, so I sold it to a local friend, kept the beta22 stack until today!
----------------------------------------------------------
I arrived home late of 2013, and stopped the hobby in 2016 for a few reasons: got married, family, kid was born, dogs and work, plus my TH900's left driver got faulty due to humid condition and I couldnt find a solution to fix it, so I pack my stuff (M51, Beta22 stacks, Audiophilleo2 & purepower and some expensive cables - yes, I couldnt find the differences but I were fooled by reviews and stuff that time - no regret tho, its a journey and experiences).
-----------------------------------------------------------
Late of 2025 I changed my job and have some time to enjoy music again, so I started with IEM again, just by think thats enough for entertainment, I could use it at office also at home, bought the ThieAudio Monarch MKIV and experienced some dongles. Did satisfy myself due to comfortable reason so I do some deep researchings to update the info also the stories behind why NwAvGuy dissappeared from the scene and how he left a legacy to the community, which we have here, Amir and ASR to honor that philosophy.
And I read a lot of ASR and debates with the helps of Claude. My belief were DAC do have some subtle differences, but you know, from my young age of into this hobby, I failed to distinguish my DAC, but yes I can 100/100 did tell the differences between my amps because one was a tube, and another was SOTA solid state one, they did sound differently but back in those days (2012-13) there were no one measured those stuff, placebo and sighted reviews were everything.
And when I bought the DX5II I wanted to experience A/B the amp section myself because after all, thats my belief that needed to check. I did A/B sighted test only because I have noone to help me do the proper blind test, but with matching volume, there is absolutely NO differences between the beta22 stack comparing to DX5II. Tested on Denon D9200 with custom EQ on APO. Beta22 & Sigma22 despite the old DIY topology, many owners still appreciated it as one of the best amp ever with proper build, even comparing to thousands bucks amp today it still hold on quite good, Headamp GSX MK2 is the commercial version of beta22 though, I guess same philosophy and more robust build.
DAC wise, NAD M51 was measured okay, but not good in multitone test, but in my A/B test, they sounded the same, no differences.
-----------------------------------------------------------
In summary of my experience, old stuff and the new DX5II coz I wanted to try for myself to see how Chi-fi with great Sinad measurement could compare with SOTA old stuff and I was in awe, surprised and happy because now it is my main "all-in-one" box of daily use. Convenient, superb sound, lots of features (PEQ, remote, power output headroom, 3 common outputs).
For $250 this is a bargain, and I dont care if it would fail/die after 12 months (out of warranty), and Im highly doubt that it would fail that soon, in the worse case I wouldn't hesitate to upgrade for TOTL of Topping for better QC and longevity.
Thousands bucks equipments are what you should pay for the look, the fancy box and its feature or high grade components inside that you are expecting its longivity to last for decades, not the sound it reproduce, because, if they are transparent enough, they should sound the same, dac or amp, they all follow the law of physics.
Thanks Amir and ASR community to help us debunk the audiofool myths and also, Chi-fi to keep the market competitive.
Cheers,
Alex
