Topping DX5 II

[JOCoin]

I suspect that the probability of being abducted by aliens is greater, than the existence of a difference in sound...

I absolutely realize this, I'd love dispel any doubt in my mind by attempting a blind test. I really like having the nicer display on the DX5 ii but like I said I can't shake this feeling that it does not sound as good. Hence I'd like to try an indisputable blind test so I can enjoy the dang thing.

 

[sportklotz33]

Probably OffTopic, but I randomly listen to a couple of tracks from my phone via BT that I heard 1000 times (kind of) and know very well.
And I must say - the sound is really good, clear, crisp, open ...., maybe a tiny inch too warm, but maybe my LCD-03 add a bit to that.

What do you experience with the DX5ii and with which HP or Speakers do you listen to music?

 

[JOCoin]

Probably OffTopic, but I randomly listen to a couple of tracks from my phone via BT that I heard 1000 times (kind of) and know very well.
And I must say - the sound is really good, clear, crisp, open ...., maybe a tiny inch too warm, but maybe my LCD-03 add a bit to that.

What do you experience with the DX5ii and with which HP or Speakers do you listen to music?

I've noticed a similar thing with mine compared to the D50iii stack. I listen with a set of Sennheiser HD800S and it's like the layering of sound is gone I and instrument separation is gone as well, when using the DX5 ii. It seems very noticeable when sighted listening. I'm expecting a lot of pushback here. If anyone has information on volume matching with a multimeter I'd love to be able to blind test and enjoy the DX5 II with its nice FFT display. I've spent enough time here that this feels like insane rambling on my part. So please excuse my ignorance. I'm not asking to be believed, I'm asking how to test this myself without sighted bias. I'd be happy to be completely wrong !

 

[Roland68]

I received my order a few days ago. After some listening I really cannot shake the feeling that my d50 iii and a50 iii sounds much better than the DX5 ii does through both its single ended and balanced HP out. I know from lurking on here for years that this is unlikely. I'd love to try to set up a blind test. Is it possible to volume match both devices with a multimeter? If not, is there an easy way to volume match devices? Almost think my DX5 ii is faulty. *edited to fix typos*

You take a 1 Khz test tone and adjust the volume on both devices as accurately as possible using the multimeter in the Volt AC setting.

 

[JOCoin]

You take a 1 Khz test tone and adjust the volume on both devices as accurately as possible using the multimeter in the Volt AC setting.

Thank you!! I'll give them a test over the weekend with a family member and I will hopefully be proven completely wrong and report back here. I'm assuming in order to do this I can disconnect the cable from the headphone and test there. I'd have to use an HD 600 cable as I doubt the probes on my multimeter are small enough to fit inside the ODU to test from there.

 

[audiofun]

Thank you!! I'll give them a test over the weekend with a family member and I will hopefully be proven completely wrong and report back here. I'm assuming in order to do this I can disconnect the cable from the headphone and test there. I'd have to use an HD 600 cable as I doubt the probes on my multimeter are small enough to fit inside the ODU to test from there.

if u dont have a multimeter, you can simply calculate the output level difference based on the official spec. for instance, HP amp in low gain and SE out is 2.5v and xlr is 5V in dx5ii. if you use 4V on your d50iii, the dx5ii will definitely be louder under same volume. you can easily convert Vrms to dBu or dBV using online calculator.

 

[Bleib]

I'd check the filter to see that it's not for some reason a filter with early roll off

 

[JOCoin]

if u dont have a multimeter, you can simply calculate the output level difference based on the official spec. for instance, HP amp in low gain and SE out is 2.5v and xlr is 5V in dx5ii. if you use 4V on your d50iii, the dx5ii will definitely be louder under same volume. you can easily convert Vrms to dBu or dBV using online calculator.

Thank you for the help! I've got a cheap Klein tools multimeter that hopefully is accurate enough for this.

 

[JOCoin]

I'd check the filter to see that it's not for some reason a filter with early roll off

Both D50iii and DX5 ii are set to filter 3 linear phase fast roll off and they both use the same pair of DAC chips, this was my first thought. The DX5 ii defaults to filter 1 when new.

 

[Deleted member 86328]

The early impressions of the DX5 II are somewhat disconcerting — I’m eagerly awaiting @amirm ’s review, which will hopefully bring some clarity before mine arrives in a few days.

 

[sportklotz33]

The early impressions of the DX5 II are somewhat disconcerting — I’m eagerly awaiting @amirm ’s review, which will hopefully bring some clarity before mine arrives in a few days.

A review won't make the device better or worse, you know?
If you rely on reviews and external opinions rather than own experience you will end up disappointed (for no reason).

 

[ziggurcat]

I received my order a few days ago. After some listening I really cannot shake the feeling that my d50 iii and a50 iii sounds much better than the DX5 ii does through both its single ended and balanced HP out. I know from lurking on here for years that this is unlikely. I'd love to try to set up a blind test. Is it possible to volume match both devices with a multimeter? If not, is there an easy way to volume match devices? Almost think my DX5 ii is faulty. *edited to fix typos*

What is it about the DX5 II that is giving you that feeling? Is it something like this?

Topping DX5 II

I'm not so sure... The switch does not communicate with the host, so it is not a 'USB device'. So why would the USB device connection standards apply to it? I wonder what the standards think about this type of thing... :) From what I remember adapters like that, and A to A cables, were...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ziggurcat]

The early impressions of the DX5 II are somewhat disconcerting — I’m eagerly awaiting @amirm ’s review, which will hopefully bring some clarity before mine arrives in a few days.

So far, only a few people have said anything. I would wait for more impressions before being worried.

 

[JOCoin]

What is it about the DX5 II that is giving you that feeling? Is it something like this?

Topping DX5 II

I'm not so sure... The switch does not communicate with the host, so it is not a 'USB device'. So why would the USB device connection standards apply to it? I wonder what the standards think about this type of thing... :) From what I remember adapters like that, and A to A cables, were...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Had read this as well. I normally use Apple Music from an iOS device so can't actually confirm the sampling rate but I'll hook up a windows laptop and I check through the driver. Oddly enough when I first set up the DX5 ii the first time it sounded even worse than it does now, which seemed to be fixed by power cycling it. So that's possible that there is some kind of software bug. Once I've done a blind test, if I still think there is an issue I'll contact topping support. I've also had a blast of loud output when wearing headphones and switching outputs which has scared me pretty good leaving the HD800s hooked up when the device is supposed to remember volume settings. As soon as I reduced the volume by .5 db with the remote the volume jumped back down to the setting I had left it on. Makes me nervous with the amount of power the headphone amp can put out.

 

[ziggurcat]

Had read this as well. I normally use Apple Music from an iOS device so can't actually confirm the sampling rate but I'll hook up a windows laptop and I check through the driver. Oddly enough when I first set up the DX5 ii the first time it sounded even worse than it does now, which seemed to be fixed by power cycling it. So that's possible that there is some kind of software bug. Once I've done a blind test, if I still think there is an issue I'll contact topping support. I've also had a blast of loud output when wearing headphones and switching outputs which has scared me pretty good leaving the HD800s hooked up when the device is supposed to remember volume settings. As soon as I reduced the volume by .5 db with the remote the volume jumped back down to the setting I had left it on. Makes me nervous with the amount of power the headphone amp can put out.

Unfortunately, I think software bugs are almost an expected thing with a brand new product. Whatever bugs there are right now, I hope they are resolved by the time I get my unit (I purposefully ordered from the shop on Amazon that had a shipping date of August for this reason). It might be worth people's time to power cycle the DX5 II after they set it up for the first time before listening to anything.

I would almost argue that your first startup experience could have had an influence on what you are hearing, so conducting that blind listening test might (hopefully) eliminate that initial bias?

I'm wondering if a workaround for the volume issue you experienced would be to set one of the presets on the remote (unless that's what you've done already)?

 

[JOCoin]

The

Unfortunately, I think software bugs are almost an expected thing with a brand new product. Whatever bugs there are right now, I hope they are resolved by the time I get my unit (I purposefully ordered from the shop on Amazon that had a shipping date of August for this reason). It might be worth people's time to power cycle the DX5 II after they set it up for the first time before listening to anything.

I would almost argue that your first startup experience could have had an influence on what you are hearing, so conducting that blind listening test might (hopefully) eliminate that initial bias?

I'm wondering if a workaround for the volume issue you experienced would be to set one of the presets on the remote (unless that's what you've done already)?

The remote presets seem to work as they should. I had the jump when I accidentally hit the switch output button as it's next to the volume on the remote. If I use the presets it's fine. I hope this is fixed soon as I'm worried about damaging my headphones accidentally blasting full volume.

 

[Bleib]

Be sure to send Topping some emails about the bugs, they need to be fixed

 

[ziggurcat]

The

The remote presets seem to work as they should. I had the jump when I accidentally hit the switch output button as it's next to the volume on the remote. If I use the presets it's fine. I hope this is fixed soon as I'm worried about damaging my headphones accidentally blasting full volume.

That's the one thing I'm going to have to get used to... right now I have it set up so that I control the volume manually with my HPA, and power amp separately (D50 III is in DAC mode), and there's no risk of there being any potential blow out.

Can you say what happens if you have the DX5 II in DAC mode, and you switch to the HPA? The scenario would be listening to music through speakers, then switching to headphones.

 

[JOCoin]

That's the one thing I'm going to have to get used to... right now I have it set up so that I control the volume manually with my HPA, and power amp separately (D50 III is in DAC mode), and there's no risk of there being any potential blow out.

Can you say what happens if you have the DX5 II in DAC mode, and you switch to the HPA? The scenario would be listening to music through speakers, then switching to headphones.

That's how I had the DX5 ii setup, running in dac mode when outputting from the line outs at the back. D50 iii is also set to dac rather than preamp mode and volume controlled through the potentiometer on the A50 iii. So volume didn't get reduced from line out level when manually switching the output to SE HPA which from what I can tell reading the manual it should automatically reduce the level based on memory settings. Will email topping when I'm home this evening. It would be a shame to destroy a set of cans accidentally. This is my third topping device had a DX3 pro + which I love but gifted to a family member with a set of HD600 after I got the HD800S and the D50 iii stack so I'm not a Topping hater like some on here haha.

 

[Nezil]

Is it possible that you cannot set up the DX5 II to be in 'DAC' mode for line out, and 'Preamp' mode for headphones? I realise that this doesn't make much sense, but it is a potential oversight.

I use my current DAC + HP Amp in Preamp mode anyway, is it's not something that would concern me, but I can understand a common use case for those that want the volume controlled by the DX5 II for Headphones, but not for speakers.

A workaround, if this is an issue, would be to set the volume to max for line out, and set to 'Preamp' mode.