Topping DX5 II

[RHO]

To me they made a 125dB Thd+N hardware, but the poor software quality reduce it by 10db.
Why not spend less on a 115dB device then?

What comparable, cheaper device does this type of PEQ with 115dB THD+N then?

And still 115dB S/N should be no problem outside of a high-end professional recording studio.

From the link you provided: Quoting @amirm

At no time it rose above -120 dB so completely immaterial audibly.

 

[Sokel]

It's not hearsay. Your educated guess is wrong. My statements are based on objective facts. Take a look at amir's D50 III review. the noise elevation is 10dB after EQ is on.

There's also this review which is a more detailed one and shows the freq shift and noise down low.
Note that lower freq tests would have more severe impact.

There's also a mention for the Node which has even bigger problems.

 

[Dandelion]

You are absolutely right. The noise is not audible. But topping's audience buy topping due to engineering excellence.
Otherwise they could get much lower spec but still transparent, cheaper offerings.

To me they made a 125dB Thd+N hardware, but the poor software quality reduce it by 10db.
Why not spend less on a 115dB device then?

In latest reply they disagree this is a problem. So they will never fix it.
Such ignorance is not a good attitude towards product excellency (thus you can see their product is released with a lot of bugs).



It's not hearsay. Your educated guess is wrong. My statements are based on objective facts. Take a look at amir's D50 III review. the noise elevation is 10dB after EQ is on.

You want a good product or a product that has nice numbers on a piece of paper? It's irrelevant. Btw you think the EQs most people use don't do the same? Also isn't the limiting factor the dynamic range of the headphones ports around 90-100db anyway? And as side note: which dac+amp combo devices have 115db thd+n and eq and cost less? I'm genuinely unaware, but would love to check those out.

 

[Sokel]

And as side note: which dac+amp combo devices have 115db thd+n and eq and cost less? I'm genuinely unaware, but would love to check those out.

And here we come at the burning point, cost.
A rock-solid, impeccable implementation can only come through extensive R&D. That's not cheap and takes time.

Let alone hardware,etc.
What could make it cheaper though is a unified, one-off good implementation, further spread all across newer models.
That way it would only take once to do it right and just apply it to any future gear.

But still, it wouldn't be much cheaper than the proper gear like RME or even jds which seems to do it right (the later is still limited to extensive play though)

 

[Dandelion]

What comparable, cheaper device does this type of PEQ with 115dB THD+N then?

And still 115dB S/N should be no problem outside of a high-end professional recording studio.

From the link you provided: Quoting @amirm

Agree, and while he rounds it at 120 personally even if I blast a whole PA at -115db I can barely hear a thing if I isolate distortion and artifacts, let alone when music is blasting on top of it, also me because I'm that kind of nerdy guy when I mix and master music I ignore aliasing distortion if under -100db, most ignore it completely and don't even know what it is "well it sounds good man"... Music and source material has higher noise floor anyway. Wanna talk about the supports that people use?

Vinyl, tape, cassette and similar have a SNR between -45/-75 depending on the support. CD, mp3 and compressed files or any digital support at 16bit has 96db which includes all the streaming services with some exception with those that provide 24bit float files and with high-res subscriptions (still limited selection of masters of that kind anyway)... Which have noise superior to that anyway because if they used outboard gear either in recording or mixing/mastering then they have in the best case scenario higher thd and noise floor. High end studio interfaces and digital music can have higher SNR but then they just need one of those wackadoo crappy plugins like waves (industry standard) and then you're back at -60/70 db aliasing distortion and thd. There's no hope kids, hopefully one day we all use better equipment and tools both hardware and software because they'll become ubiquitous, but until then the quality is limited to the weakest element of the chain. I've had singers sending me some stems in mp3 because that's all they got as recordings... They were nice songs too, but that's already the bottleneck for everything past it.

 

[audiofun]

You want a good product or a product that has nice numbers on a piece of paper? It's irrelevant. Btw you think the EQs most people use don't do the same? Also isn't the limiting factor the dynamic range of the headphones ports around 90-100db anyway? And as side note: which dac+amp combo devices have 115db thd+n and eq and cost less? I'm genuinely unaware, but would love to check those out.

And here we come at the burning point, cost.
A rock-solid, impeccable implementation can only come through extensive R&D. That's not cheap and takes time.

Let alone hardware,etc.
What could make it cheaper though is a unified, one-off good implementation, further spread all across newer models.
That way it would only take once to do it right and just apply it to any future gear.

But still, it wouldn't be much cheaper than the proper gear like RME or even jds which seems to do it right (the later is still limited to extensive play though)

These are reasonable arguments.

However my opinion is different. I mentioned the point in page 23 of the thread below.
Top performance DAC+HP amp products are sold at only $200 or below.
I am happy to spend $100 more to buy the EQ feature if it's transparent.
However, if the EQ implementation is not the state of the art, I would rather use free computer solution to do the EQ which is high quality, has more features (FIR, loudness, crossfeed, etc.).

Anyway, that's my own opinion. I think it's also fairly reasonable.

SMSL C200 only costs $200 and offers good balanced DAC and perfect hp amplifier.
Topping DX3Pro+ costs $200 and offers good single ended DAC and perfect hp amplifier. It is super simple to mod that to balanced output.
smsl m300se only costs $110 and offers good balanced DAC and fair quality hp amplifier.

To me the DAC+HP Amp game is over. anything beyond $200 is too expensive.
Yes DX5II offers better spec and more power, but you won't hear the difference anyway (unless you have power hungry phones).

I do consider PEQ nice feature addition, and to me it worths the extra $100, but only if Topping solved their bugs (described here) and allows separate settings for L and R.
Otherwise I would rather use free software solution, or pay extra dollars for an element 4 or an RME, both of which have far better support / far more features than Topping.

 

[Dandelion]

These are reasonable arguments.

However my opinion is different. I mentioned the point in page 23 of the thread below.
Top performance DAC+HP amp products are sold at only $200 or below.
I am happy to spend $100 more to buy the EQ feature if it's transparent.
However, if the EQ implementation is not the state of the art, I would rather use free computer solution to do the EQ which is high quality, has more features (FIR, loudness, crossfeed, etc.).

Anyway, that's my own opinion. I think it's also fairly reasonable.

Yeah of course, it depends on your setup, if you need more juice for your cans or need some given ports or format of go figure then you’re still back at things like raw-mda1 or this one. Personally if they would have managed to make either usb powered I’d have paid even double for it.

 

[Barncore]

My question is, if i'm using the PEQ software just fine with my D50 III, would that mean it would work just fine with a DX5 II too?

Or are the PEQ issues with DX5II more tied to the actual unit somehow?

 

[Dandelion]

My question is, if i'm using the PEQ software just fine with my D50 III, would that mean it would work just fine with a DX5 II too?

Or are the PEQ issues with DX5II more tied to the actual unit somehow?

No it’s same software and same hardware chip if I’m not mistaken, the read/write eq presets bug I don’t know if it was fixed or not but that’s the only issue you might temporarily encounter in the short period.

 

[Barncore]

No it’s same software and same hardware chip if I’m not mistaken, the read/write eq presets bug I don’t know if it was fixed or not but that’s the only issue you might temporarily encounter in the short period.

Someone reported that they still can't save eq profiles even after the firmware update. Meaning, you can save it but it gets wiped when you reboot, or something.

For me, not being able to save/retain eq profiles is a deal breaker. Cos i will be taking the set-and-forget approach. If i have to re-create the profile all the time then it's not worth the trouble.

How long do Topping typically take to fix issues like this via firmware updates? If it gets fixed within like 2 weeks then i'll buy it. But if it's gonna be something that takes like 3-6 months then i'll stick with what i've got.

 

[kevin gilmore]

for those interested in the dx5ii schematic
a reverse engineering version with links to the 2 patents involved.

 

[ngs428]

Someone reported that they still can't save eq profiles even after the firmware update. Meaning, you can save it but it gets wiped when you reboot, or something.

For me, not being able to save/retain eq profiles is a deal breaker. Cos i will be taking the set-and-forget approach. If i have to re-create the profile all the time then it's not worth the trouble.

How long do Topping typically take to fix issues like this via firmware updates? If it gets fixed within like 2 weeks then i'll buy it. But if it's gonna be something that takes like 3-6 months then i'll stick with what i've got.

They initially said within 10 days from 7/3/25, so we just passed that. But if their fix works, I would not expect it to take 3-6 months.

 

[ziggurcat]

No it’s same software and same hardware chip if I’m not mistaken, the read/write eq presets bug I don’t know if it was fixed or not but that’s the only issue you might temporarily encounter in the short period.

It is not fixed yet, but Topping has basically confirmed that a fix is coming. As of July 3, it was "5-10 days." We're sort of past that point, now, so I would hope that it will be released very soon. If they meant 5-10 business days, that would put it at July 17 at the latest? *shrugs*

They initially said within 10 days from 7/3/25, so we just passed that. But if their fix works, I would not expect it to take 3-6 months.

I just e-mailed Topping to find out if there is an update on the progress of the release of the new FW.

 

[bearcatsandor]

So, aside from only having one display so you can't have separate channel metering, is there any compelling reason to purchase a DX9 over this?

 

[wilhelm2015]

So, aside from only having one display so you can't have separate channel metering, is there any compelling reason to purchase a DX9 over this?

uh sir this is 300$ and as such i dont see a reason to buy a dx9 over this

 

[plant550]

I am a bit surprised there still aren't any proper reviews of this over a month after launch.

 

[RHO]

I am a bit surprised there still aren't any proper reviews of this over a month after launch.

Why would they send in devices for review when the product is still under development?
I am quite sure they launched it early because there was some demand from customers to release it "yesterday". (the same people now complaining that the product has "bugs")

 

[plant550]

Why would they send in devices for review when the product is still under development?
I am quite sure they launched it early because there was some demand from customers to release it "yesterday". (the same people now complaining that the product has "bugs")

According to some in this thread every Topping product is completely broken with bugs and is in early access....although not sure how many of these posters even own any Topping products.

 

[Chagall]

Reading some of the comments here, you’d think a bug makes a device unworthy of being measured — which is utter nonsense. The only real issues are with the ToppingTune software and equalizer that will be fixed soon enough. None of that justifies any further delay: let @amirm ’s measurements speak at last.

Sure it can be measured - it will have SOTA results. But reliability and QC is a different story, no?

 

[plant550]

Sure it can be measured - it will have SOTA results. But reliability and QC is a different story, no?

I'm not aware of the part of tests where he uses the devices for many months/years to test that that? It's just a quick point-in-time test.