Topping DX5 Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[jae]

It’s a well-measuring dumb product. It has great engineering spec but nothing with a potential to improve real or perceived audio fidelity compared to thousands of other boxes. No PEQ, no bass management, no loudness compensation, no crossfeed, no anything that adds value. I think it’s hard to argue it won’t sound the same as a similar component from 2015, or probably 2005. What’s the greatness in that?

Topping right now makes spectacular dumb products. I’m currently listening with one (E50 I think is the model number - DAC with coax input and balanced outputs) in the signal chain - but it’s a cog that could be replaced with a lot of other cogs with zero to de minimis difference. The added value is really on either end of it: the miniDSP SHD Studio processor and Neumann monitors. When Topping starts thinking more holistically, I’m sure they will add considerable value. But another dB on a SINAD chart is more pleasing to the engineer’s brain than the listener’s ears.

At this point I believe the better SINAD is mostly just to compete with other (mostly) Chinese manufacturers doing the same things. All the new revised products are meant to fill in price point niches as most people buy audio equipment with some kind of budget in mind. Features you mention like hardware DSP will just increase the price needlessly with more silicon, DSP is better accomplished with a source device/software anyway. There's lots of other things to focus on like beefier power amps, ADCs/interfaces, better AIOs, products with more inputs/outputs/digital outputs, streamers (which can easily have software DSP as well).

On a side rant, I really don't like their design language at all for most of these products. Only their 90-series products actually look "quality" but could still be improved. Yulong/Singxer looks better in my opinion but they have limited products that are comparable in value to Topping. Topping also needs to stop being afraid to make products have have higher vertical dimension so they can include things like more inputs/outputs, digital outputs, etc. that actually add some value to current designs. Perhaps they are trying to keep product dimensions down to save logistics costs. The footprint of the product is already taking up desk space, I don't think anyone cares much if its taller. Practically everything else on my desk is more vertical than this equipment. Does anyone else hate having to contort their hand into their desk to adjust volume? Give me a larger or higher positioned knob please. Or at least make my wallet hurt with a machined chassis.

I have been ready to give my money to topping for years now for my "final" headamp/dac purchase, but the right product has not come along. Happily using my Motu M4 in the mean time.

 

[aj625]

At this point I believe the better SINAD is mostly just to compete with other (mostly) Chinese manufacturers doing the same things. All the new revised products are meant to fill in price point niches as most people buy audio equipment with some kind of budget in mind. Features you mention like hardware DSP will just increase the price needlessly with more silicon, DSP is better accomplished with a source device/software anyway. There's lots of other things to focus on like beefier power amps, ADCs/interfaces, better AIOs, products with more inputs/outputs/digital outputs, streamers (which can easily have software DSP as well).

On a side rant, I really don't like their design language at all for most of these products. Only their 90-series products actually look "quality" but could still be improved. Yulong/Singxer looks better in my opinion but they have limited products that are comparable in value to Topping. Topping also needs to stop being afraid to make products have have higher vertical dimension so they can include things like more inputs/outputs, digital outputs, etc. that actually add some value to current designs. Perhaps they are trying to keep product dimensions down to save logistics costs. The footprint of the product is already taking up desk space, I don't think anyone cares much if its taller. Practically everything else on my desk is more vertical than this equipment. Does anyone else hate having to contort their hand into their desk to adjust volume? Give me a larger or higher positioned knob please. Or at least make my wallet hurt with a machined chassis.

I have been ready to give my money to topping for years now for my "final" headamp/dac purchase, but the right product has not come along. Happily using my Motu M4 in the mean time.

People hating better measuring cheaper products and find these boring must be having extra cash to spend on good looking expensive boutique products. Audio being an electronics engineering domain is about numbers and measurements. There is no voodo magic which can make poor measuring expensive good looking heavy weight boutique products sound good and boring cheaper better measuring products sound bad. In audio we look for only one trait which is sound quality unlike automobile where one can have many goals like looks, power, space , speed , off roading etc etc.

 

[Toku]

I have already used E30, E50, DX3 Pro +, etc., but this DX5 has something that I am very attracted to.
A concern with the purchase is that the front and rear panels look plastic. I observe it carefully, but I have such a suspicion from the processing form. I would be disappointed if the item I received for $ 450 was made of plastic. Does anyone have any information about the DX5 case material?

 

[Merkurio]

People hating better measuring cheaper products and find these boring must be having extra cash to spend on good looking expensive boutique products. Audio being an electronics engineering domain is about numbers and measurements. There is no voodo magic which can make poor measuring expensive good looking heavy weight boutique products sound good and boring cheaper better measuring products sound bad. In audio we look for only one trait which is sound quality unlike automobile where one can have many goals like looks, power, space , speed , off roading etc etc.

Speak for yourself, I'm not rich by any means (I would never spend over $500 on a DAC/AMP) and I do care about measurements, feature set and design almost in the same proportion.

Being a nerd doesn't mean you can't have an appreciation for the aesthetics.

 

[MCH]

People hating better measuring cheaper products and find these boring must be having extra cash to spend on good looking expensive boutique products. Audio being an electronics engineering domain is about numbers and measurements. There is no voodo magic which can make poor measuring expensive good looking heavy weight boutique products sound good and boring cheaper better measuring products sound bad. In audio we look for only one trait which is sound quality unlike automobile where one can have many goals like looks, power, space , speed , off roading etc etc.

I think you are getting it wrong. People here don't hate these products, they love them. Some complain because they see topping releasing amazing product after product with basically the same functionality (2 channel no dsp) but as soon as you want multichannel, do a crossover, or integrate a sub or built in eq, sadly topping and some other high performers have absolutely nothing for you. And you are forced to jump to products that are a lot more expensive, or very difficult to find, or both.
People wish topping would enter that market too and put things straight .
Maybe dsp is a different level, but miserable 4 channels should not be that difficult (question mark)

 

[ririt]

Great performance from this new product. Nothing to complain about in that regard. I even like the aesthetics.
But it's completely uninteresting. We already have plenty very well performing devices from Topping like this. Why do one again whitout anything inovative?
- Where's the PEQ/DSP?
- Or the subwoofer output with adjustable x-over?
- Or the HDMI input with analog audio output and HDMI video pass-through?
- Or ... any new feature we haven't already seen on such device.

I am with Rho especially regarding the PEQ/DSP. Plenty of us aim to use such device either with a iphone or with a computer belonging to the company we are working for. In both cases, we do not have the capability to EQ through an app or a software (because companies policies do not allow the installation of specific softwares in their computers). To overcome such limitation, I am currently using a Qudelix 5K for headphones listening both with my iphone and my professional computer. It is a great device but not SOTA. Current alternatives are pretty limited outside the RME ADI dac fs which currently have PEQ capabilities limited to 7 bands and is pretty expensive.
I would also mention that, since the COVID pandemia, the dramatic increase of meetings which have to go through Teams/Zoom makes the built-in microphone of the Qudelix 5K extremely useful. You can combine music listening & calls using the same setup.
Dear Topping, the race for SINAD is now over! You have shown to the community your ability to deliver STOA and cost-effective DAC/HP amp, please introduce some new features to bring our listening experience to another level of enjoyment!

 

[vkvedam]

I would like to ask anyone who has tested both the Topping DX5 and EX5, if the DX5 has a deeper (and grander?) soundstage than the EX5. Because both online reviews and my usage of my own EX5 have shown to me that the EX5 has a relatively shallow soundstage. I have found the EX5 soundstage to be, like online reviews say, a wall of sound in my face.

"Another one bites the dust"

 

[dr0ss]

Especially the dial has this old radio design.

Yes, my first thought was that it looks like a clock radio I had in the 90s. If they could give it a mechanical flip-card display it would go high on my wish list.

 

[Gadgety]

@amirm I have a measurement question about the Vrms voltage nominal output used when comparing SINAD tests across the ASR database. Sometimes 4.0 Vrms is used, at other times it's 4.2 or even higher; the latter is a 5% higher VRms, which I understand then influences the SINAD. Are the variations due to controls on the devices so that the exact 4.0 is not achievable?

 

[raif71]

DX5 looks great as well as having great performance. Hoping Topping soon starts skipping MQA, though.

 

[tavishdegroot]

"Another one bites the dust"

What do you mean?

 

[amper42]

I have the Topping E30, D90SE, Pre90. I thought when going from $100 DAC to a $900 DAC that Topping usability would improve. That was not the case. In my view, the remote is horrible and you get that same low quality $5 remote with all Topping products. My DAC sits 10 feet away. The D90SE remote has to be aimed with laser focus at the Topping DAC just to get it to work. With the RME ADI-2 remote I have a wide range of field that the remote works in. The RME remote feels better in hand not to mention its additional functions like loudness and EQ on/off.

I can't imagine buying another Topping product until they pay attention to how poor the remote is. In addition, I can plug the Samsung TV into the RME optical port and it works fine. With the D90SE you get audio drop outs every few seconds. It's not even functional. I want products that just work. Topping doesn't know how to do that. If you only use a Topping DAC on a desktop and throw the remote away and don't use it with a TV it might be OK but that's not the level of quality I'm looking for.

To my ear, the RME ADI-2 sounds much cleaner than the D90SE. When I use the D90SE I hear a bit of harshness/haze in the high frequency range with my music, that's not there with the ADI-2. That little difference makes the ADI-2 sound sonically cleaner with my speakers. The DX5 also comes with the ESS hump feature which I can't imagine adds improvements.

I now have two RME ADI-2 DAC FS units in two different rooms and I'm very happy with them. RME continues to produce updates that increase features and usefulness. It's a totally different product model than Topping where the plan is to spin out new models every few months while never paying attention to improving the remote or the feature set. At some point, I had to decide which engineering model I prefer.

 

[JSmith]

Samsung TV into the RME optical port and it works fine. With the D90SE you get audio drop outs every few seconds.

Was the DPLL setting never implemented on the D90SE as mentioned here?

Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

OK about the MQA part, I figured out what is happening but this does not mean what is happening is correct or incorrect. I simply do not know. So let me explain what is happening now. In Kandace Springs "The Women Who Raised Me". Everything works to plan. When all the appropriate settings are...

audiosciencereview.com

Is anyone aware of the DX5 having such a setting for the optical in?


JSmith

 

[Atanasi]

I can only say my RME ADI2-DAC v.2 (also OLED AFAIK)

ADI-2 DAC has an IPS display.

 

[wemist01]

I'm sure they love this typo, but you clearly meant "the fourth-highest".

"Delivering forth highest SINAD ever measured (out of nearly 400 DACs) is a major accomplishment."

 

[wemist01]

Maybe I missed it, but one thing I look for in Topping DACs is whether all the digital ports are input. The D10 is an oddball in that has USB in and RCA out, but also TOSLINK and Coax out. I take it all these digital ports are input-only.

 

[SmackDaddies]

It’s a well-measuring dumb product. It has great engineering spec but nothing with a potential to improve real or perceived audio fidelity compared to thousands of other boxes. No PEQ, no bass management, no loudness compensation, no crossfeed, no anything that adds value. I think it’s hard to argue it won’t sound the same as a similar component from 2015, or probably 2005. What’s the greatness in that?

Topping right now makes spectacular dumb products. I’m currently listening with one (E50 I think is the model number - DAC with coax input and balanced outputs) in the signal chain - but it’s a cog that could be replaced with a lot of other cogs with zero to de minimis difference. The added value is really on either end of it: the miniDSP SHD Studio processor and Neumann monitors. When Topping starts thinking more holistically, I’m sure they will add considerable value. But another dB on a SINAD chart is more pleasing to the engineer’s brain than the listener’s ears.

You don't have to think it is the best thing since sliced bread, but poor? come on

 

[jhaider]

You don't have to think it is the best thing since sliced bread, but poor? come on

I never said how or if I personally “voted,” but in real fidelity terms the ceiling for a newly introduced digital headphone powering product without EQ, or an integrated speaker powering product without flexible bass management, is in ASR terms “headless panther.”

 

[HiFidFan]

They should have put the pcb in 12kg billet aluminium casing with a blue uv meter and a big volume knob with number of lights and priced it $10k then it would have been very entertaining ? Isn't it ? Why people hate so much better measuring yet cheap products ? May be you have some extra cash than others !

I never said I hated it. I never said anything about money. I didn't mention aesthetics.

It's about functionality. There are dozens of products like this DX5 that are audibly transparent. So yeah this latest release = yawn.

 

[respice finem]

ADI-2 DAC has an IPS display.

Checked it now with the manual - you are right, IPS. So I needn't bother reg. burn-in.