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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 !
DAC portion: D10 Balanced or E50
AMP portion: L50 or A30pro. Good performance from most sensitive iem to current hungry planar to 600 ohm dynamics.
Chassis: DX5 or EX5 or DX7
PSU: Beefy and inside of the box.
Volume control: Digital and precise. I wanna see it on screen what is the volume, i don't wanna check out vague volume knob position.
I would consider this dac amp combo unit good if it was like this with a $399 price tag. With the actual specs and the $449 price tag, this isn't good. I like the design though. This is just fancy and overpriced version of DX3Pro+ in my eyes.
Reading the thread and thinking a little bit more about this product, it does feel like a "hey guys, we are still here" type of thing.
Having these kind of devices that have BT makes it look like the lack of features is "bigger" than it is since there isnt a phone app where you could apply EQ or other things and upload it to the device, in the end having a remote control is nice and a physical interface, but since like 99,99% of us have smart phones on us all the time not taking advantage of that to put more features on a device like this while keeping costs subdued seems shortsighted.
Typically, like most tech hardware, they become much much less expensive over time. Look at the performance/features//price ratio of DACs over just the last 5 years. . .
It is obvious and clear that Topping can design a great performing (SINAD) DAC with boring regularity. At this stage I'm looking for innovation over a few more SINAD points every 30-60 days.
I'm not sure about sound quality but the rest of Amper's post I agree with. I don't care about a SINAD race to inaudible superiority. The usability, compatibility with other devices especially in the coax, toslink inputs and quality of the remote controls are what Topping needs to work on.
Thanks for another wonderful review Amir. Now I know why they chose the name Topping for their company. They keep on topping their achievements (pun intended).
Love the look, wish the hump was gone at the time of testing. There's no reason for it.
Brand name is still holding me back...LOL...just shows how shallow I am. I'm digging their direction right now, DAC performance is easy out of the box, time to focus on features and aesthetics.
have anyone here bought a DX5? does the amplifier section still sound identical to previous topping amplifiers in your listening experience?
I really like the look of DX5
i wish they could focus more on the software/firmware side of things. they already make some excellent sounding devices even in the lower tier. the remote is below average imo, some functionality is exclusive to the remote which ill probably never understand, and the menu is not very intuitive needs to be better organized. I dont own this unit though so not sure if the software side has been upgraded.
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?
Why are people complaining about the hump? If it were at -200dB they'd still be complaining. 'Cmon guys, the peak of the hump is still equal to the best cases performance of the other DACs.
Where are the limits of inaudibility defined actually ? Imo human brain is much more sensitive than these analysers. Recently chord mojo 2 was released. It has 104bit dsp which is transparent upto -301db as per designer rob watts. When you use EQ you realise that the affect of EQ is Ike the original music.
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.
They don't do soundstage here, maybe because it can't be evaluated by SINAD .
I was testing with friends, about a year ago a group of mid priced dacs, SMSL and Topping are not shown as the best regarding soundstage. I don't know why, maybe components&topology they use in output stage. Anyway... properly setup planar speakers (Magnepan, MartinLogan) are useful tool for soundstage, easy to spot a difference .... less sidewalls reflections by default.
"Soundstage" is a function of speakers, the room and the recording... nothing to do with noise or harmonic distortion from a transparent DAC or amp. The job of such devices is to convert to analogue and amplify a signal. We listen to recordings with speakers, not amps or DAC's. If you are listening to a DAC, then you're listening to the equipment and not the music. No one here will ever suggest SINAD is the only metric to consider, however it is a great starting point.
Please try and stay on topic regarding the DX3, as "soundstage" discussion has nothing to do with a transparent DAC like the DX3.