Topping EX5 to replace Hegel HD25?

[Naiera]

Hello frens.

I would love to have an even better sounding DAC with a built-in headphone amp. I'm not too fussy about the quality on the latter, as it's more a matter of convenience than quality. It's not for daily use.

Now, the Hegel is (was) five times the price, but measurements for the DAC part of the Topping EX5 are excellent. Does that translate to equal or better sound? I bought the Hegel mostly for its practical features, such as the selection of inputs and the ability to turn the display off entirely. The Topping EX5 is close enough in this department. I'm not concerned with MQA either way. I use balanced output to my Simaudio Moon 600i v1, and as far as I understand it, the ones on the EX5 are true balanced outputs, so that's great.

I'm new to these sort of hi-fi considerations and would love to have some input from you kind folks

 

[threni]

Hello frens.

I would love to have an even better sounding DAC with a built-in headphone amp. I'm not too fussy about the quality on the latter, as it's more a matter of convenience than quality. It's not for daily use.

Now, the Hegel is (was) five times the price, but measurements for the DAC part of the Topping EX5 are excellent. Does that translate to equal or better sound? I bought the Hegel mostly for its practical features, such as the selection of inputs and the ability to turn the display off entirely. The Topping EX5 is close enough in this department. I'm not concerned with MQA either way. I use balanced output to my Simaudio Moon 600i v1, and as far as I understand it, the ones on the EX5 are true balanced outputs, so that's great.

I'm new to these sort of hi-fi considerations and would love to have some input from you kind folks

You'll have much more choice if you keep the DAC and amp separate. You can get the Schiit Asgard 3 with an optional internal DAC module:

Schiit Asgard 3 Headphone Amp & DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Asgard 3 with its optional AKM4490 DAC Module. It was kindly purchased by a member and drop shipped to me for testing. By itself, the Asgard 3 costs US $199. With the optional DAC, the price becomes US $299 plus shipping. The look is...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The amp measures ideally; the DAC modules not so much; then again, my informal meaningless tests revealed no difference between that and the Topping E30 DAC paired with the Asgard 3 (I prefer the Topping because it has a remote). I can't speak for the Hegel but if they've done their job properly that won't sound any worse than my Asgard/Topping combo.

 

[Tremolo]

Why you don't keep your dac and buy an amp? Here are mesurement of your DAC, http://www.avmentor.net/reviews/2014/hegel_hd25_2.shtml more competent people here can comment about it and tell you if you can expect an objective audible improvement from a more recent dac. I still use a DAC from that "age" in my main sistem and I feel it just sound ok as my other new DAC

 

[Naiera]

It's hard to find amps with the features I'd want. Remotes are rare and that's a must. I have a Pro-Ject DS 2 Digital or whatever it's called that I use with my iMac setup, but that's not a useful device long-term in the living room.

The EX5 checks every item on my list, with the display, outputs, etc. One very important feature on the Hegel is the option to turn off the display entirely (I have no lights or lamps of any kind active on my setup when I watch), and with the EX5 I plan to cover the coax icon as that will be the most oft-used input. For music and the occasional UHD Blu-ray I can live with the optical indicator being on

 

[USER]

I had my Hegel HD12 reviewed by Amir and it performed well (Amir had issues measuring it so look at the final numbers and not original review). If you want to simplify things, it got a SINAD measurement of 108dB. I imagine your Hegel HD25 would be a smidge better and at this point you will not hear any sort of improvement by switching to a modern DAC. Both the HD12 and HD25 outperform your amplifier. Their headphone amp sections won't compete with a modern one such as the one you mentioned, however.

Hegel HD12 DSD DAC And Headphone Amp Review

Internally in Norway at least I would say that Hegel has a much more science-oriented reputation than Electrocompaniet. Here are measurements of their current big amplifiers. Hegel H30...

www.audiosciencereview.com

That said, if you can still get a good offer for the Hegel you may come away with some extra money by replacing it with a cheaper DAC, but that is another thing altogether.

Oh, and one thing to point out is that Hegel believes in lower output impedance so, depending on your amplifier, the only difference you could hear is that the Hegel is a bit lower in volume. A non-professional AB test would fail you here; don't trust your ears. Simply turn it up to match; it'll sound the same.

 

[Naiera]

Yes, I should come away with as much as $300 after the switch. Even more when the E30 I should get tomorrow is sold.

 

[Naiera]

I'll add that there's no headphone out on the HD25. I need a headamp intermittently for the next few months, and I don't want to move the Pro-Ject one between rooms every day. I used to have a (to me) nice one in the integrated amplifier, but haven't since I got my dream amp with the 600i.

I'll try out the E30 in the home theatre setup and see what it sounds like. I know it's entirely different internally, but they're both very well-measuring DACs, as I understand it.

Thank you all very much for your input. Any further comments are very welcome.

 

[Naiera]

 

[Naiera]

The EX5 should have plenty of power to run my Beyerdynamic T70p cans, right? This is something I know very nearly nothing about, so I have to ask

 

[Tremolo]

"You get slight clipping right at the limit of 1 watt which is plenty for vast majority of headphones out there. Indeed, this is a capable of headphone amp no matter what load you throw at it"
From Amir's review

 

[nikosidis]

I had the Hegel HD25. It is very clean, good sounding. For the time it was a nice DAC now you can probably just change it to a cheap Topping DAC without any loss in sound quality. I have not tried the cheap Topping DACs but the measurements should say it all. I have D90SE but I use it as a pre. with XLR into my power amp and it is also connected to my sub. I'm very happy with that DAC.

 

[Naiera]

"You get slight clipping right at the limit of 1 watt which is plenty for vast majority of headphones out there. Indeed, this is a capable of headphone amp no matter what load you throw at it"
From Amir's review

Thank you. I was watching a YouTube video and the dude was very mad about 300 missing milliamps or some shit