Topping G5 Review (Portable DAC & HP Amp)

[ehabheikal]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping G5 portable, battery operated DAC, headphone amplifier with bluetooth. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $299.
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The G5 comes in a super stout metal enclosure. It is on the heavy side for a portable product (2 to 4 times heavier than a typical mobile phone). There are dual headphone output jacks but they both have same power. There is aux in if you want to just use its headphone amp. I tested it as a combination DAC+Amp.

The G5 is very easy to use courtesy of simple to set sliding switches:
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Topping G5 Measurements
I treated the unit as a DAC by setting the gain to medium and maximum volume. This is our usual dashboard:
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This is excellent performance for a desktop DAC. For a portable one, it is state of the art.
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And that is at 2.1 volt output. Performance will likely improve at higher output level.

Noise performance is up there as well:
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This makes the G5 very suitable to drive very sensitive IEMs.

IMD distortion is excellent:
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Linearity is nailed:

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Multitone is superb:
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Jitter is near perfect:
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The default filter is set to one that starts to attenuate early:
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It has great suppression but you do lose a bit of audio spectrum:
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I have email into Topping to see if this is intentional or specific to my sample. Fortunately there is little audible impact as most of us don't hear that high up. Getting older has some benefits!

The strong filter makes great showing in THD+N vs frequency:
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This kind of performance would make a lot of desktop DACs blush with embarrassment.

Switching to headphone amp performance (which using DAC as input), we get plenty of power for a portable product:
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Notice how it easily beats its desktop older brother, the DX3 Pro in every category: noise, distortion and output power.

Output impedance is essentially zero:
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There is some variability in channels as volume is adjusted. But it remains below my 0.5 dB threshold until max attenuation:
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Topping G5 Listening Tests
I started with my hard to drive, low impedance Dan Clark Stealth headphone. I was pleased that I could get pretty high volumes out of it using high gain. For loud listening, I had to go to 3:00 pm on the volume control. There was a bit more volume to be had if you turned it to max. There, I only heard distortion when the sub-bass notes arrived. Otherwise, the sound was super clean, detailed and enjoyable.

I then switched to high impedance Sennheiser HD650. The G5 drove these with ease, allowing every bit of their performance to shine through. Dynamic range was fantastic with bass notes almost causing resonances in my ear lobes at highest volume. Low level detail was superb as was overall fidelity.

With either headphone, I just wanted to sit back and just listen to my music!

Conclusions
We expect perfection from Topping and company delivers even in this constrained category of battery operated product. No excuses are made for that with a DAC that provides state of the art desktop performance. The headphone amplifier is quite powerful although desktop products do edge it out. This only impacts the least sensitive headphones though. For vast majority of headphones out there, the G5 drives them as hard as you need with any distortion being the headphone, not the amp.

The only "hitch" is the slower roll off in the DAC filter. I almost knocked the overall rating lower but once I listened to the G5, I could not go there. Performance is too good to give it any score other than top of the line. You get to disagree otherwise by voting in the poll.

The other bit is the size and weight of the unit. This is no small device to tie up to your cell phone even though Topping provides the usual rubber band and cabling to do so.

I am happy to put the Topping G5 on my recommended list.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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How is the size of this compared to topping nx4? And performance wise?

 

[staticV3]

How is the size of this compared to topping nx4?

The G5 (red) is longer and a bit thicker. Width is about the same: https://comparesizes.com/comparison/G5-vs-NX4-DSD/1675618502043

And performance wise?

The G5 has a lot more power and a bit less noise. Distortion is lower too, but that is unlikely to be audible.
On the other hand, the NX4 has a built-in bass boost.

 

[ehabheikal]

The G5 (red) is longer and a bit thicker. Width is about the same: https://comparesizes.com/comparison/G5-vs-NX4-DSD/1675618502043
View attachment 262578


The G5 has a lot more power and a bit less noise. Distortion is lower too, but that is unlikely to be audible.
On the other hand, the NX4 has a built-in bass boost.

Thanks. G5 is too big for me it seems.

 

[arrow0309]

I have owned the NX4, you get SINAD in high gain closer to max volume. I also didn't use the bass boost, just wanted the sound cleaner.
The G5 is definitely an improvement given the higher power (never used the highest gain yet) also you have Bluetooth and an extra 4.4mm balanced port even without a proper balanced circuit, just the NFCA (SE) but it's handy with headphones already equipped with a 4.4mm custom cable like my EdXS.
The sound from my Apple Music hi res lossless is just fine. Also the LG Oled E8 in Bluetooth gives me a nice soundstage watching movies at night (listening to my AKG K712 Pro).

 

[Bobski]

Hi everyone, I bought G5 based on Amir's review and am very happy with it. I have a 2 newbie questions:

1. I am using G5 with Thieaudio Monarch MKII IEM. This IEM comes with a balanced 4.4mm plug. I know G5 is not balanced output, but I prefer to use the 4.4mm plug so that I cannot accidentally plug the IEMs into the 3.5mm "In" plug and damage my eardrums with line level audio. My question is: when I have the Monarch IEMs plugged into the 4.4 socket, can I also plug in another set of IEMs into the 3.5mm out socket at the same time so that my friend can listen to the music with me, or will this damage G5 or the IEMs?

2. I am using Samsung S72 with Android 12 and UAPP player and Tidal subscription. I know that G5 does not do MQA. I don't care about that. I cannot seem to get the Android Tidal app to be able to control the G5 in exclusive mode. But UAPP can. I guess this is because Tidal Android app is no longer supporting USB DAC's which are not MQA compatible. Is that right?

Thanks

Did you manage to get a definitive answer to your second question?

I was just about to take the plunge on the G5, but being a Tidal HiFi user (not Masters and no interest in MQA) I'm a bit concerned that I won't now get the full benefit without the bit-perfect output.

 

[staticV3]

I was just about to take the plunge on the G5, but being a Tidal HiFi user (not Masters and no interest in MQA)

According to Goldensound's investigation, if an MQA version exists for a track, Tidal HiFi still streams that MQA encoded version to end users, just without the MQA file tagging so the user just sees a normal FLAC.

 

[Bobski]

According to Goldensound's investigation, if an MQA version exists for a track, Tidal HiFi still streams that MQA encoded version to end users, just without the MQA file tagging so the user just sees a normal FLAC.

Apologies, newbie here. I'm refering more to Tidal detecting the DAC and passing the raw data to that to decode even if it is just HiFi. I've seen elsewhere that Tidal will only detect the DAC and use it fully if it is MQA compatible. Seems a third party app like UAPP is needed to pass the best quality, even on Tidal HiFi, if your DAC is non-MQA, like the G5.

 

[staticV3]

Apologies, newbie here. I'm refering more to Tidal detecting the DAC and passing the raw data to that to decode even if it is just HiFi. I've seen elsewhere that Tidal will only detect the DAC and use it fully if it is MQA compatible. Seems a third party app like UAPP is needed to pass the best quality, even on Tidal HiFi, if your DAC is non-MQA, like the G5.

Yes, I understood that. I just wanted to tell you that even if MQA doesn't interest you and accordingly you chose Tidal HiFi instead of Master, Tidal will still serve you MQA encoded audio, just without MQA file tagging.
So you get all the disadvantages of lossy MQA encoding, with none of the upsides.

 

[Bobski]

Yes, I understood that. I just wanted to tell you that even if MQA doesn't interest you and accordingly you chose Tidal HiFi instead of Master, Tidal will still serve you MQA encoded audio, just without MQA file tagging.
So you get all the disadvantages of lossy MQA encoding, with none of the upsides.

Oh no! That's even worse! Sounds like lose lose then.

Unfortunately, my only options for streaming where I am are Spotify or Tidal. No Qobuz or Deezer. Stumped.

 

[ehabheikal]

Oh no! That's even worse! Sounds like lose lose then.

Unfortunately, my only options for streaming where I am are Spotify or Tidal. No Qobuz or Deezer. Stumped.

qobuz can be had by using a vpn for the initial subscription then everything else does not need a vpn anymore. Try Qobuz turkey. I used this trick and still do but i do not remember if it was turkey or not but most probably is.

 

[Bobski]

qobuz can be had by using a vpn for the initial subscription then everything else does not need a vpn anymore. Try Qobuz turkey. I used this trick and still do but i do not remember if it was turkey or not but most probably is.

Great, thanks! I'll try that.

 

[ehabheikal]

Great, thanks! I'll try that.

Tell here if it works still, useful info for others.

 

[GLTRV]

I've been using my G5 with my DCA x Drop Aeon closed at work connected to my phone by USB and I really enjoy this setup. Ultimate office setup IMO.

 

[Jungstar]

can this be used as a desktop DAC? And what should the gain be set to..... or is there a "line out"

 

[staticV3]

@Jungstar there's a Line out: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-portable-dac-hp-amp.36542/post-1470074

 

[Music1969]

Who will be the first to have Topping G5 portable performance, with 10-band parametric EQ.

And yes I know Quedelix and Fiio have products with PEQ but I emphasize the performance of G5 - powah, noise and distortion performance.

 

[GLTRV]

can this be used as a desktop DAC? And what should the gain be set to..... or is there a "line out"

There doesn't seem to be a line out, only line in. HP output could be used I guess, but for an inexpensive desktop DAC I'd get something like an SMSL DO100, C200 or D-6 that have the benefit of balanced output, or a cheaper single ended model.

 

[staticV3]

There doesn't seem to be a line out, only line in.

There's a Line out: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-portable-dac-hp-amp.36542/post-1470074

 

[GLTRV]

R

There's a Line out: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-portable-dac-hp-amp.36542/post-1470074

Right, thanks for pointing to the documentation. I was looking at my unit right in front of me. The port is improperly labelled "IN" instead of "IN/OUT" on the unit.

 

[TheAgaveFairy]

I have a 2014 Audio-GD NFB.28 - thanks to this forum and having taken some more EE classes since then I'm wondering if this $300 unit would be an "upgrade". Can anybody here talk about how it does with Audeze LCD-2.2Fs (first gen)? At least the AGD had decent power but somebody on reddit suggested the G5 might be hitting a current limit with these cans. Thanks! Any other commentary on the "upgrade" appreciated.