Merkurio
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2018
- Messages
- 301
- Likes
- 512
With the recent announce of the DX5, which I like pretty much design-wise (except for the comic sans-esque typography of model names), I think many of us have raised our eyebrows about the launching of products with a similar feature set in such a short period of time, name the DX3 Pro+, EX5, MX5 and now the DX5...
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Topping fan and their engineering skills are beyond any question, but it would be a shame if such potential were diminished by a poor business strategy. In that sense, I think that knowing how to position your products is key to gaining the trust of your potential buyers and keeping loyal ones as well.
It doesn't make any sense to launch almost the same product with minor changes within the same year at similar price tags, instead, they clearly need to divide their releases into family products and be consistent with their exterior design and feature set.
For example, my take on their DAC/AMP family (the most attractive one here) should consist on:
-DX3 as the entry level option (not pro, not plus, just DX3) with the same design language as the DX5.
-DX5 as the mid level one, just as it is right now.
-DX7 as the high level combo, again, same language design as the others (for consistency's sake), better suited for demanding headphones with true balanced design, more front I/O outputs and/or with a power amplifier, like the MX5.
-Optional DX9 as the price-no-object concept, with the better hardware available and experimental features from Topping that will eventually come to future versions of the above products.
I think "S", "Pro", "Plus", "Mega", "Ultra" leads to confusion and it's better to stick with model years (DX7 2022, DX5 2024) or just DX3 Mark X, DX5 Mark Y, etc.
Then they should continue the same scheme with other product lines, for example:
-A3, A5, A7 or A9 for their standalone headphone amps
-D3, D5, D7... for their DACs
-P3, P5, P7 for power amps (or S3, S5, S7 for "Speakers", I don't know).
-NX line for portable solutions (NX3, NX5, etc).
Again, all of this are just plain and simple ideas for a great scale brand growing, but you get the point.
Topping has increasingly shown maturity as a brand (first with astonishing performance, now with increasingly compelling designs and features) and I think this is a crucial point to establish themselves as one of the audio best brands not only in China and ASR, but in the whole audio world.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Topping fan and their engineering skills are beyond any question, but it would be a shame if such potential were diminished by a poor business strategy. In that sense, I think that knowing how to position your products is key to gaining the trust of your potential buyers and keeping loyal ones as well.
It doesn't make any sense to launch almost the same product with minor changes within the same year at similar price tags, instead, they clearly need to divide their releases into family products and be consistent with their exterior design and feature set.
For example, my take on their DAC/AMP family (the most attractive one here) should consist on:
-DX3 as the entry level option (not pro, not plus, just DX3) with the same design language as the DX5.
-DX5 as the mid level one, just as it is right now.
-DX7 as the high level combo, again, same language design as the others (for consistency's sake), better suited for demanding headphones with true balanced design, more front I/O outputs and/or with a power amplifier, like the MX5.
-Optional DX9 as the price-no-object concept, with the better hardware available and experimental features from Topping that will eventually come to future versions of the above products.
I think "S", "Pro", "Plus", "Mega", "Ultra" leads to confusion and it's better to stick with model years (DX7 2022, DX5 2024) or just DX3 Mark X, DX5 Mark Y, etc.
Then they should continue the same scheme with other product lines, for example:
-A3, A5, A7 or A9 for their standalone headphone amps
-D3, D5, D7... for their DACs
-P3, P5, P7 for power amps (or S3, S5, S7 for "Speakers", I don't know).
-NX line for portable solutions (NX3, NX5, etc).
Again, all of this are just plain and simple ideas for a great scale brand growing, but you get the point.
Topping has increasingly shown maturity as a brand (first with astonishing performance, now with increasingly compelling designs and features) and I think this is a crucial point to establish themselves as one of the audio best brands not only in China and ASR, but in the whole audio world.
Last edited: