Ever since I walked into a stereo shop during my senior year in college, the build-up of anticipation for listening to hifi finally came with astounding glory. I'd been seeing the ads for speakers and audio equipment in music review magazines such as Gramophone for a long time, but I'd finally come to the point where I wanted to see if it was true: was this stuff worth the time and money?
For the record, I still have those first speakers from B&W, bookshelf models. Have been with me for awhile now and never have disappointed.
I have really wanted to take advantage of my headphones with a dedicated amplifer. I had some experience with the LTA Microzotl preamplifer which with headphones was amazing. But without that unit in my lineup now, I was looking for something to sit on my office desk; either connected to an older DAC or just maybe an integrated unit with a newer DAC.
I'd watched Amir from Audio Science Review take down the PS Audio power regenerator and it made an impact. Across his original video and then his followup, the one following Paul McGowan's retort, it was pretty clear that it was very expensive snake oil in that box. My respect for Amir's site went up a bit. His reviews are very light on subjective discourse. But he measures things and at least for the power regenerator, what he was measuring made a lot of sense. He'd also rated well the Mola Mola Tambaqui which I've been watching. Then I watched his review of the Topping DX5. I immediately placed an order based on a few thoughts.
- Do the measurements have that high an impact on sound quality? I really wanted to know.
- I could always resell it.
- I could use it, double duty, if I ever put powered monitors on my desk.
I listened to albums familiar and new using Roon and Audirvana Studio connected directly to my USB/Thunderbolt Dock via the supplied USB cable.
First Impressions
All my listening was done with a pair of Sennheiser 650HD. I put the unit in high gain mode. The unit had plenty of headroom. Most listening is enjoyed between -30dB and -22dB. I didn't have a direct comparison with my LTA preamp. The LTA cost ~$5K versus this unit at $450. My only direct comparison was with the Audioquest Dragonfly Red. I'd always thought the Dragonfly was good, but maybe not the best option with the Sennheisers. It had volume but lacked gravitas and good dynamics.
I wasn't impressed. To the point of being disappointed. There's was that gravitas to the sound that the USB-stick sized Dragonfly lacked. But the sound overall felt flat and two-dimensional.
Second Impressions
The review mentioned a so-called "ESS hump" that was to be fixed via a software update. When I saw it'd come out I upgraded the DX5 with the updated ROM and listened anew.
I can't say my second impressions are a direct influence from the firmware update, or the update plus burn-in time, or what. But my very fisrt impression had changed remarkably.
The thing I noticed was what I typically read as "blackness," that sense of that any noise or feedback the device is putting out is eliminated. Volume up or all the way down, it's pretty consistently "dark." What came out in sound had more depth and body. Nothing which made me sit back and say "this is awesome," specifically with the impact to use the word as it's original intent conveyed. But the sound was far more interesting and enjoyable. The recordings sounded extremely clean and detailed. They still had a clinical whiff to them but when I fed it some albums that I consider "audiophile" in quality, well, those tracks really shined.
I also did some listening with the default Roon crossfeed filter applied which, in short, mixes down the stereo separation a bit to better produce a "speaker" sound.
I'm at the point now that I plan to keep the Topping DX5 in my system. The unit has both XLR outputs and RCA to feed powered speakers as a preamp. It features dual ESS DAC chips for around 120dB SNR. In some of my favorite recordings I really got lost in the music. The Dragonfly I think is a good product over simply plugging your headphones into a computer or phone. The implementation with portable devices is a little messy, at least in an Apple ecosystem with dongles. However I wanted something with even more detail, more presence, and more depth and soundstage.
The DX5 a clear step above the Dragonfly but doesn't come close to the eurphoria I experienced with the much more expensive LTA tube-base unit. For the money, I think it's a decent comrpomise and likely a fair value for the money when you considered that while yes, more expensive gear will give you in general better returns; but the value improvement in sound quality is typically disproportionate to the cost. I think for someone looking for a DAC/headphone amp for their desktop should evaluate the Topping based on its measurements, features, and versatility.
I purchased the unit direct from Shenzen Audio and did not receive compensation for this or any review.