I’m a very old senior (90 next year) so bear that in mind reading this.
I’ve been chasing audiophile moonbeams for decades and have wasted a lot of time, effort and money on the pursuit. But I do think I am now hearing the best quality reproduced music I have ever experienced using this latest Topping combined DAC/headamp.
On first hearing music via the Topping two things stood out and really surprised me. First was extra obvious the air and ambience associated with the music. The second was the extra authority in the bass. Until the Topping I had never been particularly impressed with organ music reproduced on headphones but the DX9 has made organ music sound much more appealing.
The other big plus is that it reproduces music from some very old albums taken from early CDs to sound as appealing as from the latest hi-rez downloads.
Note that the above enthusiam must be tempered by two vital factors -
The balanced AES digital feed into the Topping has been processed by an Aurilac G1 so much, if not all, the jitter nasties have been filtered out to make the Topping task a lot easier;
At my age extended treble is no longer recognised by the old brain.
So folks, you can believe the rave reviews the Topping DX9 is receiving. There might be better DAC/AMP combos out there but I’ll never hear them. Bottom line is that the Topping DX9 is a bargain and is capable of making classical, jazz and popular music sound VERY nice. The bottleneck for me is no longer the audio toys reproducing it, it is in the engineering that goes into making the recording in the first place.
Especially when considering the quality/budget quotient, I can absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend to give this 25$ in-ear a listen - you’ll be blown away!
Good story John and at 90 you give many of us hope to be enjoying this hobby (or should I say obsession) in over 30 years time.
Nice share once again @Marin_Weigel I have popped that into my bookmark tool to look at again in a few months, when I am sure I will finally give in and buy a pair
I’m putting back together a listening station next to my ‘new’ used treadmill I bought. I have an old Sennheiser HD600 - replaced the pads with leather from Dekoni. I decided to blow the wad… iFi Zen Stream to Topping DX9 (found an open box unit, what do I care…). I do want to find find a balanced cable for them, one day. Then, I’ll stop. I promise!
I’ve got to get my mind off what my lungs and legs are doing.
I moved the DX9 to my main rig. Aerial Acoustics Model 9s with Moon Audio Monoblocks. Well, I find it a much better fit than the first gen Berkeley Alpha DAC that was there. The Berkeley just didn’t work well as a pre amp. This Topping is excellent. This is its new permanent home.
I pulled the trigger on a Topping DX7 Pro+ for the treadmill music station I have set up. Not as overkill as the DX9, but still a bit much for workout music …that’s why I work, I guess.
I continue to be very pleased with the Topping DX9 - the resoltion is superb and that is important to me. I’m guessing some folks prefer the more laid back sound that second order harmonics add with tubes and vinyl, but that is not for me.
I have kept my DX7 Pro + for a supplementary system so a friend and I can enjoy music on headphones together. I let him listen to the DX9 via Focal Utopias while I’m content with Focal Mgs - maybe not quite as good but mightlily close and much better value although I did buy the Utopias used. Their latest new price is hard to justify.
Got an email the DX7 Pro+ is discontinued and couldn’t get it shipped. My next choice was a completely different direction: HiFiMan EF400. It arrived. I plugged it into the USB of the Zen Stream and the power chord (all left there from the Topping DX9 I had moved somewhere else. Didn’t change anything else.
Powered everything up. Looked into the Roon / Zen Stream > Device Info. Zen changed the source to “HiFiMan-EF400” automatically. Source stayed USB, for some reason. Volume is ‘fixed’. Picked some music and hit play. I had the volume completely off (wearing Sennheiser HD660S2). Slowly turned the dial up and a very war, musical sound started to open up. I continued to turn the dial and it stopped. The dial was at full volume (about the 5 position). I wanted / needed a bit more volume. Something was wrong.
I tried a few things, new USB, rebooted everything. Unplugged, plugged back in. Nothing. The unit was sent back for them to have a listen. I have two other Zen Streams all with the same settings as this third Stream. I can’t figure out how Roon is sending a signal that is lower in volume and can’t amplify it to a high volume.
Either the unit is bad or I’m missing something, stupidly. Anything I should check? DSD/DoP in Zen is “auto mode” but so are my other two units. The Topping that was there didn’t have this problem. Hmmm…
… screen shot of device setup and signal path, maybe?
You‘ve set it to low or high gain?
Imagine not being yourself, what else would you ask another user to present when wanting to help?
Think about it, it‘s either a setting in software or a problem in the analog domain.
The gain setting mattered very little, if not at all.
I’ve already sent it back, but I would have put this unit in one of the other settings, or moved one of my other Zen’s to this location, but I just didn’t think it would matter since those Zen’s have the same settings as this one.
I think it could be the signal Roon is sending to the Zen, but what setting in Roon would affect the strength of the signal going to the streamer? I guess that’s really my main quesiton.
I’m not sure this is the same experience, but some time ago I was using the ZS with my Hegel H120. The USB output would only yield a very low sound, whereas the coaxial connection worked perfectly well into the Hegel. At the time, Hegel site described the USB input as follows: “The USB connector found on Hegel amplifiers and digital to analog converters opens a whole new world for music and movie lovers. This functionality allows you to easily connect your Hegel product to any computer with a reasonably new Windows or Mac Os operating system installed. The most common Linux systems will also work. The Hegel USB technology is actually a computer sound card, or audio controller if you like.” It works without issues connected to a computer, including a NUC with ROCK (that´s how I use it now). I’ve been using the ZS with a Zen Dac without any issues. So, the problem seemed to be the compatibility with the USB input of the Hegel DAC. I’m not a tech person and can be mistaken about this, but I thought I should share. Cheers
Bloom Audio couldn’t reproduce the low volume. Everything checked out to them, but they did not have a Zen Stream to connect it to. I’ve decided to return the HiFiMan and purchase the Neo 2 instead. Both Ifi products so should not have any incompatibilities.
I sent the HiFiMan back. Ordered an Ifi Neo 2. They sent an original Neo by mistake. I did listen to it. Neo 2 simply has more packed in it for the extra $100. (Funny story - I sent an email saying, “the Neo 2 is out of stock / on backorder.” Bloom guy emailed back, “yes, but your Neo 2 is sitting on the bench ready to be shipped out and never was.” Ya gotta laugh at it all).
Neo 2 has arrived and it’s just so fun. X Bass is amazing - and I truly don’t like filters, but this is for listening when I’m on my treadmill, so…
I’m a very old senior (90 next year) so bear that in mind reading this.
