Build - solid , hefty .
Drivability - can drive hd600 , he400se and superlux 330.
Sound - have good clean bass , extend bass / increase bass. very clean , analytic , smooth . Seperation very good , sound stage so so , I can say maybe the treble is quite high it can be piercing if pair with high treble headphone. Vocals shine.
Pairing - hd58x literally make the sound open , enjoyable , it tame the sound ,make everything smooth. Also make the headphone muffle gone. To my surprise. Sub bass is enjoyable . Good pairing. Superlux 330 also another good pairing. Smooth , clean. Fiio jt1. This is also bassy headphone , more on the bass side , treble too. But after using it with the topping. It tame the bass and everything is smooth very enjoyable. He400se it gets loud enough. Yes it's clean again. Bass tight. Seperation good. But tbh it's just sound smooth not really a big difference here. Hd600 to my surprise it added the missing bass that I was looking for . It make everything perfect. I seen review or people say it can't drive the hd600 to full potential and he400se. Imo. Hd600 is enough. It gets loud enough. Bass more emphasise. Clean etc just perfect. He400se. Just smooth. Bass tight
Ok imo topping pairing is lean towards bassy headphone , or more on a bass side. Or less bass like the hd600. It work well with most headphone except for treble headphone.
I have the Samson SR850 . It make my ear hurt I can't even listen to them.
Fyi all is stock sound from headphone no eq added.
Gain switch - first time using this thing. Imo nothing really special now I realized why most people say max out the pc volume. Low gain just volume lesser , high means louder. That's it no difference. Both port will run either high or low depend on the switch is set to high or low. Once the headphone get loud enough in either low or high same sound no difference.
Dac comparison ayima dac a 3. This dac I realised has more power in the sense that the ayima have no gain switch. Just pc volume and knob. Like the ayima dac a 3 Is using ess 9038q2m dac chip. And a op amp TPA6120D2 which I know nothing about except for the dac chip.
Sound : it has much more of a noise sound . Meaning electric guitar for example this song. I feel like it has a good instrument seperation. I tested song in flac , 320kbps. Songs like new jeans , Taeyeon , IU , POP , KPOP , anime piano/guitar music , lofi , R &B . But this Japanese song have good seperation etc. and electric guitar so I use this as example. https://youtu.be/YbFSOlLemak?si=LPwnqZs16GSELGic
On the ayima starting it has good seperation. But when the electric guitar plays it makes like electric guitar noise. And everything else like push back a little. Seperation was there but not as clean. This concludes imo ABIT noisy also make it have more feeling to the music. On other song like Taeyeon song. Or vocals song pop , kpop, new jeans. It has more emotion I only can say that. But on certain track like new jeans hype boy it feels like everything a little push back muted. Bass is not as clean. But for like gravity for Taeyeon. And LOL Taeyeon. It feel like more emotion. Not as clean but just feels like more emotion to the song. Through every headphone is like this . But the Samson sr850 the treble doesn't hurt my ear it is still high but tolerable. Imo just beneath my threshold. It also increase the bass for some song and some headphone. Imo
Topping. New jeans bass pop, everything sound clean and well seperate . Same goes for the Japanese song. This is different on that song. Clean bass , electric not as forward. Every Instrument and vocals well seperate can hear clearly. Vocals too all balance. Bass is cleaner than ayima dac a 3, seperation is clearer too , soundstage about the same. Smoother than the ayima dac 3. Clearer sounding too. But after awhile it sounded like too analytic. The treble I feel like it is enhance on the headphone. Like the Samson headphone. I just put for 3, min I need to take them off. Tested with new jeans etc. the treble just hurt my ears too sharp. Samson stock sound the treble is quite high imo.
Ok which do I like better currently if pairing with the topping , hd58x , superlux 330 , hd600. Fiio jt1. All of these sounded great . I feel like those lack of bass , or bassy headphone pair well with topping. Can't pair is those stock sound already with high treble like Samson.
Is it better than ayima ? For me personally I like clean sounding stuff. So yeah. The ayima also have like channel imbalance. But I fix it through the window all by balancing it. So overall not bad.
Power : I feel like the ayima dac A3 has more power. Period. Do not know the measurements but it gets loud real quick quicker than the topping dx1 high gain.
Fyi maybe there's a sound different because of the bit rate.
Ayima is 24 bit 440khz I forgot. But I know it's 24bit.
Topping 32 bit khz I also forgot but I think also 440khz or something. But I can clearly hear the difference.
But if I compare the topping to the bvgp t01s dongle it also a 32, bit.
The sound tbh sounds very similar. The bvgp t01s. Tbh if it got a desktop version I will buy it. The dongle is like super cheap compare to topping . Sound wise almost the same. Just that it's not as clean as the topping.
But the bvgp is good with all headphone I tested even Samson's. Enhancing the bass , clarity , maintain the treble.
Enhanced the bass on hd600 too. Smooth. Etc.
Maybe it because of the bit rate so yeah.
Is it worth the money for the topping ? For desktops amp dac imo this is end game. I do not need anything higher. But for bvgp dongle yeah man. Maybe not as clean soundkng as topping but other aspect quite close. The sound on the bvgp is insane imo. It power my hd600 well it open it up like the topping as well .
So yeah that's my conclusion of the topping. All rounder except for treble heavy headphone. Good for bassy headphone for pairing. It just balance everything out.
Fyi the sound from the dac amp mentioned has 0 hiss or static sound. I ab the 2 dac I can hear the difference ess and akm chip. Both have their own strength. ESS has more emotion and noise(good noise) . Akm just clean sounding. Good seperate tight bass. Less emotional, more analytics imo. I can't believe anyone can hear anything beyond this point. If anything get even more analytic than this topping. It's just sterile sound. Maybe be good for a week or so but after that it's not enjoyable.
Is there a DAC that makes the Samson SR850 sound good because I think it's just because it's a bad headphone. Please look at the measurements.
Maybe ess dac? This is my first branded dac amp. The other ones are all no brand Chinese brand suca audio and ayima maybe not that famous.
Another I own is fiio k1 dongle. Samson run on the fiio k1 , bgvp dongle fine no sharpness. The ayima also no sharpness.
But for me if it's dongle out of all my dongle and dac I think the bgvp t10s really bang for its bucks. It does has some flaws but compared to the ayima and fiio it sounds better. It sounded close to topping matter of fact and it's super cheap just the connector have problems nowadays like lose. My testing show the fiio , bgvp and ayima work well with all headphone that I had. But sounds wise bgvp have that tiny bit cleaness , bass and more smooth. Fiio sounds ABIT wider only otherwise not much difference. The ayima added noise sounds fuller more emotion. Everything sounds ABIT distant slightly also has channel imbalance but a bit of fixing through software problems solve.
End of the day the topping sounds good but I do not know weather I can listen to it all day or not . With certain headphone I can like the one I mentioned. Samson definitely not I do not know why but it's just piercing.
Samson pair well with the ayima and fiio and bgvp. Tone down treble and added bass. Where on topping treble just sharp.
Jt1 , hd58x sound not that good on them . But on bgvp sound not bad on topping where it shines , hd600 same scenario but the bgvp have it smooth full sound signature, the bass increase too but not by much just smooth. Hd 600 with topping imo make it more lively , stronger bass etc.