Topping Full Balanced DAC Headphone Amplifier DX7S 2ES9038Q2M 32Bit/768K DSD512 DSD USB Full Balanced DAC Headphone Amplifier (Black)

TOPPING's new DX7s is a new design of their well received DX7. THIS IS AN EARLY REVIEW AND I WILL UPDATE IN A MONTH.To put this in perspective, I have been an audiophile most of my adult life. I presently have Macintosh equipment powering a pair of Magnepan 3.7i speakers. I recently purchased the Yamaha HS8 for my office, and wanted a quality DAC/PREAMP to listen from my computer.After careful consideration, looking at Dacs less than 1k, I decided to take a chance and order the Topping DX7s as the DX7 was so well received.This Dac has the NEW ESS chips as well as high end TI audio amplifier chips. Consulting with an audio engineer, I was convinced that the design was worth buying. Afterall, It's difficult to find many Dacs in this price range that are balanced and have the superb specs that this amp has.The product comes very well packaged, and was delivered by DHL in just a couple of days. The unit feels heavy and has a quality feel to it.The instructions are ok, however, to change listening inputs, simply double click the volume knob. The digital readout is a very nice and accurate feature.Now for sound, the most important part. I compared the sound to another DAC I have that has a built in class A amp. The cost of that Dac was $ 399. The Topping easily powered 35 ohm Bayerdynamics Headphones as well as 600 Ohm Fostex Headphones.There was a major difference. The Topping sounded much clearer and detailed....with a noticeable 'openness' Soundstage was large. The base was breathtaking. I then played both Dacs thru my Yamaha HS8 Studio monitors....and again, the Topping was far cleaner sounding, with detail.Next week I will be comparing it with a Bryston Dac that my friend is bringing over....stay tuned.I will spend some more time with this over the next few weeks and update my review. I have several recording and Symphonies to listen for jitterand artifacts....which I have not heard thus far.

I stream my music from youtube music to my Samsung tv as my audio source. The tv is connected to the dac and then to my carver c-1 preamp, then my carver tfm 15 amp. The amp is powering klipsch 6.5 speakers. The sound is so good that at times the digital audio sounds like it's being played live in my livingroom. I also use the dac in dac/ headphone mode so I can use the remote to control the volume. Works perfectly! I've never had digital music sound so good, the quality isnt turntable good but it's really really good. Even my wife noticed how good our music sounds now. And the added benefit of having movie audio go through the dac then into my stereo really bumped up the quality of movie sound effects, dialog and of course the sound track.UPDATE:I've since switched to Tidal MQA for the obvious better sound quality. I've also tried switching my music source from my Samsung tv to my laptop, using the usb to get the MQA audio directly to the dac, since you cant cast MQA to the tv. This was my 1st attempt at using the USB because I've been using the toslink cable from my tv. USB DOESN'T WORK AT ALL!!!! This should have been plug and play with windows 10 but to my surprise it doesnt work at all. I've downloaded drivers, uninstalled, reinstalled, turned off, unplugged, everything I've tried hasn't worked. So disappointed that something costing this much cant have everything working the way its supposed to work. I should have gone with Schiit. Will never buy from topping again.

This DAC came quickly and very well packaged from China. The box contained only the DAC itself and small brochure.It only took one quick search to find the appropriate DX7s USB drivers though. Be sure to search for "DX7s" because the "DX7" USB driver will not work.After connecting and installing, using foobar2000 as my audio file player, it only took a few settings to change and few tweaks to eliminate some USB dropout.My initial testing was done only through the headphone output and sounded very clean with zero noise.Connecting the DAC output to my existing preamp (RCA only) input caused a slight amount of ground loop buzz because my preamp RCA output is connected to an active crossover with XLR inputs. (I'm in the process of replacing that with a full XLR path preamp.Since the DAC does have it's own preamp which is functional through the XLR outputs, I bypassed my existing system preamp and went direct from the DAC XLR outputs to the active crossover XLR inputs which completely eliminated any noise and as well, produces better spatial perception.Overall, so far, I am very satisfied with this DAC. The seller was also very helpful and responsive for any questions that I had.

Topping product is always best in the price category. DX7S is superbly neutral sound, and the powerful + balanced output can drive power amplifier directly.

Happy with this purchase.I tried 2 setups:1. Studio monitors.2. 32 ohms balanced headphones (XLR) .I played DSD files and hi-res FLACs. Very clean sound.I also asked the manufactured what was the clock and it is good: NDK 45.1584MHz/49.152MHz low phase noise crystal. External reviews showed that the DAC has super low floor noise.What is missing? MQA support.Probably a more powerful heaphone amp.

Great sound. Easy install. Used both normal and balanced, both sound great. Can recommend!

The purchase: After lots of research for a reasonably priced DAC with balanced output I settled on the Topping DX7s. Reviews were hard to find but there were a couple that offered comparison to very well documented DACs so I felt confident I had a good choice in the DX7s. Topping seemed to have a good history with their other DACs including the DX7 (the precursor to the DX7S) so the pedigree seemed good.The DAC was very well presented in a very sturdy black box with included cables. The box was only bubble wrapped for shipping but due the its solid construction it arrived intact and undented.The DAC: heavy for its size, and well finished. There is an air of quality in the build. This DAC was replacing a Sonos Zone Player and the sonic improvement was immediate. The instruments and vocals suddenly had their own discrete places in a much bigger sound stage. It was as though you had cleaned your glasses and had a second look at a picture. Hopefully so - the specifications on this DAC are much better then the Sonos which does not have balanced output. I am using balanced output to a NewClassD Singularity amp and Zaph Audio speakers using the Scan Speak 18W8531G Revelator woofer and the 6600 AirCirc tweeter. This system is incredibly clean and neutral with fantastic base. So it makes for a good reference for judgement.Issues: (1)Documentation. Whilst the small fold-out sheet covers everything you need it offers no more than that. If you want technical details on any aspect of the player or trouble-shooting advice you'll be left scratching your head which brings me to... (2)Support. When I un-boxed the DX7s the USB input was not working. I tested with both a PC and Allo USB Bridge player. Messages to Shenzhen Audio did not get a response. In desperation I tried factory reset which fixed things immediately. I have not had an issue since.Summing up: After a hiccup this DAC has proved it's self a first rate piece of gear. Though my listening comparison has been limited I an very happy with its operation and performance. I have had it for about a month listening to a variety of music recorded in both PCM and DSD formats. From my online comparison to other balanced DACs it seems excellent value for money.

Excellent performer ,quality build