Topping’s do-everything DAC could be a budget bargain

A high-spec DAC, pre-amp and headphone amp for an impressively low price

A lifestyle shot showing two Topping DX5 II DAC models on a white background, one in black and one in white
(Image credit: Topping)
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Topping's DX5 II DAC is just £299 and boasts a three-stage headphone amp and a twin double-DAC design.

It'll be available in the UK in July.

Topping has unveiled an upgraded version of its acclaimed DX5 DAC, preamp and headphone amp. It's affordably priced at just £299 and promises to be the do-it-all DAC for all your digital sources. And not just audio devices, but laptops, smartphones and consoles too.

The DX5 II supports PCM data to 32-bit/768kHz over USB, with 24-bit/192kHz via the coaxial and optical inputs. It also has fully native DSD at up to 22.5792MHz (DSD512).

It's a simple, streamlined design with a two-inch colour screen on the front and three Hi-Res digital inputs: USB, co-ax and optical. And it has Bluetooth 5.1 with LDAC and aptX Adaptive to 24-bit/96kHz. There's also aptX HD at 24-bit/48kHz and low latency mode for gaming or video watching.

A stacked product shot of the front and rear of the Topping DX5 II DAC against a white background

(Image credit: Topping)

Topping DX5 II DAC: key features and pricing

The DAC stage is built around ESS's ES9039Q2M, which features a new generation of the Hyperstream IV architecture to deliver low noise and wide dynamic range. The DX5 II doesn't use one; it uses two, one for each channel of the stereo signal.

As the ES9039Q2M is a two-channel DAC chip, running two such chips means that there is a pair of differential signals per channel. According to Topping that further lowers the noise floor, improves channel separation and enhances the DAC's ability to resolve fine musical detail and micro-dynamics.

The DAC is teamed with a proprietary current to voltage model which again promises lower noise and distortion, and Topping's X-Hybrid headphone amp is a four-channel design with three stages. This includes a discrete input stage, a gain stage based around an op-amp, and a discrete output stage.

It's capable of driving a very wide range of headphones and IEMs, delivering up to 2x 7,600mW into 16 ohms, 2x 6,400mW into 32 ohms and 2x 990mW into 300 ohms through its balanced outputs.

The Topping DX5 II will come to the UK this July in a choice of black, white or silver. The RRP is £299.

Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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