I usually habituate the Tube forum, but I thought I'd post here because I was interested in a DAC upgrade this year, something I haven't really investigated for a while. For the past 5 years I've been very happy with with my Arcam irDAC. It's versatile and endlessly relaxing and musical, but it has it's limits. When I first bought it, my wife (the ultimate arbiter of musicality in our house) listened for ten minutes and said, "Well, there you go. What more do you want?" And indeed for 5 years I haven't wanted more. The Arcam uses the PCM1796 DAC and the appeal is obvious--warm, liquid, realistic and never fatiguing. But recently a friend of mine alerted me that Doge was selling off their remaining model 7 DACs for a steep discount because they were upgrading their new model. It has a tube output stage and employs the ESS 9038 chip, so I thought, why not? I was curious to hear the ESS chip and also have the ability to access higher bit rates and DSD. Long story short, the Doge 7 arrived, a beautifully built piece. I immediately heard the increased accuracy and "speed" (or attack, or whatever you want to call it) of the ESS chip, and was very happy with the upgrade. But it developed a problem and Doge is sending me a new DAC board to drop in.
In the meantime I felt a bit bereft without that ESS sound, so I ordered a Topping DX7S to get a taste of a less expensive deployment of the 9038 chip. I chose it over the D50 because of the built-in linear power supply, and though I don't really need a headphone amp, I thought it might come in handy for a second system.
The long and short is that I'm very impressed. It's more intense and gripping than the Arcam, and reflects far more the original source, for better or worse. I do NOT find it bright or edgy, as some people have commented. I find that while my attention would sometimes drift with the Arcam, this really holds the ear. Bear in mind that I'm an older gent with compromised hearing to some extent, so perhaps my assessment is lacking, but for musicality combined with a reflection of the source, I'm extremely pleased.
My system reflects my tastes, of course--reproduction Williamson amplifiers with Peerless output transformers, ProAc Response 2's and a Cary preamp. I listen to mostly classical and classic jazz. The PC is a Mac Mini running Audirvana. I've tried the tweaky USB stuff but I've found that, while you may get more this or more that, you don't really get more music. So take that for what it's worth. ;-) The only other high-end DAC I've had in my system is the Border Patrol, which is pretty nice but extremely limited in utility. In fact, this was lent me by the friend who purchased the Doge 7 (which he is very happy with).
You might ask what my wife thinks. She has not remarked on the Doge or the Topping, which is neither a bad or good sign. I'm guessing she would find the intensity of the Topping less to her taste, but it suits me very well.
I hope this is helpful. The wealth of cheap Chinese DACs flooding the market is rather astonishing to someone of my age. I'm curious to hear a Denafrips and an SMSL, among other things, and I 'm lucky have a little extra money to take some chances and report back. But I would say that any older, "classic" audiophiles like myself would not be disappointed in any way with the Topping, especially if you want an accurate reflection of digitally-transferred analogue source material.
In the meantime I felt a bit bereft without that ESS sound, so I ordered a Topping DX7S to get a taste of a less expensive deployment of the 9038 chip. I chose it over the D50 because of the built-in linear power supply, and though I don't really need a headphone amp, I thought it might come in handy for a second system.
The long and short is that I'm very impressed. It's more intense and gripping than the Arcam, and reflects far more the original source, for better or worse. I do NOT find it bright or edgy, as some people have commented. I find that while my attention would sometimes drift with the Arcam, this really holds the ear. Bear in mind that I'm an older gent with compromised hearing to some extent, so perhaps my assessment is lacking, but for musicality combined with a reflection of the source, I'm extremely pleased.
My system reflects my tastes, of course--reproduction Williamson amplifiers with Peerless output transformers, ProAc Response 2's and a Cary preamp. I listen to mostly classical and classic jazz. The PC is a Mac Mini running Audirvana. I've tried the tweaky USB stuff but I've found that, while you may get more this or more that, you don't really get more music. So take that for what it's worth. ;-) The only other high-end DAC I've had in my system is the Border Patrol, which is pretty nice but extremely limited in utility. In fact, this was lent me by the friend who purchased the Doge 7 (which he is very happy with).
You might ask what my wife thinks. She has not remarked on the Doge or the Topping, which is neither a bad or good sign. I'm guessing she would find the intensity of the Topping less to her taste, but it suits me very well.
I hope this is helpful. The wealth of cheap Chinese DACs flooding the market is rather astonishing to someone of my age. I'm curious to hear a Denafrips and an SMSL, among other things, and I 'm lucky have a little extra money to take some chances and report back. But I would say that any older, "classic" audiophiles like myself would not be disappointed in any way with the Topping, especially if you want an accurate reflection of digitally-transferred analogue source material.
