Topping NX4 DSD XMOS-XU208 chip DAC ES9038Q2M chip Portable USB Headphone Amp Decoder Power Amplifier (Silver)

I own a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 1770 pro which are 250ohm high fidelity headphones. When playing music off of my iPhone 11, NX4 DSD DAC, or MacBook Pro 2018 there is NO difference in sound. This is with the exception of turning on the bass boost toggle which will obviously make a difference, but you could achieve this with an equalizer. All music I play is 16bit/44.1khz up to 24bit/192khz, and still, the NX4 makes no difference in sound compared to an iPhone. I saw many reviews online for this DAC saying it’s the greatest thing since toast. I’m kind of convinced the audiophile community is delusional at this point. I love my 1770 pros, but everyone will tell you that you must get a DAC for this type of headphones. I tested 100s of songs in all genres with no sound improvements, so save your money! I also tested this DAC with lower impedance headphones, such as Bose QC35’s, and Philips Fidelio X2HR, with the same result.

A single track, streamed in I believe Qobuz's highest quality (192.0 kHz) is all it took to push me into finally writing a review on the Topping NX4 DSD. That song was Sidewinder off of Lee Morgan's excellent Blue Note jazz album of the same name. Now, I must preface this by saying that I am actually not the biggest fan of some of the recording choices legend Rudy Van Gelder made while recording so many of the classic Blue Note records. His stereo separation was too augmented (just like The Beatles) and his mics on some instruments were too hot while almost ignoring other players completely. [The bass player was there that day? Who knew?!] But this recording was smooth like butter. Like, premium ultra smooth. Every instrument was placed to precision through this DAC/Amp, every tone pure as a bell. The cymbals shone like burnished silver, perfect and clear, no harshness whatsoever. Even the upright bass was allowed presence in the room, with smooth texture to die for. The typically hot-mic'd horns were well balanced. Sublime.And that is not even the limit of where this tiny DAC/Amp's chip can go. I don't have music files yet that go that high. Someday, though...So, my setup is thus: iPhone 6 streaming Qobuz Hi-Res through the Camera Connecter USB3 into the Topping NX4 DSD (definitely upgrade those included USB cables with literally anything) out into ZMF Vibro Mkii Planar Magnetic headphones. [These are significantly re-worked/re-wired Fostex T50RP by audio-wiz Zack Mehrbach with custom wood cups tailor made to each customer. Dreamy purchasing experience.] These are not particularly bass-heavy 'phones but the mids are utterly sublime with fantastic presence and tone... with the right amplification. And this Topping has power in spades to push these 50 ohm 'phones to very nice levels. Using High Gain (of course), these planars exhibit smooth easy textures, sumptuous mids, and even fine impacting bass, thanks to the well-implemented Bass Boost, which doesn't necessarily change the sound, just accurately boosts what is already there. It really works. But I have found that breathy textural vocals are where this DAC/Amp really shines. Lou Reed? Oh my God. I have many hours with these phones through a rather good (and long-discontinued) Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11, a lovely little tube-buffered device with ample power and copious inputs in a tiny package. It drives these 'phones well, but its biggest shortcoming is that the DAC only decodes up to 96 kHz whereas the Topping goes to the moon. And back. I won't get into all the technical minutiae of this device here because that info is found a-plenty in other reviews. Let it just be known that this little Topping punches very far above its weight, and offers outstanding musicality and texture and tonal purity enough to stop one in their tracks. This setup is revealing enough to make Spotify and other "lossy" sources nearly unlistenable, so that might be the only drawback with a DAC/Amp like this. The course graininess of those compressed formats come through agonizingly well. So, if you are considering this excellent little device, do yourself a favor and please do budget in a subscription to a Hi-Res streaming service, or purchase lots and lots of your favorite albums in lossless files. With all of this sitting in your hands, your ears (and soul) will thank you many times over.

I purchased the Topping NX4 DSD because I wanted better audio quality from the music stored on my Samsung Galaxy s7. Also, the s7 could not provide sufficient output volume to my Koss PortaPro headphones, which I use when working out. Aside from needing more volume, I also wanted to bypass the internal D/A converter (DAC) in the phone, and use a better quality DAC for decoding the music. For my purposes, the NX4 works perfectly with the Galaxy s7. When attached, using the provided microUSB to microUSB OTA cable, the s7 immediately recognized the USB device, and redirected audio from the phone's headphone jack, to the phone's USB output jack. Music is passed digitally from the s7 to the NX4. I now have plenty of volume, and the DAC in the Topping NX4 is doing all the decoding work. The sound quality is absolutely superb. I attached some of the provided velcro patches to the back of my phone, and to the back of the NX4, so that the 2 units could be joined together, while I'm working out. This joining of the 2 units works very well. See pictures of my setup. I realize that the Topping NX4 is something of an extravagance, and I have survived for many years without a portable headphone amp/DAC, so I only recommend this product to people who are seeking to get the very best audio quality out of their s7 phone. For those of us who are, this is the right unit for the Galaxy s7.