DAC / AmpOverreview

Topping DX1 II

Name: Topping DX1 II
Brand: Topping

State-of-the-art numbers and a watt of balanced power for $119 — and a summer of firmware, pops and clicks that split its owners.

26 sourcesUpdated 2026-09-18

$119Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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The short version

What to know.

A bus-powered desktop DAC and headphone amplifier with balanced and single-ended headphone outputs, balanced and RCA line outputs, optical input and output, a TRRS headset jack, a switchable UAC 1.0/2.0 USB input, a hardware 10-band PEQ and a remote, sold at $119 from May 2026 as the replacement for the original DX1. Sources broadly agree on the breadth of the feature set (nothing at the price does as much), on a background silent enough for the most sensitive in-ears, and on bench results — SINAD above 121 dB balanced on two independent analysers — that put it among the best-measuring DACs sold. They split on whether that transparency is a virtue or a 'listless' absence of drama, on whether a USB port's watt is enough for hard headphones (the single-ended jack and weak USB ports are the usual culprits), on a single-knob control scheme that some found effortless and others needed the manual and the remote for, and — most sharply — on build: a solid aluminium box by every editorial account, versus a run of owner reports of line-out pops, sample-rate clicks, optical dropouts and units sent back across the firmware releases of June to September 2026.

About this product

The 2026 second-generation DX1 II (ES9039Q2M, balanced 4.4 mm, PEQ, optical in/out) in any of its three finishes. Not the 2022 single-ended DX1 it replaces, which Topping no longer sells, and not the larger DX5 II.

Topping's DX1 II is the second generation of the little square box that made the company's name at the bottom of the desktop market: an ESS ES9039Q2M converter and a four-channel balanced amplifier rated at a full watt into 32 Ω, a 4.4 mm balanced jack on the front and another on the back, RCA line outs, optical in and out, a headset jack with microphone support, a console-friendly USB Audio Class switch, a ten-band parametric EQ that lives in the hardware, and an infrared remote — all drawn from a single USB-C cable and sold for $119 from May 2026.

The two benches that measured it found performance near the best at any price, and most reviewers called it the new floor for what a budget DAC/amp must do. It also shipped with firmware that Topping revised ten times in four months, and its review thread became a running ledger of pops, clicks and dropouts that some owners never saw and others could not make go away. Those two stories are both true, and this overreview keeps them side by side.

A good fit for

A desk hub for headphones, active speakers and a console from one USB cable, where the PEQ and the optical loop do real work
Sensitive in-ears and efficient full-size headphones on the balanced jack, from a computer port that supplies a full 5 V / 1 A
Listeners who want a source with no character of its own and will add any flavour with the EQ
Gamers who need a headset mic input and PS5 / Switch compatibility with better-than-onboard sound

Think twice if

You want a source that adds warmth, body or drama — this one adds nothing, and that is the complaint
You will run it as a line-level DAC into a power amp over RCA and cannot tolerate a click at sample-rate or preset changes
Your headphones are insensitive planars or you rely on the 3.5 mm jack for full-size cans — a powered desktop amp does that job better
You would rather not update firmware, or you are on a Mac without a Chromium browser to do it with

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

5 / 7topics divide opinion

2 Mostly agree5 Divided opinions

Common ground4

The most complete feature set at the price: balanced and single-ended headphone jacks, balanced and RCA line outs, optical in and out, a headset mic input, a console-friendly USB switch, a hardware 10-band PEQ and a remote
Bench performance among the best measured — SINAD above 121 dB balanced on two independent analysers, distortion and noise far below audibility
A background silent enough for the most sensitive in-ears from either headphone jack
A dense, well-finished aluminium chassis that reviewers say belongs in a higher price bracket

Points of contention5

Transparency — 'state of the art, lets the recording speak' versus 'listless, flat and clinical'; the subjective camp cannot even agree which way the treble tilts
Power — a real watt that drives most full-size headphones from the balanced jack, versus a glorified dongle that runs out on hard planars, the 3.5 mm jack and weak USB ports
Ergonomics — a set-and-forget hub with a great remote, versus a single-knob maze whose gain and presets live only on that remote
Build — a solid box that runs for months without fault, versus line-out pops, sample-rate clicks, optical dropouts and returns chased through ten firmware releases
Value — the price-class reset, versus not enough over a laptop (What Hi-Fi) or not a bargain while it still clicks (the ASR critics)

A closer listen.

7 topics · 5 divided

Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Choose a topic

Power

Leans positiveDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment25 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split, and the split follows the jack and the USB port rather than the unit. Four-fifths of the weight — both benches, every editorial reviewer and most owners — finds the balanced output drives HD 600, DT 990 Pro X, FT1 Pro, Edition XS, Argon Mk3 and even a 470 Ω R70x with headroom, and calls the 3.5 mm jack fine for in-ears and easy headphones. The minority hears a glorified dongle: The Honest Audiophile found the single-ended output 'severely underpowered' and the balanced one short for planars and 300 Ω Sennheisers, an r/iems owner called the 3.5 mm jack weak even in high gain, a Mac user found transients soft until a Y-cable fed the box a full amp, and an ASR member flagged that Amir's bench read 467 mW where the sheet says 1,000. Amir's own reply — that his USB port was probably limiting the power — is the mechanism: the watt is real on a 5 V/1 A supply and shrinks on a weak port.

Measured

Topping's datasheet (measured on a 5 V supply): balanced 1,000 mW × 2 into 32 Ω and 64 Ω, 230 mW into 300 Ω, 115 mW into 600 Ω, output impedance < 2 Ω; single-ended 510 mW into 32 Ω, 58 mW into 300 Ω, < 1 Ω; two gain settings 14 dB apart; power input 5 V / 1.0 A. NTTY's bench (E1DA Cosmos, firmware 2.69): 7.78 V RMS unloaded from the balanced headphone jack in high gain and 1.59 V in low gain, 4.00 V / 0.82 V from the 3.5 mm jack, channel imbalance 0.02 dB. Amir's bench, balanced output on his analyser's USB port: 467 mW into 33 Ω and 57 mW into 300 Ω in high gain (20 mW / 2.4 mW in low gain), which he attributed to a power-limited port. An ASR member's inline USB meter read 1.02 A at 4.81 V driving 32 Ω at full scale from the single-ended jack, and 1.52 A into 16 Ω with the output clipping — a full-power run sits at or above the 1 A budget.

vs. listeners — The sheet's watt and Amir's 467 mW are not two opinions about the same measurement — they are the same amplifier on two different power supplies, and the owner ledger repeats the pattern (a Mac's 500 mA port, a tablet that cannot power it, a Y-cable that fixes it). The 'underpowered' camp's own volume readings (−33 dB in high gain on 300 Ω Sennheisers) show headroom to spare, so its complaint is about dynamics and the 3.5 mm jack rather than loudness.

Where it splits

Enough — a real watt from the 4.4 mm jack drives most full-size headphones and efficient planars with headroom; the 3.5 mm jack covers in-ears82%

“The unit is USB bus powered so power is not going to be super high but still, we have a nice showing especially into low impedances”
Amir Majidimehr · Audio Science Review

Short — the single-ended jack is weak, hard planars and 300 Ω dynamics run out of dynamics, and a laptop port may not supply the rated watt18%

“the 3.5mm single‑ended is severely underpowered”
Dave · The Honest Audiophile

Link to this topic

Transparency

PositiveDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment25 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split on what the numbers sound like. Five-sixths of the weight hears exactly what two analysers show — a neutral, colourless, 'straight wire' source that reviewers describe with the usual Topping vocabulary (clean, fast, honest, transparent), some adding that it is lean of warmth and rewards a fuller headphone. The minority, led by What Hi-Fi's three-star sound score and The Honest Audiophile, hears the same neutrality as a fault: flat dynamics, poor timing, 'listless and mechanical', 'sterile', bass without body. Tellingly, the subjective camp cannot agree on which way it tilts — Headfonics hears treble that can tip sharp, ecoustics a slight upper-treble roll-off, Prime Audio a 'very warm' sound, The Honest Audiophile a glassy, metallic one — which is what a source with no tilt of its own tends to produce.

Measured

Amir (balanced line out): SINAD above 121 dB, dynamic range to match, a faint ESS IMD hump, state-of-the-art multitone, near-perfect linearity, THD+N versus frequency flat at about −106 dB, some spurious jitter tones over USB that vanish over Toslink. NTTY (RCA and balanced, firmware 2.69): SINAD 120.8 dB at 2.1 V RCA, 123.3 dB at 5 V balanced, 122.8 dB from the balanced headphone jack at full output; IMD −111 dB on every test; 21–23 bits distortion-free in multitone; frequency response ±0.1 dB 20 Hz–20 kHz; eight reconstruction filters (filter 3 recommended) and 1 dB of intersample-over headroom at full volume, full resistance at −2.5 dB.

vs. listeners — Both benches show a device with no frequency-response tilt and distortion far below audibility, so the 'flat dynamics' and opposite treble descriptions cannot be coming from the electronics' response; they are what listeners report when a source adds nothing. That does not make the minority wrong about their experience — a warmer rival will sound different — but it means the sound described is the headphone's and the recording's.

Where it splits

Transparent — state-of-the-art measurements, and a neutral, uncoloured sound that lets the headphone and the recording speak83%

“We are talking state of the art performance in this class, and near the best there is at any price”
Amir Majidimehr · Audio Science Review

Lifeless — clean but flat, undramatic and clinical; rivals with a warmer or livelier character are more engaging17%

“its key rivals’ more engaging handling of rhythms and dynamic shifts leaves the DX1 II sounding somewhat listless and mechanical by contrast”
Harry McKerrell · What Hi-Fi?

Link to this topic

Ergonomics

No overall leanDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment24 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split, with the critics slightly ahead by weight. One camp — Headfonia most emphatically, plus Amir on the web configurator, Z Reviews, Kephren and several owners — calls it a box you set up once and stop thinking about: a precise knob, a legible display, a remote with scene buttons. The other finds the single knob a maze: Headfonics and Reddit owners object to gain and PEQ switching living only on the remote, HiFi Daydreaming calls option selection 'nightmarish', goukigod says getting the most out of it is tricky, Amir misread 'LO' as low gain until he opened the manual, one owner dislikes the knob's stiff feel, and firmware updates need a Chromium browser (Mac users report failed flashes and a temporary DFU brick). The box also runs warm in long sessions, and its weight lets a stiff cable drag it about.

Measured

Per the manual: the knob adjusts volume, a short press switches input and a double press switches output; the setup menu is entered from standby by holding the knob; gain, filter, mute, PEQ preset and the C1–C3 scene buttons are on the RC15C remote (two AAA cells not included). 275 g, 100 × 100 × 32 mm; 2.5 W typical consumption. Firmware updates run through Topping Home Web, which requires a WebUSB-capable (Chromium) browser.

Where it splits

Effortless — a good knob and display, a useful remote, and a browser configurator that is a pleasure to use43%

“A major bonus: topping has implemented a web interface on top of their USB DACs. It was a delight to use that to configure the DAC and see its current status with a web browser.”
Amir Majidimehr · Audio Science Review

Fiddly — one multi-function knob, gain and presets reachable only from the remote, a manual you actually need, and a firmware process that fights Mac users57%

“the gain-via-remote-only limitation is a genuine operational frustration”
Meldrick · Headfonics

Link to this topic

Build

Leans positiveDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment58 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split, and the split tracks time in service and how the box is wired up. Every editorial reviewer — loaner units used for weeks, mostly as USB headphone amps — praises a dense, flawless aluminium chassis, and a solid block of long-term owners on ASR and Reddit report months of daily use with no fault at all. Against them stands the review thread's own ledger: Topping issued ten firmware releases between launch and September (a CD/optical clock-sync fix, a 48 kHz random-distortion bug introduced in 15.69 and fixed in 15.83, standby thumps, PS5 mic levels, an optical wake-up pop fixed in 16.07), and a group of owners — several of them testing methodically across firmware versions, external supplies and second units — still hear a pop or click on the RCA line out at every sample-rate change, source switch or preset change, plus optical dropouts on some TVs. Topping told one of them to return his unit; another was offered a refund or a replacement without sending the box back. Two loud early complaints turned out to be a Windows shared-mode buffer and a Mac USB port. Add a Head-Fi reviewer who found the front jacks fragile, a few units returned, and Topping's one-year warranty with return shipping to China, and the honest read is: excellent hardware whose firmware was finished in public.

Measured

Firmware trail posted in the thread: V15.53 / 15.54 (June 3, 'fixed random noise that occurred after playing for a while'), 15.69 (June 25, wider CD-player optical compatibility, UAC 1.0 for Switch 2 / PS5, UAC 1.0 mic input), 15.83 (July 9, 'fixed: random noise that could occur after playing audio via USB input for a period of time'), 15.86, 15.92, 16.01 and 16.07 (September 4, 'fixed a popping noise when the device automatically woke from OPT input'). ASR's 275-voter poll on Amir's review: 76.7 % 'Great', 14.5 % 'Fine', 4.0 % 'Not terrible', 4.7 % 'Poor'. An owner's meter read the box drawing 1.02 A at full output into 32 Ω — the ceiling of its 5 V / 1 A rating.

vs. listeners — No bench found a hardware fault: NTTY's unit passed every test (his rear balanced-output leakage came and went with temperature) and Amir's ran clean apart from an RCA ground loop with his analyser. The pops the critics describe are not in the measurements because they happen at transitions — sample-rate changes, standby, input switches — that a steady-state test does not exercise, and several owners reproduce them only on the RCA output while the balanced line out and the headphone jacks stay quiet.

Where it splits

Solid — a dense, well-finished aluminium box that runs for months without a hiccup once it is on current firmware58%

“Solid, compact construction”
What Hi-Fi? (verdict pros)

Immature — pops and clicks on the line outputs, sample-rate glitches, optical dropouts and units sent back, chased through ten firmware releases42%

“The loud popping sound on the RCA output of the Topping DX1 II when changing functions is still present even in the latest firmware update 2.92.”
Janox · ASR review thread, page 34

Link to this topic

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked 2026-09-22

Design

Form factor: Desktop
DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M · Delta-sigma
PCM: 384 kHz / 32-bit
DSD: DSD256

Output

Output power: Single-ended: 800 mW @ 16 Ω · 510 mW @ 32 Ω · 260 mW @ 64 Ω · 58 mW @ 300 Ω · 29 mW @ 600 ΩBalanced: 730 mW @ 16 Ω · 1,000 mW @ 32 Ω · 1,000 mW @ 64 Ω · 230 mW @ 300 Ω · 115 mW @ 600 Ω
Gain settings: 2
EQ: Parametric, 10 bands

Connection

Digital inputs: USB-C, Optical
Headphone outputs: 3.5 mm, 4.4 mm
Line outputs: RCA, 4.4 mm, Opticalvariable (preamp)
Preamp output: Yes
Microphone input: Yes
Power: USB bus power

Physical

Weight: 275 g
Dimensions: 100 × 100 × 32 mm
Released: 2026-05

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from apos.audio, shenzhenaudio.com, linsoul.com, dl.topping.audio, apos.audio.

Follow the evidence

Sources 26

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of 2026-09-18

What to keep in mind 6

A read of where the reviews land as of September 2026, four months after launch — the firmware was still changing monthly while this was written, so an owner report from June may describe a bug that no longer exists, and a clean report from September may describe a unit on firmware you would have to install yourself.
Most of the long-form reviews were written on Topping loan units used for a few weeks as USB headphone amps; the pops, clicks and dropouts in the owner reports almost all involve the RCA line out, the optical input or a games console, so how much of that story applies to you depends on how you will wire it up.
How much power you get depends on the USB port: the rated watt assumes a full 5 V at 1 A, and a laptop, tablet or phone port that supplies less will trim the headroom before it trims the loudness.
There is no usable third-party retail star rating yet — Amazon's main listing is the old DX1's page with its reviews pooled in — and the 4.8 from eighteen reviews on Topping's own store is the maker's own storefront, so treat it as thin.
'Lean', 'sterile' and 'transparent' here describe the same absence of tilt; which word fits depends on your headphones and on what you compare it with.
The successor to a $99 box that is no longer sold, in a class where FiiO, SMSL and Fosi refresh their entry models every year or two — the value verdict has a short shelf life.

Where to buy Product & retailer links

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Topping DX1 II

How the score adds up

What to know.

A good fit for

Think twice if

Agreement &
disagreement.

Common ground4

Points of contention5

A closer listen.

Power

Measured

Noise

Measured

Transparency

Measured

Features

Measured

Ergonomics

Measured

Build

Measured

Value

Measured

Specifications.

Design

Output

Connection

Physical

Sources 26

Limitations & method.

What to keep in mind 6