Topping DX1 II: two-minute review
The world is not short of little DAC/headphone amps that want to bring a taste of authentic audio quality to your desktop experience — and here’s another one. The Topping DX1 II is a thorough update of a previous (and very competitive) in the Chinese brand’s stable, and it makes a strong case for itself even before it’s started doing its thing. The aluminum casework looks and feels good and the on-paper specification is difficult to lay a glove on. It includes — deep breath — a very hi-res ESS DAC, carefully considered digital and analog architecture, USB-C for both power and data, sufficient grunt to drive most headphones without difficulty, a fistful of input and output options (including balanced analog connectivity), and the facility for plenty of end-user input where sound is concerned. The standard of construction and finish is more than adequate. And a little remote control handset takes some of the pressure off an overworked physical control interface. The difference the DX1 II can make to your audio experience when it sits between, say, your laptop and the headphones that are plugged into it is fairly profound. The Topping is by no means perfect — it doesn’t attack the top of the frequency range quite as willingly as it might, and it doesn’t have the heft to make big dynamic variations as apparent as they might be — but it’s a far more convincing and well-realized listen than your laptop alone has a hope of being. Soundstaging, rhythmic expression, detail levels and all-around musicality all enjoy a big uptick, and the way the DX1 II handles a tonal balance is one of the most uncomplicatedly enjoyable things about it. The Topping DX1 II hasn’t closed the door on other desktop-friendly headphone amp/DAC units at similar money, but it’s certainly made sure it’s on the inside of the conversation for the best on the market . (Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas) Topping DX1 II review: Price & release date
Announced on May 18, 2026 (with availability from late June/July 2026)
Priced $119 / £119 (around AU$169)
The Topping DX1 II is on sale now, and in the United States it costs $119. It’s £119 in the United Kingdom, while in Australia it goes for around AU$169. So, it’s a little pricier than the oh-so-portable iFi Go Link Max and the bigger, hip-flask-esque iFi Uno, say, but an awful lot cheaper than the also-new iFi iDSD GR2 . What exactly are you getting for your money if you go for the Topping? Read on. Topping DX1 II review: Features
ESS ES9039Q2M DAC
Balanced and unbalanced outputs
UAC 1. 0 and UAC 2. 0
There’s something quite admirable about the way Topping has specified the DX1 II — I’ve used bigger and more expensive DAC/headphone amps that don’t come close to the level of this little device. It’s built around a very capable ESS ES90392QM DAC chipset and features dual-DAC architecture with a dedicated digital-to-analog converter for each channel, plus fully independent processing. Digital files of up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD256 are supported. A 16-core XMOS XU-316 assists with signal processing — just as with the dual-DAC arrangement and the fully balanced analog stage, the idea is to keep noise and distortion to an absolute minimum. Digital audio information can be delivered using either the digital optical input or the USB-C slot on the rear of the Topping. The USB-C input also provides power to the device. Outputs consist of an unbalanced 3. 5mm headphone socket, a couple of balanced 4. 4mm alternatives (one for headphones, the other for connecting the DX1 II to a system, a powered speaker or what-have-you) and a line-level analog output on stereo RCAs. There’s an optical output in case the digital signal needs to be preserved, and a switch to toggle between UAC 1. 0 and UAC 2. 0 — the first setting allows the Topping to be compatible with, say, the Nintendo Switch and the Sony PlayStation 5. Topping has made provision for an awful lot of end-user input into the way the DX1 II performs. Connect it to a computer and you can access both the ‘Home Web’ platform (from where stuff like gain can be adjusted and no fewer than eight distinct digital filters are available) and ‘Topping Tune’. This uses a simple drag-n-drop interface to allow the user to easily create and adjust PEQ settings — frequency, gain and bandwidth control across 10 bands (with independent left and right channel adjustment) can be tweaked and settings saved. It’s available across each of the DX1 II’s outputs. Features score: 5 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas) Topping DX1 II review: Sound quality
Impressively detailed, easy-going sound
Pleasant tonal balance
Could easily sound more dynamic
It’s possible to make quite significant changes to the ultimate sound of the DX1 II, of course — those digital filters have a slight effect, but go crazy with the PEQ and you can achieve some pretty obvious alternations. What you can’t do, though, is defeat the things the Topping does well or fully correct its shortcomings. With a 24bit/48kHz FLAC file of The Record by Boygenius playing in the Tidal desktop app and incoming via USB-C, it doesn’t take long at all to appreciate the facility the DX1 II has with detail retrieval. It’s alert to even the most minor, most subtle occurrences in the recording, keeps an eye on the low-level dynamics of harmonic over- and undertones, and deals with transients confidently too. It gives these details good weighting, so the emphasis is always on the music and not solely on how deeply into it the Topping can peer. The tonal balance it strikes is naturalistic and pleasant, and its over-all character is, in the most positive way, easy-going and quite laid-back. It can do ‘urgency’ if it absolutely has to, of course, but its fundamental attitude is one that’s not in any way fatiguing…
