Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.
Intro: Topping is a popular Chinese brand specializing in the area of Class T Speaker amps & headphone amps. Topping made well performing speaker amps in an affordable price. Later on, they also released their famed ‘NX-1’ portable amp & many desktop head amps, which made them a well known name across the Audiophile World.
The VX-1 amp/dac is the latest release from them. It has headphone amplifier, 24/96 DAC and an 25 watt speaker amp.
Specifications of VX-1 amp/dac as per Topping:
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Let us see what the VX-1 has got for us,
Packaging and Accessories: The VX-1 arrives packed inside a box, packed inside a removable foam packing. Packaging is generic, but nothing to complain about. But all the included accessories have a good quality and feel to them.
List of accessories in the box, which include the following:
Power Adapter: AC to DC 14V 4A power adapter EU/US/AU/UK is supplied as per specifications.
USB Cable: USB B to USB A cable for data transfer.
User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the VX-1 and other warranty information.
¼” Converter: A 1/8” to ¼” converter for headphones with 3.5mm Jack.
Design and Build: The VX-1 has an excellent overall build quality. Its design is very convenient & practical. It is solidly built with no imperfections either physically or by exterior design.
At the front we have volume knob, ¼” headphone output socket & an on/off toggle switch, along with another input selector switch At the rear side of VX-1, we can observe the presence of power socket, Speaker taps & RCA input socket.
The VX-1 is fully Sophisticated and intelligent system. It employs relays to prevent noise/pop’s as well as memory function to remember the choice. Volume knob rotation is smooth and knob has just the right size for fingers. ¼” jack is a smooth operator. Internals quality & layout is again carried out very well. Everything is fixed on the PCB. Soldering & joints are very well done. Volume pot is well known Alps branded, which a plus for both volume control & audio quality. The VX-1 runs really cool at room temperature. The VX-1 has breathing LED behind volume pot which gives an illuminating effect and a calm glow.
(Image Courtsey: Topping)
I also observe a drawback in the power supply, it is not earthed. I am at a loss of understanding why Bravo did not include a third earthing pin or ground to make the amp safe. Since it is a DC supply, few ripples will be present in the final output. These either cause light electrocution/sock or audibly raise noise floor of the amp.
Sound: The VX-1 gives out a very natural, smooth and laidback sonic character. ‘Musical’ is the key word. I find it fairly accurate even then. Presentation is in such a way that, mids are little more intimate, with lows & highs sound tad more relaxed and laid back. Surprisingly, stock op-amp is pretty great and does not necessarily need to be changed/upgraded.
Burn in: I could not notice any major sonic improvements or changes by burn in. But let’s say a playback of about 20 hours provides few minor audible improvements, Bass prior to break-in is quite muddy, and eventually it becomes more accurate and clean, Mids will sound more open & slightly forward, airy and natural. Highs become more alive, soundstage will open up by a margin. Also, the noise floor further went down towards complete silence.
The gain is fixed at 6dB, which is very efficient & safe, and certainly works well even with IEM’s. This amp fairly powerful and can drive low-moderate impedance dynamic headphones with ease. There is absolutely no channel imbalance, thanks to the alps pot.
Lows: are accurate enough, but are refined & smooth with full bodied bass, and this makes VX-1 to have slightly less ‘impact’ or ‘punch’.
Mids: Neutral & clean but a little thick, and is slightly intimate or forward.
Highs: Smooth and refined without grains. They are airy with good amount of space sensation.
Soundstage: feels airy, natural and nearly-circular. Width is very good, & depth is decent enough for imaging. Instrument separation & detailing is pretty good.
The VX-1 sounded good in all genres I tried, and hence I conclude, The VX-1 is decently transparent, detailed but also slightly forgiving to poor recordings. Hence I can say the VX-1 is an all rounder. It does not compromise anything too much to affect any of its characters. Another thing to mention, since VX-1 had an overall smooth sonic character, I decided to try it on the K702, and unbelievably, the combo worked like a charm. I didn't expect a 90$l amp to make K702 sound so good. The combo sounds musical, and removes away the clinical character of K702’s for the sake of music listening. I would recommend this amp for AKG Q701, K701 & K702.
Conclusion: I feel the VX-1 is a well performing desktop setup in its price range. Build quality is excellent, sonic presentation is really appreciable; VX-1 is decently powerful & can drive almost any dynamic cans including IEM’s. The VX-1 performs way better than any desktop amp/dacs one would come across in this price point; it also has a lot of output power as bonus match for slightly brighter or sterile sounding headphones. At 90$, The VX-1 amp is hard to beat.
Pros:
1) Build Quality: even though it is open by case, the VX-1 has an excellent exterior & interior build. No compromise to be seen anywhere. Circuitry is also neat & well built.
2) Sound Quality: Sound presentation here is clean, smooth & refined but yet is detailed, spacious, which is very much like-able for a casual music listen.
3) Value: The VX-1 is one of the best bang for buck desktop setup under 100$
Cons:
1) Power Supply: The default power supply is not grounded, hence a fair change of light electrocution and audibly higher noise floor. Thus one needs to earth it by connecting the input cable to a grounded source (like PC, which will be earthed)
