"This is it." Zeo's Review of the Topping DX7 Pro DAC/Amp

July 14, 2020

This article is based upon the Topping DX7 Pro review made by Zeos at Z Reviews on his YouTube channel and is printed here in partnership with Z Reviews. The review was originally posted on Dec, 9, 2019. Some quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

Zeos at Z Reviews gives the Topping DX7 Pro DAC/Amp high marks for its build quality, input options, and when it comes to the performance for the price it delivers, that the DX7 Pro is a “$500 chunk of amazeballs.”

Physical Styling

Zeos gave praise to the overall DX7 styling. Noting the “lovely” clarity and cleanliness of its display screen, Zeos describes it as “a very good screen” that is “much nicer than some of the other screens I've seen, because it definitely can fill out full words okay. Unlike the SMSL M500 , which has that screen that had pictures of things on it, really small lettering, this is a much better laid out screen.”

The body also earned top marks from Zeos:

The DX7 Pro does not have a boring case. The case has rounded edges, beautiful finish work, nice little feet on the bottom along with its 120/220V switch, little ribs on the side (which is also rounded)...very nice little touches, unlike the SMSL SP200 , which has a slant.

Inputs and Controls

There are a lot of device input options on the back of the unit, leading Zeos to note that the DX7 Pro contains “the most digital inputs I've ever seen” and that its layout is “beautifully full, beautifully finished” while not being “a complicated unit.”

The DX7 Pro is controlled by Topping’s RC21 remote , which he says “makes life a whole lot easier,” but it should be noted that “there's no menu to access with the actual unit, everything is commanded with this controller and that's it, so having no menu controllable on the unit is sort of a downside; you can't lose the remote.” He did comment that he wished there was a faster way to cycle through the inputs, since there are so many of them, but he shrugs this attribute off as a minor inconvenience.

Output Quality

When comparing the DAC and amp capabilities of the DX7 Pro versus the SMSL SP200 , Zeos states:

I got to manually listen to the DAC in the DX7 Pro powering its own headphone amp, and then the DAC and this powering - through balanced - the SMSL SP200...and I am proud to announce it is close. It's just close. I think the SMSL SP200 is going to have more power to edge it out because it’s 6 watts and the DX7 Pro is not.

At one point, Zeos said he had the DX7 Pro feeding signal into one of his tube amps and that “it seems a little sharp.” So, he brought out the SMSL M500 and “it sounded a little bit softer. The DX7 Pro on low gain is perfect. On high gain, the outputs in the front get a little bright, like just a pinch too bright, it's like it's barely noticeable.”

Zeos wanted to try unit out with harder to drive headphones to see where the limits were, so he got out his Fostex Model T60RPs and said that, even with those headphones:

I could push the T60s too loud; and I could do it balanced, and I could do it with its own internal DAC, and all with this remote control. What's the DX7 Pro missing then? I don't know what it's missing!

Conclusion

Overall Z Reviews gives the DX7 Pro DAC/Amp a stellar review, stating “you do get a lot for your money,” it is “overall not a complicated unit.” Zeos frankly concludes:

It’s expensive, but it powers everything I throw at it. The build quality is exceptional. it has every input on earth. It's got a pretty well laid out remote control with a ton of extra features. Yeah, this is it.

I could have spent another hour setting this desk up to show off what this can do. I got out every headphone style adapter, so you can see that it takes a 4.4, and it takes a quarter-inch, and it takes an XLR. I got all these things all hooked up with different interesting headphones, some that are super efficient, some that super hard to drive... I can't even hook every input up with this that it can handle! For outputting, I'd have to put a set of speakers up here on my desk, and then I have - not just one, but two subwoofers - in stereo. You could do so much of this, and then on top of that, it's well built. And it performs. And it doesn't have any weird firmware quirks or freak-outs...it's great. This is an all-in-one desk solution that costs half as much as an RME ADI 2. Where that RME is balls-to-the-walls crazy, but not balanced. The DX7 Pro is balls-to-the-walls crazy and balanced at half price.

Quite simply, Zeos says that the DX7 Pro is “the perfect f***ing DAC/Amp.”