Review: Topping MX3 Bluetooth Class D Speaker Amplifier / DAC

Firstly I would like to thank Topping for sending me this sample for review.

*disclaimer: This sample was provided for the purpose of writing a review, no incentive was given to write a favourable review. All opinions expressed are my own subjective findings

Gear Used: MX3 > Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 / Micca MB42x / HiFiMAN Sundara

Tech Specs:
http://www.tpdz.net/products_detail/productId=35.html

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Packaging, Build Quality and Accessories:

The MX3 comes in a fairly standard Topping white box, everything inside is neatly separated and held tightly in foam inserts. Perfect to protect the amp during shipping, but also a nice clean and pleasant unboxing experience.

Build quality is great, and what you expect from Topping. The casing is really well finished and put together, all the inputs and outputs feel great and even the remote is quite nice. It definitely looks a little more polished compared to some of the competition at the same price.

Accessory wise you get the amp, remote, bluetooth antenna and power supply. Everything you need to set it up, I really like how it comes with a remote too, makes it a lot easier to use.

Features:

The MX3 has a variety of inputs, you have your normal analogue line-in, a coaxial input, optical and USB. The internal DAC isn’t that great but it is well in line with the price point, and just having an internal DAC is great.

There is a sub-out along with the speaker terminals that accept 4mm banana plugs along with bare wire.

On the front you have a headphone output, and the internal headphone amp is pretty good all things considered. The headphone output is fine for full-size headphones and did a good job at driving the HiFiMan Sundara.

The remote allows you to tune the bass/treble output, along with changing input and the dimmer for the front LED display. Overall the MX3 fits a lot into its small chassis,

Sound:

This has been in my little bedroom setup for a few weeks now and it has performed flawlessly. I am aware there are measurements out there for this little amp, but this is a purely subjective review.

First off the MX3 is capable of getting loud, with the speakers one would expect to use with this little amp it is easily capable of driving them to insane volume levels. The MX3 is a pretty clean amp overall, there is a little bit of smearing and slightly smooth top end, but overall it sounds fairly well balanced. If you have a good source it is best to hook it up to the analogue input, but the USB input sounds surprisingly good.

You do have to remember that the MX3 is aimed squarely at those looking for a good value amplifier for their first system, or an amp for a bedroom setup, it is not designed to compete with the big boys. But it sounds great, even via the bluetooth input I am impressed by the sound quality, it has good dynamics and impact with insight and detail to boot. The MX3 does a brilliant job at bringing out musicality without sounding overly coloured, for a small amount of money you can get a setup that will sound better than most all-in-one systems, and even budget active speakers.

For a small system the MX3 works wonders, and doesn’t put a foot wrong for the price. It has enough gain and output to drive most bookshelf speakers, and probably a lot of floor-standers. It also has a pretty good headphone output, making it a great desktop amp for small monitors. When the amp is on I cannot detect any background noise, as I know some of the more budget active monitors suffer from this.

Conclusion:

The MX3 is a solid buy for the money, it offers great features and flexibility along with having a good amount of power on tap. Yes if you search around you can get a good hifi amp for the price, but I doubt the headphone out will sound as good, and it most certainly won’t be as small or have a built in DAC. For a desktop system, or a small bedroom setup you really cannot go wrong with the MX3.

Sound Perfect Rating: 8/10 (Great sound and features for a modest price)