Topping NX1 Amp

Apart from the daft language on their descriptions, everything seems fine with the amp Jeff. It is the same design I described earlier, just rebranded. Obviously, being Chinese, they seem to have problems with English and have written laughable statements which gives a bad impression to English speakers.

It sounds ok and drives most things pretty well. It has quite a squeaky clean type of sound. It reminds me of the old Go Vibe amps that Norman used to make. He used to go on about P.R.A.T. and this amp seems quite similar in that there is no big bass on it. It seems flat and fast. The O2 is similar in this respect and leads to people saying it's 'unmusical'. I noticed quite a few people on HF mentioning the 'musicality ' of the O2. Imo, what they refer to as 'unmusicality' is in fact the lack of boost in the mid bass that many (including myself) enjoy sometimes.

I get the same with the T40 headphone. No boost in mid bass to some means that it's a boring sound. In the long term though, it sounds more 'correct' than most other headphones and is better balanced really.

The NX1 is a nifty little amp. Well built and to my ears, pretty neutral. (Most reasonable amps are though nowadays!!) it seems powerful and if you're going to use it with an iem, you may well need to have it on low power to avoid noise issues. I generally use it to drive harder loads from the IPad and for that, it's brilliant. Even harder loads like AKG seem ok, although I go over to the O2 or even better, the E12 for AKG's since the Mont Blanc gives the impression of being a 'warmer' sound. I think it's still quite flat, but maybe the harmonic content or something gives the feeling of more warmth. I'm not sure.

So for me, the combo of NX1, O2 and Mont Blanc works well for everything that I use mobile.

To be fair to Hermes, the service can vary from one extreme to the other. The delivery guys all seem to be self employed and the service they provide is more of a reflection on them than it is on Hermes per se. Our MyHermes guy, Mike, is excellent in every respect and I cannot fault him, but I have heard many others whose experience mimics yours.
Only solution: - move house .
Dave.

The Hermes delivery man arrived Tuesday. He had left a card saying he would deliver on "Tuesday a.m.", so of course he turned up at around half past one in the afternoon.

Anyway, even after seeing photographs of the NX1, I was still surprised at how small it is. It's really not much bigger than my Sansa Clip.

It seemed to be charged, out of the box, but I put it on charge for a few hours anyway. Strangely, when I first tried it, on high gain, it seemed to have almost no volume at all. But I could actually hear it gaining in volume, second by second. I left it playing for a few hours and then tried it with a selection of headphones. It drove them all (apart from my AKG K240 LP Sextett at 600 ohms!) really well giving a good strong, clean, uncoloured sound. Sounded great with HD600's, a really good match.

For it's size and price, it's astonishingly good. The little switches and the volco feel like quality items and it ships with nice little extras like silicone bands and velcro pads to attach a DAP to it. You also get a little 3.5 to 3.5 to connect it to a DAP. Add the fact that it has a replaceable battery, charges quickly using a standard mini USB from a PC or plug, can be used while charging, and plays for a long time, makes it a no-brainer if you're looking for an inexpensive good sounding amp.

It seems strange Ian to be using words and phrases like "quality", "great build", "clean sound", etc, etc, on a little amp made in china that costs £24 delivered!! Quite bizarre. But definitely true!

I think the volco actually feels as though its action is 'damped' slightly, which is what I think gives it a quality feeling. Plus love the casework too, black aluminium, nice.

I read up on it a bit beforehand and seem to remember reading that it used a mobile phone battery. Or maybe I'm getting mixed up with other stuff I read about other amps. I'll have to go and check.

My own self-built c-moy is great and I love listening to my Clip with it in line, but TBH, it was too big and bulky for walking around outside. The NX-1 is so small and light that it fits the bill perfectly, so thanks Ian for the heads-up on this little beauty.

O.K., so I've now had the chance to go through all my headphones with the NX-1 doing the driving.

One thing I've noticed about this amp is that with almost all my headphones, from the 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock position on the volco, the volume increases steadily and progressively. But from, say 2 o'clock to max, the power just pours on in a rush especially in high gain. This means you have to be really gentle when turning up the volume in this region.

I had already mentioned that my Sennheiser HD-600’s sounded great with this amp and Ian had said that he liked the match when it was driving his Sennheiser Momentum’s. Well I reckon it seems to really like Sennheisers because it also worked really well with my Sennheiser HD 595’s as well.

However, I have found a headphone in my small collection that really hits the sweet spot between sound quality, comfort, and not looking like a t*t when out and about 

Sony ZX1000.

Yes, I know, - Sony.

Some might say it’s a dirty word in audiophile headphone circles. Remember though, that they have a great pedigree for high-quality, high-tech. This is the company that invented portable audio, with the Walkman, and then the Minidisc (which I loved!) and along with Philips invented the CD. And don’t forget the S-PDIF digital interconnect!

But I’m not snobby about brand names, so I bought these a couple of years ago on the bay as “damaged, one driver not working”, for not much money. Around £100 IIRC.

Well after dissassembly, it was the usual problem of the internal wiring having parted company from the driver pads, probably caused by having the cable stood on whilst wearing them. I've done it myself!  Funnily enough, unlike Ian, I don’t think I've ever sat on a pair of cans, even after a few ‘magic cokes’.

Anyway, they are very light and comfortable with soft leather pads and not too high a clamping force. The driver capsules are quite severely angled from the vertical, when looked at from side-on, and I think this is partly why they are so comfy. They are very, very easy to drive (I have the NX-1 on lo-gain with these), subtly styled, maybe even a bit boring. But the synergy between these cans and the Topping is perfect. They have good strong bass, detailed mids, and smooth, clear highs.
 
For me, this is definitely the sweet-spot.

Could this be the parent company?  It looks very similar and I think this is where I found mention of a mobile phone batt, a Nokia Bl-5C 1000mA.



The point being, that if the Topping does have the mobile phone batt, then it may be possible to replace it with a more powerful batt?  Maybe this could give longer life, more power, or both? 

I've ordered two. One is for me and one is for my Dad. He's getting hard of hearing (well he IS 85) and he doesn't get on well with his hearing aid.

I'm going to sort him out with some long leads so he can take an audio output from the TV's SCART socket and enjoy listening to it through his Shure 'phones (he has good Senheisers too but they leak too much sound and annoy my Mum). Not sure which Shures they are, but cost just over 100 GBP IIRC. I took a listen to them a while back and was very impressed; Dad's got good taste.

Mum's a bit hard of hearing too but won't admit to it. If she likes the idea of listening to TV over headphones then I'll give her the second Topping and then order another for me.

Looking forward to having a play.


Derek