Dossier — Topping MX5
The brochure speaks; the silicon answers. What follows is what each has said.
+ Vendor page › +Claims breakdown
| Claim | Bucket | Witnessed | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCM 16-bit to 32-bit / 44.1 kHz to 384 kHz | PCM | Alt 1, Subslot 4 — 32-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384Alt 2, Subslot 4 — 24-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384 | ✓ Match |
| Native DSD64–DSD256 | DSD | Alt 3, Subslot 4 — Type-1 RAW 1-bit DSD. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384 (DSD64 to DSD256) | ✓ Match |
Remarks
The second desktop instrument to enter the Concordance, and like the first it arrives in good order. Topping specs the MX5's USB input at PCM 16-to-32-bit / 44.1-to-384 kHz, and — more precise than most — splits DSD into two named transports on its own sheet: native to DSD256, DoP to DSD128. The descriptor ratifies the headline: asynchronous USB Audio Class 2, PCM to 32-bit / 384 kHz, and a raw DSD alt carried natively to DSD256. Every weighable claim met at the wire.
Two notes for the reader. The witnessed PCM alts are 24- and 32-bit; 16-bit source rides the wider container rather than a discrete alt, as is standard. And where Topping names both native and DoP, the descriptor settles which the wire honors: native raw DSD, not merely DSD-over-PCM. DoP stays a route the descriptor cannot confirm — a PCM pipe wide enough to carry its markers says nothing about whether the firmware parses them — so the native reading is the one the Concordance weighs, and it Matches. The USB identity is a shared platform marque, not a mark unique to Topping; the same vendor block carries the Sabaj D5.
+ See the full Concordance +