Good review. Topping is known for chasing measurements over soud quality. The ifi gryphon is holographic, but you have to use the 4.4 balanced jack, not the SE 3.5.
Topping has always represented excellent price-performance ratio. Sound quality is pretty much a matter of preference really (as stated in the video). I actually like their trademark sound - not their erarly stuff that was a bit harsh - but a very clean, transparent and neutralish approach. They have lots of models with different tonalitys right now. I think it's hard for someone not to like some of their units.
@@JoseFerreira-zb7wh to each their own. i tried the topping L70 which is a fairly recent product. the upper mids/treble were harsh, bass was lacking, and the imaging and sound stage was a wall of sound. analytical and fatiguing mess, imo. it measures great, but you can't listen to graphs. IMO schiit does a way better job of good price to performance ratio. Plus made in the U.S.A.
I thought the Gryphon sounded pretty amazing, especially with the GTO filter! However, despite all the excellent features and technical ability, in the end, I still preferred the more musical and richer sound from the Mojo 2! A curious finding was that the 4.4mm at the back sounded better to my ears than the 4.4mm at the front on the Gryphon. I agree that Topping's sound can be a bit sterile. It is very clean and measures well, but it is not very musical, though that seems to be changing with their latest releases.
I just ordered the d70 octo out of curiosity along with the A70 amp. I have a Bifrost 2/64 and mojo 2 to compare it too. Personally the Mojo 2 is my favorite DAC so far. I’ll come back and let you all know how I feel about it. I’ll also try and do some blind testing.
@@SirMesko The ability to turn the pre amp out on and off, select which output you want to use RCA/XLR, also has selectable headphone output with volume level memory, a70 has way better volume control and gain stages. Really the a70 only lacks in the sound department. In all other aspects its a very good device. I should have said the s17 shits on the a70 as far as sound goes. Not to say the a70 sounds bad at all. Just not as good as s17.
@@ancientalien815 as you say the A70 is a very well specced device indeed, it’s even got a screen! However the S17 does all I need from an amp. Sound in, magic, sound out :) All the extra features in the topping are bound to divert budget away from the audio components. An S17 with all those features would not cost what it costs.
