Topping DX3 Pro +

I almost never listen to headphones and I’ll go as far to say that I don’t enjoy them very much. But I have 2 pairs of decent phones (Grado GS1000i & Oppo PM3) and I didn’t like the idea of the fact that I had no way to use them with my system.
I needed a DAC/Headphone combo that I would feed from the optical output of my CXC transport and, given the amount of time I use headphones, I wanted to start pretty cheap to see if I would get more involved. So after looking around, I bought a Topping DX3 Pro+ on Amazon for $200. And I’ll tell you - it’s not bad at all as a headphone amp. Plenty of inputs, not that I use them, stereo outputs and it's nicely built.

My review of the sonics is this - Listening to the headphone amp, there is nothing in there that annoys me and makes me want to stop listening. I was listening to a CD and reading a magazine when I realized I listened to the whole thing without turning it off. I know it sounds like damning with faint praise, but frankly, reading all the complaints people have about their systems, to say the DX3 Pro + does nothing to bother me is actually a big complement. Topping offers a linear power supply for about $120, but I don’t know. I think if I get more involved in headphones, I’ll just buy something better rather than throw more money at this.

Just as an aside, it has a remote that you can switch between headphones only, dac + headphones or DAC only. Out of curiosity, I hooked the DAC up to my main system for a minute and it wasn’t horrible either.

Conclusion - I think for the money, the DX3 Pro + offers a very good sonic presentation for the casual headphone listener who doesn’t want to invest a lot in a headphone/DAC combo. PS - My particular headphones are pretty easy to drive, but the online reviewers say it does well will all but the most difficult phones. As I recall, the reviewers said it was good with Sennheisers and a lot of the planar magnetics.