Review: DVO Topaz X - Shock Week 2023

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All of DVO’s shock designs utilize a pressured bladder in the damper over an internal floating piston (IFP). The two designs are similar in layout, except that the bladder is said to reduce friction between the oil reservoir and pressurized air seal of an IFP. In theory, this should allow for ultra-smooth shaft direction changes.


Setup

Preparing the Topaz X isn’t overly complicated, despite the shock having a second Schrader valve on the bladder. The theory of pressuring the bladder is to reduce the chance of cavitation - the higher the air spring pressure, the higher the bladder pressure.

As usual, we started with a spring rate that gave us roughly 30% sag. I say roughly, because bolting the Topaz X to the Nomad hides the position of the O-ring on the shock body, and lower shock mount behind the frame.

I landed on 190 PSI in the air spring and 160 PSI in the bladder. Both numbers lie close to the middle of their respectable pressure ranges, 100-300 PSI, and 140-180 PSI.

In terms of the clickers, finding a sweet spot took a little longer than the other shocks. Dario and I agreed that when adjusting the HSC and LSC one click at a time, and exclusively, their effects weren't evenly applied. One click could have either little effect on the damping, or, as we moved further toward the closed position, each subsequent click would change the damping drastically.

With that said, I did find a sweet spot which happened to be 3 clicks from closed on the green LSC dial, 6 HSC, and 6 out on the rebound adjuster.


Climbing

Gaining those external adjustments over the standard Topaz, you do lose the T3 compression adjustment, which firmly locks out the shock in the closed position. Without that T3 lever, it’s unlikely anyone will take the time to turn the LSC dial for a climb.

Climbing the Nomad with my preferred shock settings meant that the Topaz X provided an adequate level of support, equal to the Marzocchi with its compression adjuster open, but a hint less than the Float X2, Vivid or TTX Air.


Descending

Is the bladder as squishy and supple as you’d hoped to hear? Well, yes and no. On one hand, the buttery transition in shaft direction rivals the monster-sized Vivid and Float X2 shocks.

Unfortunately, there was a pesky bit of top-out. When the bike became unweighted, a slight bump could be felt as the shock returned to full travel. In the case when the rear wheel was on the ground, the shock functions extremely smoothly.

And what about the air spring performance? The Topaz X produced a generic air spring ride that took a touch more effort to ease into the travel than the rest of the bunch, although I wouldn’t say it wallows by any means.

Altering either air spring volume wasn’t the play here as progression was spot on. A similar level of support was found on the Marzocchi. These two shocks provided a softer mid-stroke with a later, more aggressive ramp-up. No negative spacers were installed to begin with, therefore no actions could remedy the initial force required to break it into the travel.

Sitting in the middle of the price bracket, the Topaz X provides value with DVO’s vault of tuning arrangements and the on-the-bike external adjustments, even if they are finicky. Another win is that no special tools are required for regular air can servicing which comes up at 150 hours of ride time, or about once a year.

Are those new external features and moderate $550 USD pricing enough to hold onto the fans of DVO’s bladder-type dampers? Considering that three other high-end shocks give you equal, if not more adjustability and climbing functions for roughly $200 more, they’ll be hard to look past.

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Stay tuned for more Shock Week content, including a roundtable discussion of all the air shocks we tested.

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Reviews and Tech Reviews Shock Week Shocks DVO Suspension Dvo Topaz X