|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
178.51.223.157
Seems to be better than D70 and on par with / somehow better than (but different) D90
Anyone here heard it? Dual AK4497 and simple OPA1612 output stage.
Maybe I'm gravitation more towards this than towards Gustard A18, in the end (but would it be the right move?)
I do hate the name "Topping" and I'm not fan of the ultra sleek, "desktop hi-fi" styling, but I do like the possibility to desactivate the unused output, and the choice of "pre mode" or "pure dac mode".
Pity there's no way to turn the display off - that's something that should be mandatory...
Follow Ups:
I briefly had possession of the Topping D90 for a week. I should have kept it longer, but it drove me crazy and I've already learned that if gear gives me audio-nervosa to just get rid of it (although, I bet one can get rid of a lot of good gear that way).I bought it used and sold it used and turnaround was never more than hours or a day.
What I liked about it:
1. Cute as hell little case it comes in.
2. Bluetooth is pretty neat to have.
3. You can keep turning the volume up and it still sounds good because the signal is so clean.
4. It just had impeccable timing that couldn't be ruffled.What I disliked about it:
1. It didn't seem to image that well (as soon as I agreed to sell it, I realized that it may have been fed by an inferior cable - refer to the audio-nervosa above).
2. It had bass but it never seemed impactful enough to satisfy and, of course, an audiophile immediately casts doubt on the size and weight of the power supply.
3. I think it sounded it's best when it always played music, but I'm not yet setup with a proper streamer that I could just leave on all the time.So, I could get it to sound like all gangbusters, but then there were times when even my lowly $100 SMSL DAC had more texture to the sound and my SONY XA-7ES had more incisive bass and imaging.
But, it was instructive nevertheless and now I know what I want in a DAC.
Edits: 04/03/21
The TOPPING D90 is gone, sold out, and no longer available due to the AKM fire and the associated shortage of AK4499 chips.
Shoulda kept it.
I knew it would be my only chance to grab a DAC without having to wait a whole year. I'm looking for another cheap DAC (I mean even less expensive so that I avoid audio-nervosa and just be happy with it for what it is), but they may disappear too. The whole industry is crazy now. I don't know if it was Covid or the Trade War or just fires (and drought in Taiwan).The world must be coming to an end: One can't even buy a decent DAC anymore!
Now, if that DAC was actually a video gaming card, I could have made money over it, as they're in short supply also.
Edits: 04/06/21 04/06/21 04/06/21
I did think about grabbing the D90 right after the factory fire for that reason, but I was able to resist the temptation.With so many DAC's coming out of China, there's always a D100 or X20 around the corner, I'm sure..
Edits: 04/10/21
"The TOPPING D90 is gone, sold out, and no longer available due to the AKM fire and the associated shortage of AK4499 chips."
That's unfortunate...... Didn't know about that........
When mine is not playing music, I don't hear anything at all!
Maybe he also listens to spoken word.... [-;
I was listening to the spoken word(s), literally.I think that the output devices are run too cool and even the spoken word was not enough to heat them up sufficiently. All my other equipment I just leave on and they heat themselves up sufficiently.
Now even vinyl playback takes at least 30 minutes to sound it's best, but I find the first 30 minutes still listenable.
Edits: 04/06/21 04/06/21
"So, I could get it to sound like all gangbusters, but then there were times when even my lowly $100 SMSL DAC had more texture to the sound and my SONY XA-7ES had more incisive bass and imaging."That SMSL DAC you're referring to might not be so lowly, aside from the price..... I think you're referring to the Sanskrit 10th MkII....
I loaned the DAC and JVC Z1050 CD player/transport to someone (the very combo pictured in the "Old Meets New" thread), he ended up buying the combo from me..... He's into rotating components even more than me (to get different perspectives on the music and spare the gear from wearing out), and wanted an alternative to the modified Philips CDC935, which he owns as well..... (He's retired, and spends a LOT of time enjoying music. He feared the serviceability of the 935 becoming difficult with fewer and fewer good used stock units available, and wanted an alternative. The JVC/SMSL combo won him over. If the JVC CD player were to croak, at least he can use the same DAC with another transport.)
Not to mention an Amazon review in which the reviewer proclaimed it the winner in a shootout against more expensive DACs, including several Topping products (link) ....
(I do own another JVC Z1050 CD player, so I could still use that combo if I just purchased another one of these SMSL DACs. Although I am set for a while with spare modified Philips 935s.... )
I also use the SMSL DACs in my computer and headphone rigs. The units are inexpensive enough to where one doesn't have to share one DAC for multiple systems.)
The Sony XA7ES is another vintage piece that holds its own against modern digital audio gear. Actually had one briefly roughly 20 years ago.... The only thing lacking was top-end resolution..... At least compared to the super-expensive Prism DA-2 DAC, which was the best digital audio source I've ever owned.
Edits: 04/04/21
I've played with several DACs over the years and I think the Topping D90 is excellent. I can't quite put my finger on it but I still prefer my older PS Audio NuWave DSD DAC. It's smoother and seems to have a little more weight and body in the mids but not too much.The Topping D90 is probably a bit more detailed, clean, transparent, but at least it wasn't 'thin' and 'cold' sounding. To my ears the Mytek Digital Stereo192-DSD DAC and the Oppo HA-1 were thin and cold.
The TEAC UD-501 I owned was at the opposite end of the spectrum with lots of lower midrange weight and body and deep bass but it lacked detail and transparency. The TEAC was a very dark sounding DAC.
The most expensive DAC I owned was one of the worse. The Luxman DA-06 was known to be a very smooth sounding DAC. What the reviewers didn't tell you was how veiled and rolled off it was. That DAC sounded constrained (restrained?) in all dimensions and even the most lively music couldn't wake it up. Perfect for simple female vocals or smooth jazz but it couldn't handle anything more complex.
The Wavelength Brick USB DAC v3 was similarly smooth and veiled. Another one at the bottom of my list that got rave reviews.
Edits: 04/04/21
I haven't heard the Topping D70 series DACs but the D90 series have always been their top of the line product. The D90 DACs use AKM's flagship 4-ch DAC chip (2 ch in parallel x2 on-chip) with 8dB better THD+N than the AKM 4497 chip in the D70S. And for whatever reason the smaller D90 is heavier than the larger D70S according to a side-by-side comparison chart at Apos Audio.That being said, the pricing between the two isn't huge but they did raise the price of the D90 & D90 MQA a couple months after I bought mine. I also have the Topping E30 which is good but plays in the minor leagues compared to the sound of the D90. I still slightly prefer my 2015 era PS Audio NuWave DSD DAC that I kept over the Ayre QB9-DSD DAC that I sold.
In any case, at it's price point you have nothing to lose in the Topping D70S, and reviews have it being comparable but slightly different vs the D90.
Edits: 04/03/21
I2S over HDMI plus Balanced outputs (if they are real) plus a remote?
Well under $1000? What's not to like?
Don't get the MQA only over USB and not I2S, but that could be something unique to MQA and not the fault of TOPPING.
As regards names, TOPPING vs. Gustard?
That's a tough call!
Maybe better than Schiit ? -- But I own a couple of them too!
The Topping D90 that I have uses the flagship top of the line AKM4499 DAC chip (and it sounds great!) but my 2015 era ESS based PS Audio NuWave DSD DAC still sounds better.As I've said many times before, it's not all about the "chip of the month" but how well the overall DAC is implemented and voiced by the designer in the end product that leaves the factory.
Edits: 04/03/21 04/03/21
The sound you get from any dac will be most heavily influenced by (1) the
quality of the power supply, and (2) the quality of the analog section,
which together are what run up the price/cost of a decent dac to a greater
degree than the actual dac chip used.
BTW, an ESS 9038 dac is about $65 each, an AKM 4499 is about $95 each.
Parts cost for the analog section implemented on a chip such as the
LME49274 from TI is about $3. Parts for a discrete analog section will
cost appreciably more.
Whether or not you can observe a thing depends upon the theory you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed. - Albert Einstein
compared to the PSAudio Direct Stream DAC that does it all in firmware, no awful ESS Sabres need apply. :-)
Still, there is an awful lot of audiophiles who pretend they can hear something in the ESS sound - a sort of subtle accent on certain type of sounds, like anything that happens in the high range, WITHOUT the actual frequency response to be tilted up. And those people pretend that particularity is absent from AKM DACs. Now of course, a well implemented ESS is bound to sound much better than a lousy AKM, but all things being equal...?
Me I wanna TRY the difference since I already own an ESS DAC.
The problem is, you will hear differences among a range of DACs based on the ESS chips. And you will hear differences among a range of DACs based on the AKM chips. There are outstanding and crappy sounding DACs in both families.As such, IMHO you cannot generalize that AKM has a certain sound and ESS another. There are other factors that heavily influence the final result in the finished product. Just my 2-cents worth having owned good and bad sounding DACs based on both chip technologies.
But it's still fun to experiment and try different DACs.
Edits: 04/03/21 04/03/21
Until 6 months from now, there will be another DAC out that you'll want more than these....
BTW - Why do care what name it has? - What is wrong with Topping?
Well of course, that's always gonna be the case, and you only live once ^^Why don't I like the "Topping" name? I don't know, it sounds like a toy. "Gustard" doesn't sound good either, but it's less widely known.
But honestly, I just pretend I care. What I like most about the Gustard is the build quality, the heft (solid toroidal transformer, not a wimpy little thingie), the aluminum feet... it looks more like a serious piece of hifi to me.
Edits: 04/03/21
"Why don't I like the 'Topping' name? I don't know, it sounds like a toy. 'Gustard' doesn't sound good either, but it's less widely known."
Maybe you can try a strawberry Gustard with chocolate Topping..... Sounds kind of tasty...... [-;
I married the perfect woman - the downside is that everything that goes wrong is my fault.
Well, you had pretty much settled on a Gustard A18... My Topping D90 and the A18 both weigh a little over 5 pounds....So, Not sure what you're talking about at all. Seems like you have never seen a Topping D90.
Edits: 04/03/21
which I think has availability problems right now (no XMOS USB, so why would I want it)? Maybe I should wait though for these new chips to be more widely available and just build that music server and get (another) cheap $100 DAC that maybe I can build a power supply for. Just maybe.
I'm so confused, I may just want to put on some records (must admit I had to drop some grands to get that up to snuff).
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: