Topping DM7 8-Channel DAC Review

[Rednaxela]

But that's someting completely subjective,not suited for ASR style.

Maybe a somewhat objective argument can be made against the use of a serifed font for its display?

 

[Rednaxela]

Think of it like a typical internal sound card (without the extra goodie's like mic-in,headphone output and optical which is almost the standard) but external and with a better SINAD (if balanced),nothing more.

Agree.

It’s a sound card. With a couple of unique features. So much so that you could also call it a multi-channel DAC.

 

[Sokel]

Maybe a somewhat objective argument can be made against the use of a serifed font for its display?

That and the of-axis left button.The later could explode my OCD sky-high!

 

[Kal Rubinson]

This thing only has USB input. So basically either Multi channel PCM or multi channel DSD DoP with this thing plug on a PC or Mac I assume.

DoP not needed. Direct native DSD supported. Mac or PC.

Then how much legit muti-channel sources out there to make that happen?

Dunno but I've got a few thousand of them. Lately, the majority are from downloads.

Feels like it's targeting people that some how "find" a bunch of multi-channel DSF/DST/DSD-iso files.

It does not play ISOs but you can extract the DSD from the ISOs off-line or, if the upstream player supports, you can extract them in real-time while playing.

 

[Spocko]

Normally, these niche DAC products are the domain of either pro gear or boutique makers, both of which cost way more than this - BRAVO to Topping for just "trying something to new to see if it sticks"!

 

[wisechoice]

Direct native DSD supported. Mac or PC.

Wow, really? Where did you read that native DSD was supported on the Mac? This is relatively rare, and from what I understand requires a custom driver, which few manufacturers provide for the Mac (exaSound being one exception from what I gather).

 

[hyfynut]

Please excuse my ignorance but what or how would an 8 channel DAC be used?

Following. I Can't see any practical application for this product.

 

[Trell]

Following. I Can't see any practical application for this product.

This question has been asked several times in this thread and a number of use cases have been given, so have a blast reading the thread.

 

[mdsimon2]

Following. I Can't see any practical application for this product.

Why aren't we pushing for more 4-8 channel DACS for a quality Stereo setup

AS MY TITLE CAUSED CONFUSION- THIS IS FOR A STEREO SETUP (NOT THEATER OR SURROUND) It seems that the optimal way forward with sound quality is to get everything refined in the digital world, before sending it to great amps. In my opinion, this means using software to set active crossovers and...

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RPi4 + CamillaDSP Tutorial

Intent of this thread is to provide a tutorial for setting up CamillaDSP on a RPi4. There is a lot of good information scattered through ASR, DIYAudio and the CamillaDSP GitHub but there also appears to be a lot of apprehension. My goal is to give concrete examples of how to use CamillaDSP with...

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WANTED: Topping Multichannel DAC (list your wants)

On another forum @manisandher and I were going back and fourth discussing MCH dacs. That led me to start this thread since @JohnYang1997 is active here. Perhaps he would take some of the feedback into consideration. :) 8 fully balanced channels (regular size XLR connectors) Global volume...

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Setting up an active crossover using Roon

Recently, quite a few people have asked me how I've gone about setting up active crossovers just using Roon alone. I thought I'd start a thread to discuss the process. I'm just going to dump a number of screenshots, which are hopefully fairly self-explanatory (if you know Roon, at least). We can...

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Multichannel DAC lobby!

With Okto unable to keep up with demand we need more high quality multi channel DACs to come to market. I’ve suggested to SMSL that they should make one and Kelly has replied that they will consider it. The chances of them doing it will be increased if others make the same suggestion to...

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Multi-Channel, Multi-Amplifier Audio System Using Software Crossover and Multichannel-DAC

Edit: Please find here (on this thread) and here (remote independent thread post) the Hyperlink Index of this thread and some of my related posts in remote threads ************************************************** Edit on August 8, 2023 Jus for your reference,,, - The latest system setup of my...

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Michael

 

[dadregga]

I've got a music room with a multichannel setup. It's not a movie room. I have several hundred discs of multichannel music, on SACD, DVD-A and Bluray. They're all ripped into Roon, and all in either multichannel PCM FLAC or multichannel DSD format.

I think all the people talking about Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD are confused - those are lossless PCM compression formats. They convert to FLAC quite easily as part of ripping - and I rip every disc I own. You only need decoding if you want to stick a physical disc in a player every time you want to listen to an album, or are streaming Netflix video - neither of which I'm doing.

I can stream those multichannel albums (ripped from audio Blurays, DVD-As, SACDs, stored on my music server as regular multichannel FLAC or DSD files) directly to this device via a Roon bridge and enjoy them all in surround, for half the price of an AVR, without the video features that I don't need (this is for music, not video), with a much better DAC than I'd get from an AVR. That's useful.


Sure, I can do that with an AVR too, but I pay about 2x as much, for usually subpar amps, often dodgy DAC implementations, and a bunch of HDMI/video switching/decoding I don't need.

I do all the DSP (via REW measurements) and crossovers in Roon too - so again, why pay twice as much for an AVR (or way more for separates/prepros) with worse performance and features I don't need in "hardware" because I can do them better in software?

This + a decent Buckeye or similar is the cheapest and best way to do multichannel music if you already have a modern, all digital setup and a collection of ripped multichannel music - everything that needs doing is done before the DAC gets the stream, and the DAC can be pretty "dumb".

It's a very flexible, modern and convenient setup, and lets me put the money into speakers and amps, where it ought to go.

 

[sam_adams]

DoP not needed. Direct native DSD supported. Mac or PC.

Wow, really? Where did you read that native DSD was supported on the Mac? This is relatively rare, and from what I understand requires a custom driver, which few manufacturers provide for the Mac (exaSound being one exception from what I gather).

The DM-7 does DSD64 and DSD128. Since macOS lacks support for native DSD—but supports DoP—one would be limited to DoP64 on macOS. Does DoP32 even exist? Personally, I don't know or care. I'm going to let you and Kal duke it out over this though. My money is on Kal ("Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance." - David Mamet).

Once again, kudos to @JohnYang1997 and his team for their technical excellence.

 

[MAB]

I've got a music room with a multichannel setup. It's not a movie room. I have several hundred discs of multichannel music, on SACD, DVD-A and Bluray. They're all ripped into Roon, and all in either multichannel PCM FLAC or multichannel DSD format.

I think all the people talking about Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD are confused - those are lossless PCM compression formats. They convert to FLAC quite easily as part of ripping - and I rip every disc I own. You only need decoding if you want to stick a physical disc in a player every time you want to listen to an album, or are streaming Netflix video - neither of which I'm doing.

I can stream those multichannel albums (ripped from audio Blurays, DVD-As, SACDs, stored on my music server as regular multichannel FLAC or DSD files) directly to this device via a Roon bridge and enjoy them all in surround, for half the price of an AVR, without the video features that I don't need (this is for music, not video), with a much better DAC than I'd get from an AVR. That's useful.


Sure, I can do that with an AVR too, but I pay about 2x as much, for usually subpar amps, often dodgy DAC implementations, and a bunch of HDMI/video switching/decoding I don't need.

I do all the DSP (via REW measurements) and crossovers in Roon too - so again, why pay twice as much for an AVR (or way more for separates/prepros) with worse performance and features I don't need in "hardware" because I can do them better in software?

This + a decent Buckeye or similar is the cheapest and best way to do multichannel audio if you already have a modern, all digital setup and a collection of multichannel music - everything that needs doing is done before the DAC gets the stream, and the DAC can be pretty "dumb".

It's a very flexible, modern and convenient setup, and lets me put the money into speakers and amps, where it ought to go.

Unless I am missing something, this device is perfect for your application.
I am interested for use in stereo for a three-way active DSP stereo system. Since I have four subwoofers, I could even have different EQ for each subwoofer and use all eight channels... I imagine this could be really fun. Some of the Linkwitz speaker crowd could also enjoy a DM7 in a DSP crossover stack.

 

[sam_adams]

Those that are complaining the the DM-7 lacks an HDMI port and the ability to decode multi-channel audio, need to realize that to have included that in the DM-7 would have priced it well beyond what anyone would be willing to pay for the device simply because of the licensing fees for HDCP. There is a cost of entry to play at this performance level. However, many are not willing to pay, but are willing to look over the outfield fence and heckle the home team.

Topping should have built it with AES/EBU ports for multi-channel audio is something else that has been mentioned. Again, this interface choice would essentially limit the device to the pro market and drive the cost up—probably beyond what most members here would be willing to pay. How many consumer-level devices have AES/EBU outputs on them? Does your Mac or PC laptop have an AES/EBU port? Would you need to purchase a USB to AES/EBU interface to get the same multi-channel OS exposure to eight channels at the same sample rates? Why would you do that if the device has a de facto standard USB port that delivers the same capabilities?

For me, anyway, it comes down to how much time do I have to screw around with stuff to get where I want to be to achieve the results that I desire. Usually when it is all costed out, the monetary investment is the same or more—plus I have to invest huge amounts of time putzing around with software or other hardware to get everything to work. If I had the need for a multi-channel DAC, a device this simple—with this level of performance—makes it a very simple choice.

 

[Neslo1108]

You would please refer to my previous post #272 here on this thread.
My setup with OCTO DAC8PRO is like these two diagrams; please note that only one (single) USB 2.0 cable connecting PC to DAC8PRO.
View attachment 218023

View attachment 218024

Brilliant setup and I want to do the same. I have Audirvana instead of JRiver but it is still possible
My challenge is to also stream TV and film(Netflix/HBO) "headless" from the PC controlled via app on mobile. Today I googleTV box with spdif out to Topping D90SE dac and hifi audio goes via usb to the DAC. Any ideas?

 

[Jimster480]

Wow, pretty nice! One of these might find its way into a future home theater / listening room setup!

 

[dualazmak]

Hello @Neslo1108,

Thank you for your interests on my multichannel multi-driver multi-way multi-amplifier (audio only!) project.

You can find my latest system setup (as of May 30, 2022) here on my project thread.

So far, and also in the near future, I have little interest on audio+visual multichannel system, and therefore, I cannot speak a lot regarding your inquiry, especially the synchronization of audio and visual playback.

On the other hand, we recently had (are having) nice discussion with @gac800 who now uses MOTU 828es (as DAC) for 10-, 12- or even 14-channel multichannel sync DAC processing. You would please refer to his post #546 and thereafter on my project thread.

Please note that he and I are using digital software DSP (XO/EQ) "EKIO" as system-wide XO/EQ center on Windows PC; all of the audio player/processing applications (JRiver, Roon, Adobe Audition, AudaCity, as well as Audirvana I believe) can send digital audio signal into EKIO through ASIO driver(s), and EKIO feeds multichannel XO/EQ-ed digital signals into multichannel DAC (DAC8PRO, MOTU 828es, FOCUSRITE Scarlett 18i20 2nd gen/3rd gen, MOTU UltraLite Mk5, now also TOPPING DM7, etc.) through ASIO drivers for sync DAC processing then into multiple amplifiers.

He wrote there;
>I have also connected an audio extractor to the HDMI signal that goes to my TV. This pulls the audio information from the HDMI signal (Netflix, Prime, Apple) and sends the stereo signal to the TOSlink input of the motu828es. I have this set up on a separate “tv” config in EKIO.

Even though I do not know what would be the "audio extractor to the HDMI signal" which he uses in his multichannel setup within PC (or attached to PC via USB?), this would be of your interest, I assume. You would please contact with @gac800 by PM communication, if needed.

Also if you know and/or will identify such an "audio extractor to the HDMI signal", I (and we) will much appreciate hearing the detailed information on it from you here on this thread and also on my project thread.

 

[Sokel]

About DSD (either stereo or multichannel):
I hope you know that no DSP applies to it unless is converted,either before or real-time by the player.

So,no use for it specially if you have a software crossover which will either convert DSD>PCM before playing or worst will cancel DSP crossover if it's done by foobar for example (haven't try if Jriver warns you about it).

I always tease my friends playing the same song in DSD and then PCM that changes sound because the Mathaudio DSP doesn't apply so no EQ.
But will not be funny if it cancel crossover for example.

I hope everyone will test all that before applying,some things are accidents waiting to happen.

 

[wisechoice]

About DSD (either stereo or multichannel):
I hope you know that no DSP applies to it unless is converted,either before or real-time by the player.

So,no use for it specially if you have a software crossover which will either convert DSD>PCM before playing or worst will cancel DSP crossover if it's done by foobar for example (haven't try if Jriver warns you about it).

I always tease my friends playing the same song in DSD and then PCM that changes sound because the Mathaudio DSP doesn't apply so no EQ.
But will not be funny if it cancel crossover for example.

I hope everyone will test all that before applying,some things are accidents waiting to happen.

Apparently, HQPlayer can apply complex DSP without converting to PCM.

 

[Sokel]

Apparently, HQPlayer can apply complex DSP without converting to PCM.

That's good to know.
Double conversion?

 

[dualazmak]

About DSD (either stereo or multichannel):
I hope you know that no DSP applies to it unless is converted,either before or real-time by the player.

Yes, I fully agree...

Nowadays, in my multichannel multi-amplifier system, I always convert DSD into 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz or 192 kHz PCM on-the-fly (real-time) by JRiver to feed the PCM signal into system-wide software DSP (XO/EQ) "EKIO".

My rationales for feasibilities/satisfactions in 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz (or 192 kHz) PCM processing, at least for my ears and brain as well as for my system (and for our beloved pets) , can be found here in detail.