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Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

Ollieyoda3

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That's very strange. Sounded like the DAC was working for a brief period of time, and then stopped. I guess only Topping would understand what the error message means. By the way, is there a special reason that you hooked up the DC cable to an Apple USB adapter instead of directly to a USB outlet on your PC?

I used the USB adapter because of space and position of open USB ports on my desktop.

We'll see what Topping says. Maybe they can help trouble shoot. These things happen but it has soured me on buying from a company with support in China. I'm not going to send it to them. Not worth the cost or time. Hopeful MD refunds me and I'll buy an American made product. I was hesitant to purchase because I read about Toppings QC issue before purchasing.
 

typericey

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For what it's worth I've been using an Apple USB adapter (the one that comes with the iPhone 6S Plus) for the longest time to power my D50 without any hiccups.
 

Ollieyoda3

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Topping got back to me. They said the message means the unit is defective and I should try to get my DOA warranty from Massdrop.
 

lotse888

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Great! At least it is covered by warranty and you are getting a new one. No need to ship the unit across the ocean.
 

sweetsounds

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I bought a SMSL SU-8 based on your measurements (thanks a lot!) and besides noise and tonality. the imaging improved.
I wonder if that could be related to right timing.

@amirm: did you ever observer a phase/timing difference between left and right channel between DACs?
Meaning, if you send the same step response into L+R (or a sinus), is there a timing difference on the L+R analog outputs?

There are products like AcourateCleaner which claim to fix this by recoding the signal into mid and side before DA-Conversion and then decode again after the DAC.

I wonder, if there is any scientific evidence for this.
 

vkvedam

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I have a couple of questions on the D50.

Firstly, the IMD ESS hump which most of the Topping DACs exhibit. Does it only come into question/existence if I decide to use the DAC as a pre-amp? Should I be worried about it if I just use the fixed line-out and leave the level at 00.0 dB?

Secondly, using optical out of Chromecast, the bitdepth is always set at 24-Bit with only the sampling frequency being changed, is it a bug?

Many Thanks
Ven
 

vkvedam

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I have a couple of questions on the D50.

Firstly, the IMD ESS hump which most of the Topping DACs exhibit. Does it only come into question/existence if I decide to use the DAC as a pre-amp? Should I be worried about it if I just use the fixed line-out and leave the level at 00.0 dB?

Secondly, using optical out of Chromecast, the bitdepth is always set at 24-Bit with only the sampling frequency being changed, is it a bug?

Many Thanks
Ven
@amirm or other members, care to comment or shed some light on this please :)
 

JohnYang1997

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The answer is IMD hump at lower level is just an indication of modulation distortion could happen.
Problem is when using other types of measurements like no interharmonic distortion Multitone measurement, 30hz+1000hz two tone spectrum, even at max volume, the modulation noises will appear in the spectrum. And it can as high as -80db reference to the most near signal, which is pretty bad.
 

vkvedam

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The answer is IMD hump at lower level is just an indication of modulation distortion could happen.
Problem is when using other types of measurements like no interharmonic distortion Multitone measurement, 30hz+1000hz two tone spectrum, even at max volume, the modulation noises will appear in the spectrum. And it can as high as -80db reference to the most near signal, which is pretty bad.
Care to explain a bit more to this novice? To my understanding it's only affected if I decide to use the DAC output level, for a fixed line output stage at ~2Vrms your DAC should be performing at the best unless I am completely mistaken.
 

JohnYang1997

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Care to explain a bit more to this novice? To my understanding it's only affected if I decide to use the DAC output level, for a fixed line output stage at ~2Vrms your DAC should be performing at the best unless I am completely mistaken.
The answer is it's not a matter of your output level. It's that unless you are playing pure sine wave or certain multitone signal, it will appear. That's most the case with real music signal.
-5845dea25a85a7a.jpg
4be925269ee706ba.jpg
 

JohnYang1997

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:oops:, is it from a D50 or just an example?
Sorry I didn't mention it. It is su-8. Not d50. I can't say for sure whether d50 will have it. But the same tests going through dx3pro, d30, smsl m3, these modulations won't appear.
And that's depending on whether you can hear it. If you think it sounds great then nothing really matters. But if I were to recommend, i recommend dx3pro.
 

vkvedam

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Even I was in two minds before purchasing one of these two and finally picked the D50 based on the application. It does sound superb though. DX3 Pro would be overkill for me, it's got it's own set of issues if not for the hump in the IMD.
 

Kiko1974

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@Kiko1974

I have experience with ripping SACD to iso to DSF/PCM (about 1000). From what you have said here, I think you may not have a hardware problem, although I personally would not use s/pdif for any DSD, even DoP, rather better to use USB. An audible click, at album start, can be present due to the way SACD iso is converted to DSF or PCM. Best to replace the 1st few sample with silence from nearby, to eliminate the click. I use tailor made batch files for this, but the freely available Sonore ISO2DSD seems capable.

To use USB I'd have to play my music files from a computer or a tablet and I don't want any of these on my Hi Fi/Home Theatre set up. I'm an old fashioned guy and I only use players, well, to play, regardless if they are audio or video discs or music files. No, I don't want a computer on my system.
 
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vkvedam

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With regards to the bit depth information, does D50 display a 16-Bit signal as 16-Bit in terms of bit depth? From the Chromecast Audio a normal 16-Bit/44.1/48 kHz signal won't be upscaled to 24-Bit hence I am a bit confused about it being shown as 24-Bit. Sampling frequency is being displayed accurately for instance, if it's 44.1/48/96 kHz.

Is anyone in the same boat?
 

gorg

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Fellow members

With regards to the bit depth information, does D50 display a 16-Bit signal as 16-Bit in terms of bit depth? From the Chromecast Audio a normal 16-Bit/44.1/48 kHz signal won't be upscaled to 24-Bit hence I am a bit confused about it being shown as 24-Bit. Sampling frequency is being displayed accurately for instance, if it's 44.1/48/96 kHz.

Is anyone in the same boat?

My D50 (firmware v1.03), using optical input, connected to standard 16/44.1 CD player always displays 00bit.
 

vkvedam

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My D50 (firmware v1.03), using optical input, connected to standard 16/44.1 CD player always displays 00bit.
Did you mean 00.0dB? I am talking about the bit depth.
 

Snafu

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i think D50 has bug there and it actually shows 00bit.
 
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