sajunky
Active Member
Here is a problem raised in the other thread: Minimum Phase vs Linear Phase
Now lets present my point. According to the above, Linear Phase filter sounds he same in both D30 and DX3 Pro, but is inferior to the Minimum Phase filter in DX3 Pro. I only have Topping D30 and I complained already that while a simple type of sound is presented clean, in the passages where there is a sound with complex harmonics like choir or a loud orchestra there is lot of distorsion which I interpreted as a jitter problem. The same opinion in different words is presented above. In addition to the above, I reported a problem I didn't see in any other DAC. A perfectly tuned piano on the D30 sounds like individual strings were in complete dissonance (detuned). It is like DSP processing on D30 is shifting frequency of individual strings to present it more different of each other. In result is an cacophony effect.
I understand that Topping do it intentionally to achieve the best measurement tests results with complete disregard how it sounds. They know that Amir do not test secondary filter settings, so they tune it for the best sound. Linear Phase filter is a primary one (and the only one on D30), so they push these settings above any sanity check. In result we see a perfectly flat frequency response, it is were "Excellence of engineering" is, but sonically it sucks.
A question is what we can do to promote on one side "Excelence of engineering" and on the other side the best audiophile sound quality without of any sign of listening fatigue. If they are conflicting, there must be a balance between.
The answer is given by a member @Veri that chosing filter shouldn't matter if "all 5 filters were 'proper' without severe roll-off or aliasing" Post #41I haven't done any blind testing, but there appears to be a certain harshness in loud and high notes of some female vocalists which goes away when the DAC is set for minimum phase. The Topping D30 has this problem, in my opinion. When I use my Topping DX3 Pro with a linear phase filter, it sounds just like the D30. Switch to a minimum phase filter and the harshness goes away. This was noted on both LSR305 Mk II's and LS50's powered by a Crown XLS 1502. The difference is subtler wiith my Grace M9XX which might mean something else is going on.
Now lets present my point. According to the above, Linear Phase filter sounds he same in both D30 and DX3 Pro, but is inferior to the Minimum Phase filter in DX3 Pro. I only have Topping D30 and I complained already that while a simple type of sound is presented clean, in the passages where there is a sound with complex harmonics like choir or a loud orchestra there is lot of distorsion which I interpreted as a jitter problem. The same opinion in different words is presented above. In addition to the above, I reported a problem I didn't see in any other DAC. A perfectly tuned piano on the D30 sounds like individual strings were in complete dissonance (detuned). It is like DSP processing on D30 is shifting frequency of individual strings to present it more different of each other. In result is an cacophony effect.
I understand that Topping do it intentionally to achieve the best measurement tests results with complete disregard how it sounds. They know that Amir do not test secondary filter settings, so they tune it for the best sound. Linear Phase filter is a primary one (and the only one on D30), so they push these settings above any sanity check. In result we see a perfectly flat frequency response, it is were "Excellence of engineering" is, but sonically it sucks.
A question is what we can do to promote on one side "Excelence of engineering" and on the other side the best audiophile sound quality without of any sign of listening fatigue. If they are conflicting, there must be a balance between.
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