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Topping D50s insufficient gain

willy65000

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hello to all. I've been doing some reading here lately and decided to purchase a D50s to pair with my Adcom gfa 555 for my 2 channel setup. I enjoy the sound of the dac and it's bluetooth performance is surprisingly impressive. As the title of my thread states I'm dissatisfied with how the D50s drives the Adcom as a preamp. It doesn't seem to have enough output voltage. Any suggestions on a possible solution to my problem. Perhaps another reasonably priced product that i could go with instead or in addition to the D50s.

thank you
 

RayDunzl

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The output level also depends upon the level of the source material.

To what are you listening when there isn't enough volume?
 

gvl

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Perhaps your source limits the level digitally before it reaches the DAC? If everything else fails fou can add a JDS Labs Atom and use it as preamp for additional gain, plus you get a nice headphone amp.
 

carlosmante

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hello to all. I've been doing some reading here lately and decided to purchase a D50s to pair with my Adcom gfa 555 for my 2 channel setup. I enjoy the sound of the dac and it's bluetooth performance is surprisingly impressive. As the title of my thread states I'm dissatisfied with how the D50s drives the Adcom as a preamp. It doesn't seem to have enough output voltage. Any suggestions on a possible solution to my problem. Perhaps another reasonably priced product that i could go with instead or in addition to the D50s.

thank you
Buy an AVR and avoid any compatibility issues and headaches and save money.
 

gvl

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I'm listening to amazon music unlimited hd from my pc.

Is the PC system volume at max? Is the Amazon player volume at max? You want both at max if you control volume on the DAC.
 
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willy65000

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I have been using the optical input as well for watching tv and the results are the same although not an issue because i don't need tv volume to be very loud. I will try a cd in my dvd player. Both the volume control in the Amazon app and the laptops master volume are maxed. The only thing that has changed in my system has been swapping my Nova Pre for the Topping.
 

andreasmaaan

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According to your amp's spec sheet, the input sensitivity is 1.75V for max. power into 8 Ohm.

The D50's max. output is 2V RMS. In other words, the D50 has enough output to drive the amp to clipping.

The NovaPre has double the output voltage (4V RMS) of the Topping, which should translate into another 6dB of gain. However, as mentioned above, you shouldn't need it, because the amp should be clipping with around 1.75V RMS going into it.

Something's wrong here, but I'm not sure what it is.

Are you sure you've correctly set the switches on the rear of the Adcom?

cs-3.jpg
 
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willy65000

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I've got the mk1 version from 1985. The picture is the se which is a current product. Not that it matters because i read the specifications and the 1.75v input sensitivity is correct. I've used the amp in other people's systems as well as with lots of other gear at my house with good results although it always recieved highly voltage from typical preamps not dacs.
 
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willy65000

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Thanks to all who have replied to my thread. Today i tried the D50s with my other laptop and the results are the same. The level at 0 db is reasonably loud but not where i feel it should be and definitely not enough to cause the Adcom to clip. There's a product that HTD sells called the lgb-1. It looks to be a device that increases line level voltage. Anyone familiar with it?

Thank you
 

andreasmaaan

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Thanks to all who have replied to my thread. Today i tried the D50s with my other laptop and the results are the same. The level at 0 db is reasonably loud but not where i feel it should be and definitely not enough to cause the Adcom to clip. There's a product that HTD sells called the lgb-1. It looks to be a device that increases line level voltage. Anyone familiar with it?

Thank you

I'm not sure about that LGB-1. Not having any published specs is a bit of a worry, but who knows.

The JDS Atom might be a good option. It has an adjustable gain switch, and should be capable of over 8V into a high-impedance load like your GFA-555se. Extremely low distortion and not too expensive (measured by Amir here).

Still, I believe something must be wrong with either your DAC or (much more likely) your amp for your system not to be correctly gain staged without any preamp, but I'm out of ideas what it might be...
 

gvl

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I'd check full-scale voltage on the D50s output with a multimeter first to confirm it delivers 2V, maybe you got a dud. On the lgb-1, no distortion/noise specs available, chances are it is multitudes worse than the D50s so best avoided.
 
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willy65000

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I will look at the Atom.

How does one go about checking voltage? I do have a meter but my knowledge is limited at best.

Thanks
 

gvl

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I will look at the Atom.

How does one go about checking voltage? I do have a meter but my knowledge is limited at best.

Thanks

You need to find or generate a 0dB test wav file that contains a single low-enough frequency to not throw-off your meter too much. something like 200-500 Hz should do I think. Then you play it through a player on a PC at max volume, set the meter to AC and measure the voltage on the RCA outputs, it should read 2V maybe a bit less.
 

Nathan_A

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I briefly ran my Topping D50s direct into an Adcom 5500 before deciding to stick with my Yamaha MX-1, and it was able to drive the amp without issue.

I suspect some kind of input gain control on the amp that's lowering its sensitivity or some kind of software volume control oddity. On the latter point I've had problems (at least in Linux) when connecting over USB to some external DACs where setting it to PCM IEC856 output that it'll default to some oddly low volume level despite showing max. volume. I had to toggle the device back to USB Stereo Output (or whatever it was called), then max out the volume in that mode, and switch it back to PCM IEC856, and then the volume was properly set to max. I have no idea if something along these lines is happening in your setup, but it's just to point out that PC-based USB audio to outboard DACs can get a little wonky, so it can be helpful to remove that variable by trying an alternate source like a CD/DVD/BR player with a digital out and no internal volume control just to get a baseline and sanity check for yourself.
 
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willy65000

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Tomorrow i will try a cd in my dvd player and also test voltage to rule out a defective unit. I will also dig into the the settings in my laptops. I don't recall ever coming across settings that allow for toggling between usb stereo output and pcm on a window 10 machine but i will definitely check it out.

Thank you
 
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