Hello everyone. This is my first post on this forum.
I want to share my observation and hear your opinion about it, cause perhaps I'm loosing my mind or maybe my hearing/audio equipment has been damaged in the past weeks (I doubt the latter, though).
A few weeks ago my old USB DAC was damaged and I needed something new and not expensive. The old DAC was a 70$, Wolfson-based one of a Polish, small brand called Nostromo (I think it's rather unknown outside Poland). After reading many reviews (also this very topic), I chose Topping E30 and I also bought iFi Zen DAC just for pure comparison. I've listened to dozens of music tracks which sound I remember very well since a least 12 years. I was quite baffled when I heard some kind of audible "hiss" or maybe subtle "background metalic sound" on certain tracks between 9 kHz and 13 kHz (but most severe on 12-12,5 KHz). And that on both E30 and Zen. This background "hiss" accompanies some female voices, drums cymbals and bell/jingle sounds. It's actually rather annoying, because the old Polish DAC, I've mentioned, sounded clean as silk in these frequencies. There wasn't any audible "hiss" for sure. I don't know what's causing it on E30. Perhaps my old DAC lacked details in this area or maybe cause I'm powering E30 via USB from a cheap netbook. I really don't know. I love E30 in general but I cannot enjoy it fully because of this annoying metalic "hiss".
I would appreciate any remarks, guys
I want to share my observation and hear your opinion about it, cause perhaps I'm loosing my mind or maybe my hearing/audio equipment has been damaged in the past weeks (I doubt the latter, though).
A few weeks ago my old USB DAC was damaged and I needed something new and not expensive. The old DAC was a 70$, Wolfson-based one of a Polish, small brand called Nostromo (I think it's rather unknown outside Poland). After reading many reviews (also this very topic), I chose Topping E30 and I also bought iFi Zen DAC just for pure comparison. I've listened to dozens of music tracks which sound I remember very well since a least 12 years. I was quite baffled when I heard some kind of audible "hiss" or maybe subtle "background metalic sound" on certain tracks between 9 kHz and 13 kHz (but most severe on 12-12,5 KHz). And that on both E30 and Zen. This background "hiss" accompanies some female voices, drums cymbals and bell/jingle sounds. It's actually rather annoying, because the old Polish DAC, I've mentioned, sounded clean as silk in these frequencies. There wasn't any audible "hiss" for sure. I don't know what's causing it on E30. Perhaps my old DAC lacked details in this area or maybe cause I'm powering E30 via USB from a cheap netbook. I really don't know. I love E30 in general but I cannot enjoy it fully because of this annoying metalic "hiss".
I would appreciate any remarks, guys