Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

[shing]

Received an email moments ago from Topping - unfortunately you were right: this baby is IR blind.

Regarding the drivers, as D50 uses the XU208 it is safe to say this:

With Windows 10 you may use default USB 2.0 audio driver which will provide WASAPI functionality. If you want ASIO you have to use provided driver for Windows 10.
With older Windows versions you have to use the driver for WASAPI to work as well.
Linux versions that are compliant with UAC2 don't need driver. Same goes for MacOS 10.6 (and newer) and Android 4.2 (and newer). With Android you also need OTG support and cable.

i tried today, daphile with d50, no need driver, sound excellent.

 

[Veri]

Received an email moments ago from Topping - unfortunately you were right: this baby is IR blind.

IR blind?

On another note did Topping ever respond to the distortion mitigation issue, will we ever be able to turn it off perhaps?

 

[Krunok]

IR blind?

Yep - no IR receiver (or IR "eye" ) in it.

 

[DonH56]

Clock sources go into a PLL circuit to generate the final clocks. Different frequencies are generated by dividers in the clock circuit. There can be duty-cycle issues for some divide ratios in some circuits but those can be resolved by other means. In general I see no benefit to having two independent clock sources but there could be benefits for a particular clock design when certain divide ratios are needed. Without knowing details of the circuit I couldn't say if it matters in this case, nor would I particularly care unless the jitter was excessive. Measurements reaching way deep into the noise floor have perhaps heightened our sensitivity to jitter at levels well below any real-world audibility.

For example, -100 dB is 0.001% and -120 dB is 0.0001% (in voltage). How likely do you think you are to hear the difference through speakers that are around the 0.1% (-60 dB) to 1% (-40 dB) level of distortion? For music or movies, not test tones? Most people can pick out 1% distortion on a test tone, fewer with music, and it gets much harder at 0.1%. There are caveats, of course, in that some forms of distortion are much easier to hear than others, and noise floor of -40 dB (or even -60 dB) would be audible to most of us.

It is not that numbers don't matter, but every now and then it is worthwhile to step back and ask yourself how much they matter...

IMO - Don

 

[Krunok]

For example, -100 dB is 0.001% and -120 dB is 0.0001% (in voltage). How likely do you think you are to hear the difference through speakers that are around the 0.1% (-60 dB) to 1% (-40 dB) level of distortion?

I know for a fact I was never able to hear that, even when I was much younger than today.

Most people can pick out 1% distortion on a test tone, fewer with music, and it gets much harder at 0.1%. There are caveats, of course, in that some forms of distortion are much easier to hear than others, and noise floor of -40 dB (or even -60 dB) would be audible to most of us.

Again, I know for a fact I was never able to hear 0.1% of the distortion, same goes for -85 dB noise floor. Somewhere between 0.3% and 0.5% was when I was able to hear distortion. But that was when I was young and when I was able to hear 19kHz, while now, when I'm 54, I can't even hear 13kHz.

But I still enjoy music very much and can hear the difference between various loudspeakers, but much less between preamps.

 

[fitero]

I received mine today and initially had a 60hz hum, regardless of which power supply and wiring scenario. I was able to get it quiet by grounding the D50 to the preamp. Silence now.

So far I've been playing with settings in HQPlayer, attempting to get it to pass 512K. I am a mechanically inclined person, so the setup is a struggle for me. I've gotten 256K so far, so I'm not too far off...

 

[garbulky]

I received mine today and initially had a 60hz hum, regardless of which power supply and wiring scenario. I was able to get it quiet by grounding the D50 to the preamp. Silence now.

So far I've been playing with settings in HQPlayer, attempting to get it to pass 512K. I am a mechanically inclined person, so the setup is a struggle for me. I've gotten 256K so far, so I'm not too far off...

512k?

 

[bhigh]

This is the review and measurements of the secretive Topping D50 DAC.

Did you make any measurements using the different PCM filters that are available?

 

[amirm]

Did you make any measurements using the different PCM filters that are available?

No, I usually don't mess with filters unless asked (as was the case with Pro-ject S2).

 

[Blumlein 88]

512k?

DSD512 maybe.

 

[fitero]

Thanks...Yep, DSD512 is what I meant. Sorry.

 

[junki]

@L0rdGwyn @fitero

Have you had a chance to audition your D50's? What are you subjective evaluations of the sound? Warm/neutral/cold, soundstage?

I'm trying to nail down a purchase decision soon on a DAC, and the D50 is obviously one of the candidates.

 

[fitero]

I listened to it for a couple of hours yesterday, just enjoying the music and foot tapping/dancing in place. Thankfully there are no cameras nor impressionable youths to witness the event.

 

[mindbomb]

I am concerned about the noise issues that D50 users are having. Is this a problem with the dac?

 

[junki]

I received mine today and initially had a 60hz hum, regardless of which power supply and wiring scenario. I was able to get it quiet by grounding the D50 to the preamp. Silence now.

So the D50's DAC isn't properly grounded with its built-in preamp?

 

[raif]

So the D50's DAC isn't properly grounded with its built-in preamp?

This seems like a pretty bold question for this thread to suddenly go dormant on. And only a few hours before the aliexpress deal begins.

Speak up people!

At least from my experience setting up live sound in various venues, ground loops are extremely common and typically resolvable. I haven’t really experienced ground loops with usb DACs but I am curious if this is something that falls on the dac or the associated equipment.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[amirm]

I am not seeing the problem in my setup of course or it would seriously degrade the measurements.

The report though seem real in that there is a lack of galvanic isolation leading to issues like this.

 

[Veri]

For a possible power supply, does it matter 5V 1.5A or 5V 3A for the D50? I can get the first but not the latter.

 

[raif]

The report though seem real in that there is a lack of galvanic isolation leading to issues like this.

Well shoot, that is a total bummer. If they didn't isolate the power, then you wouldn't really know if you had a problem until you had the dac set up in your system.

 

[Wombat]

I listened to it for a couple of hours yesterday, just enjoying the music and foot tapping/dancing in place. Thankfully there are no cameras nor impressionable youths to witness the event.

Today I'll do a back and forth comparison to the only other DAC (Logitech Transporter) that I have available at the moment and post my thoughts.

Are you are aware that your findings will bear no relevance to others unless subtleties are loud enough to be discernable in controlled group listening tests, and then the equipment chain is hardly likely to correspond with those of others. If the differences aren't subtle then one of the items of gear(or both is a fashion item or sub-standard.

Personal preference is OK but needs to surpass many factors to be a generalisation. Fact.