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Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

WolfX-700

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Fair enough decision. Clearly RME should specify a better quality rotary encoder, or better still, build their own.

That's what the better Japanese companies did back in the day. Optical encoders (no contact issues to worry about) with bespoke slit wheel, twin photo-interuptors and their own dedicated IC.
The ADI2 encoder is a tragedy... Several of my friends who use RME have encountered this problem. I just helped one of them get a long-life encoder (from the original 15,000 cycles life to 100,000 cycles and better Rotation and pressing feel)-only need to increase the cost of one dollar:facepalm:
 

slamman

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schiit in the past also had some amps that go up in smoke and break headphones. also they had a problem with their chassis not being properly grounded etc. shit happens no pun intended
yes but you dont see schiit engineers in the comments bashing customers saying "we thing the customers are sabotaging units" like john did in threads when that was happening. its a reason for concern . it was so easy to fix but now it will live with them for some time due to customer treatment. everyone makes mistakes and topping is a great company but things should be aloud to be pointed out just like people bash schiit on here regularly and thats fine.
 

JohnYang1997

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remember when headphones were blowing up from the l30 due to faulty design and or QC and you yourself went into head fi and blamed it on the customer and got triggered by the slightest negative comment and went off on people? no need to get into that here but no need to be snarky when someone points something out and saying "hasnt it been fixed?" isnt a correct answer to a customer stating problems. if its not a QC issue than it was an engineering issue which is worse. its ok to say "we fixed that issue and have made changes to it doesnt happen again" boom done.
Eh?
I never went to headfi.
 

JohnYang1997

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yes but you dont see schiit engineers in the comments bashing customers saying "we thing the customers are sabotaging units" like john did in threads when that was happening. its a reason for concern . it was so easy to fix but now it will live with them for some time due to customer treatment. everyone makes mistakes and topping is a great company but things should be aloud to be pointed out just like people bash schiit on here regularly and thats fine.
Nah. All things you said are false.
 

voodooless

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I’ll let my fellow forum member react ;) :
Shoddy reporting to say the least.

But there is more:

Gustard went also overkill with its digital input board, besides the ARM processor, they even added a Flash memory that works a buffer memory so that timing errors or jitter coming from your source shouldn’t be an issue anymore
This is also obvious BS! You cannot use flash memory for this, it would be defective within quite a short time. You’d just use RAM for this kind of task.
 

restorer-john

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@JohnYang1997

Seriously impressed with the performance you and your team have pulled off. How does it feel? Taken on all the big boys and pretty much swept them all out of the way.

Hope you sell a ton of them and you get a pay rise. :)
 

respice finem

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The ADI2 encoder is a tragedy... Several of my friends who use RME have encountered this problem. I just helped one of them get a long-life encoder (from the original 15,000 cycles life to 100,000 cycles and better Rotation and pressing feel)-only need to increase the cost of one dollar:facepalm:
There are plenty complaints @the RME forum about this.
Mine were working OK last time I checked, probably because I'm using the remote most of the time, or maybe there are "duds" in the batches, some work some don't? I wonder if the "Pro" product line also has those encoders.
 
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DHT 845

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Sandhu is a subjectivist so just watch it for the fun of it. In fact he introduced me to a couple of gems.
He didnt compare d90se to d70s, just said that d90se is not thin.... That it will be very detaled I knew. But does it posses the same midrange body as d70s I slighly doubt... I believe d90se is great But not for me. It is just good implemented sabre dac with clever output stage.
 

JohnYang1997

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He didnt compare d90se to d70s, just said that d90se is not thin.... That it will be very detaled I knew. But does it posses the same midrange body as d70s I slighly doubt... I believe d90se is great But not for me. It is just good implemented sabre dac with clever output stage.
just good implemented sabre dac with clever output stage.....
 

DHT 845

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just good implemented sabre dac with clever output stage.....
Design monobkock amplifiers with great midrande weight and density, please !
 
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jaraheel

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What is "stage size" of a DAC?
I don't know. I read the review over at soundnews.net where they spoke of sound stage. I thought I would ask here if there is some measure looking at that..
 
OP
amirm

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yes but you dont see schiit engineers in the comments bashing customers saying "we thing the customers are sabotaging units" like john did in threads when that was happening.
Well, they did claim my measurements were wrong and extensively so. There is no clean nose there historically.
 
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amirm

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I don't know. I read the review over at soundnews.net where they spoke of sound stage. I thought I would ask here if there is some measure looking at that..
That's all subjectivist fiction and imagination. The soundstage comes from your music and your headphone/speakers reproducing it. DACs play no role in that. They are way too transparent to have any effect there.
 

DeepSpace57

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That's all subjectivist fiction and imagination. The soundstage comes from your music and your headphone/speakers reproducing it. DACs play no role in that. They are way too transparent to have any effect there.
Hey @amirm, thank you for this review. I believe you missed the Toslink-jitter measurement. All we have about this is only Topping in-house measurements. If you can, I would be glad.
 
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amirm

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Hey @amirm, thank you for this review. I believe you missed the Toslink-jitter measurement. All we have about this is only Topping in-house measurements. If you can, I would be glad.
OK, the restaurant is closed after taking this request:

Topping D90SE Toslink Jitter Measurements Balanced USB DAC.png
 
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