Topping D90SE Review (Balanced DAC)

[ceausuc]

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.

Oh boy!
If you said "soundstage comes from the number of wine glasses consumed", some might actually agree
Now, really, please, stop this nonsense: "all dacs are transparent and sound the same"...

 

[DSS]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping D90SE flagship balanced USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company for testing and I believe costs US $899.

The D90SE comes in the same clothes as current class of Topping products which is just fine with me:

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We have the usual inputs and outputs including Bluetooth:

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The architecture here is based on ESS ES9038PRO DAC instead of AKM silicon. Hopefully this means better availability of parts and DACs.

Topping D90SE DAC Measurements
Out of box output voltage is our standard 4 volts but there is also a setting to adjust that to 5 volt (see test of that later). Let's start with USB input and balanced XLR output:

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Oh wow! We have a record breaker here when it comes to SINAD:
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The Audio Precision analyzer puts severe strain on getting such high numbers due to its own self-noise so I was surprised to see 123 dB limit broken. Distortion is down to an incredibly low -140 dB!

Switching to RCA output, we naturally lose some performance:

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Noise level is kept to absolute minimum producing some of the best dynamic range numbers I have seen:

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Temporarily switching to 5 volt output we get:

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So not a major change but if you have an amp that can accept it, you can push your noise floor down a bit more. Remember, while distortions are hard to hear, hiss from speakers or headphones is not.

Intermodulation distortion (really the noise aspect) sets a new benchmark:

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There was a time when DX3 Pro was the benchmark. See how much the D90SE beats it by. It is almost left in the dust!

Courtesy of resampling in ESS DAC, jitter is a forgotten word with either input:

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Combined with the ultra noise floor, we can clearly resolve the low order bits of the 250Hz square wave at 24 bits! I had to remove the ASR logo to reveal them!

Linearity locked in and ran so perfectly, I had to scratch my eyes to believe it:

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You have a choice of 7 filters and I was happy to see thee of them producing the correct filtering for 44.1 kHz sampling:

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Attenuation was so good that I had to lower the bottom of the scale to show where they bottom out.

The only puzzler was THD+N versus frequency:

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Seems like there is some kind of ESS signature going on with some filter setting. Getting the best performance required selecting filter #7 which has a bit of roll off in frequency response.

Multitone is nailed so hard that you could almost hear it nail screaming from being hit so hard:
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Conclusions
It is 3:00am but I had to stay up and post this review. It is not every day that every barrier we have seen in DACs gets shattered to new levels. We are seeing extreme attention to every aspect of this design to squeeze this much performance out of this ESS DAC. Just when we though the race was over, here comes one more over achiever! Those of you who have made it a hobby to upgrade the latest and greatest, here is another one for you!

At the risk of stating the very obvious, it is my absolute pleasure to recommend the Topping D90SE.

Note: this is a new product. If you are not an early adopter type of person, you may want others to go before you. My testing is focused on performance only, not reliability or functionality.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

That logo on the front top right ruins everything for me in a product. I refuse to pay an extra 50/70 dollars for that scheme.

 

[amirm]

That logo on the front top right ruins everything for me in a product. I refuse to pay an extra 50/70 dollars for that scheme.

I am the opposite. If I am paying so much for a DAC, I want it to play natively anything I throw at it.

While you are at it, why not take a position against DSD? High-res? IIS connector in the back? Should it cost $800 without these features?

 

[Lewzke]

Yeah they will lose some buyers if they don't provide non-MQA version, imagine having this DAC for 10 years and that MQA will be faded away just like any bogus in the audio industry in the past. I am not against the support, I am againts the extra logo and usage license you pay for it. It should be like other formats, no logo and no usage fee to pay. 50-70 USD for the sake of a format it is a lot. At this category it is acceptable but not a good thing anyway.

 

[Celty]

I am the opposite. If I am paying so much for a DAC, I want it to play natively anything I throw at it.

While you are at it, why not take a position against DSD? High-res? IIS connector in the back? Should it cost $800 without these features?

I tend to look at it the same way. So a question, Amirm: If you were purchasing a DAC, would you get the D70s at $649.99 or the D90se at $899?

 

[mocenigo]

Just add a Pre90 preamp for their top of the line pair that serves exactly that.

Well, of course. It is not necessary for me since I have already power amps with a reasonably high input impedance ;-)

 

[amirm]

I tend to look at it the same way. So a question, Amirm: If you were purchasing a DAC, would you get the D70s at $649.99 or the D90se at $899?

I have to have the best so d90se.

 

[amirm]

Yeah they will lose some buyers if they don't provide non-MQA version, imagine having this DAC for 10 years and that MQA will be faded away just like any bogus in the audio industry in the past. I am not against the support, I am againts the extra logo and usage license you pay for it. It should be like other formats, no logo and no usage fee to pay. 50-70 USD for the sake of a format it is a lot. At this category it is acceptable but not a good thing anyway.

The few buyers they loose would be worth the much better margin they have. MQA costs are very little compared to bump in retail pricing.

There is demand for MQA anyway so it is not a given that this is net negative.

 

[Lewzke]

The few buyers they loose would be worth the much better margin they have. MQA costs are very little compared to bump in retail pricing.

There is demand for MQA anyway so it is not a given that this is net negative.

I agree, because this is the top of the line product and they provide all the formats. This is like Dolby and other markers in the past in the gears, a selling point for some users and a MEH point for others.

 

[slamman]

The few buyers they loose would be worth the much better margin they have. MQA costs are very little compared to bump in retail pricing.

There is demand for MQA anyway so it is not a given that this is net negative.

i agree. you cannot blame topping for following trends and giving what people want. yes a lot of us on here think its a scam or whatever but many more people dont think so. it will fade over time if it is truly a scam and thats that. if you are paying 899 for a DAC it should have every feature and MQA is a feature, you dont have to use it. its smart business for topping and doesnt hurt you. other than seeing the logo i suppose.

 

[abdo123]

MQA costs are very little compared to bump in retail pricing.

Can you please share how you know such information?

The difference between the D90 MQA and non-MQA versions was quite significant, I wonder how much of that difference was actual licensing costs and how much was actual markup.

 

[Lewzke]

Amir you should produce ASCReview stickers with the marketing: to cover the MQA logo.

 

[Feyire]

I have to have the best so d90se.

Okto DAC8 Stereo would like a chat.

 

[Roland68]

Three points that are forgotten in this MQA discussion.
I don't think the fees for the MQA seal per device are that high.
For the manufacturer, the costs of manufacturing and selling 2 devices (with and without MQA) would be significantly more expensive. The different labeling of the housings alone, each with only half the amount, would be more expensive and time-consuming.
In addition, most MQA devices use the newer XMOS chip XU-216 instead of the old XU-208.

 

[Celty]

Okto DAC8 Stereo would like a chat.

To be fair, I did ask if he would you get the D70s at $649.99 or the D90se at $899

 

[abdo123]

For the manufacturer, the costs of manufacturing and selling 2 devices (with and without MQA) would be significantly more expensive. The different labeling of the housings alone, each with only half the amount, would be more expensive and time-consuming.

The DAC already has like 1000% markup anyway it's pointless to talk about maintenance cost of two paint jobs. this is not the 10$ Apple headphone dongle.

 

[Pennyless Audiophile]

In this case I agree with Amir, the more formats are supported the better. Even if you don't like MQA, there may be cases in which you may want to listen to an MQA track, or someone else in your household may want to listen to MQA or you may end up re-selling it to someone who, incidentally, loves MQA. The extra money is probably worth it.

 

[imagidominc]

It seemed like Topping was trying to top all other dacs, and well, I guess they finally did.

There is no chance in hell that I would hear a difference between this and my D70. And that price tag is ungodly. But hey, for those that want to say they “technically have the best DAC”, here you go.

 

[mohragk]

The screen and font is so ugly, that's a deal breaker for me.

 

[Nango]

Nah. All things you said are false.

Every time someone reproduces your comments or alleged improper behavior to customers your only reaction is: "it wasn't me".