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Topping D70S fried my speakers...

amarsicola

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I don't know why but today when I switched on the Topping D70S the volume was at -0db. Of course, i never set the volume so high, and usually the dac reminds the volume of the previous time, but not today. Result: the amplifier fried the tweeter of one loudspeaker. I don't know what the Topping engineers were thinking when they designed this Dac without any option to set a maximum volume, or what was in their mind when they decided that when the Dac was switched on it could randomly start at -0db and not, say, at -90db.
Just a warning for the users/buyers and a pray for the manufacturer: please provide a decent firmware upgrade to solve the issue.
 
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Sokel

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It must have been more than 30 of my posts saying that a dac plugged straight on an amp is an accident waiting to happen sooner or later.
There not such thing as a perfect firmware and all digital stuff "forget" their settings,rarely admittedly but they do,and it only takes one time to do the damage.
That's the reason I still rely on an analog electronic xover,that's the reason I never consider changing the nice analog Alps pot of my pre.
I couldn't care less about the less SINAD that causes as long as it is transparent enough for me and more importantly gives me security (let alone that I can play DSD without 3647634573 hacks).

I'm really sorry that something like this happened to you,my only advice is to get a pre with a nice physical knob that matches your power amp and make it the center of your system.
Peace of mind is priceless.
 

Cars-N-Cans

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Sucks that this stuff happens :( Would be nice if amplifier manufacturers would respond by making settable dynamic limiters and/or controls set with actual knobs or some other physical control to block the audio in the event the source comes on at full tilt or some other calamity happens. I put a current-controlled PSU in my amp just because the PC thinks its cool to come on at 100% volume sometimes, which would be 120+ dB at the speakers for most audio sources.

Not sure how they store parameters, but Id imagine in this case the NVROM/EEPROM may have not been written to properly on the previous shut-down or something similar, so it defaulted to 0 dB. A user-set limit may help, but if that gets corrupted as well, then it doesn't do much good unless there is some hard-coded logic to default to minimum volume in the instance the stored parameters are known to be corrupted. Hopefully Toping can provide some more insight into what may have happened.
 

Mnyb

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If your power amp has selectable gain use a rather low setting or get inline attenuators for the inputs/cables and nock of some 10dB . The purpose is to increase the usable range of the DAC’s volume .
For active speakers you can adjust their volume so that 100% on the DAC is as loud as you ever listen but no more.

Sorry about the accident, it can be some effort to source replacement drivers and repair your speakers :(
 

abdo123

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It must have been more than 30 of my posts saying that a dac plugged straight on an amp is an accident waiting to happen sooner or later.
There not such thing as a perfect firmware and all digital stuff "forget" their settings,rarely admittedly but they do,and it only takes one time to do the damage.
That's the reason I still rely on an analog electronic xover,that's the reason I never consider changing the nice analog Alps pot of my pre.
I couldn't care less about the less SINAD that causes as long as it is transparent enough for me and more importantly gives me security (let alone that I can play DSD without 3647634573 hacks).

I'm really sorry that something like this happened to you,my only advice is to get a pre with a nice physical knob that matches your power amp and make it the center of your system.
Peace of mind is priceless.

It’s interesting how we never hear these nightmare stories with AVRs from big companies.
 

abdo123

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Do you have pets? Children? Literally anyone who could have touched the volume knob?

Was there a power outage?

Seems a bit out of the blue.

I’ve been using MiniDSP products as digital preamps for years, all smooth sailing so far.

Also you should seriously reconsider if you have 0dBFS at anything higher than 100dBSPL.
 

NiagaraPete

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Seems highly unlikely. Most often “people” fry drivers.
 

Cars-N-Cans

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Also you should seriously reconsider if you have 0dBFS at anything higher than 100dB.
Good reason to have an amp with settable gains. Then you can use a DVM along with a test tone to measure the RMS voltage with the DAC at 0 dBFS. Easy enough to estimate the maximum you want it to be using the sensitivity of the speakers. Caveat is that there may not be enough volume range for all types of music (i.e. some classical passages may be too quiet). But with todays high power class-D amps, its almost mandatory unless you want close to 1 kW of heavily-clipped audio being dumped into the speakers.
 

sarumbear

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Sorry to hear what happened. I can only echo others are saying. Connecting a DAC output direct to a power amplifier is never safe. You are basically trusting a software that is developed by a small team or even one person and not tested properly, at least not by a professional test team. Remember, even software written by major developers like Apple & Microsoft occasionally fails.

This is why I use a custom passive volume control based on a motorised Alps potentiometer, similar to this one. There are also ready made devices based on this concept.

 

sarumbear

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It’s interesting how we never hear these nightmare stories with AVRs from big companies.
Don’t they use a potentiometer between the DAC and the amplifier?
 

Cars-N-Cans

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Don’t they use a potentiometer between the DAC and the amplifier?
My older Denon has the clicky-type faux volume control with digital pots. So far it has not done anything unpleasant, but they also will have some additional protections for any unforeseen events. With a component system you don't really have that option, obviously.
 

NiagaraPete

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Sorry to hear what happened. I can only echo others are saying. Connecting a DAC output direct to a power amplifier is never safe. You are basically trusting a software that is developed by a small team or even one person and not tested properly, at least not by a professional test team. Remember, even software written by major developers like Apple & Microsoft occasionally fails.

This is why I use a custom passive volume control based on a motorised Alps potentiometer, similar to this one. There are also ready made devices based on this concept.

I have to disagree. Most owners of active speakers connect a DAC directly to power. Myself I run a few systems with. DAC direct to a amp stack. It’s idiots that change cables when everything is plugged in that cause problems.
 

RosalieTheDog

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I don't know why but today when I switched on the Topping D70S the volume was at -0db. Of course, i never set the volume so high, and usually the dac reminds the volume of the previous time, but not today. Result: the amplifier fried the tweeter of one loudspeaker. I don't know what the Topping engineers were thinking when they designed this Dac without any option to set a maximum volume, or what was in their mind when they decided that when the Dac was switched on it could randomly start at -0db and not, say, at -90db.
Just a warning for the users/buyers and a pray for the manufacturer: please provide a decent firmware upgrade to solve the issue.
This is terrible. I hope Topping can comment and your speakers can be repaired.
 

sarumbear

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I have to disagree. Most owners of active speakers connect a DAC directly to power. Myself I run a few systems with. DAC direct to an amp stack. It’s idiots that change cables when everything is plugged in that cause problems.
As the OP was not an “idiot” as you described and have not changed cables, what is it that you do not agree?
 

NiagaraPete

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As the OP was not an “idiot” as you described and have not changed cables, what is it that you do not agree?
I didn’t imply that OP did, but you seemed to have jumped to that conclusion.
 

sarumbear

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NiagaraPete

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Then what is it that you disagree?
Try reading “I have to disagree. Most owners of active speakers connect a DAC directly to power.”
 

Phorize

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That’s very unfortunate. You have my sympathy.
 
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