Topping D30Pro Review (Balanced DAC)

[Frank207be]

How good are the volume controls of these DACs? I'm in the market for one for low level late night listening. I'm currently using a M2Tech Young DSD but I got curious about the DAC improvements that were made the last years.

 

[highpurityusbcable]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new Topping D30Pro. It was kindly sent to me by the company. Alas, I forgot to ask them how much it costs when released. I will update the review when I find out.

The D30Pro is released in a lovely medium sized chassis with my favorite display color: orange!
View attachment 111624

I was surprised to see it have balanced outputs and included mains power supply:
View attachment 111625

Reading the manual and using the device, I was pleased to see that the outputs are selectable. You can have XLR out, RCA out, or both. So you can now feed powered speakers from one output and RCA to another and select which one comes on. Note however that there are no discrete controls in the remote and you have to cycle through them.

For those of you who are picky and will find this, the round wheel is really round. There was a piece of fuzz that I took out quickly in Photoshop which gave it a little nick.
Topping D30Pro Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard, this time using USB In and balanced out at maximum volume:
View attachment 111626

Distortion is down to incredibly low -135 dB. My analyzer noise plus what the D30Pro has on its own contribute to bring SINAD "down" to 120 dB:
View attachment 111627


View attachment 111628

Switching to RCA out, we loose a tiny bit:

View attachment 111630

Dynamic range is superb:
View attachment 111629

As is intermodulation distortion versus level:
View attachment 111631

Linearity is absolutely perfect:
View attachment 111632

Five filters are provided:
View attachment 111633

Nice to see very high attenuation with Filter 2 which is the default.

Distortion+noise was quite high versus frequency when measuring wideband:

View attachment 111634

This could be either distortion, ultrasonic noise, or both. Let's look at the spectrum to find out:
View attachment 111635

Ah, it is not distortion. It is a technique for reducing noise in audible band called "noise shaping." You take out noise in audible band and park it in ultrasonic range that we don't hear. This is a very mild version and starts well above audible range ag 45 kHz. So no consequence as far as audibility.

When I measure jitter on DACs these days, usually USB is great but Toslink and Coax, not so much. D30Pro goes against the trend, producing superb and identical results with all three inputs:
View attachment 111636

Edit: forgot the multitone:
View attachment 111642

Conclusions
Consistent with tradition, Topping D30Pro produces excellent objective results courtesy of the company doing its homework during design rather than waiting for me to find the faults! Assuming this is a mid-priced DAC, the feature set of balanced and selectable outputs combined with a bright and pretty display is a winner in my book. Inclusion of AC mains (and regulatory certifications to go with it) removes clutter form the desk finally making for a compact DAC.

Needless to say, I am happy to strongly recommend the Topping D30Pro DAC.

NOTE: this is a brand new products. I cannot test for bugs and issues beyond what goes on in my testing. While I did not find any issues whatsoever, you may find otherwise. If you are squeamish about such things, wait for early adopters to buy it and put it through its paces.

EDIT: just did a video review of this. Although it covers the same info as above, I explain the measurements in more detail:

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

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Seeing the product, build and dimensions on a video is very useful too. And voiced explanations are good for dummies like me. The easiest sub of my life. Thank you.

 

[diddley]

 

[pavuol]

Any video review starting with a "knock on wood" you know this is gonna be serious!

New "tech-tube calendar" - xx years before Amir / xx years after Amir

 

[Nango]

I expect Topping to release next D30 Pro "Max" within weeks with less noise and distortion + shaping noise beyond 100 kHz so I will pass on this and wait for the next. Thanks Topping!

 

[Kuppenbender]

Nice one, I don’t expect you are this grown up and still able to lug around those heavy speakers!

I didn’t expect him to not be a surprised Japanese lady with a paper bag on her head!

 

[dannut]

Thanks Amir for the (video) review!


+++1

Topping and others have shown that the 2ch DAC at reasonable prices has been fully conquered. Performance is there and it is mostly about features.

The next frontier is a multi channel pre/dac AVR with DSP. It should do both 2ch and multichannel at the level of today's 2ch DACs with DSP enabled.

First company to market this will make waves...

It would be a 'shut up and take my money' situation. It doesn't need to be 120+ SINAD device, to keep the cost reasonable.
And if anyone is listening - please, make it KISS. Simple device with HDMI eARC, bitstream decoding, music upmixing! (Logic 7 or ProLogic2), flexible matrix mixing, lowpass/highpass/PEQ/biquad and FIR processing - DIRAC live upgradable of-course. Like some MiniDSP products. Oh and some cheap amplification to go with it - ie. TPA3255

 

[Koeitje]

I really like the Youtube video, you explaining the measurements should really help people understand what they are looking at.

 

[sweetchaos]

Here's the social rank of @amirm YouTube channel:
https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCWp1NY1KXGwcOh1RxKp_-FA

Give it some time to populate...and it will show you a lot of juicy details!
Good to bookmark and refer to.

 

[Doodski]

Here's the social rank of @amirm YouTube channel:
https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCWp1NY1KXGwcOh1RxKp_-FA

Give it some time to populate...and it will show you a lot of juicy details!
Good to bookmark and refer to.

That YouTube webpage has to get to a million views to earn roughly a thousand bucks. That's a general rule I read.

 

[Daverz]

How good are the volume controls of these DACs? I'm in the market for one for low level late night listening. I'm currently using a M2Tech Young DSD but I got curious about the DAC improvements that were made the last years.

I'm only familiar with cheapies like Topping E30, but that one goes down to -60 dBFS in 0.5 dB steps and then down to -99 dBFS in 1 dB steps. So it's good for late night listening even when listening to loud source programs like streaming radio. I would expect the D30Pro to be at least as good.

 

[ksaugrin]

First, awesome videos @amirm . And as usual Topping proove their design skill.

 

[Veri]

I expect Topping to release next D30 Pro "Max" within weeks with less noise and distortion + shaping noise beyond 100 kHz so I will pass on this and wait for the next. Thanks Topping!

Not possible. It is inherent to how this cirrus logic chip is designed

 

[edahl]

The video component is very welcome!

 

[Matias]

Topping should make a fully featured multi-ch AVR, or AVP with Dirac. I'm sure they'd knock it out of the park, as they've proven time and time again to put in a lot of effort into their engineering.

The day they release a multichannel AVP with these measurements it will be an instant purchase here, even without Dirac.

 

[Music1969]

EDIT: just did a video review of this. Although it covers the same info as above, I explain the measurements in more detail:

Brilliant video review! Only your first but already looking like you've done it for 10 years.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Get ready for some torture in watching my first youtube video that I just created on this DAC!!! Added it to the review but here it is as well:

The PS noise you mentioned in jitter test is actually the components in the Jtest signal.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-mesh-jitter-and-noise-measurement-png.23724/

 

[ZolaIII]

I see. Wondering if Topping had a hunch the factory was going to burn down or they picked a non-AKM chip after it already did.

Cyrius is absolute sweet spot right now regarding performance for price along with leading efficiency so it should be a obvious choice. Only worrisome part is driver's support (universal ones work properly but even so).

 

[restorer-john]

Nice to see very high attenuation with Filter 2 which is the default.

Less than 10dB down at 22.05kHz (@44.1k) is not "very high attenuation" nor is it remotely "nice".

It should be 80-90dB down. You know that.

 

[restorer-john]

The headphone icon on remote means xlr or rca? Or does it turn on headphone amp?

Nobody knows.

A bit like the rear panel with no designation of inputs or outputs. An unfinished product if ever I saw one. How does this stuff ever see the light of day?