Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

[amirm]

I am not next to my lab right now but I do recall the D50 running warm especially compared to D30 which doesn't change temps at all.

 

[lotse888]

Hi,
is it normal that the D50 was warmer -meaning quite warm- than the D30 after an hour of 16/44.1 playback? 210mA@5W is not that much heat...
Oh yes, forget to say that this brand new D50 is now dead silent after a crackling sound in speakers... PSUs tested and ok, the D50 is dead.
Thanks for feedback fellows!
Matthieu

Not with mine. I played it for an hour and the chassis may be slightly warmer than room temperature.

 

[rh0Negative]

I was wondering if we could get better filter explanation ,similar to this

 

[Ted Presley]

Wow is that the same size as a Schiit Modi?

Almost the same size, I put it into the same bag I used to keep my Modi Multibit.

 

[Hawkwindx]

Ordered this DAC and waiting patiently for delivery, should be here in a week or two. I’m new to the terminology. Upsampling? Filters?

I know how to hook this up between my iMac and Bottlehead Crack headphone amp, but any other parameters I will not know how to adjust. Also using Audirvana. Topping does not have a manual for the D50 on their website.

Can anyone point me to a resource that will explain how to use this DAC so I’ll know what I’m doing when I open the new D50 package?

 

[amirm]

Just plug it in and use it. You don't need to know or mess with any of that!

 

[Zek]

I know how to hook this up between my iMac and Bottlehead Crack headphone amp, but any other parameters I will not know how to adjust. Also using Audirvana.

All adjustments make in Audirvana.

 

[rh0Negative]

Ordered this DAC and waiting patiently for delivery, should be here in a week or two. I’m new to the terminology. Upsampling? Filters?

I know how to hook this up between my iMac and Bottlehead Crack headphone amp, but any other parameters I will not know how to adjust. Also using Audirvana. Topping does not have a manual for the D50 on their website.

Can anyone point me to a resource that will explain how to use this DAC so I’ll know what I’m doing when I open the new D50 package?

I have this DAC paired with tube amp and really like it ,pretty sure you will enjoy it as well ,good RCA cables is all you need
Here you go
http://en.tpdz.net/wdzn_detail/newsId=80.html

 

[lcheetec]

Hello.

I just got into a mass-order of the D50 from Singapore, for US$214. I already have a pre-amp, and am looking to use this as a locked-volume pure DAC.

My question of everyone who's used the D50, is will the D50 allow me to lock the volume to maximum via a setting? I saw something called "Calibrate" or "Calibrated" posted. Is that what the locked volume setting is called? Thanks!

Daniel
Singapore

 

[jsmiller58]

Noob-ie questions...

Topping D50
Windows 10
Only listen to music on Tidal (Windows Tidal app on laptop, or through USB Audio Player Pro on my phone)

Do I need to download any drivers?
- I have been using the DAC with my laptop and have not had to download any, but I am concerned that I may be missing out on some features or quality (discernible or not )

If yes, where can I get it?
- I went to their Dropbox and has file that says it is the drivers in zip format, but when I download it the file comes out as an html file and not a zip file

(Grab bag of questions) What are the optimal settings of various things to get the most out of this DAC?
- for the DAC (e.g. filters, anything else?)
- for Windows (any device settings to tweak, gotchas - this is Windows, of course - to watch out for)
- for the driver if required?
- for Tidal?

Occasionally I will use my LG v30 rather than my laptop as the source of music. I use USB Audio Player Pro... what are the optimal settings on the DAC, the LG, and USB Audio Player Pro to get the most out of it?

 

[amirm]

Noob-ie questions...

Topping D50
Windows 10
Only listen to music on Tidal (Windows Tidal app on laptop, or through USB Audio Player Pro on my phone)

Do I need to download any drivers?
- I have been using the DAC with my laptop and have not had to download any, but I am concerned that I may be missing out on some features or quality (discernible or not )

No, you don't need any drivers. You don't get more fidelity or features with other drivers.

 

[amirm]

(Grab bag of questions) What are the optimal settings of various things to get the most out of this DAC?
- for the DAC (e.g. filters, anything else?)
- for Windows (any device settings to tweak, gotchas - this is Windows, of course - to watch out for)
- for the driver if required?
- for Tidal?

Just one. Go to Sound Control panel. Select D50 sound device. Go into Advanced properties and set the sample rate/bit depth to 44100 and 24 bits. The default is 48000 which forces a resampling for all of your Tidal content (or CD rips) for no reason.

This is what the control panel looks like (for another device, not D50):

 

[amirm]

My question of everyone who's used the D50, is will the D50 allow me to lock the volume to maximum via a setting? I saw something called "Calibrate" or "Calibrated" posted. Is that what the locked volume setting is called? Thanks!

I don't know for sure. I just leave mine at 0.0 db volume.

Both of you, welcome aboard!

 

[gvl]

Just one. Go to Sound Control panel. Select D50 sound device. Go into Advanced properties and set the sample rate/bit depth to 44100 and 24 bits. The default is 48000 which forces a resampling for all of your Tidal content (or CD rips) for no reason.

This is what the control panel looks like (for another device, not D50):

These days no one should be using the default sound device windows crap for music, Tidal or otherwise, well, Spotify users are mostly SOL. Tidal can do WASAPI exclusive mode in which the above setting does not apply.

 

[chungjun]

"Spotify users are mostly SOL"

SOL? What does that stands for? "Short On Luck"?

I'm using Spotify and... thinking of getting D50 or even RME ADI-2 DAC to beef-up my system. If this is all a foolish venture... stop me now.

 

[jsmiller58]

Just one. Go to Sound Control panel. Select D50 sound device. Go into Advanced properties and set the sample rate/bit depth to 44100 and 24 bits. The default is 48000 which forces a resampling for all of your Tidal content (or CD rips) for no reason.

This is what the control panel looks like (for another device, not D50):

THANK YOU!

Your intelligence is an asset to the community.

Your resources are a godsend to the community.

Your patience is an example to the community.

Your willingness to share all these with us is a blessing to the community!!!

 

[rh0Negative]

"Spotify users are mostly SOL"

SOL? What does that stands for? "Short On Luck"?

I'm using Spotify and... thinking of getting D50 or even RME ADI-2 DAC to beef-up my system. If this is all a foolish venture... stop me now.

I'm monthly subscriber and enjoying,streaming @32/192 all day via D50

 

[rebbiputzmaker]

These days no one should be using the default sound device windows crap for music,

Oh boy! You did it now.

 

[jsmiller58]

Not with mine. I played it for an hour and the chassis may be slightly warmer than room temperature.

Same here. The case warmer than room temp, but not WARM by my estimation. But my life only allows me to play with it about an hour at a time...

 

[gvl]

"Spotify users are mostly SOL"

SOL? What does that stands for? "Short On Luck"?

I'm using Spotify and... thinking of getting D50 or even RME ADI-2 DAC to beef-up my system. If this is all a foolish venture... stop me now.

SOL
The problem with Spotify on Windows it can only write to the default audio device, that does not provide the most direct path to the DAC as the digital stream goes through the system mixer and may get resampled or otherwise altered. You will still benefit from a better DAC but overall the situation with Spotify is less than ideal on Windows.

There have been long standing requests from the community for Spotify to add ASIO or WASAPI exclusive mode support that were largely ignored.
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/ASIO-Output-support/idi-p/19519

They kind of half-assed the sound device selection in the latest versions but afaik it is still not using the exclusive mode and was reported to be unreliable:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Allow-user-to-select-default-sound-device/idi-p/5351

What can you do about it?
1. Fidelify is a 3rd party Spotify client that supports WASAPI exclusive mode, but its stability and feature set is questionable (I haven't tried it).
2. Use Chromecast Audio through its optical output into your DAC. One caveat your DAC must be able to deal with incoming jitter as the CCA's optical output has been found to be quite jittery. Another aspect the CCA is using 256kbps AAC stream vs. 320kbps OGG on desktop, but given AAC is a better compression algorithm the quality should be equivalent if not better.
3. JRiver media center comes with a virtual WDM driver that can intercept/route audio with minimal changes to the JRiver engine, and then out to a WASAPI/ASIO device. I use this, this is still not a true direct path to the DAC but a big improvement over the default Windows sound device IMO, but ymmv, etc.
4. Virtual Audio Cable/ASIO Bridge out to an ASIO driver or maybe Asio4All, this is a similar concept to #3 but I've found it doesn't sound as good.

I'm monthly subscriber and enjoying,streaming @32/192 all day via D50

Huh? Spotify is 16 bits/44.1 kHz compressed. If you have Windows resample audio to 32/192kHz that ain't a good thing.