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Topping E30 DAC Review

hawk01

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i suppose page15 of the included white paper says it all and validates my intention of using a comptetent DAC with volume control connected directly to a power amplifier! makes life much easier (and cheaper) for me more so that i do not have analog sources anyway.
 

Sharur

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hello all E30 users, shame on my lazy ass to backread. i am planning to use the E30 to do full time preamp/DAC duties for my main speaker system. source is minipc, usb input into E30 connected to the amplifier powering revel M16s. it will be playing a mixed bag of FLAC and DSD files. Q&A below:

1. is a DAC like the E30 with volume control even worthy of using as a preamp in a (not desktop) stereo system? this makes for one less gear (preamp) in the chain which makes it attractive.

2. is the digital volume control on the E30 bit perfect? no loss of material in low volumes? is the volume control resolving enough to perform preamp duties?

3. in preamp mode, does the E30 display show volume dB level only during playback? or does it momentarily indicate sampling rate changes when it happens, then revert to volume dB level afterwards?

4. in preamp mode does the DAC functionality remain unaffected? again as it will receive a selection of FLAC and DSD files from the pc source.

user inputs are much appreciated! cheers and be safe!
1. no because the remote has to be pointed directly at the e30

2. yes

3. idk

4. not for dsd
 

companyja

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2. is the digital volume control on the E30 bit perfect? no loss of material in low volumes? is the volume control resolving enough to perform preamp duties?

This is a bit of a weird one since by altering the volume you are definitionally not doing digitally bit-perfect output; lowering the volume digitally (using the DAC) lowers the bit depth of the signal, so you theoretically lose some SNR. Generally it's easiest to think of it as 1bit = 6dB, so if you're at -6.0 dB on the preamp, you just went from 16bit to 15bit on your signal (if you started with 16 - it's a bit more complicated than all this but it's easy to visualize it this way). This is thankfully going to be inaudible, but technically you are altering the signal before it gets sent to an analog amplifier. We do this all the time with digital attenuation, for example if you lower the volume on your PC from 100%, you're also losing bit depth, however windows (in shared mode at least) resamples everything to 24/32bit anyway for the mixing and then samples it back down so that you don't get a bit-crushed effect, you just lose a bit of SNR which will be inaudible most of the time. In order to apply digital EQ for example, you always have to apply negative preamp so that your signal doesn't clip. Modern DACs will do upsampling of your signal so that you don't lose "information", only signal-to-noise ratio, so I wouldn't worry about it, just that I wouldn't call it bit-perfect when it's attenuated
 

hawk01

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This is a bit of a weird one since by altering the volume you are definitionally not doing digitally bit-perfect output; lowering the volume digitally (using the DAC) lowers the bit depth of the signal, so you theoretically lose some SNR. Generally it's easiest to think of it as 1bit = 6dB, so if you're at -6.0 dB on the preamp, you just went from 16bit to 15bit on your signal (if you started with 16 - it's a bit more complicated than all this but it's easy to visualize it this way). This is thankfully going to be inaudible, but technically you are altering the signal before it gets sent to an analog amplifier. We do this all the time with digital attenuation, for example if you lower the volume on your PC from 100%, you're also losing bit depth, however windows (in shared mode at least) resamples everything to 24/32bit anyway for the mixing and then samples it back down so that you don't get a bit-crushed effect, you just lose a bit of SNR which will be inaudible most of the time. In order to apply digital EQ for example, you always have to apply negative preamp so that your signal doesn't clip. Modern DACs will do upsampling of your signal so that you don't lose "information", only signal-to-noise ratio, so I wouldn't worry about it, just that I wouldn't call it bit-perfect when it's attenuated
well put sir! in the grand scheme of things at least if it gets away as being inaudible at least to my ears then messing around with the DVC by using it as a preamp may yet have its merits for my case use.
 

ALex_hha

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Does anyone use optical input ? Is it good enough ? I have seen complains on the site regarding not so well optical input implementation in topping products
 

Toku

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Does anyone use optical input ? Is it good enough ? I have seen complains on the site regarding not so well optical input implementation in topping products
I have tested 3 E30 OPT/COAX and have not found any issues.
What I'm actually seeing the problem with is the D50/D50S COAX connection.
 

raif71

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I'm about to buy a 3rd E30. Have there been any notable issues since january, or is everything still good on the E30 side?
1622503118795.png
 

Premonition

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i suppose page15 of the included white paper says it all and validates my intention of using a comptetent DAC with volume control connected directly to a power amplifier! makes life much easier (and cheaper) for me more so that i do not have analog sources anyway.
I've tried this with my Topping D50s before on a Sony N9000ES power amplifier, using the DAC to control the volume made music feel a lot more inorganic and a little robotic to me, like I was losing detail.
Prior to this I used the NAD C320BEE as preamp and only tried using the DAC as preamp due to the NAD's pop sounds. Because i didnt like how the D50s sounded as a preamp it made me purchase a proper tube preamp instead.

I'm sure the E30 is a great product in any case, I'm getting one to use with another TV setup because i subjectively prefer AKM chips, gotta get them before they run out haha
 

Jose Hidalgo

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What happened to your first two?
They're very much alive and kicking. I just need a 3rd one because I have different systems in different rooms. :p
 

hawk01

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hello again E30 users! any of you encountering popping noise between tracks during track changes on DSD material playback? i have this issue which oddly enough manifests itself on select DSD files only, while most of my other DSD and FLAC files do not have such popping noise.
 

Toku

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hello again E30 users! any of you encountering popping noise between tracks during track changes on DSD material playback? i have this issue which oddly enough manifests itself on select DSD files only, while most of my other DSD and FLAC files do not have such popping noise.
The E30 produces pop noise when switching to songs with different sampling rates. The level of pop noise isn't that great, but it's sometimes annoying.
This is especially noticeable when directly connected to a power amplifier that has no volume at the input.
DX3Pro LDAC has a similar problem. DX3Pro (Ver1) does not occur because pop noise is prevented by a relay.
 
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hawk01

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The E30 produces pop noise when switching to songs with different sampling rates. The level of pop noise isn't that great, but it's sometimes annoying.
This is especially noticeable when directly connected to a power amplifier that has no volume at the input.
DX3Pro LDAC has a similar problem. DX3Pro (Ver1) does not occur because pop noise is prevented by a relay.
i only encounter the pops during DSD playback. it does not even happen when switching between different sample rates as some may report. oh and it is very annoying!
 

Toku

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i only encounter the pops during DSD playback. it does not even happen when switching between different sample rates as some may report. oh and it is very annoying!
I have 3 E30s, but I've never heard of pop noise only in DSD.
Does it come out at the beginning of the song playback? Or does it come out during playback? Do you come out repeatedly?
Also, will all songs from DSD64 to DSD512 appear?
 

hawk01

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I have 3 E30s, but I've never heard of pop noise only in DSD.
Does it come out at the beginning of the song playback? Or does it come out during playback? Do you come out repeatedly?
Also, will all songs from DSD64 to DSD512 appear?
it only pops between tracks during DSD playback of no particular sample rate and only hapeens in a few select DSD albums i have. while most of my other DSD files have no issues.
 

Toku

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it only pops between tracks during DSD playback of no particular sample rate and only hapeens in a few select DSD albums i have. while most of my other DSD files have no issues.
Early models of the E30 had the problem of frequent breaks in DSD 2.8 playback. To solve this, it is necessary to send it back to the factory and rewrite the MCU (CPU) program.
This is the only E30 DSD-related problem I'm aware of.
 

hawk01

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Early models of the E30 had the problem of frequent breaks in DSD 2.8 playback. To solve this, it is necessary to send it back to the factory and rewrite the MCU (CPU) program.
This is the only E30 DSD-related problem I'm aware of.
if that is the case then i hope the units sold today have fixed all those issues!,
 
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