Anyone Review Topping D90III Discrete / D90 III Sabre yet ?

[ooauoo2013]

Hi , im just newbie im try to search information about 2 of this and nothing online yet , just want to know what the different about both of them and worth for upgrade Sabre to Discrete ?
currently running A90D

 

[Rja4000]

TOPPING D90 III Sabre DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the TOPPING D90 III Sabre balanced stereo DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $899. As you can see, the design is what we have know about most of the Topping products. I do wish at this price that we had a high resolution display that...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ooauoo2013]

TOPPING D90 III Sabre DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the TOPPING D90 III Sabre balanced stereo DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $899. As you can see, the design is what we have know about most of the Topping products. I do wish at this price that we had a high resolution display that...

www.audiosciencereview.com

what about Discrete version ?

 

[Rja4000]

Amir didn't review the (brand new) Discrete yet.
Expect results to be similarly excellent and, anyway, indistinguishable from each other with current AP hardware.

Which means also indistinguishable by ear, of course.

 

[fametrano]

I've just replaced my DA90SE with DA90 III Discrete.
The BT antenna is a longer plastic one that can be flexed. I set up the DA90 III Discrete to my liking and enjoyed a couple hours of music. No sound difference between DA90SE and DA90 III Discrete, as far as I am concerned.

I was going to play with PEQ when I decided to check firmware: my unit was on firmware 0.35 and I tried to update to 0.37. I got a failure, tried again, but this second time the current firmware was detected as v1.01 and any further attempt keeps failing, the front screen says "MCU no FW". I'm using a MacBook Air M3 with macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

Stuck with a brick, I wrote to [email protected], waiting for their feedback

 

[fametrano]

No feedback from the service yet, I did borrow a windows PC and was able to update the firmware to 0.37
So, here's my warning: current firmware update can be problematic with a Mac, no issues with Windows

 

[misterdog]

@fametrano, Any further views on the sound of the D90 discrete ?

 

[tjf]

looking at the documentation and site info for the D90III Discrete -- still looks like only USB input has "Topping Tune" PEQ (like the D50III) - prob still using the DSP of the XMOS USB device for the PEQ functions - a recent headphone show promoted the D90III Discrete as having PEQ for all digital inputs, but that was based on a sign next to a D90III Discrete mockup on a table display at the show - a thread about this show (and a link to these show pictures) is somewhere on ASR

 

[MaxBuck]

@fametrano, Any further views on the sound of the D90 discrete ?

It sounds like any other competent DAC.

 

[misterdog]

It sounds like any other competent DAC.

So why bother reading these threads then, let alone posting on them.

I can change the sound of my phono stage considerably by changing the value of just one resistor.

 

[MaxBuck]

So why bother reading these threads then, let alone posting on them.

Just entertaining myself by seeing what nonsense people come up with.

 

[nsfgp]

Tharbamar and iiwi both have YT review up on the discrete just FYI.

 

[misterdog]

 

[restorer-john]

Why do people make such dreadful recordings and put them on Youtube? Not only has Grace Mahya made an absolute meal of Sade's Kiss of Life, his in room recording is just terrible. I have 1980s cassette tapes with less hiss.

 

[mackman]

I don’t understand how a dac with 130db of transparency can have a sound signature different than another dac with 130db of transparency without PEQ enabled. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. Is this purely subjectivism or is there some other dimension I’m missing?

 

[misterdog]

Why do people make such dreadful recordings and put them on Youtube? Not only has Grace Mahya made an absolute meal of Sade's Kiss of Life, his in room recording is just terrible. I have 1980s cassette tapes with less hiss.

Maybe the live recording he played was recorded on a 1980's cassette tape..

 

[misterdog]

I don’t understand how a dac with 130db of transparency can have a sound signature different than another dac with 130db of transparency without PEQ enabled. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. Is this purely subjectivism or is there some other dimension I’m missing?

I can bring in all the high frequency noise from my vinyl replay by increasing the resistive loading, introducing the clicks and pops that people expect to hear, or I can choose to leave it out.
My Cadenza Black cartridge has frequency range at -3 dB: 20 - 60,000 Hz

What effect does out of band noise have on the audible frequency range.

My old NCore amps had a lot of high frequency OOB noise from the power supply, where my Benchmark AHB2 doesn't, I prefer my AHB2.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

@fametrano, Any further views on the sound of the D90 discrete ?

Of all the audibly transparent DACs out there, it is simultaneously the best sounding and the worst sounding.

 

[mackman]

I can bring in all the high frequency noise from my vinyl replay by increasing the resistive loading, introducing the clicks and pops that people expect to hear, or I can choose to leave it out.
My Cadenza Black cartridge has frequency range at -3 dB: 20 - 60,000 Hz

What effect does out of band noise have on the audible frequency range.

My old NCore amps had a lot of high frequency OOB noise from the power supply, where my Benchmark AHB2 doesn't, I prefer my AHB2.

I've read this 5 times and I still can't figure out if you're answering my question. Do you answer a lot of questions by talking about your phono cartridge?

 

[misterdog]

Ortofon.