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Best topping preamp for driving power amp.

blodsbror

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Hi!

I'm a big fan of Topping (performance, and aesthetics). So I'm looking for the best combined DAC/Preamp for driving a power amp (haven't decided which one yet). Any ideas on which device would suit this use case best ?. Note: I see that the D90SE supports 5v out. Perhaps that makes it ideal ?. @JohnYang1997 any suggestions ?
 
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AudioStudies

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Will there be a non-MQA version of the D90SE? Also, what are the differences between the D90SE and the original D90?
 

AudioStudies

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Thanks @JohnYang1997. Would there be any advantages in having a purely analog preamp (such as the PRE90) vs the D90se ?
A similar question came up a while back on another thread regarding whether a preamp was needed when using a high-quality DAC equipped with volume control. I think the answer given was "no" if the DAC will be the only source component in the system. I wonder though, whether there would be any danger of inadvertently switching to "fixed" output mode, and then getting way too much volume in the room or possibly even damaging a speaker.
 

JohnYang1997

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Thanks @JohnYang1997. Would there be any advantages in having a purely analog preamp (such as the PRE90) vs the D90se ?
Pre90 has multiple inputs and can connect to extender unit EXT90.
Performance wise, D90se is probably better at full level, Pre90 wins back when attenuates probably -10dB or below.
D90se though is actually already better than majority of speaker amps' input noise. So it may not matter much in the end. The amp will limit the overall performance.
 

Pdxwayne

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Pre90 has multiple inputs and can connect to extender unit EXT90.
Performance wise, D90se is probably better at full level, Pre90 wins back when attenuates probably -10dB or below.
D90se though is actually already better than majority of speaker amps' input noise. So it may not matter much in the end. The amp will limit the overall performance.
Would the Topping EX5 do fine too?
 

f1shb0n3

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@JohnYang1997 - would I be losing significant objective performance if I feed digitally attenuated signal to D90SE which is connected in DAC mode to power amp?

miniDSP SHD Studio ---> D90SE ---> power amp, where miniDSP is used as digital volume control at 32bit 96kHz attenuated at -30dB
vs the same configuration, but feeding full digital signal to D90SE and using in preamp mode at -30dB?
 
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