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Drive powered speakers with DAC

mondaying

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Hi,

I'm building my first system, and I wonder is a Topping d30 dac enough to directly drive powered speakers like Dynaudio lyd 7, or Acoustic energy AE1 ?

I see some people advising use of preamp like here.

But these kind of material seems to be reserved to the 'pro' world (and very expensive).
And it would be nice if I could have a setup composed of only Topping DX7 + XLR cables + powered speakers !

Thank in advance for your advises :)
 

Purité Audio

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With active speakers you just need a dac with an attenuator, RME adi-dac2 £895, superb measurements and incredibly versatile.
Keith
 
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mondaying

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Thank for your answer ! What's an attenuator for ? volume control ?
Topping DX7 wich is about half the price do not has this feature ?
 
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Purité Audio

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Yes attenuator is just volume control, I am not sure what the various Topping models have, buy something that has the features you need.
Do you need volume, would you like a headphone amplifier, do you need tone controls and built in EQ a remote?
That is how I would choose, both Topping and RME measure superbly.
Keith
 
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mondaying

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Yes in the end I am looking for a dac with

- optical input
- balanced output
- headphone output
- attenuator (volume control :)
- remote

Looks like Topping DX7, DX7S and RME adi-dac2 fit this needs.
Well, with more brio for the RME adi-dac2, referring to the measurements.
 

Soniclife

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The other thing to check is the output and input voltages, so that you can drive them to full output with reasonable vol travel.
 

Purité Audio

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The RME has variable input and output, for digital and analogue it is extremely comprehensive!
Keith
 

Wombat

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Yes in the end I am looking for a dac with

- optical input
- balanced output
- headphone output
- attenuator (volume control :)
- remote

Looks like Topping DX7, DX7S and RME adi-dac2 fit this needs.
Well, with more brio for the RME adi-dac2, referring to the measurements.


Line level volume controller with remote. Just put this after your dac and before your speakers.
 

andreasmaaan

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Both the active speaker models you've mentioned accept both unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR input, which gives you a wide range of options in terms of choosing a DAC.

All the Topping DACs mentioned (D30, D50, DX7s) measure extremely well, although the DX7s costs double the price of the D50 and, on the whole, does not offer improved performance (although it does offer balanced outputs).

The RME ADI-2 DAC is about as close to technically perfect as you can get, although it would seem unlikely to me that any of the measured imperfections of the D50 or DX7s could be even near the threshold of audibility (in other words, I can't imagine any of these three models could sound any different from one another).

Do you know the input sensitivity and input impedance of your monitors? In the end, the only important variables in making this decision may be ensuring good impedance matching and gain structure between the DAC and the monitors.

Edit: also keep in mind that (to my knowledge) the D30 doesn't have a volume control, whereas the other options mentioned do.
 

Bluealq

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I was thinking of exactly the same setup. It will be my first serious attempt at a system. Did you get the AE-1's? What combo did you end up going with?
 
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