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Review and Measurements of New Topping D50s DAC

JoeBanks

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I'm planning on ordering a D50s but have read that the D50 sounds cold and analytical. If you have one, does it sound this way to you? Thanks.
 

Julf

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I'm planning on ordering a D50s but have read that the D50 sounds cold and analytical. If you have one, does it sound this way to you? Thanks.

You mean accurate? You can always add coloration and distortion if you want...
 

Majestyk

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Analytical is a word that gets thrown around and usually is perceived as being bad, but to me (and to the others above) analytical or "cold" means neutral. The last thing you want is a DAC to be warm. If you're speakers are already warm then your music is going to sound like mush.
 

dheepak10

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I'm planning on ordering a D50s but have read that the D50 sounds cold and analytical. If you have one, does it sound this way to you? Thanks.
As long as the DAC is true to source, analytical is fine. You can pair it with a tube amp/pre-amp to add some colouration and depth. Good tubes required though.
 

BDWoody

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I'm planning on ordering a D50s but have read that the D50 sounds cold and analytical. If you have one, does it sound this way to you? Thanks.

Nothing other than transparency from mine. If I want warmth I can always add it myself...or I can just put my pants on...
 

Charles_andrei

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Just purchased burson playmate with v6 vivid and im planning to buy a good Dac to pair it with. And im thinking of topping d50s. Will topping D50s suffice? I think they both have the same dac chip the only difference is the dual dac of topping d50s as compared to a single dac chip of burson. With the dual dac of topping will there be great improvement in sound quality?
Thanks
 

Veri

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Just purchased burson playmate with v6 vivid and im planning to buy a good Dac to pair it with. And im thinking of topping d50s. Will topping D50s suffice? I think they both have the same dac chip the only difference is the dual dac of topping d50s as compared to a single dac chip of burson. With the dual dac of topping will there be great improvement in sound quality?
Thanks

1) I have heard the Burson and its internal DAC sounds perfectly fine...

2) The playmate doesn't even have any analog input only an output so you can't connect an external DAC to it.
 
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OsipovVas

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Good afternoon.
I planned to buy a DX3Pro, but after reading reviews about unstable quality, at the last moment I bought D50s (not having studied its capabilities in such detail).
And as I see now - in the D50s there is no "only DAC" / "preamp" mode switching.
I use D50s in conjunction with a Denon pma-720ae amplifier. When the volume is set to 0dB on the DAC, the volume level is very large, on the amplifier the adjustment is sharp.
The question is - when the volume is reduced by means of the DAC, do I lose in sound quality?
Will a constant level of 0dB (2 Vrms) harm my amplifier? The amplifier does not have a preamp input, only 4 line inputs (+ phono corrector).
 

daftcombo

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Good afternoon.
I planned to buy a DX3Pro, but after reading reviews about unstable quality, at the last moment I bought D50s (not having studied its capabilities in such detail).
And as I see now - in the D50s there is no "only DAC" / "preamp" mode switching.
I use D50s in conjunction with a Denon pma-720ae amplifier. When the volume is set to 0dB on the DAC, the volume level is very large, on the amplifier the adjustment is sharp.
The question is - when the volume is reduced by means of the DAC, do I lose in sound quality?
Will a constant level of 0dB (2 Vrms) harm my amplifier? The amplifier does not have a preamp input, only 4 line inputs (+ phono corrector).

You should think about convenience without fearing of lose sound quality.

Select a loudly recorded track and push play. Set the volume to 0 on your amp and to max the volume on the DAC.
Then slowly increase the volume on your amp and decrease the volume on your DAC quasi simultaneously until you reach a point when the amp knob is as you would like it to be for max volume.
Don't touch the DAC volume anymore and play with the amp knob as from now.

And no, 2V is perfectly fine for an amp input. Even 4V would be nice.
 

Urushi

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I am debating between buying the D50s and D50. The D50S is $50 more...I am kind of on the fence. I have Sony Bluetooth WH-1000XM3 headphones...will there be any improvement in sound quality if I connect to the Topping vs directly to my computer?

Also how is the quality of the silver finish?
 

AudioJunky

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I am debating between buying the D50s and D50. The D50S is $50 more...I am kind of on the fence. I have Sony Bluetooth WH-1000XM3 headphones...will there be any improvement in sound quality if I connect to the Topping vs directly to my computer?
Also how is the quality of the silver finish?


Why not the dx3 pro if using headphones?
 

Berwhale

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I am debating between buying the D50s and D50. The D50S is $50 more...I am kind of on the fence. I have Sony Bluetooth WH-1000XM3 headphones...will there be any improvement in sound quality if I connect to the Topping vs directly to my computer?

Also how is the quality of the silver finish?

How do you intend to connect the headphones? The Topping can receive audio via Bluetooth, but it's not a transmitter and it doesn't have an headphone socket or amp.

A recent Android phone with LDAC support has sufficient bandwidth to send CD quality audio to the MX1000's over Bluetooth. I recommend USB Audio Player Pro to bypass to the Android Audio stack: https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/products/usb-audio-player-pro
 
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Urushi

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I am thinking of Schitt Vali 2 or a solid state amp in the $200-$500 range.
 

maxxevv

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But your headphones are wireless right? Don't buy all that for the Sony XM3 :eek: the internal circuitry is still digital, there's no point!

Indeed, it will make no difference for the XM3. Just find a player / phone / computer card that can support the full range of Codecs that the headphone use and has a good BT transmission antenna . All the decoding / DA conversion is done onboard the headphone itself.
 

maxxevv

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I have HD600s and the Sony

You didn't mention the HD600 in the previous post. Some computers do alright but most won't do very well with them.

You could connect the JDS Atom with the PC if you feel that the sound quality out of it is decent enough, but not quite enough juice for the HD800.

In any case, if you like the form factor and don't intend to use the wireless feature, the D50 is great buy at its discounted price. Mate that with the JDS Atom and you're good for as long as the 2 units can last you. Which with luck, can mean for a very long time. You're not going to get "significantly better" whichever way you upgrade from there.

Or the DX3 Pro as an all in one solution.

Or if you want a desktop unit without batteries and good portability, you could take a look at the Sabaj Da3. Its more than suffice for my HD6XX and HE4XX at work.
 

Urushi

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The DX3 Pro is the logical choice but I don't like the way it looks. Is the DX7s good? I also like the look of Schitt Amps/Dac and the Rupert Neve Amp.
 
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