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Review and Measurements of New Topping D50s DAC

Veri

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I have AK4458VN on my Denon x4200 receiver. I should hope it's not crap :)

I've no idea how good that Denon is :) like I said the chip doesn't really matter if everything else is not up to par.
The D50s is at the very least a solid choice, can always return it if it doesn't bring any quality gains whatsoever! Buying from amazon helps with that.
 

BTman

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I've no idea how good that Denon is :) like I said the chip doesn't really matter if everything else is not up to par.
The D50s is at the very least a solid choice, can always return it if it doesn't bring any quality gains whatsoever! Buying from amazon helps with that.
It's not really an option, from where I live, but thanks for the suggestion.
 

BDWoody

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I have AK4458VN on my Denon x4200 receiver. I should hope it's not crap :)

So If this D50s is not big leap forward in terms of sound, what is?

You're making the assumption that there is a big leap forward left to make, with regard to your DAC. If it's already transparent, it is giving you everything there is to give that matters.
Next big leap for you might be speakers, or room conditioning...
 

BTman

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You're making the assumption that there is a big leap forward left to make, with regard to your DAC. If it's already transparent, it is giving you everything there is to give that matters.
Next big leap for you might be speakers, or room conditioning...
I'm not amusing anything. I'm asking :)
Speakers were already upgraded lately (Buchardt S400)
You're probably right. Room treatment should be my next goal. Not that I know were to start...
 

Negatywny

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Speakers were already upgraded lately (Buchardt S400)
You're probably right. Room treatment should be my next goal. Not that I know were to start...

So you've got DAC wchich gives you, let's pessimistically say 99% of quality and really grate compact speakers. No place for improvement here without going for 4 times bigger floorstanders for 2-3times of the price of those buchardts. Whats with your amp? ;)

Room treatment is really easy, you just hang as many mineral wool absorbers as you can (preferably in the first reflection points), and if you don't have separate listening room and use your normal salon, you probably can hang 50% of what you should so you don't have to bother with anything else than absorbers and complicate the situation.
 

BTman

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So you've got DAC wchich gives you, let's pessimistically say 99% of quality and really grate compact speakers. No place for improvement here without going for 4 times bigger floorstanders for 2-3times of the price of those buchardts. Whats with your amp? ;)

Room treatment is really easy, you just hang as many mineral wool absorbers as you can (preferably in the first reflection points), and if you don't have separate listening room and use your normal salon, you probably can hang 50% of what you should so you don't have to bother with anything else than absorbers and complicate the situation.

I have no problem with my receiver & amp (Anthem hybrid II). I just wondered if a different chip will result in different sound.
I also wanted a good BT transmitter, so I thought the D50s is a good deal, but if the DAC doesn't make any change, I'll just try to find a separate BT transmitter.

Regarding room treatment - I'll try to research the subject more. There are also bass traps and I have some acoustic issues with my living room, so I really need to see what fits were.
 
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scubaste

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I just wanted to say that I bought the D50s from the Apos store late last week for $250 and noticed I had some emails from them today. They changed the price to $219 and refunded me $31. So The price is apparently $219 and I thought it was pretty nice of them to issue me a refund.
 

Sledgestone

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I just wanted to say that I bought the D50s from the Apos store late last week for $250 and noticed I had some emails from them today. They changed the price to $219 and refunded me $31. So The price is apparently $219 and I thought it was pretty nice of them to issue me a refund.

What is Apos store?
 

scubaste

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Apos is cheaper and they do expedite shipping by default. They also seem responsive over email.

I've been very happy with my transactions with Apos. My D50s arrived in about a week from china. I spoke with one of their representatives a few times over email and they were very nice and easy to deal with. I'd recommend using them.
 

scubaste

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My D50s didn't come with a power supply, but came with a power cable. I suppose this is how they do it? I'm slightly hesitant to plug it into any random usb, but anything that is 5v 1a should work, correct?
 

Toku

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My D50s didn't come with a power supply, but came with a power cable. I suppose this is how they do it? I'm slightly hesitant to plug it into any random usb, but anything that is 5v 1a should work, correct?
Yes, you are right.
 

scubaste

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I installed the driver and can't seem to get my computer to recognize the device via USB. It also seems to power itself off pretty quickly. Has anyone run into this? Thanks

Edit: I think the power supply I was using was too weak even though its said 5v 1a. Anyway, got it figure out by just using my computer as a power source. More testing later.
 
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geek101

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I installed the driver and can't seem to get my computer to recognize the device via USB. It also seems to power itself off pretty quickly. Has anyone run into this? Thanks

Edit: I think the power supply I was using was too weak even though its said 5v 1a. Anyway, got it figure out by just using my computer as a power source. More testing later.

Yes I had similar experience, connected to a 5.5v power source and that did not work. Using the usb to power cable from pc/usb wall charger both those options work for me.
 

Snafu

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under 5V psu is enough to power display on but dac itself doesn't work. happened to me with D50.
 

WondrousHippo

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Got my D50S on Sunday, it works well. One issue is that for Bluetooth, aptX Low Latency doesn't seem to work, I can connect aptX HD and LDAC just fine though.

Also, interestingly, USB and Bluetooth connections stay active even when another input is selected. I like that behavior for USB, Bluetooth not so much.
 

geek101

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Got my D50S on Sunday, it works well. One issue is that for Bluetooth, aptX Low Latency doesn't seem to work, I can connect aptX HD and LDAC just fine though.

Also, interestingly, USB and Bluetooth connections stay active even when another input is selected. I like that behavior for USB, Bluetooth not so much.
You can configure D50s to turn off the bluetooth.
 
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