Review and Measurements of the Topping D70 DAC

[Deleted member 2944]

What button is that? Please. I don't want to damage my speakers!€%#@

There is no such button on the D70 remote.
Have you actually read the User's Manual of your D70? I suggest to do that.

Dave.

 

[gvl]

What button is that? Please. I don't want to damage my speakers!€%#@

It's the Line Out button, but as mentioned it seems to be disabled on the D70, but it's very much operational on DX7s and DX3.

 

[Phrangko]

-12dB seems to have lowest noise / distortion on XLR.

Not sure about RCA.
Did Amir provide RCA measurement ?

Today I used the balanced xlr to connect the D70 directly to the power amp. This is to check which interconnect is better. What I heard is not what I wished. Maybe it's the cable but the xlr cables I bought seems good enough. Not a fan of expensive cables here.
Anyways switching through different albums from my cocktail x12 (via optical) creates a noise before playing. The noise is similar to the pops of vinyl although it goes away during playback. First time I heard it. Repeated several times, same result.
Secondly when used as preamp and bypassing my system preamp, of course, the musicality in the D70 disappears. There are instruments in Where is the Love by Sergio Mendes which I played only the night before are missing or have been muted. Only when I switched back to rca connection to my olsystem preamp does the magic reappear. The instruments are back.
The separates must be it. I'm not removing any one from the system ever. Has anyone experienced the same?

 

[Deleted member 2944]

Nope. You mean the mini paper thing in the box? Does not help.

The "mini paper thing" identifies each of the buttons on the remote. And it clearly shows which buttons are not operative in the D70 application.

Regards your losing of Sergio Mendes instruments using the XLR outputs.....clearly you have an improper interface/cable of some sort. The XLR outputs should sound just fine relative to the RCA outputs. Objectively, they measure almost identically as well.......as indicated by Amir's measurements on Page 1 of this thread.

Dave.

 

[wtsz]

same result.
Secondly when used as preamp and bypassing my system preamp, of course, the musicality in the D70 disappears. There are instruments in Where is the Love by Sergio Mendes which I played only the night before are missing or have been muted. Only when I switched back to rca connection to my olsystem preamp does the magic reappear. The instruments are back.
The separates must be it. I'm not removing any one from the system ever. Has anyone experienced the same?

Confirm.

I used to play -12dB. After several hundred hours I switched to DAC and it is much better and even very good. RCA- stereo, optical- TV also good.

 

[Pavel]

On AK44XX, internal volume control really makes the sound simpler and flatter. Therefore, I use the DX3 Pro and D70 only in DAC mode.

 

[VintageFlanker]

On AK44XX, internal volume control really makes the sound simpler and flatter.

Hum. I don't think so. Or maybe you're talking about some loss in SNR, but barely audible...
Flatter is a good thing in audio, by the way.

 

[Pavel]

No, I hear a pretty significant degradation in sound quality. The dynamic range is lost, the sound is like a cheap computer sound card. But if you turn on the DAC mode and use an external volume control, the sound is great. I have another Singxer SDA-2. He has volume control done on a separate PGA4311 chip. In SDA-2, I do not hear sound degradation when adjusting the volume.

 

[Veri]

It should be noted digital volume control has a self-noise very likely higher than analog knob at high volume. At which digital volume are you operating the device, exactly?

 

[Deleted member 2944]

Not because of the xlr but most probably when used as preamp. Or maybe a more expensive xlr cable will correct that. I'll try to get an audioquest. If my complaints disappear then cables matter.

Classic audiophile logic!

Dave.

 

[HDavidson]

After 5 months of service, USB input is no longer known (device not connected). Reinstalling pilot, checking, set dac parameters to zero gives nothing. Tested on 2 PCs and 3 USB cables. Test USB with Topping D10- works well.
Coax entry of D70 is functional.
Topping D70 will go to the repair department.

What a waste of time and money . I think to stop buying this type of production.

 

[Feyire]

Secondly when used as preamp and bypassing my system preamp, of course, the musicality in the D70 disappears. There are instruments in Where is the Love by Sergio Mendes which I played only the night before are missing or have been muted. Only when I switched back to rca connection to my olsystem preamp does the magic reappear.

I hear a pretty significant degradation in sound quality. The dynamic range is lost, the sound is like a cheap computer sound card. But if you turn on the DAC mode and use an external volume control, the sound is great. I have another Singxer SDA-2. He has volume control done on a separate PGA4311 chip. In SDA-2, I do not hear sound degradation when adjusting the volume.

@Phrangko , @Pavel

I'm very interested in this particular issue. Could you guys please try the following and report back your experiences?

1. Hookup D70 via USB to PC/Laptop
2. Use Foobar2000 music player on PC/Laptop
3. Install Foobar 2000 ASIO plugin (and/or install the topping d70 drivers from here)
4. File -> Preferences -> Playback -> Output -> Device -> Select D70 ASIO interface/driver
5. Set D70 volume to maximum (i.e. effectively bypassing/disabling AKM internal volume control)
6. Set volume in Foobar 2000 to -20dB or more - I assume you don't want to blow your ears out at 0dB ;-)
7. Play a track you know well and report back if you still hear anything unexpected

Thanks for your time.

 

[samshaver]

Just in case anyone is interested, here are a couple of Amazon affiliate links to the Bluetooth version of the Topping D70 at the best price I’ve seen, $467.49 + Free Shipping.

From SHENZHENAUDIO

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XDYGJNB?tag=audiosciencer-20

From DiLiS-HIFI

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XFDJS5V?tag=audiosciencer-20

 

[VintageFlanker]

This is to check which interconnect is better. What I heard is not what I wished. Maybe it's the cable but the xlr cables I bought seems good enough. Not a fan of expensive cables here.

You're probably aware that XLR output has twice the voltage of RCA (+6dBu). Most of differences you heard are coming from that simple fact.

Or maybe a more expensive xlr cable will correct that. I'll try to get an audioquest. If my complaints disappear then cables matter.

It won't. Unless your cables were very bad quality at start. What is your cable, BTW?

You should go by some trustful cable manufacturers (Audioquest is definitely not one of them), meaning Mogami, Canare, Belden, assembled with Neutrik or Amphenol connectors. No one is supposed to "hear" any improvements from orhers cables, unless your expectation bias tells you otherwise.

 

[Patrick1958]

You're probably aware that XLR output has twice the voltage of RCA (+6dBu). Most of differences you heard are coming from that simple fact.

It won't. Unless your cables were very bad quality at start. What is your cable, BTW?

You should go by some trustful cable manufacturers (Audioquest is definitely not one of them), meaning Mogami, Canare, Belden, assembled with Neutrik or Amphenol connectors. No one is supposed to "hear" any improvements from orhers cables, unless your expectation bias tells you otherwise.

Just out of curiousity i ordered the topping DX7pro, wanted to compa

 

[Phrangko]

You're probably aware that XLR output has twice the voltage of RCA (+6dBu). Most of differences you heard are coming from that simple fact.

It won't. Unless your cables were very bad quality at start. What is your cable, BTW?

You should go by some trustful cable manufacturers (Audioquest is definitely not one of them), meaning Mogami, Canare, Belden, assembled with Neutrik or Amphenol connectors. No one is supposed to "hear" any improvements from orhers cables, unless your expectation bias tells you otherwise.

Hear you loud.

 

[Xyrium]

You're probably aware that XLR output has twice the voltage of RCA (+6dBu). Most of differences you heard are coming from that simple fact.

It won't. Unless your cables were very bad quality at start. What is your cable, BTW?

You should go by some trustful cable manufacturers (Audioquest is definitely not one of them), meaning Mogami, Canare, Belden, assembled with Neutrik or Amphenol connectors. No one is supposed to "hear" any improvements from orhers cables, unless your expectation bias tells you otherwise.

Agreed with this. In the US, Markertek and ProAudioLA have been very good in custom-sizing stuff to spec, as well as stocking an excellent variety of assemblies from the abovementioned manufacturers. Personally, I've found Canare assemblies to be the best bang for your buck, but they are all excellent, and are snake oil free.

 

[timindy]

I came to this site just now to ask the question concerning loss of fidelity when using the volume control on the D70 with direct input to amp. Well, I got up and tried it both ways and unless my ears are fooling me the unit sounds much better at full volume on the dac. No doubt in my mind.

 

[Xyrium]

Check this out, including the references, might help. I usually keep a DAC volume cranked, until I began seeing measurement results indicating that some converters were distorting at higher levels. So, I drop them down a bit, but never below 75% of the total gain available.

https://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/SQ/VolumeControl.htm

My desktop system is PC USB out or Optical Out>DAC>SE in on Integrated amp, and the PC output is set to 95% if Optical, and Foobar is set to -3dB. The DAC is as mentioned above, and listening volume is handled by the integrated amp.

 

[wtsz]

Check this out, including the references, might help. I usually keep a DAC volume cranked, until I began seeing measurement results indicating that some converters were distorting at higher levels. So, I drop them down a bit, but never below 75% of the total gain available.

https://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/SQ/VolumeControl.htm

My desktop system is PC USB out or Optical Out>DAC>SE in on Integrated amp, and the PC output is set to 95% if Optical, and Foobar is set to -3dB. The DAC is as mentioned above, and listening volume is handled by the integrated amp.

I do not quite agree in this case after several hundred hours of listening. IMHO. There is a lot of dust on the cables on my amplifier.