Review and Measurements of the Topping D70 DAC

[maxxevv]

This is where I have to disagree.
BMW is a pretty poor brand all around.
They are a relic of their former selves.
Their expensive M4 GTS gets beaten by a modern Camaro SS at 1/2-1/3 the price and basically only the M5 is competitive in the large sedan class (altough the price is quite high in the sky).
If you think BMW is from another galaxy; you haven't ever driven a real performance car.

In this case you sound like a Schiit owner who thinks that their Yggdrasil is from another Galaxy.
I'm here with a DX7 and we know how that goes

Do those updated American muscle cars still have problems going fast around corners ? It used to be a running snipe by British motoring shows.

 

[HDavidson]

FYI, if anybody wants some explanations of these filter settings.

I put them in order of programming by topping for D70.
The super details and depth even at low volume.

 

[Jimster480]

Do those updated American muscle cars still have problems going fast around corners ? It used to be a running snipe by British motoring shows.

Not at all. They are now the standard for how to go fast around a corner. Especially with the size of some of these cars.
The Cadillac CTS-V for example is the standard for a large performance sedan. Holding many records that the germans keep working hard to try to beat.
As I said before the Camaro SS is faster than a M4 GTS (especially the SS 1LE edition) around a track.

Straight line performance is good too, but its not what GM cars are about today.
Even the Ford Mustangs are doing great in the corners these days. With the GT350 and GT500 versions and now finally the GT having a magride option as of 2019 (or maybe 2018) model year.

 

[maxxevv]

Good to hear that they finally come to their senses on that cars should be driven and not just made to look macho on the driveway.

 

[Jimster480]

Good to hear that they finally come to their senses on that cars should be driven and not just made to look macho on the driveway.

I totally agree because American cars used to be trash IMHO.
But times have changed.

 

[onslash]

Which Schiit products did you try? Because both the Modi Multibit and the Fulla2 (I even sent it to amir to be tested) sounded really bad to my ears.
Music sounded flat and there were details that I missed.

Now at the time I was listening to alot of classical music.
Right now I am cycling through my genres again. Yesterday I was listening to R&B (2000s) with my wife.... then I listened to some Rap (90's - 2010) in the car followed by 60's-70s classic rock (also in the car) and then classical music as I went to sleep last night. And Tonight I will likely play jazz as I go to sleep.
Differences in poorly mastered music or "mainstream" (especially newer mainstream music) are more subtle because the dynamic range isn't as high and physial instruments are almost non existent in most modern music.
I do agree with you that the "short of excellent" category can be determined from the excellent category. But I wouldn't say that the modi multibit falls into the "short of excellent" because it was pretty poor overall.
Worse than some of the $60 DAC's available on ebay and amazon.
Telling the really poor products from the "short of excellent" ones is easy. But also if you don't have a good reference point its hard to know what is "bad".
Had I purchased a modi multibit first.... maybe I would have bought the hype and never knew what great sound actually sounds like. Instead I had the D30 first because it was "entry level" and it also wasn't established. I took a chance on Topping because it was cheap enough and it had the ports and outputs that I was looking for at the time (especially with the A30 having 3 gain settings).
When I purchased the first Fulla2 to "upgrade" from the FiiO K1; the Fulla2 sounded worse in almost every scenario (at the time I was using 1More triple driver IEM's and Panasonic RP-HD10K headphones). Today I still have the K1 and I sold the Fulla2.
K1 definitely has less power; but I have found that it gets the job done in many scenarios. Especially with more efficient headphones.
I patiently await for Amir to test it one day; as it was the first "dedicated" external DAC/Amp that I have ever purchased.

I tried the ragnarok (if thats the name) and schiit modi non multibit. From the amp side I also tried the magni 3 and thought it was okay just belonged to this short of excellent category. The magni high's sounded harsh to my ears , im not sure why. I also tried the fulla 2 , its no better than computers onboard dac , just more power from the amp side. I listened to jazz, classic , edm , trap, and i could tell a difference even on edm between dacmagic plus + atom vs magni 3+ fulla dac or the dragonfly black 1.2.

 

[Jimster480]

I tried the ragnarok (if thats the name) and schiit modi non multibit. From the amp side I also tried the magni 3 and thought it was okay just belonged to this short of excellent category. The magni high's sounded harsh to my ears , im not sure why. I also tried the fulla 2 , its no better than computers onboard dac , just more power from the amp side. I listened to jazz, classic , edm , trap, and i could tell a difference even on edm between dacmagic plus + atom vs magni 3+ fulla dac or the dragonfly black 1.2.

Your experiences are pretty on par with mine.
Magni3 I also tried and I felt the same. The highs were harsh to my ears. I ended up selling it almost immediately.
And yes the Fulla2 sounded like my onboard realtek just with more power.
The FiiO K1 sounded full as long as I was using efficient low impedance headphones/IEM's anyway.

 

[Snafu]

Price down to US$425 at Ebay.

 

[kents]

i think this is better https://www.ebay.com/itm/DUAL-ES903...hash=item3d8a46086f:m:mUFd74HRAs-yaWU8gxcW_dQ

 

[Veri]

i think this is better https://www.ebay.com/itm/DUAL-ES903...hash=item3d8a46086f:m:mUFd74HRAs-yaWU8gxcW_dQ

ES9038Pro vs AK4497, comparing apples to oranges (not to mention the 1-post weirdness of your account)

 

[Fabio]

Im wondering how much noise (and Sinad) would improve if tested at 3.3v like okto... Could you tell us @amirm?

 

[777]

Im wondering how much noise (and Sinad) would improve if tested at 3.3v like okto...

Very good point of view !

 

[trl]

i think this is better https://www.ebay.com/itm/DUAL-ES903...hash=item3d8a46086f:m:mUFd74HRAs-yaWU8gxcW_dQ

Not sure how they do the Los-Pass Filter, probably it's passive...or maybe around the 7 PNP/NPN transistors. I think the 2 output opamps are only used for the RCA plugs...it would be interesting to see the schematic on this DAC.

However, without proper measurements I don't think anyone should risk his money on this device. In the past, no-name implementations around ES9018 chip were measuring below average.

 

[Snafu]

i think this is better https://www.ebay.com/itm/DUAL-ES903...hash=item3d8a46086f:m:mUFd74HRAs-yaWU8gxcW_dQ

sure...

"Save evey peny for you!"

 

[amirm]

Im wondering how much noise (and Sinad) would improve if tested at 3.3v like okto... Could you tell us @amirm?

I noted that you gain a couple of dBs when you do that.

 

[ceausuc]

I noted that you gain a couple of dBs when you do that.

Hi amirm, could you please measure the DC offset on RCA outputs? Thank you.

 

[HDavidson]

I make it work all weekend, and it starts to break free.
The sound is detailed, broad and deep.
You can disconnect the output that is not used. I activate that XLR.
XLR is excellent and unbeatable.
For this price do not look elsewhere, difficult to find, even more expensive.

 

[amirm]

Hi amirm, could you please measure the DC offset on RCA outputs? Thank you.

Here it is but note that I have not attempted to assess the accuracy of AP's DC offset measurements:

Ch1 -25.55 mV
Ch2 -18.24 mV

 

[Megatronic]

I wanted to buy on ebay at a price of $ 425, but the seller replied that this was a mistake. Now the price is $ 499 again.

 

[trl]

Here it is but note that I have not attempted to assess the accuracy of AP's DC offset measurements:

Ch1 -25.55 mV
Ch2 -18.24 mV

Is it only me or the figure is very high? This will definitely need a DC-servo or cap-on-input amplifier.