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Review and Measurements of the Topping D70 DAC

gvl

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Anyone knows if the AKM DACs are free running or clocked by source in the D70?
 

Nango

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Given this beast and the SU-8 I dont think Khadas can ask more than $150 for its upcoming (old) DAC now with XLR-Outs and a case.
 

KenG

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D70 will steal a lot of sales from the DX7s, one has to wonder what were they thinking. Or the DX7s is being discontinued?

If I’m not mistaken they are different products in that the DX7s includes a balanced headphone amp - and a very good one at that.
 

777

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Thank you Amirm for this review. You are the number one ! Tell me more about please:
Wide-band THD+N shows somewhat degraded performance due to existence of a near 45 khz signal dependent spike (not shown)
 

gvl

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If I’m not mistaken they are different products in that the DX7s includes a balanced headphone amp - and a very good one at that.

I guess, still D70's release must dilute DX7s' demand.
 
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amirm

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Thank you Amirm for this review. You are the number one ! Tell me more about please:
Wide-band THD+N shows somewhat degraded performance due to existence of a near 45 khz signal dependent spike (not shown)
When I ran a 1 kHz spectrum test, there was a spike at 45 kHz. Since the bandwidth of that test is twice as wide (90 kHz), that spike got included in the computation of THD+N in that graph. Since the spike is not audible and its level would go down with the test signal, it is not a very significant impairment. In other words, that graph looks worse than it should.
 
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amirm

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Noob question... Would be any audible difference, compared with Okto DAC8, when paired with THX AAA 786? Thanks
No, they are both exceptionally clean.
 

The Dragon

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Nice review Amir. How does this compare with the Chord Qutest as far as measured performance?
 

sonci

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This DAC looks interesting.
Still, for just twice the price there's the ADI-2 DAC with stellar headphones out, volume knob and DSP...
or the Dx3Pro at half the price audibly the same, well audiosciencereview speaking..
 
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amirm

amirm

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Nice review Amir. How does this compare with the Chord Qutest as far as measured performance?
The D70 beats it in dynamic range and intermodulation until saturation. At full volume, the Qutest has lower distortion.
 

alpha

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Does anybody know if DSD native (or dop) would work on COAX input? I do not see this information.
I would use it with a Allo Digione through COAX.
 

gvl

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The D70 beats it in dynamic range and intermodulation until saturation. At full volume, the Qutest has lower distortion.

The saturation is an unfortunate wrinkle. And it sets in a bit too early. Hopefully Topping can fix it.
 

Blumlein 88

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The saturation is an unfortunate wrinkle. And it sets in a bit too early. Hopefully Topping can fix it.
You do realize at max volume you are talking about -97 db vs -102 or -103 db? And until -8 db volume the D70 is a couple three db better than the Chord. I don't know either result is unfortunate nor audible.
 

777

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The saturation is an unfortunate wrinkle. And it sets in a bit too early. Hopefully Topping can fix it.
You can set the volume a little bit lower and you will avoid that wrinkle. Anyway, the music didn't stay at 0dB, probably is very rare music peak of 0dB.
 

gvl

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You do realize at max volume you are talking about -97 db vs -102 or -103 db? And until -8 db volume the D70 is a couple three db better than the Chord. I don't know either result is unfortunate nor audible.

Unfortunate in a sense it didn't land higher on the SINAD chart.
 
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