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Review and Measurements of the Topping D70 DAC

doodle

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The saturation is a bummer. It might not be audible but it's still a sign of something wrong.
 

Belgarathian

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Thanks for the measurements @amirm... Wondering if you could comment on listening differences between Chord Qutest and Topping D70
 
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amirm

amirm

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Thanks for the measurements @amirm... Wondering if you could comment on listening differences between Chord Qutest and Topping D70
I can just speak from theory and say that it is very unlikely people can hear differences between them.
 

Nango

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You can self-certify but Topping actually hires a lab to do the testing:

View attachment 26967

The test agency is BST.

The PCB traces may be thick enough to handle the trip current.

The CE sign is needed because the custom autorithies in every EU country can exclude it from being imported, they simply ship it back if they open the package and see the mobile phone or whatever has no CE sign. Within the EU the mfr himself can simply declare it is CE-"safe", outside the EU it has to be verified by a 3rd party, like BST in this case.
 

Jimster480

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The DX7s is on its way to being superceded by the DX7Pro.

Comes XLR-3, XLR-4, 6.35mm and TRRS 2.5mm outputs and also a BT 5.0 input. And a ES9038PRO chip.

Remains to be seen how well it will perform/measure when it comes out around July / August though.
I'll wait to see if they actually exceed the DX7!
 

Jimster480

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Agree, i my self use the aeon flow open , atom , and dac magic plus. The atom is a beast for $99, the dac side i don't know how cheap one can get to get good performance tho , maybe d30 is already good enough
I started with a D30 and its supurb overall. This is how I knew that Schiit DAC's were terrible lol... because I heard the loss of quality in the music when I listened to the fulla2 or the Modi Multibit. I knew very little about audio back then and was just going by my ears. I was also confused since Schiit was said to be "the best" according to headfi (lol).

Since the D30 I can't say that anything else I have purchased has made a "significant improvement". I've tested many DAC's now and I have A/B tested them back and forth and as long as a DAC has good linearity (as measured here) I haven't been able to tell any repeatable difference.
I can tell you I prefer my DX7 with its balanced outputs and integrated Amp (which now I rarely use) but I can't tell you that I can A/B test that it is certainly better in analytical scenarios (when using an Aeon) vs the D30 while its driving the same Amp.
There are a few times that I did think the DX7 is better than the D30 during my testing.... but I couldn't repeat the same results each time.
 

onslash

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I started with a D30 and its supurb overall. This is how I knew that Schiit DAC's were terrible lol... because I heard the loss of quality in the music when I listened to the fulla2 or the Modi Multibit. I knew very little about audio back then and was just going by my ears. I was also confused since Schiit was said to be "the best" according to headfi (lol).

Since the D30 I can't say that anything else I have purchased has made a "significant improvement". I've tested many DAC's now and I have A/B tested them back and forth and as long as a DAC has good linearity (as measured here) I haven't been able to tell any repeatable difference.
I can tell you I prefer my DX7 with its balanced outputs and integrated Amp (which now I rarely use) but I can't tell you that I can A/B test that it is certainly better in analytical scenarios (when using an Aeon) vs the D30 while its driving the same Amp.
There are a few times that I did think the DX7 is better than the D30 during my testing.... but I couldn't repeat the same results each time.
Since a young age. I've been exposed to alot of audiophile myths lmao. My dad has a lot of insanely priced gears , somewhich are justifiable and some are just outright madness (audioquest silver usb and ethernet cables lmao). Now im 20 , i still have nearly perfect hearing (still can hear 20000hz clearly) . Im at that point where im pretty convinced what i believe and what i dont believe. To me an audio product is either excellent (like the atom) or just short of excellent (schiit products i've tried in general, audioquest dragonfly i had), and just utter trash. Anything with distortion that is not so noticable unless you really pay attention belongs to that short of excellent category. I found my ears at least can differentiate those products from excellent ones , but comparing between 2 excellent products I don't find anything significantly different to the point i would pay much more. If i were to pay more its because of build quality, looks , or features.
 
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amirm

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Within the EU the mfr himself can simply declare it is CE-"safe", outside the EU it has to be verified by a 3rd party, like BST in this case.
That is not my understanding. See for example: https://cemarking.net/ce-self-certification/

1559289744502.png


1559289773795.png
 

Nango

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I mean from outside the EU, not within the EU. From outside they wont get into the EU without the CE verified. German customs actually reject everything that is not accompained by its valid certification. They might ask you (the purchaser) for the certification papers before they ship it back, but they are also entitled to do so without asking anyone. I think all the other countries in EU will be the same.
 
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777

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All the electronic goodies must to have visible "CE" mark on it in Europe. You can't sell it without "CE" mark.
 
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Hmmm hopefully this hits drop before august when my 789 ships. 500 seems just a tad high for this. I feel that 399 would of been a more tempting price for alot of people. Same price as the 789, so a combo would only be 800.
 

TrueBlue

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I can just speak from theory and say that it is very unlikely people can hear differences between them.
How about SU8 vs D70? If there wouldn't be significant difference in quality imo SU8 is a better deal. Wonder how much our ears can tell
 

daftcombo

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Hmmm hopefully this hits drop before august when my 789 ships. 500 seems just a tad high for this. I feel that 399 would of been a more tempting price for alot of people. Same price as the 789, so a combo would only be 800.
If it's the DAC with the best SNR of the market, 499$ is not that expensive.
But from an audibility point of view, the diminishing returns makes it expensive.
That said, a D70+Benchmark AHB2 seems killer.
 

777

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How about SU8 vs D70? If there wouldn't be significant difference in quality imo SU8 is a better deal. Wonder how much our ears can tell

The same for RME ADI-2, Benchmark DAC3, Linn Akurate, Okto DAC8, Gustard X-26, etc, etc, etc.... Do you really believe that over-simplification ? Do you really believe like BMW Serie 1 is the same with Kia Ceed just because you see on paper the same powerhorse and maximum speed ? Be serious, sometime the money tell the truth. ;)
 

TrueBlue

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The same for RME ADI-2, Benchmark DAC3, Linn Akurate, Okto DAC8, Gustard X-26, etc, etc, etc.... Do you really believe that over-simplification ? Do you really believe like BMW Serie 1 is the same with Kia Ceed just because you see on paper the same powerhorse and maximum speed ? Be serious, sometime the money tell the truth. ;)
True dat. But it seems in the audio world everything can be exaggerated. Many expensive DACs or amps from famous brands aren't actually as good as cheap ones
 

TrueBlue

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For instance I guess many DACs costing more than $800 from Sony, Cambridge, Marantz etc can't actually beat the D70. So I would prefer having a setup good enough while not costing a lot, and be happy forever.
 

Tks

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I believe that D2 is from Smsl not Topping?

I really need to stop drinking goodness gracious :facepalm:

EDIT: The RME that arrived got me in such a good mood I doubled down and seemingly lost myself HARD on that day off lol.
 
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