Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

[Shangri-La]

Yes, I have been gradually standardizing and those early reviews are bit different. Here is the dashboard for D50 I just ran:

View attachment 19810

And SINAD table:

View attachment 19811

Thank you! As an engineer, I find these measurements invaluable, especially for DACs!

 

[Deleted member 65]

@amirm if you have the time could you try the Right channel sweep file provided by @chosen_too and verify if your D50 have the Right channel issue.

https://ufile.io/uha14

 

[Roen]

Yes, I have been gradually standardizing and those early reviews are bit different. Here is the dashboard for D50 I just ran:

View attachment 19810

Spurious spikes in the higher frequencies?

 

[Shangri-La]

Yes, I have been gradually standardizing and those early reviews are bit different. Here is the dashboard for D50 I just ran:

View attachment 19810

And SINAD table:

View attachment 19811

I see that the D50 (and many other DACs) have those spikes in higher frequency range in the FFT chart, varying from -130dBrA to -100dBrA. How should I interpret these, do they make an audible or meaningful difference, when the spikes reach a certain level, say -110? Thanks.

 

[amirm]

I see that the D50 (and many other DACs) have those spikes in higher frequency range in the FFT chart, varying from -130dBrA to -100dBrA. How should I interpret these, do they make an audible or meaningful difference, when the spikes reach a certain level, say -110? Thanks.

Not audible at all. Threshold of hearing is very high at higher frequencies.

 

[amirm]

@amirm if you have the time could you try the Right channel sweep file provided by @chosen_too and verify if your D50 have the Right channel issue.

https://ufile.io/uha14

What is this problem again?

 

[Deleted member 65]

What is this problem again?

Issue with the D50's Right channel has been verified by myself, @gorg and @chosen_too.

Setup: Connected to D50's USB / SPDIF port using iFi iDAC2 / Singxer SU-1 as DDC's. Sending Pink Noise or Sweep tone to D50's L channel, L+R channel and R channel.

Result: Using REW's Generator sending Pink Noise to D50's Right channel port fails after ~ 3-5 secs. Left channel and L+R channels works fine. Same result using file provided by @chosen_too.

Conclusion: Since USB and SPDIF behaves the same my conclusion is that issue is either in the implementation of the right channel DAC chip or the analogue out section.

 

[Shangri-La]

Not audible at all. Threshold of hearing is very high at higher frequencies.

I see. Just have to ask: approximitely around what would these spikes make a meaningful impact, -90, -80?

Also, does the D50's "hump" make a meaningful difference in realworld listening? Thanks again.

 

[Roen]

Issue with the D50's Right channel has been verified by myself, @gorg and @chosen_too.

Setup: Connected to D50's USB / SPDIF port using iFi iDAC2 / Singxer SU-1 as DDC's. Sending Pink Noise or Sweep tone to D50's L channel, L+R channel and R channel.

Result: Using REW's Generator sending Pink Noise to D50's Right channel port fails after ~ 3-5 secs. Left channel and L+R channels works fine. Same result using file provided by @chosen_too.

Conclusion: Since USB and SPDIF behaves the same my conclusion is that issue is either in the implementation of the right channel DAC chip or the analogue out section.

Hopefully this is solvable with a firmware fix.

 

[amirm]

Issue with the D50's Right channel has been verified by myself, @gorg and @chosen_too.

Setup: Connected to D50's USB / SPDIF port using iFi iDAC2 / Singxer SU-1 as DDC's. Sending Pink Noise or Sweep tone to D50's L channel, L+R channel and R channel.

Result: Using REW's Generator sending Pink Noise to D50's Right channel port fails after ~ 3-5 secs. Left channel and L+R channels works fine. Same result using file provided by @chosen_too.

Conclusion: Since USB and SPDIF behaves the same my conclusion is that issue is either in the implementation of the right channel DAC chip or the analogue out section.

So this is something specific to Singxer or iDAC2 driving it?

 

[Deleted member 65]

So this is something specific to Singxer or iDAC2 driving it?

No, for completeness of my SPDIF testing I used two DDC's.

I discovered the problem when doing room measurements using REW from my Dell laptop (USB), right channel died when sending pink noise.

 

[amirm]

No, for completeness of my SPDIF testing I used two DDC's.

I discovered the problem when doing room measurements using REW from my Dell laptop (USB), right channel died when sending pink noise.

Oh... So does it come back or stays dead???

 

[chosen_too]

So this is something specific to Singxer or iDAC2 driving it?

In my case it's raspberry 3 USB, so this is not hardware specific problem, but topping's.

Channel stays dead for some time, than operate as usual.

 

[chosen_too]

Hopefully this is solvable with a firmware fix.

Topping seems to ignore reports via support email.

 

[Deleted member 65]

Oh... So does it come back or stays dead???

Restart D50 or step thru ports remedies issue. Sent three supportmails to Topping, no response ...

 

[gorg]

Restart D50 or step thru ports remedies issue. Sent three supportmails to Topping, no response ...

Changing to L+R or L and back to R (in REW) helps also.

 

[Deleted member 65]

Received response from Topping & replied clarifying that the issue is with all ports.

" Happy New Year and sorry for the late reply! We received only 1 of your mail on 27th but later we are in the holiday.

Sorry I don't quite understand your problem, but I have a method to judge where the problem is. In D50, Coax and Opt inputs are sent to ES9038Q2M directly. So would you please also test USB input? If USB works fine, it means XMOS+ES9038+LPF are OK. In this situation, the problem should not in D50, you can try to find the problem in other devices. But if you met same problem in testing USB, problem is probably in D50.

Looking forwarding to your test result.
Best Regards!
----------------------------------
TOPPING service "

 

[chosen_too]

Received response from Topping & replied clarifying that the issue is with all ports.

" Happy New Year and sorry for the late reply! We received only 1 of your mail on 27th but later we are in the holiday.

Sorry I don't quite understand your problem, but I have a method to judge where the problem is. In D50, Coax and Opt inputs are sent to ES9038Q2M directly. So would you please also test USB input? If USB works fine, it means XMOS+ES9038+LPF are OK. In this situation, the problem should not in D50, you can try to find the problem in other devices. But if you met same problem in testing USB, problem is probably in D50.

Looking forwarding to your test result.
Best Regards!
----------------------------------
TOPPING service "

I sent them test file, still waiting for response, I think all of d50 are affected, at least latest revision, topping should test it themselves.

 

[gorg]

I've done one more test a minute ago. PC-USB--->D50 using Foobar with channel mixer plugin enabled and output set to R channel only. It also hangs/mutes after ~1 minute. Tested tracks were just random music, not recorded pink noise....

 

[chosen_too]

Topping answered:

Thank you for contacting TOPPING support. We are happy to assist.

We did not got enough info from your mail and your audio file. But you can contact the seller directly for warranty. They have a responsibility to handle this matter.

Best Regards!
----------------------------------
TOPPING service



Either my English to bad, or topping's service just freezed out.