Review and Measurements of Topping D50 DAC

[EReich]

I got mine from Topping before they were released and it works fine. We have other owners who have bought them later than mine and they work fine too. So I say this may be an individual failure or a software bug. We need the sample music file to see if we can reproduce the issue.

Hey @amirm Do I need to install drivers for these to get D50 to work? I have windows 10 platform.

 

[amirm]

Hey @amirm Do I need to install drivers for these to get D50 to work? I have windows 10 platform.

No. Just plug it in.

 

[EReich]

No. Just plug it in.

then what is the drivers for that's on topping's website for the D50?

 

[gvl]

then what is the drivers for that's on topping's website for the D50?

That's probably the full XMOS driver with ASIO support, you don't really need it for W10.

 

[EReich]

Uhh okaaay.. So long as it's plug and play I guess? I have no idea what XMOS and ASIO means.. sorry xD

 

[gvl]

Should be plug and play of your W10 is up to date with updates.

 

[MWC]

@PTcyap The drivers are required for quality sound via ASIO for DSD. Most people here probably don't bother with DSD, so they can be cavalier about saying the drivers are not required.
Volume is shown as dB and one should set it at 00.0 dB then use one's amp for volume control.

 

[Roen]

0 is max volume.

 

[Roen]

@PTcyap The drivers are required for quality sound via ASIO for DSD. Most people here probably don't bother with DSD, so they can be cavalier about saying the drivers are not required.
Volume is shown as dB and one should set it at 00.0 dB then use one's amp for volume control.

Which drivers, the XMOS ones?

 

[MWC]

As far as I know there is only 1 set of drivers available from Topping for the D50. ASIO drivers: I think Topping simply call them 'USB driver'. In my experience these are always preferable, if available from the DAC manufacturer, rather than ASIO4ALL or suchlike.

"The D50 DAC has optimized THESYCON drivers for Windows that offer native DSD support (from DSD64 to DSD512). It is therefore an obvious choice for high-definition music lovers." ~ https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...bit768khz-dsd512-xmos-u208-black-p-12604.html

 

[EReich]

@PTcyap The drivers are required for quality sound via ASIO for DSD. Most people here probably don't bother with DSD, so they can be cavalier about saying the drivers are not required.
Volume is shown as dB and one should set it at 00.0 dB then use one's amp for volume control.

Hey @MWC Thanks for your response.. I guess I'll just install it then. I think there's a download section at topping's website. Not sure if I'll benefit from it since all my music files are just 16bit 44.1 FLAC files. Or do I? Pardon my ignorance if the answer is glaringly obvious.

 

[MWC]

@PTcyap There is a direct link to the driver in my comment above: USB driver.
It may matter little if all you have is redbook files: the ASIO drivers are more needed for DSD. However who knows what the future might bring? You might end up appreciating DSD? If it was me, and I thought there might be more in the world than redbook, then I'd download & install the driver while I knew where to access it.

 

[EReich]

@PTcyap There is a direct link to the driver in my comment above: USB driver.
It may matter little if all you have is redbook files: the ASIO drivers are more needed for DSD. However who knows what the future might bring? You might end up appreciating DSD? If it was me, and I thought there might be more in the world than redbook, then I'd download & install the driver while I knew where to access it.

I honestly would like to listen to some but I have no idea where to get DSD files. Would be great to try and find out if I can hear any difference.

 

[MWC]

@PTcyap I can point you to where you can get legal / official downloads of DSD files. PM me

 

[EReich]

@PTcyap I can point you to where you can get legal / official downloads of DSD files. PM me

PM sent

 

[Zek]

I honestly would like to listen to some but I have no idea where to get DSD files. Would be great to try and find out if I can hear any difference.

You can upsample yours files to DSD and try yourself.

 

[MWC]

@Zek that is utter nonsense! Hey, with your logic, why not take an empty3 with a DR of 2 and upsample it to 24/192

 

[Veri]

@MVC there's plenty of people upsampling to DSD256/DSD512 though. Not sure I'd bother. but I don't really get your comparison there.

 

[Zek]

that is utter nonsense!

Nonsense or not, just try and if you like it that's OK, if you not that's OK too.

 

[MWC]

I have loads of Pure DSD and I enjoy it. It is a whole different thing to upsampled redbook!
Upsampling PCM redbook files (which is all PTcyap has) to DSD is an abomination in my book.
1) Redbook is just not worth converting to DSD it is too low res to bother with. Better to enjoy it for what it is. Nothing wrong with it, given a good recording and mastering and a nice DAC.
2) No conversion of PCM to DSD is lossless.
3) I don't think PCM or DSD is inherently superior to the other, but better not to mess with mixing them as this is always detrimental to the sound quality.
4) I can't believe in this nonsense of 'upsampling' anything anyway. You can't get more out of anything than what was originally in it. Oversampling in a DAC is a whole other kettle of fish. People often confuse/conflate it with upsampling. The former is valid the latter a pipe dream.
5) There is a theoretical reason to upsample DSD64 to Higher DSD rates. It possibly pushes the inherent DSD noise even higher above the so called human hearing limit. This has a potential to improve the quality of the audio in the hearing range.