Review and Measurements of Topping D90 4499DAC

[Viper Necklampy]

The Coax jitter, should be the same as Optical Toslink, as it is Spdif?
Also there is some merits by AK4118, the latest and greatest spdif receiver, to permit the toslink to give his best jitter specs and sound? I would use it only via Optical, hence my attention

 

[Music1969]

Hi @WolfX-700

Can you do measurement feeding D90 with DSD256 (in DAC only mode) ?

Topping said this DAC uses 'Direct DSD' conversion mode of the AKM chips.

 

[TheInquiring]

Dear experts,
There appears to be a wide range of debate as to what is an "optimal" ratio of input impedance (of the power amplifier) to output impedance (of the DAC), which is important in DIRECT mode of operation; hence what one person may call a "robust" source for a given load, someone else would call a "fail." I've heard 10 / 1 ratio is appropriate (less is not), but for others the preferred ratio is much higher. Could you please comment on this?
And another question, if I may: what is the output impedance of Topping D90 DAC, and how widely, in your experience, does it fluctuate during listening session?

 

[Shangri-La]

Thank you for the response. I am expecting the D90 to arrive end this month/beginning next month. At the moment I am using a Pro-ject Pre box S2 Digital. I have seen that the measurements for the D90 on this site are much better than for the Pro-ject. I am anxious to hear the difference. At the moment I own a JDS labs atom head amp which I am going to use for now with the D90, maybe that needs an upgrade too .

Hi, I've had a Pro-ject Pre box S2 Digital and am very interested in the D90. Have you had a chance to listen to the D90 and can you offer some subjective listening comparison between the two? What is the headphone/speakers that you use? Thanks!

 

[AndyLu]

Hi, I've had a Pro-ject Pre box S2 Digital and am very interested in the D90. Have you had a chance to listen to the D90 and can you offer some subjective listening comparison between the two? What is the headphone/speakers that you use? Thanks!

I listen to the D90 a lot over my speakers (Dali Opticon 6) with a NAD Amp1 (only available in Europe) amplifier. At the moment I am also trying out NCore 400 mono blocks.
I use the D90 also a lot with a SMSL SP200 headphone amp. My headphones are Philips Fidelio L2, Philips SHP9500, Philips X2 and Sennheiser HD650.

Of course my impressions are very subjective/biased because I did not do any 'scientific' listening tests (blind listening, exact volume leveling etc.). Overall in my ears the D90 compared to the Project sounds better over all my gear.

Beware subjective audiophile terms ahead :

More openness between the instruments more depth in the soundstage, faster transients and more 'Umph'. With Umph I mean more dynamics between soft and loud passages. Subjectively for me the D90 is the best DAC I ever had until now. As I said in a previous post: A friend (who has very expensive gear) and I heard the D90 at his house and compared it to some very expensive DACS (DCS Bartok $12000 and Metrum Acoustics $6000). We where astonished about the little to none differences we heard. In our ears the D90 even sounded better than the Metrum Acoustics. Mind you, we had a nice evening with a glass of wine and where completely feeding each others bias . But isn't that what music enjoyment is also about in the end?

 

[Shangri-La]

I listen to the D90 a lot over my speakers (Dali Opticon 6) with a NAD Amp1 (only available in Europe) amplifier. At the moment I am also trying out NCore 400 mono blocks.
I use the D90 also a lot with a SMSL SP200 headphone amp. My headphones are Philips Fidelio L2, Philips SHP9500, Philips X2 and Sennheiser HD650.

Of course my impressions are very subjective/biased because I did not do any 'scientific' listening tests (blind listening, exact volume leveling etc.). Overall in my ears the D90 compared to the Project sounds better over all my gear.

Beware subjective audiophile terms ahead :

More openness between the instruments more depth in the soundstage, faster transients and more 'Umph'. With Umph I mean more dynamics between soft and loud passages. Subjectively for me the D90 is the best DAC I ever had until now. As I said in a previous post: A friend (who has very expensive gear) and I heard the D90 at his house and compared it to some very expensive DACS (DCS Bartok $12000 and Metrum Acoustics $6000). We where astonished about the little to none differences we heard. In our ears the D90 even sounded better than the Metrum Acoustics. Mind you, we had a nice evening with a glass of wine and where completely feeding each others bias . But isn't that what music enjoyment is also about in the end?

Thank you - that was helpful. Glad that people are enjoying their gear in real-life listening!

 

[Ddd]

@WolfX-700 just wondering did you measure the D90 MQA version?

Kinda curious if the MQA version measure anything higher over the regular version especially in the Dynamic range and SNR measurement due to the latest maybe better XMOS XU216 USB chip used in the MQA version compare to the regular version XU208 one.

 

[Veri]

Kinda curious if the MQA version measure anything higher over the regular version especially in the Dynamic range and SNR measurement due to the latest maybe better XMOS XU216 USB chip used in the MQA version compare to the regular version XU208 one.

No, he tested regular non-MQA bersion. And an USB chip won't increase the performance of the DAC chip.. the XU216 is used to code the MQA decoding function on. That's it.

 

[Ddd]

No, he tested regular non-MQA bersion. And an USB chip won't increase the performance of the DAC chip.. the XU216 is used to code the MQA decoding function on. That's it.

This is where it kinda triggers my curiosity. Since if refers to other more affordable dac like SMSL M500 V2 MQA.. And most of any other DAC with the XU216 chip seems to easily score higher dynamic range value up nearer to 130dB easily.

Since ASR here only measured the regular one where the Dynamic range scores 124dB. Wondering if the later XU216 will have better technical efficiency at decoding over the regular XU208 due to twice the processing power and Ram as I was heard of

 

[JohnYang1997]

This is where it kinda triggers my curiosity. Since if refers to other more affordable dac like SMSL M500 V2 MQA.. And most of any other DAC with the XU216 chip seems to easily score higher dynamic range value up nearer to 130dB easily.

Since ASR here only measured the regular one where the Dynamic range scores 124dB. Wondering if the later XU216 will have better technical efficiency at decoding over the regular XU208 due to twice the processing power and Ram as I was heard of

But I definitely remembering the MQA version have no first half second silent when switching songs between different sample rate or codec compared to the regular one

No difference.

 

[AudioQuality777]

Who uses optics,coax,i2s,AES.DSD format via Dop can Topping D90 play back?
I start DSD in DoP on any of these inputs and there is no sound only noise.
Noise.
There is no sound.It is stated that the D90 holds the DoP and does not actually hold it?

 

[win]

Who uses optics,coax,i2s,AES.DSD format via Dop can Topping D90 play back?
I start DSD in DoP on any of these inputs and there is no sound only noise.
Noise.
There is no sound.It is stated that the D90 holds the DoP and does not actually hold it?

What is DoP?

 

[AndyLu]

What is DoP?

Dsd Over Pcm

 

[Rover]

No difference.

As a representative of Topping why the problem with DSD>DoP.
There is no sound.It is stated that the D90 holds the DoP and does not actually hold it?

 

[JohnYang1997]

As a representative of Topping why the problem with DSD>DoP.
There is no sound.It is stated that the D90 holds the DoP and does not actually hold it?

Are you using Usb? Did you follow the instructions along the drivers? What rate are you playing at?

 

[Rover]

Are you using Usb? Did you follow the instructions along the drivers? What rate are you playing at?

I don't use USB.I use optics,coax,i2s,AES.In the manual for d90 it is written that the DSD>DoP format is supported on these inputs!
I use DSD 64.

 

[JohnYang1997]

I don't use USB.I use optics,coax,i2s,AES.In the manual for d90 it is written that the DSD>DoP format is supported on these inputs!

What exact input are you using? And what rate of the files are you playing? There's limitation of DoP support for toslink and coax input. Only DSD64 is supported on toslink and coax.

 

[Rover]

What exact input are you using? And what rate of the files are you playing? There's limitation of DoP support for toslink and coax input. Only DSD64 is supported on toslink and coax.

I use DSD 64.

 

[JohnYang1997]

I use DSD 64.

Is the D90 set to the corresponding input? What's the upstream device? And does the D90 show anything on the screen?

 

[Rover]

Is the D90 set to the corresponding input? What's the upstream device? And does the D90 show anything on the screen?

PI2AES the AES outputs on the D90. Noise is heard and the D90 indicator shows 176khz.