Review and Measurements of Topping D90 4499DAC

[WolfX-700]

This sr-71View attachment 41777

Look at these tantalum capacitors! It looks like they meet high temperature operation standards!

 

[maxxevv]

Does the pilot of the SR-71 like it?

Pretty sure Brian Shul would have loved to have some quality audio other than speed check comms though. He did mention that it was rather quiet and desolate up there on those 8 hour plus missions.

 

[LuckyLuke575]

In this thread，discuss the upcoming D90 DAC from Topping.

I reply: I will measure this unit.

After communicating with Topping, I decided to wait for their "retail version".

Then, I got this "retail" today.

This machine was borrowed from Topping. They provided the machine and shipped it to me. I will be responsible for the cost of shipping back after taking the measurements here.

Stop talking nonsense, look at the equipment first!

View attachment 41737

This is a compact unit. The overall size and weight are very friendly (especially considering it has so many input and output interfaces).

Of course, from the "Hifi" point of view, the compact size and densely arranged interfaces will bring some troubles --- those "Hifi cable fans" like to use a variety of egg-like size wire and connectors ...

View attachment 41738

The surface feel is average and lacks high-level feel. But considering that it is likely to be cheaper. This is not a problem.

None of the above is actually my main concern. The key is: What about performance? How about performance?

Here are the measurement results:

Dashboard 48K:

View attachment 41739

Some friends advised me: a fast measurement result of 44.1K sampling rate should be provided at the same time:
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It's great! They basically do what they claim! (The 122dbSINAD previously released was A-weighted, and I also got similar results after adding A-weighted)

Of course, after the event of the SMSL M500, I may need to find an opportunity to re-measure the samples on the market sometime in the future. But anyway, this unit I have is great!

Here are some other routine measurements:
View attachment 41741View attachment 41742View attachment 41743View attachment 41744View attachment 41745

All of the above looks perfect and seems to deserve a high recommendation.

but! There may be some bugs ... I'm trying to contact the manufacturer, but there is no result yet.

Anyway, weird measurement results for the device at hand must be posted:

View attachment 41746

View attachment 41747

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View attachment 41754

There seem to be some problems in clock management and AES, Coax reception?

Waiting for a reply from the manufacturer ...

Hope they can solve this problem or I got an error in measurement.

@Thomas savage I'm getting confused by these 'pirate' reviews; I thought @amirm is the one doing the reviews? Does it make sense to have guys coming out of the blue and posting reviews before Amir has? What is the provenance and origin of these reviews? I think they are damaging for the site, especially if people don't know who the official reviewer is.

 

[JohnYang1997]

@Thomas savage I'm getting confused by these 'pirate' reviews; I thought @amirm is the one doing the reviews? Does it make sense to have guys coming out of the blue and posting reviews before Amir has? What is the provenance and origin of these reviews? I think they are damaging for the site, especially if people don't know who the official reviewer is.

It does.
And it has been promoted to the review page before. So this is approved. Test equipments and methods are transparent. No issue here either. Also if there is any issue of being misleading or cheating, regulators can delete the thread.

 

[Thomas savage]

@Thomas savage I'm getting confused by these 'pirate' reviews; I thought @amirm is the one doing the reviews? Does it make sense to have guys coming out of the blue and posting reviews before Amir has? What is the provenance and origin of these reviews? I think they are damaging for the site, especially if people don't know who the official reviewer is.

He's got a AP machine and he's learning how to use it through his review threads here.

His reputation will build over time , so far I'm impressed and greatful to him. Of course you have to consider the ASR brand but so far I'm more than happy.

Thanks for your concern though , caring about the forum is always welcome.

 

[deafenears]

@Thomas savage I'm getting confused by these 'pirate' reviews; I thought @amirm is the one doing the reviews? Does it make sense to have guys coming out of the blue and posting reviews before Amir has? What is the provenance and origin of these reviews? I think they are damaging for the site, especially if people don't know who the official reviewer is.

IMO, they help lighten @amirm's load and probably even brings in more traffic with more devices measured. Amir can further cherrypick which ones to review or reject for review...

 

[Thomas savage]

IMO, they help lighten @amirm's load and probably even brings in more traffic with more devices measured. Amir can further cherrypick which ones to review or reject for review...

I wanted to actively encourage it a long time ago , make ASR a hub for respected objective measurement people to post their testing .

I'm glad it's happening organically, we will have to review each example case by case to make sure it's all above board .

We want all this to survive beyond any one individual

 

[maxxevv]

It fills into areas which Amir can't cover or can't cover quickly enough , mainly new devices that are coming out of China and not widely distributed yet. And we are seeing a great many good performing ones of late.

I do think that many of these manufacturers deserve the exposure, simply because of the good engineering they have put into their products.

Or course, bad ones get the requisite rap too !

And it helps push the ASR ideal that well engineered audio products should be the norm and not audiofoolery that we have seen and endured for much too long.

 

[pkane]

I wanted to actively encourage it a long time ago , make ASR a hub for respected objective measurement people to post their testing .

I'm glad it's happening organically, we will have to review each example case by case to make sure it's all above board .

We want all this to survive beyond any one individual

Independent confirmation is what measurements are all about. I'm glad to see others doing this!

 

[WolfX-700]

I really like the ASR forum. I personally respect the objective measurement and the evaluation based on it.

That's why I bought APx555 and started posting measurement results on this forum.

If there is something that I did not do well enough, especially in the measurement, welcome everyone to give me suggestions and opinions. ----- I believe that in my past interactions, the members who interacted with me should feel that I value the opinions and suggestions.

I also sincerely hope that ASR will get better and better.

 

[digititus]

I really like the ASR forum. I personally respect the objective measurement and the evaluation based on it.

That's why I bought APx555 and started posting measurement results on this forum.

If there is something that I did not do well enough, especially in the measurement, welcome everyone to give me suggestions and opinions. ----- I believe that in my past interactions, the members who interacted with me should feel that I value the opinions and suggestions.

I also sincerely hope that ASR will get better and better.

You are doing great. Keep up the good work.

 

[Matias]

Keep the excellent work. Next is also setting up a Patreon to cover shipping charges and small purchases as well. You would get my monthly dollar.

 

[Tks]

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this day. Just the basic info published about the 4499 and you could see it was a monumental shift. It's also nice to see Topping come out heavy swinging with it's implementation of it. ESS is in trouble now.

Now all that's left is to see what price floor is going to be established with devices sporting this chip. A&K and Gustard don't seem like they're going to be priced all that well (given A&K's history, if I recall their 4499 DAP will be over $3.5K, oof).

Ty very much WolfX, and thanks Topping for sending it out to you, I didn't think we'd see this thing before 2020.

 

[WolfX-700]

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this day. Just the basic info published about the 4499 and you could see it was a monumental shift. It's also nice to see Topping come out heavy swinging with it's implementation of it. ESS is in trouble now.

Now all that's left is to see what price floor is going to be established with devices sporting this chip. A&K and Gustard don't seem like they're going to be priced all that well (given A&K's history, if I recall their 4499 DAP will be over $3.5K, oof).

Ty very much WolfX, and thanks Topping for sending it out to you, I didn't think we'd see this thing before 2020.

I actually posted a review and measurement of the dual 4499 DAC-A22 from Gustard.

Just because of the discrete output stage, its performance is not so impressive.

 

[Tks]

I actually posted a review and measurement of the dual 4499 DAC-A22 from Gustard.

Just because of the discrete output stage, its performance is not so impressive.

Omg how did I miss this?!

Pretty poor showing from them honestly. With a 4499, I expected much better.

 

[Veri]

Omg how did I miss this?!

Pretty poor showing from them honestly. With a 4499, I expected much better.

Hitting the limits of a "discrete output stage only" implementation...

A shame when you look at this excellent Topping performer

 

[KingFiercer]

It looks promising. I like that with the best measurements, compactness will remain no worse than the D70. Now an upgrade is only a matter of price.

 

[WolfX-700]

Omg how did I miss this?!

Pretty poor showing from them honestly. With a 4499, I expected much better.

I think they are limited by two things: First, Gustard's test equipment is 2722, which is relatively behind demand.
Second, they are addicted to discrete output stages.

And the A22 series is a relatively low-end model of Gustard (yes, they seem to like to end with 6 as a high-level model). Configurations used on digital circuits, such as oscillator levels, are not very good.

I think the performance of the A26 can be expected.

And I told them that if they needed, they could send me the units they needed to measure, and I could help them test for free. However, my rule here is that measurements that cannot be published require a return shipping fee.

 

[WolfX-700]

It looks promising. I like that with the best measurements, compactness will remain no worse than the D70. Now an upgrade is only a matter of price.

I guess the price should be between $ 599 and $ 649 ...

 

[Tks]

I think they are limited by two things: First, Gustard's test equipment is 2722, which is relatively behind demand.
Second, they are addicted to discrete output stages.

And the A22 series is a relatively low-end model of Gustard (yes, they seem to like to end with 6 as a high-level model). Configurations used on digital circuits, such as oscillator levels, are not very good.

I think the performance of the A26 can be expected.

And I told them that if they needed, they could send me the units they needed to measure, and I could help them test for free. However, my rule here is that measurements that cannot be published require a return shipping fee.

Your altruism is exceptional.