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Topping A90 +D50s - first not happy, now happy

alprei

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Hello, I bought the Topping A90 + D50s 2months ago and i just cant be happy with them :(
Mostly i listen to House/Electro/Techno with foobar and youtube

it sounds very harsh i guess my ears dont like...
i have HD650 + DT1990 Headphones, and i just switched back to my mainboard sound (Gigabyte B150-HD3P-CF) and it makes waaaaay more fun to listen to music with the mainboardsound.
i bought the amp+dac because some songs are quiet on the mainboard, now they are loud but harsh.

Maybe someone has an idea, which amp isnt THAT harsh?
i would need an amp with 2 inputs (for dac and phono pre) and 1 output for (active monitors)..
i would spent up to 1000€ for the amp...
maybe in my case i need a DJ mixer? like Pioneer DJM or Allen & Heath Xone?


thank you for reading and maybe for some tips :)

EDIT: The Problem is solved, im happy now :)
 
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win

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If it's so bad then use EQ

it doesn't make sense to expect a signal converter to color your frequency response and distortion intentionally.
 

abdo123

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tenor.gif
 

abdo123

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Jokes aside, the headphone out of my laptop actually messes around with the Frequency response. Probably because of all the audio garbage it comes pre-installed with it. Perhaps lower the volume a bit and try to see if you can adjust to the new sound?
 

Fregly

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Your set up shows what the recordings really are, and the1990 has quite a spike in the treble as well. The 650 is smooth though. Yes eq is your friend.
 

abdo123

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Another Jokes aside, You're probably the only person online I have known whose bias works in reverse (the headphones sounding worse after you paid a sum on new gear).
 
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alprei

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sorry guys i dont have much experience in audio stuff, just learning day by day.
so i set the windows output from 100% to 90% and the harshness in sound is gone, i just cant believe it the sound now is very fresh not hard anymore WOW.
wtf is this with windows???
thank you abdo123
 

abdo123

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sorry guys i dont have much experience in audio stuff, just learning day by day.
so i set the windows output from 100% to 90% and the harshness in sound is gone, i just cant believe it the sound now is very fresh not hard anymore WOW.
wtf is this with windows???
thank you abdo123

If you happen to have a voltmeter (a device that that reads voltage of an electrical current), you can match the volume of your headphone out from the motherboard (the sound you like) to the volume on the A90. Then you should have an identical (or better) experience that you were expecting.
 
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alprei

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i just cant believe it, its like the A90+D50s now have air inbetween the different sounds, harshness completly gone...
and the problem was SO easy to fix..
but why is it so much better with 90% then 100% on windows?
i thougt everything must be 100% or 00 DB, except the amplifier.

can you explain why this happens with windows?
is it some software problem?
maybe im not the only one, who had this problem.

WOW aphex twin never sounded THIS GOOD....
thank you again for the tip abdo123,
 

abdo123

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i just cant believe it, its like the A90+D50s now have air inbetween the different sounds, harshness completly gone...
and the problem was SO easy to fix..
but why is it so much better with 90% then 100% on windows?
i thougt everything must be 100% or 00 DB, except the amplifier.

can you explain why this happens with windows?
is it some software problem?
maybe im not the only one, who had this problem.

WOW aphex twin never sounded THIS GOOD....
thank you again for the tip abdo123,

What are you using to play music?
 

ninetylol

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i just cant believe it, its like the A90+D50s now have air inbetween the different sounds, harshness completly gone...
and the problem was SO easy to fix..
but why is it so much better with 90% then 100% on windows?
i thougt everything must be 100% or 00 DB, except the amplifier.

can you explain why this happens with windows?
is it some software problem?
maybe im not the only one, who had this problem.

WOW aphex twin never sounded THIS GOOD....
thank you again for the tip abdo123,
Maybe some eq + distortion going on in your system. Try wasapi/exclusive Mode and 100% should Sound fine too.
 

abdo123

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Foobar+Youtube

I'm not sure how Foobar works, but usually programs has to go through the 'Operation system mixer' which can potentially mess up with the signal.

The easiest way i know to try this is to either get Tidal (Windows app specifically, not web player, free trial) and change the settings to 'exclusive mode' to bypass the OS mixer.
 

threni

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i just cant believe it, its like the A90+D50s now have air inbetween the different sounds, harshness completly gone...
and the problem was SO easy to fix..
but why is it so much better with 90% then 100% on windows?
i thougt everything must be 100% or 00 DB, except the amplifier.

can you explain why this happens with windows?
is it some software problem?
maybe im not the only one, who had this problem.

WOW aphex twin never sounded THIS GOOD
thank you again for the tip abdo123,

I don't understand quite what the problem is: clean/bright? Well, you want clean. Bright means too much treble, so maybe that's in the headphones. Normally if stuff sounds better quieter I'd suggest that you're getting distortion from somewhere: too much gain, perhaps your software is boosting the volume above 100% (which you can do in VLC, for example) so turning the windows volume down is undoing some of the resulting distortion (which would be better performed by not pushing any part of the chain from player to amp beyond 100%). But I'd not describe a distorted sound as too clean so it possibly isn't that.
 
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alprei

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I don't understand quite what the problem is: clean/bright? Well, you want clean. Bright means too much treble, so maybe that's in the headphones. Normally if stuff sounds better quieter I'd suggest that you're getting distortion from somewhere: too much gain, perhaps your software is boosting the volume above 100% (which you can do in VLC, for example) so turning the windows volume down is undoing some of the resulting distortion (which would be better performed by not pushing any part of the chain from player to amp beyond 100%). But I'd not describe a distorted sound as too clean so it possibly isn't that.
yes i see now, i chose wrong words to describe the problem, the harshness was the problem on all frequencies from low to high, now its completly different, i change my first post
 
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alprei

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i never installed any audio software except foobar, i plugged in the D50s and didnt install any driver, so i am wondering why windows output makes a problem at 100%... i will install windows new tomorrow, but now i will do an listening marathon.
thanks for all replies!
 

Katji

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Install the D90s device driver.

[edit] [correction] ! That should have been "Install the D50s device driver."
I completely agree with this as well, except that you should download the D50s driver.
 
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raif71

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Hello, I bought the Topping A90 + D50s 2months ago and i just cant be happy with them :(
Mostly i listen to House/Electro/Techno with foobar and youtube

it sounds very harsh i guess my ears dont like...
i have HD650 + DT1990 Headphones, and i just switched back to my mainboard sound (Gigabyte B150-HD3P-CF) and it makes waaaaay more fun to listen to music with the mainboardsound.
i bought the amp+dac because some songs are quiet on the mainboard, now they are loud but harsh.

Maybe someone has an idea, which amp isnt THAT harsh?
i would need an amp with 2 inputs (for dac and phono pre) and 1 output for (active monitors)..
i would spent up to 1000€ for the amp...
maybe in my case i need a DJ mixer? like Pioneer DJM or Allen & Heath Xone?


thank you for reading and maybe for some tips :)

EDIT: The Problem is solved, im happy now :)

Congrats

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