• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Topping D10s USB DAC and Bridge Review

BDWoody

Chief Cat Herder
Moderator
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
6,948
Likes
22,625
Location
Mid-Atlantic, USA. (Maryland)
Does anyone know some good technical information or article regarding ground loops and how to deal with them? I bought the original D10 and sadly its doing paperweight dutyies because of terrible noise generated on its output when conected vía USB to my desktop PC (laptop performs noisless as expected). Thanks again Amir for this Review as always

I like this one:
https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:61257717
 

VintageFlanker

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Sep 20, 2018
Messages
4,939
Likes
19,689
Location
Paris
That would make remote control the only real advantage the D/E30 has.
Not only. E30 has a variable output, then could act as a preamp. (Pair it with Audiophonics NC122MP power amp, and you get a total bargain for 499€). Sure, you can also control D10S volume through software, but I would prefer doing that in the hardware domain.
 

AudioSceptic

Major Contributor
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
Messages
2,690
Likes
2,534
Location
Northampton, UK
Not only. E30 has a variable output, then could act as a preamp. (Pair it with Audiophonics NC122MP power amp, and you get a total bargain for 499€). Sure, you can also control D10S volume through software, but I would prefer doing that in the hardware domain.
Add a Pi-based streamer and you have the ultimate giant-killer.
 

JohnYang1997

Master Contributor
Technical Expert
Audio Company
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
7,175
Likes
18,292
Location
China
For people who wonder why there's digital outputs. The unit is cheap enough to buy as a dedicated usb interface. It's a competitive coaxial usb interface for the price.
 

Tks

Major Contributor
Joined
Apr 1, 2019
Messages
3,221
Likes
5,494
According to ESS, ES9038Q2M was aimed for mobile use (as opposed to ES9038PRO).
In case anyone interested, here are measurements of Vivo Xplay 6 smartphone incorporationg this DAC (paired with OPA1622)

Smart move, seems they implemented it well. No need for an ES9038PRO anyway unless you're chasing the Okto Research products, or Matrix Audio. The power difference between the two is massive relatively speaking as I've been hearing devices sporting the ES9038 PRO are warm to the touch at times. Sensible footprint, and great utilization/implementation of the ES9039Q2M.

I'm hoping John manages (or his co-workers) to give a DX7 Pro V2 or something a go around to deal with the output imdedance, and perhaps do a look over with all that's been learned over the past year (as progress has been moved up quite a bit). Seems many companies are lukewarm to the idea of DAC+AMP combo's due to the complexity + cost + less profit than selling separates.

But of course, first the speaker crowd (and me out of sheer curiosity), is eeking to see that power amp from Topping. If memory serves me, Wolfman said the Benchmark ABH2 is going to have a competitor to look forward to soon enough. After half a decade, lets see how that turns out and then I'll pester him about a DAC/AMP ;D
 

AudioSceptic

Major Contributor
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
Messages
2,690
Likes
2,534
Location
Northampton, UK
For people who wonder why there's digital outputs. The unit is cheap enough to buy as a dedicated usb interface. It's a competitive coaxial usb interface for the price.
Did you consider making the S/PDIF switchable between input and output? Would that add too much to the cost?
 

DeepFried

Active Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2020
Messages
106
Likes
116
Location
UK England
and I just got an E30. Damn. I guess I may be looking to sell my E30 and buy a D10s as the toslink bridge is very useful to me for connecting my BT transmitter.
 

martijn86

Active Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
271
Likes
975
Location
The Netherlands
The Toslink can for example be used to break ground loops when feeding another DAC downstream of it.
I can't wait to tell my girlfriend that, after the DAC, streamer and power amp, she now also has to turn on the DAC for the DAC before she can listen to music. THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME I JUST LIKE MUSIC!

we start with our dashboard of 1 kHz digitally created ton and examine what analog results we get
For scientific accuracy we have to know if this is metric tons.
 

somebodyelse

Major Contributor
Joined
Dec 5, 2018
Messages
3,680
Likes
2,958
Arduino does not have the muscle power to run a modern music player.
Pi 4 is good since it is the only pi that has good usb for audio.

Then factor the price of the power supply, screen and pretty case ( some say being an audiophile is about getting pretty cases for electronics), etc and it adds up
There are ports of squeezelite and DLNA endpoints that'll run on cheap ESP32 modules, using I2S to connect to the DAC. These can be used in a similar way to the bluetooth modules that regularly crop up inside similar devices, and probably at comparable cost. The ESP32 will also do bluetooth.
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Messages
1,894
Likes
4,150
Location
Winnipeg Canada
and I just got an E30. Damn. I guess I may be looking to sell my E30 and buy a D10s as the toslink bridge is very useful to me for connecting my BT transmitter.

lol, I have the older D10, and I also just bought an E30. I did so for the remote and pre-amp more than anything else though so I'm ok with it.
 

Biblob

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Sep 13, 2018
Messages
633
Likes
600
Is the lower output impedance something to watch out for? The 30 vs 100 Ohm.
If so, when is this becoming a important factor?
 

jeffbook

Active Member
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
139
Likes
191
Location
Columbus, Ohio
I can't wait to tell my girlfriend that, after the DAC, streamer and power amp, she now also has to turn on the DAC for the DAC before she can listen to music. THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME I JUST LIKE MUSIC!


For scientific accuracy we have to know if this is metric tons.

You ever hear of using switched outlets to power on equipment in your system?
 

kukocz

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 19, 2018
Messages
166
Likes
155
Location
PL
If your amplifier requires 1 volt to reach its maximum power, your DAC SINAD is between 107 to 110 dB depending on channel. This means if you have an amplifier with SINAD of 100 dB, the DAC contributions will be insignificant (you want upstream devices to be 10 dB better).

Is it a general rule that upstream devices should have SINAD 10 dB greater than an amplifier?
More details would be appreciated (or place on the forum where I can read more about that :))
 

Svperstar

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2018
Messages
342
Likes
222
I've been using the original D10 as an optical bridge to the D30 for a while now. I don't remember the SINAD on the D30 but I can't imagine there is much difference I could hear.
 

MediumRare

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Messages
1,949
Likes
2,275
Location
Chicago
Well, I'll say it, I'm all about getting great sound at a democratic prices, everybody should be able to afford good performance, I'm guilty of this myself, I do own and enjoy a topping product myself, but let's not kid ourself, this doesn't represent the real cost of things, And I'm not saying this in a diminutive way, how Asian manufacturer are able to achieve that, sorry but the maths just don't add up, and it's kudos to them really, it's an achievement. I don't know where you find those prices. A Pi is not 10 bucks, the Arduino board you showed me don't have a full WIFI PHY, just the chip. The mad volumes of consumer electronics, when you think mad volumes I mean smartphone level volumes, millions, got us to think that electronics are worth a dime a chip, but it's all an illusion. For example try to built a D10 like this as DIY, and you'll come about 3-4 times that just for parts, you didn't do assembly, marketing, distributors, retailers margin, etc etc etc. Great that Topping and a few others have enough of a solid mass around their bones to offer these ridiculous prices, but sorry, fitting a pi or an arduino and support only open source softwares to provide streaming capabilities, will never bring enough volume to warrant a sub 300$ price tag, no way on earth even China. Those modules are geared to appeal DIY, tech oriented geeks. But even then, built it yourself, and you'll break that 3 bills treshold, I guarantee this. To make volume, you'll need branding, and to have branding, you need pretty design, you need User friendly Interface, you need huge marketing, not put that on top of your cost. Again, if someone could offer that for 150$ He would. I challenge anybody to find a way to reach the price points you mention, good luck.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/ $10 is the retail price. Even if a manufacturer has to pay that much (they shouldn't) and additional costs were another $10 (total input cost $20) and they made a 50% margin (too high) and so did the retailer (too high) that adds $80 to the retail price of the DAC+Wifi

Technical Specifications

The Raspberry Pi Zero W extends the Pi Zero family. Launched at the end of February 2017, the Pi Zero W has all the functionality of the original Pi Zero, but comes with with added connectivity, consisting of:

  • 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
Like the Pi Zero, it also has:

  • 1GHz, single-core CPU
  • 512MB RAM
  • Mini HDMI and USB On-The-Go ports
  • Micro USB power
  • HAT-compatible 40-pin header
  • Composite video and reset headers
  • CSI camera connector
@JohnYang1997 - I have a DX7 Pro for my primary listening setup and love it. But I need to add three more rooms of WiFi goodness, can you help me? ;)
 
Last edited:

martijn86

Active Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
271
Likes
975
Location
The Netherlands
You ever hear of using switched outlets to power on equipment in your system?
I specifically look for equipment with a 12v trigger. I was just having fun with the idea of having a DAC for my DAC and trying to explain it to my girlfriend. That's all :)
 
Top Bottom