Topping D30Pro Review (Balanced DAC)

[NoteMakoti]

Is it normal for the display to only show the settings you chose in Windows and not what's playing on Wasapi?

 

[aandres_gm]

Is it normal for the display to only show the settings you chose in Windows and not what's playing on Wasapi?

If you're using the non exclusive mode, all the music gets upsampled to whatever your Windows setting is

 

[urfaust]

I got the D/A30pro stack this week. Very pleased with it so far, it's a desktop setup so very handy to have both knobs on each side and going from speaker to headphone with one (satisfaying) switch. A30 handles everything i throw at it with authority and lots of room even in med gain, very nice little amp. Clear stepup from the atom to me and my desk being a little "complicated" im glad i can go all balanced. Moreover the ground switch on the back actually works great too, tried that with the ears stuck on my speaker tweeter on background noise and could instantly spot the best option with the switch.

Just a little gremlin so far with the d30pro, when i have a toslink in, it randomly wakes up the dac, even when the toslink source is off or it switches from usb to toslink on computer restart. Is there any way to deactivate wakeup? I tried the "auto" function, which im not sure is actually related to that, it's still not doing it.

I guess it's one of the last rolled out version, as i checked it already has the last firmware (2.44)

Oh and out of the 4 new filters, anyone knows which one would be the most theorically correct and cut at 22khz? just to test it out but doubt it's audible (so far on default 2)

 

[Rottmannash]

If you read carefully, I don't exclude that option. Like RobPap said, measurements are a nice first selection, but I am not buying an amp on measurements alone.

I did-2 of them, both class D, one a Purifi and one a Hypex. VERY happy with them both.

 

[nessism]

I ordered a D30 Pro from Apos yesterday and can't wait for it to arrive. I'm going to pair it with an L30 amp. The L30 I've got is one of the warranty replacement jobbies that Topping sent out. The power adapter for my L30 got burned up, along with my old E30 DAC, when my son plugged them together by mistake. I asked Apos for a quote for a new unit, my fault and willingness to pay indicated, and they came back and said that they will give me a new power adapter for free. I willing took them up on this generous offer and at the same time ordered the new DAC. Needless to say I'm thrilled by Apos's service and willingness to go out of their way to please their customers.

 

[Toliandar]

Ahh the old debate about whether these DACs sound the same or different.

There is of course a mathematical solution to it, however I've never seen it done.

Select a song to use as a reference.
Play that song (perhaps even just a segment) and store the DACs output response. You would do this multiple times, so you can also test to make sure the DAC is providing reliable data. You would need to take other steps of course to ensure a fair test - level matching, same testing equipment etc.
It should be possible to convert the response into data useful for statistical analysis. Whilst some variance should be expected, what your testing is to see if there is a statisically significant and relevant difference in the output data across the different DACs.

Run the statistical analysis, it might not even need something more than a t-test. People will still probably argue about it even if no statistically significant and relevant difference was found.

The most tedious part is converting the DAC output data into a format that can be used for statistical analysis as I've never seen an automated conversion process. It's probably not hard to get to that point, as the graphs we see are basically the visual representation of that data.

You could also shape your investigations, for example if something is known as being bassy etc you could focus on data relevant to those frequencies.

At least this is what I think should happen as an objective way of comparing DACs.

Maybe I should go back to uni, do a stats degree and shoot for a phd thesis on the application of statistical analysis to objective audio measurement?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Ahh the old debate about whether these DACs sound the same or different.

There is of course a mathematical solution to it, however I've never seen it done.

Select a song to use as a reference.
Play that song (perhaps even just a segment) and store the DACs output response. You would do this multiple times, so you can also test to make sure the DAC is providing reliable data. You would need to take other steps of course to ensure a fair test - level matching, same testing equipment etc.
It should be possible to convert the response into data useful for statistical analysis. Whilst some variance should be expected, what your testing is to see if there is a statisically significant and relevant difference in the output data across the different DACs.

Run the statistical analysis, it might not even need something more than a t-test. People will still probably argue about it even if no statistically significant and relevant difference was found.

The most tedious part is converting the DAC output data into a format that can be used for statistical analysis as I've never seen an automated conversion process. It's probably not hard to get to that point, as the graphs we see are basically the visual representation of that data.

You could also shape your investigations, for example if something is known as being bassy etc you could focus on data relevant to those frequencies.

At least this is what I think should happen as an objective way of comparing DACs.

Maybe I should go back to uni, do a stats degree and shoot for a phd thesis on the application of statistical analysis to objective audio measurement?

You could argue about audible difference at around 0.01% distortion level. Some super man might hear down to 0.003% distortion.
But we are talking about harmonics at 0.00002% or lower and 0.0001% including noise.
Closest bet would be phase shift and amplitude difference in the digital filter. As it is much closer to audible limit. 0.05dB vs 0.2dB
Also practically, we can do null testing. The difference between the sampled output vs the original file are so low it's buried in noise completely.

 

[Toliandar]

Statistical analysis in the context I've explained is not investigating what people hear.
It is investigating, does DAC a produce something significantly different from DAC b, when both DACs have very similar specifications/measurements?
Theory is inclined to say no, but in practical application is that true?

Imagine telling an audiophile that there $5000 dac has been found to produce the same thing as a $1000 dac. Not only in theory based on measurement performance, but actual practical analysis?

They might still hear something different, because our brains can lie to us.
Just look at people who have emf allergies. It's really a psychosomatic response.
In my work I have a case where someone is claiming WiFi is burning them. However, the device they are accusing of burning them does not have WiFi or other similar radio transmission capability.

 

[hawk01]

hello D30pro owners! i would like to find out if any one of you has encountered any popping noise during playback of DSD material? i am now considering the D30pro since the E30 and D10s has both exhibited these popping flaws during DSD playback.

also more importantly how is the coaxial and optical connections during playback? are they stable and reliable? there is an ongoing concern over this type of connection involving the newer releases of the E30 which many have reported. i just hope the D30pro has been spared from this discrepancy. hoping to hear from present owners!

cheers and be safe!

 

[robpap]

hello D30pro owners! i would like to find out if any one of you has encountered any popping noise during playback of DSD material? i am now considering the D30pro since the E30 and D10s has both exhibited these popping flaws during DSD playback.

also more importantly how is the coaxial and optical connections during playback? are they stable and reliable? there is an ongoing concern over this type of connection involving the newer releases of the E30 which many have reported. i just hope the D30pro has been spared from this discrepancy. hoping to hear from present owners!

cheers and be safe!

If you go backward in the pages, you can find answers to your question.
-R

 

[NoteMakoti]

Once the actual engineering is good, all that matter with a DAC is features. At least to my ears. This passes the bar of being good enough, with balanced outs and a reasonable spread of features.

 

[nessism]

Listening to my new D30 Pro as I type and loving it. Such a nice unit. It exceeds my expectations.

I'm using the preamp mode to feed my L30 amp. Stupid newbie question but under what situations do people use the DAC mode verses the preamp mode?

 

[elole]

Listening to my new D30 Pro as I type and loving it. Such a nice unit. It exceeds my expectations.

I'm using the preamp mode to feed my L30 amp. Stupid newbie question but under what situations do people use the DAC mode verses the preamp mode?

I use d30pro directly connected to my active speakers, so preamp mode is useful for controlling the volume without touching software volume

 

[robpap]

I use d30pro directly connected to my active speakers, so preamp mode is useful for controlling the volume without touching software volume

+1

me too

 

[trivenge]

Would this be a good combo with the smsl sh-8s for headphones only? I have the akg k7xx and the slate vsx headphones

 

[aandres_gm]

Would this be a good combo with the smsl sh-8s for headphones only? I have the akg k7xx and the slate vsx headphones

Yeah, why not?

 

[mozzarella]

hi all, just bought my first topping d30pro. Super excited. 2 questions
1. How do I check what firmware do I have at the moment?
2. When I try to run the firmware update tool, I get an error saying i do not have admin permission. I am admin and I checked the permission, and it states my account can read/write the file. I am using mac catalina

Sorry if this has been asked before. I google and google and can't find anything. Thank you

 

[JohnYang1997]

hi all, just bought my first topping d30pro. Super excited. 2 questions
1. How do I check what firmware do I have at the moment?
2. When I try to run the firmware update tool, I get an error saying i do not have admin permission. I am admin and I checked the permission, and it states my account can read/write the file. I am using mac catalina

Sorry if this has been asked before. I google and google and can't find anything. Thank you

Send an email to this email address [email protected]

 

[mozzarella]

Send an email to this email address [email protected]

Hi John, thank you for such prompt response, and impressive product. Kudos to you and team.

I tried running the software in older version of mac os (Sierra) and it worked. The version is shown on the app itself. Will be good if you list OS compatibility list on your website, and also workaround - I suspect mac will have a way to overwrite the permission to force the app to run on newer OS like catalina and big sur?

 

[elole]

What is the difference in implementation between filters 1-5 and filters 6-9? Curious what the difference is between those that come with the dac chip and those that don't. And is there any performance difference?