Topping D50 III “Unlock” Issue - Need Some Help Figuring This Out…

[Connor1a]

This has to be one of those “slap my forehead” moments… I’m certain I’m just missing something simple.

Brand new Topping D50 III arrived from Amazon today. I power it up and it immediately flashes “Unlock” on the screen and then goes about its business booting up. It’ll operate for perhaps 60 seconds and then it powers down. While operating, everything works as expected.

Here’s my setup:

WiiM Pro (Opt Out) -> (Opt In) Topping D50 III (RCA Out) -> (RCA In) Fosi GR70 (RCA Out) -> (RCA In) Topping A50 III -> Sennheiser HD660S2s

As stated, everything works for several moments when I first turn on the DAC, but then about 60 seconds later the DAC powers off. I’ve been scouring the internet. I can’t find a solution (and this can’t be just me - unless I have a bad device).

Throw me a lifeline? Thanks much guys…

 

[Connor1a]

Stumbled upon the answer…

The D50 III will pop up with “Unlock” if it powers on and does not detect a signal on the selected channel (coax, USB, etc). Once I put a signal across that path, and I’ll admit to some fidgeting with the connectors to get the DAC to recognize that it was connected to a source, it popped up with the sample rate of the source and we were off to races…

For the record, the manual is only in Chinese so finding this there wasn’t an option (at least not for me)…

Maybe this’ll help someone…

 

[Earwax]

That said faulty rca cables could also cause the unlock to appear. Cables can be priced as other brands with higher quality but have very poor solder connections and even skimpy teany tiny little ity bity wires.

I found some on Amazon priced around $20 CAD. Your able to unscrew the housing and see the solder points . This is needed these days I have some that plastic melted together housings so you can't check the quality as most are done this way using very thin wire.

If your RCA cables are cheap or making static noises occasionally See below.

These are the ones i recommend you can see they have 2 seperate wires to the feed and one for return. This appears to be why I'm having better quality audio purity.

Many will argue the 2 wire feed insight but i have actual listing experience and make my own speaker wires using seperate 24awg and 18 awg wire so using the double strand of 24 awg running beside a single strand of 18 awg for both feed and return with great success in audio purity upgrade.

I also solder the ends of the wires to get 100% continuity and to prevent the copper from degrading. Stopped using those quick connections fittings also they steal the delicate frequencies so for purity just use speaker connection posts If you don't glob the solder on the wire ends there will be plenty of room to stuff them in the speaker posts and tighten.

Primeda Auidophile 2RCA Male to 2RCA Male Stereo Audio Cable,Gold Plated | 4N Oxgen-Free Copper Core